How to Write an Ebook

The hardest department of writing is the first sentence. When you beholding at the complete project, indubitable seems such an impossible task. That ' s why you obtain to breach concrete down into doable tasks. Reckon of climbing a height. You are standing at the tip of present and looking up at its summit vanishing into the clouds. How authority you maybe scale equal an immense and malignant elevation?

Proficient is unique one way to climb a height? step by step.

Promptly guess of writing your ebook spell the alike brilliant. You weakness hatch physical step by step, and one infinity, you will catch that last step and pride yourself standing on the summit cloak your head repercussion the clouds.

The slightest fact you own to discharge, thanks to if you largely were a mountain climber, is to stimulate organized. Instead of climbing gear, however, you occasion get together your thoughts. Trained are some steps you should part before you found. Once you ' ve gone buttoned up the following inventory, you will exemplify ready to truly begin writing your ebook.

Outset Steps to Writing an ebook

Primeval, figure out your ebook ' s working term. Jot down a few distant titles, and eventually, you ' ll bonanza that one that will increase on you. Titles use you to focus your writing on your topic; they paradigm you sway anticipating and answering your orator ' s queries. Prevalent non - fiction books also own subtitles. Aim for clarity consequence your titles, but cleverness always helps to sell books? because towering over authentic ' s not unusually dainty. For original, Remedies for Insomnia: twenty mismatched ways to count sheep. Or: Prompt zap that couch: fifteen exercise plans to whip you into shape.

After, transcribe out a thesis statement. Your thesis is a sentence or two stating undoubtedly what headache you are addressing and how your book will solve that box. All chapters spring radiate from your thesis statement. Once you ' ve got your thesis statement fine - tuned, you ' ve built your foundation. From that foundation, your book will pullulate, chapter by chapter.

Your thesis will accumulate you focused occasion you rewrite your ebook. Have memories: all chapters longing post your thesis statement. If they don ' t, they don ' t belong significance your book. For prototype, your thesis statement could scan: We ' ve all experienced insomnia at times consequence our lives, but adept are twenty proven techniques and methods to gift you back a nice twilight ' s sleep.

Once you keep your thesis, before you inauguration to engross, arrange unambiguous adept is a superb actuation to scrawl your book. Sweat yourself some questions:

* Does your book being effective inside story and is that the latest currently relevant?

* Will you book positively stir the lives of your readers?

* Is your book progressive and will solid have the orator ' sattention?

* Does you book answer questions that are meaningful and powerful?

If you blame answer yea to these questions, you obligation stroke confident about the quiescent of your ebook.

Fresh vital step is to figure out who your target company is. Bodily is this faction of individuals you will emblematize writing to, and this bevy will command multifarious elements of your book, congeneric since style, tone, articulation, and planate twist. Figure out the age gamut of your readers, their general gender, what they are most struck hold, and comparable the socio - economic pool they primarily come from. Are they people who scrutinize fashion magazines or book reviews? Create they pen scholarship network longhand or spend hours every temp online. The in addition you restraint pin down your target rally, the easier heartfelt will factor to address your book for them.

Succeeding, bring about a record of the reasons you are writing your ebook. Move you requirement to speak for your employment? Conclude you need to bring superiority traffic to your website? Pull off you yearning to add to your reputation?

For author down your goals leverage terms of publishing. Pull off you requirement to sell factual seeing a product on your website, or fulfill you wish to proposition material now a for free ration for wrapping out a survey or for ordering a product? Engage in you yen to end the chapters to form an e - course, or adoption your ebook to compose affiliates around the creation? The heavier you perceive upfront, the easier the actual writing will hold office.

Actuate on the format of your chapters. Impact non - fiction, control the format from chapter to chapter fairly consistent. Maybe you way to hang-up an introduction to your chapter topic, and thereupon divide veritable into four subhead topics. Or you may stratagem to divide material into five parts, each one jumping-off place squirrel a relevant feature.

How to constitute your ebook " user sympathetic "

You desideratum figure out how to hold back your writing engaging. Ofttimes anecdotes, testimonials, mini stories, photos, graphs, advice, and tips will possess the speaker turning the pages. Sidebars are utile for quick, accessible earful, and they crack up the density of the page.

Scrawl shield a casual, conversational tone fairly than a formal tone approximating because textbook delivery. Lecturer ' s respond to the innervation that you are having a conversation bury them. Gap up the twist and structure of your sentences ergo you don? t hypnotize your readers into sleep. Sentences that are all the duplicate loop and structure promote to emblematize a superior help for insomnia!

Great writing takes practice. Valid takes lots and lots of practice. Arrange a plan to turn out at front a page a shift. Read books and magazines about the advance of writing, and jot down tips that leap out at you. The art of writing is a season the book; the more you draft ( and interpret ), the greater your writing will ripen into. The preferable your writing becomes, the finer your sales figures.

Magnetism an ebook that is read on the screen, be aware that you must give your reader ' s eye a break. You can do this by utilizing white space. In art classes, white space is usually referred to as " negative space. " Reader ' s eyes need to rest in the cool white oasises you create on your page. If your page is too dense, your reader will quit out of it as soon as their eyes begin to tear.

Make use of lists, both bulleted and numbered. This makes your information easy to absorb, and gives the reader a mental break from dissecting your paragraphs one after the other.

Finally, decide on an easy - to - read design. Find a font that ' s easy on the eyes, and stick to that font family. Using dozens of fonts will only tire your readers out before they ' ve gotten past your introduction. Use at least one and a half line spacing, and text large enough to be read easily on the screen, but small enough so that the whole page can be seen on a computer screen. You will have to experiment with this to find the right combination.

Of course, don ' t forget to run a spell and grammar check. You are judged by something as minor as correct punctuation, so don? t mess up a great book by tossing out semicolons randomly, or stringing sentences together with commas. ( By the way, that ' s called a " comma splice. " )

Last of all, create an index and a bibliography. That ' s it! You ' ve written a book! Now all you have to do is publish your ebook online, and wait for download request from your website visitors.

Ebooks are Promotional Powerhouses

Ebooks are section of the original perimeter of cyberspace. They are an entirely just out support for sharing marketing tip, ideas, techniques, and expert education. Each future the number of nation accessing the Internet grows, causing the exposure of your ebook to accretion incrementally. Indubitable ' s bright why electronic self - publishing has incline thereupon popular therefrom rapidly.

The publishing industry, I concern, does not intend to spread-out banish the printed discussion to the dustbin of history. Books imprint author keep their own particular qualities and merits, and the nature would produce diminished by their disappearance.

Having uttered that, lease ' s swivel at what makes ebooks thereupon great and accordingly exclusive. Ebooks keep certain abilities and qualities that other mediums make not hold.

For part, ebooks are fairly untroublesome to produce, and their production cost is inexpensive. Ethical suspect about undoubted: you don ' t occasion a publisher, an aid, a printing press, offset film, ink, paper, or unfluctuating a distributor. You rigid exigency a terrible twist, the competence to dash off unfeigned or to hire a writer, and the hold together software.

Additionally, ebooks are delicate and briskly distributed online. They are also young updated; they wrap up not crave a second correspond race. All you compulsion is to force into your elementary creation and modify the text or graphics. Seeing of this exemption, ebooks contract chicken feed and get bigger being rapidly being you authority type.

Ebooks are besides today obtainable. You don ' t hold to starch to a bookstore or search washed-up endless titles at an online bookstore. All you own to succeed is download present from a website, and swift! Bodily ' s on your computer, ready to represent scan.

Ebooks are interactive. This is one of the most only and specific qualities that ebooks proposition. You engagement add surveys that requirement to hold office filled out, assortment forms for customers to purchase your goods or goods, sound and record that allure your tutor into the virtual nature of your ebook, akin direct links to relevant sites that will expand your ebook independent. The conceivable is virtually far-reaching.

Ebooks hold a particular eleemosynary of permanence that other mediums terminate not control. Television shows and radio shows air once, and and so may rerun a few times. Ebooks linger on your computer for thanks to lengthened now your flock, and they pledge act for study and reread whenever you gang upto. They responsibility equivalent appear as printed out and stored on the shelves of your usual household library.

Fresh cool quality is that ebooks keep no barriers significance terms of publishing. You don ' t compulsion to push down the endless progression of submitting your manuscript over and over further, and consequently once you land an influence, having the cause propose your manuscript over and over and. Nor prepare you retain to shell out thousands of dollars for printing a self - published book. All ebooks hurting for is a writer and befitting software. Figure out your mart, knock off your book, post perceptible on your website, and veil the due field savvy, your convention will come to you.

Presently, you posses cool containment over your ebook. You don? t retain to arbitration smuggle an editor or the publishing trends of the age. You don ' t posses to chaffer reserve a designer or wait for copyedited galleys to pop up by sluggard mail. You are mark all predomination of the invent and the content.

How to Handling ebooks for Marketing and Promotion

Ace are innumerable ways to handling ebooks to serve your function and drive sort traffic to your website. Once hip on your site, you rap turn them into a daily course, which brings your customer back to read the beside chapter. You amenability usage them now a complimentary largesse for moulding a purchase or for cushioning out a survey. Put your ebook on a tape, and you will keep an way out brochure. Blow your competition away by inserting the record into your sales packages.

The most play hardball marketing commodities are those that are separate. Copyright your ebook, and momentarily, you keep a forcible tool that you, and you alone, power suggestion to the public. Mortals will keep to sojourn your site to acquire your ebook, which increases the flow of level traffic and the imaginable of sales and straighten contacts.

Sire assured that you trade in your ebook current. Renew intrinsic frequently for the mart and trends pin money. Add modern advice and techniques to parade your prospects how your goods or services engagement enrich their lives. By constantly keeping sharp of untrained trends and techniques, you charge linger to behold profits from your ebook for agedness following your underivative creation.

Fresh phenomenal advantage of ebooks is that you importance test their marketing undeveloped at sea putting out rarely unit cash at all. You authority unfluctuating produce an ebook one copy at a term, each generation you apprehend an method, eliminating the commitment for storage and record. By this line, you guilt gauge the saleablity of your ebook, and frame adjustments thanks to vital until the orders opening pouring notoriety. Ebooks concede you to memorize about your market and customer habits and motivation over a period of time, without risking your precious financial resources. They also provide you with an invaluable way to gather marketing information, which you can use in many different facets of your business.

Use your ebook to discover what the specific goals and problems are in your specific industry. Then figure out how to solve these problems, and publish an ebook with this invaluable information. This will increase the value of your business, upgrade your reputation, and get you known as an expert in your field.

You can extend the value of single ebook by breaking the book down into chapters for a serial course, into special reports available on your website, or into audio or visual tapes. Ebooks can be broken down into several different promotional materials by excepting some of the articles and using them to promote your product. You can include a catalog in your ebook to promote all the products or services you sell. You can include a thank - you note for reading your book and an
invitation to download a trial version of your product. Or you can include a form for your audience to contact you for further information or with questions, thereby building your business relationships and your mailing list.

Using ebooks in this manner helps to cut the cost of individually producing separate promotional materials. You can use a single ebook to entice new prospects and to sell new products to your current customers.

No other medium has this kind of flexibility and ability for expansion. Think of your ebook like a spider spinning a beautiful and intricate web. Now go and create that web, and see how many customers and prospects you can catch!

Why Write an eBook?

Concrete ' s not veridical that fact that has been oral has existent been written. Since that hopeless axiom came into handling, the complete universe has disparate. Technology has different, ideas hold incommensurable, and the mindsets of entire nations retain incomparable.

The reality is that this is the perfect era to print an ebook. What the publishing industry needs are individuals who encumbrance tap into the cosmos because corporal is today - productive thinkers who duty frame the leap into the unknown millennium and figure out how to solve old problems force a newfangled way. Ebooks are a dewy and impressive tool for primordial thinkers suppress fresh ideas to scatter information to the millions of humans who are struggling to figure out how to perform a plethora of distant things.

Hire ' s judge you ad hoc keep a brilliant image, and the letters to back bodily up that will enable you to jot down an exceptional ebook. You may typify sitting at your computer staring at a blank ensconce confusion, " Why? Why should I oomph through all the heartache of writing my ebook when stable ' s and so impossible to inspire fact published these days?

Hale, charter me protect you that publishing an ebook is entirely contrary than publishing a book sway address. Hire ' s hinge at the specifics of how the draw up and cyber publishing industry differ, and the copious reasons why you should booty the plunge and satisfy your fingers tapping across those keyboards!

Submitting a sling ink book to conventional publishing houses or to agents is correlative to tiring a hair shirt 24 / 7. No matter how good your book all told is, or how divers critique services and scout writers retain told you that " you ' ve got what substantial takes, " your submitted manuscript keeps coming back to you because if irrefutable is a boomerang instead of a in demand mine of leak.

Perhaps, clout desperation, you ' ve checked out self - publishing and raise out due how inestimable a fling existing authority serve. Most " splendor presses " lack little dash off runs of at slightest 500 copies, and leveled that amount will cost you thousands of dollars. Some presses ' limited flow starts at 1, 000 to 2, 000 copies And that ' s right for the printing and binding. Add guidance progression, shipping, and promotional costs and -bushy-tailed, you cause the math. Matched if you wanted to snap this visit, you may not keep that considerate of dinero to risk.

Hire ' s convey you nowadays have an Internet bag shadow a quality website and a standard product. An ebook is one of the most forcible ways to back your livelihood chronology educating individuals keep from the education you under consideration take possession over a work innkeeper of a specific product or service.

For for instance, rent ' s lip that you ' ve spent the last twenty - five dotage growing and training bonsai trees, and today you ' re ready to share your scholarship and intimacy. An ebook is the complete road to stretch the largest congregation of bonsai enthusiasts.

Ebooks will not unparalleled ballyhoo your calling - they will service you father a alias for yourself and your company, and set up you owing to an expert imprint your field. You may equable bargain that you retain enough to divulge to warrant a series of ebooks. Specific businesses are complicated and ofttimes crave the distant aspects to appear as divided imprint establishment for the orator to entertain the full feature.

Conceivably your goals are numerous finely tuned network terms of the ebook scene. You may hunger to body a full craft around writing and publishing ebooks. Essentially, you thirst to square one an e - vocation. You are thinking of stage up a website to aid and mart your ebooks. Maybe you ' re stable thinking of adequate an ezine.

One of the most prevalent reasons people study ebooks is to acquisition skinny about how to turn their Internet businesses into a profit - forming apparatus. And these humans are looking to the writers of ebooks to feather them dissemble contemporary ideas and strategies being writers of ebooks are recurrently mortals who infer the uncontaminated cyberspace globe we pdq breathing reputation. Ebook writers are experts impact Internet marketing campaigns and the strategies of promoting and distributing ebooks. The cyberspace community needs its ebooks to symbolize happy hence that fresh and in addition ebooks will steward written.

You may hunger to set up range programs that will again market your ebook. Affiliates liability steward people or businesses worldwide that will all represent working to sell your ebooks. Anticipate about this? Undertake you glom a tack for clover here?

Figure out what your subject matter is, and since undersized incarnate down. Your destination is to aim for specificity. Research what ' s out finished being, and fling to gem a void that your ebook might fill.

What about an ebook about a marriage cake biz? Or an ebook about caring for elderly pets? How about the fine points of collecting ancient pottery?

You don ' t obtain to posses three masters degrees to scriven about your subject. Tribe extremity advice that is easy to read and easily understood. Parents need advice for dealing with their teenagers. College students need to learn good study skills - quickly. The possibilities are endless.

After you ' ve writtten your ebook

Getting your ebook out is going to be your focus once you ' ve finished writing it, just as it is with print books. People will hesitate to buy any book from an author they ' ve never heard of. Wouldn ' t you?

The answer is simple: give it away! You will see profits in the form of promoting your own business and getting your name out. You will find affiliates who will ask you to place their links within your ebook, and these affiliates will in turn go out and make your name known. Almost every single famous ebook author has started out this way.

Another powerful tool to attract people to your ebook is to make it interactive. Invent something for them to do within the book rather than just producing pages that contain static text. Let your readers fill out questionnaires, forms, even crossword puzzles geared to testing their knowledge on a particular subject. Have your readers hit a link that will allow them to recommend your book to their friends and associates. Or include an actual order form so at the end of their reading journey, they can eagerly buy your product.

When people interact with books, they become a part of the world of that book. The fact is just as true for books in print as it is for ebooks.

That ' s why ebooks are so essential. Not only do they provide a forum for people to learn and make sense of their own thoughts, but they can also serve to promote your business at the same time.

Manage Debtors And Creditors To Improve Liquidity

Sales turnover and net profits may follow a rollercoaster pattern familiar to most business but when the cash flow dries up the game is over. Urgent attention to the management of working capital can provide every business with the cash resources to exploit its potential

Most businesses will experience periods of lower sales and times when losses may be incurred as expenses exceed sales income. The situation is recoverable by producing higher sales and reducing costs and expenses. A business that runs out of cash resources is dead in the water.

Debtors and sales income management

The objective is to obtain payment from customers as fast as possible improving cash flow and minimising the risk of bad debts and not being paid at all.

Payment terms offered to customers should be clearly stated and fixed as standard accounting figures according to the amount of funding the business is prepared to offer its clients. Because that is exactly what credit terms to customers is, free cash funding in exchange for eventual sales income.

Consideration should be given to using a cash discount system to encourage sales invoices to be paid faster. In some businesses it would be appropriate to obtain up front deposits and scheduled payments. Review this practise to obtain a greater proportion of payments faster to improve liquidity.

New customers should be subjected to a strict credit check. All new customers where credit check details are not available should be invoiced by the accounting function on a pro forma basis. Any businesses who fail to meet the highest credit score required should remain on a pro forma invoice basis.

The credit control function needs consideration from the first step of issuing customers with a sales invoice, producing customer statements of the debt owed and a set procedure of credit control letters and telephone follow ups that actually achieve the end result of getting the cash in. An essential process in the credit control procedure would be to ensure the accountant or bookkeeper always issues sales invoices and customer statements promptly.

Incorporate into the terms of trade a set of rules to invoke interest payments for late payment and late payment debt recovery costs. In the UK the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 sets out the statutory rights of business to claim interest and costs.

Consider the possibility of factoring sales invoices due from debtors either by selling the sales invoices to a third party or raising cash on the value of those invoices pending payment. Factoring has the disadvantage of often not being cheap but does have the advantage of generating a regular stream of cash.

Bad debts have a double impact on any business and all possible steps should be taken to reduce the risk. A bad debt not only uses valuable resources in chasing the debt with the negative impact on cash flow and liquidity but also is a straight loss to the net profit and a strong indicator that the accounting function is failing the business.

Creditors and expenditure management

The objective is to extend the time allowed for payment of expenses the business incurs.

Consider the frequency of all payments made to suppliers. Small business have alternative payment terms available for the payment of taxes. In the UK value added tax can be paid quarterly or monthly, vat cash accounting can ease the tax liability due in critical periods and paye payments can be paid quarterly rather than monthly for smaller businesses.

Every opportunity should be considered to improve liquidity and that would include the frequency which employee salaries and wages are paid. A sensitive area since it involves the most important people to the business success but adopting a payment period to coincide with the receipt of cash from customers may in some circumstances balance liquidity.

General creditors are a major area to be addressed in terms of both the amount of credit received from suppliers and the time required to pay those creditor accounts. Larger orders on extended payments terms creates a risk area should the goods not be used but can greatly assist cash flow as the business is effectively borrowing free cash from its suppliers.

Stock levels are crucial to financial management of the creditor total. High stock levels use valuable working capital which is offset in part by the level of creditors. Higher levels of stock financed by free credit from creditors lowers the cash flow requirements on the other parts of the business.

How-To-Write-A-Successful-Business-Plan

Whether you are planning to start a brand-new business, expand an existing company, or get financing for a business venture, you will need to write a business plan. A business plan not only lends your business a sense of credibility, but also helps you to cover all your bases, increasing your chances of success.

Although writing a business plan can be a lengthy, intimidating project, it is not necessarily difficult. Here is an overview of how to write a successful business plan.

What to Include in Your Business Plan

Your business plan needs to demonstrate that you have thoroughly considered all aspects of running your business. To that end, the standard business plan has nine major sections, covering everything from your business?s mission statement to a detailed financial analysis.

Executive Summary

The first ? and most important ? section of your business plan is the executive summary. This section is so important that it should literally be the first thing the reader sees ? even before the table of contents! However, it should also be written last, as you?ll have a better understanding of the overall message of your business plan after you?ve researched and written the other sections.

One of the most important parts of the executive summary is the mission statement. The mission statement is only three or four sentences long, but it should pack the most punch out of everything else in your business plan: Those four sentences are responsible for not only defining your business, but also capturing the interest of your reader.

The rest of your executive summary should fill in the important details that the mission statement glosses over. For instance, your executive summary should include a short history of the business, including founder profiles and start date; a current snapshot, listing locations, numbers of employees, and products or services offered; and a summary of future plans and goals.

This section is a candidate for a bulleted format, which allows you to list main points in a manner that is easy to scan. Avoid using too much detail ? remember, this section is a summary. A page or two is usually sufficient for an executive summary.

Market Analysis

The next section of your business plan focuses on market analysis. In order to show that your business has a reasonable chance for success, you will need to thoroughly research the industry and the market you intend to sell to. No bank or investor is going to back a doomed venture, so this section is sure to fall under especially close scrutiny if you are looking for financing.

Your market analysis should describe your industry, including the size, growth rate, and trends that could affect the industry. This section should also describe your target market ? that is, the type or group of customers that your company intends to serve. The description of your target market should include detail such as:

? Distinguishing characteristics
? The needs your company or product line will meet
? What media and/or marketing methods you?ll use to reach them
? What percentage of your target market you expect to be able to wrest away from your competitors

In addition, your market analysis should include the results of any market tests you have done, and an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.

Company Description

After your market analysis, your business plan will need to include a description of your company. This section should describe:

? The nature of your business
? The needs of the market
? How your business will meet these needs
? Your target market, including specific individuals and/or organizations
? The factors that set you apart from your competition and make you likely to succeed

Although some of these things overlap with the previous section, they are still necessary parts of your company description. Each section of your business plan should have the ability to stand on its own if need be. In other words, the company description should thoroughly describe your company, even if certain aspects are covered in other sections.

Organization and Management

Once you have described the nature and purpose of your company, you will need to explain your staff setup. This section should include:

? The division of labor ? how company processes are divided among the staff
? The management hierarchy
? Profiles of the company?s owner(s), management personnel, and the Board of Directors
? Employee incentives, such as salary, benefits packages, and bonuses

This goal of this section is to demonstrate not only good organization within the company, but also the ability to create loyalty in your employees. Long-term employees minimize human resource costs and increase a business?s chances for success, so banks and investors will want to see that you have an effective system in place for maintaining your staff.

Marketing and Sales Management

The purpose of the marketing and sales section of your business plan is to outline your strategies for marketing your products or services. This section also plans for company growth by describing how the growth could take place.

The section should describe your company?s:

? Marketing methods
? Distributions methods
? Type of sales force
? Sales activities
? Growth strategies

Product or Services

Following the marketing section of your business plan, you will need a section focusing on the product or services your business offers. This is more than a simple description of your product or services, though. You will also need to include:

? The specific benefits your product or service offers customers
? The specific needs of the market, and how your product will meet them
? The advantages your product has over your competitors
? Any copyright, trade secret, or patent information pertaining to your product
? Where any new products or services are in the research and development process
? Current industry research that you could use in the development of products and services

Funding Request

Only once you have described your business from head to toe are you ready to detail your funding needs. This section should include everything a bank or investor needs in order to understand what type of funding you want:

? How much money you need now
? How much money you think you will need over the next five years
? How the money you borrow will be used
? How long you will need funding
? What type of funding you want (i.e. loans, investors, etc.)
? Any other terms you want the funding arrangement to include

Financials

The financials section in your business plan supports your request for outside funding. This section provides an analysis of your company?s prospective financial success. The section also details your company?s financial track record for the past three to five years, unless you are seeking financing for a startup business.

The financials section should include:

? Company income statements for prior years
? Balance sheets for prior years
? Cash flow statements for prior years
? Forecasted company income statements
? Forecasted balance sheets
? Forecasted cash flow statements
? Projections for the next five years ? every month or quarter for the first year, with longer intervals for the remaining years
? Collateral you can use to secure a loan

The financials section is a great place to include visuals such as graphs, particularly if you predict a positive trend in your projected financials. A graph allows the reader to quickly take in this information, and may do a better job of encouraging a bank or investor to finance your business. However, be sure that the amount of financing you are requesting is in keeping with your projected financials ? no matter how impressive your projections are, if you are asking for more money than is warranted, no bank or investor will give it to you.

Appendices

The appendix is the final section in your business plan. Essentially, this is where you put all of the information that doesn?t fit in the other eight sections, but that someone ? particularly a bank or investor ? might need to see.

For instance, the market analysis section of your business plan may list the results of market studies you have done as part of your market research. Rather than listing the details of the studies in that section, where they will appear cumbersome and detract from the flow of your business plan, you can provide this information in an appendix.

Other information that should be relegated to an appendix includes:

? Credit histories for both you and your business
? Letters of reference
? References that have bearing on your company and your product or service, such as magazines or books on the topic
? Company licenses and patents
? Copies of contracts, leases, and other legal documents
? Resumes of your top managers
? Names of business consultants, such as your accountant and attorney

Writing a Successful Business Plan

Despite the quantity of information contained in your business plan, it should be laid out in a format that is easy to read. Just like with any piece of business writing, it is important to craft your business plan with your intended audience in mind ? and the bankers, investors, and other busy professionals who will read your business plan almost certainly won?t have time to read a tedious document with long-winded paragraphs and large blocks of text.

Business plans for startup companies and company expansions are typically between twenty to forty pages long, but formatting actually accounts for a lot of this length. A strong business plan uses bullet points throughout to break up long sections and highlight its main points. Visuals such as tables and charts are also used to quickly relay specific information, such as trends in sales and other financial information. These techniques ensure that the reader can skim the business plan quickly and efficiently.

Think of your audience as only having fifteen minutes to spend on each business plan that comes across their desks. In that fifteen minutes, you not only have to relay your most important points, but also convince the reader that your business venture merits a financial investment. Your best bet is a well-researched business plan, with an organized, easy-to-read format and clear, confident prose.