Have you ever wished you could find a resource that would practically write your business plan for you?

Well, your wish has come true!

Gale Small Business Builder is a step-by-step online planning tool for starting, managing, and optimizing a business or nonprofit. The program’s intuitive dashboard walks users through five key areas of exploration to develop a business plan focused on long-term success. This tool is useful for entrepreneurs at any stage of establishing a business, as it incorporates a guided approach to instruction suitable for a beginner, but thorough enough for an already established business just looking to improve upon their business plan. 

Gale Business Plan Builder has historically only been available at the Business Resource and Innovation Center, but is now available remotely for you to access from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection, your library card, and pin number. You can view an informative video available of a live demonstration of Gale Business Plan Builder in our Video Content Library:

Here are some of the resource's key features and benefits:

New Entrepreneurs
New entrepreneurs can explore their interests and discover new opportunities with the wealth of additional resources provided in each module of the business plan outline. Each section of the business plan process is guided, with explanations and definitions for business concepts, as well as additional resources that can further understanding of those concepts. For beginners, this tool is plug-and-play, where you enter key information into designated fields and the tool formats the information into a professional format for a formal business plan.

Established Business Owners
Established business owners can use this tool to expand upon their existing business plans, get access to additional resources to enhance their business plan, and gain a better understanding of key business concepts. The tool can also be used to create a completely new business plan. The Business Plan Builder provides options for a lean business outline and plan, which is a concise business plan that is usually between 7 and 12 pages long, or a full business plan, which is more detailed and can range between 15 to 30 pages long. 

Nonprofits
Nonprofit organizations can utilize this tool to learn about the elements needed to write bylaws, secure funding, and build their organization by thoroughly developing a mission and strategic plan. The bylaws module breaks down each element of the operating manual and gives explanations for key components, examples, and formats the bylaws once all information is entered. Additionally, the tool includes a Founder's profile worksheet, where founders can detail information about themselves and their reason for starting the nonprofit, as well as a mission canvas that details the core purpose of the nonprofit and all of its resources.

Financial Projections
One of the most favorable features of this tool is the financial projections module (available for nonprofit and for-profit businesses) as it provides a wealth of information on key financial concepts with examples, definitions, and additional resources, as well as a real-time break-even analysis calculator that will calculate and provide projections based on your inputs. 

Users can create endless business plans if they decide to have multiple iterations of their plan, all of which can be saved in the user’s profile which is created at the beginning of their session. Business plans can be emailed, downloaded (into a Word document or PDF) at any point in the creation process.

In May, we will host a live class demonstration on how to build your business plan, so check back on our events calendar for more information, and in the meantime, explore Gale Business Plan Builder today!

Happy Planning!