Review: Business Plan Pro 2004 (UK)
Iain Laskey has a plan
| Product | Business Plan Pro 2004 (UK) |
|---|---|
| Company | Palo Alto Software Inc |
| Web | www.paloalto.co.uk |
| Price | £99 |
| We like | Superb manual, thorough and well structured |
| We don't like | Slightly Inflexible in places |
| Rating | 9/10 |
| Requirements |
Business Plan Pro 2004 is designed to do one thing only, produce a business plan that will impress your potential backers and anyone else who you will be working with to get your business off the ground. Unlike many similar products, this one has been anglicised to suit UK requirements - a big plus point.
Before we go any further, we have to comment on the manual. It is fantastic. Quite probably the best manual we have ever seen. Everything from installation to final printout is explained in clear concise language with lots of screen shots and additional notes. Palo Alto also provide a small UK specific pamphlet to fill in for the UK requirements.
Installation is straightforward although it did then immediately advise of a 40 odd Mb download to bring the boxed version up to date.
One Wizard
Business Plan Pro 2004 starts by launching a wizard that asks you some pertinent questions before leading you by the hand through the business plan production. Much of this is done for you although you do have to write some of the prose yourself. Business Plan Pro 2004 does suggest some possibilities to get you going but you can't avoid getting creative yourself.
Some sections are built up by entering text. The program provides some word processor type functions such as font control, bullet points and so on to help make this look right.
Other sections are more numeric and you drop in to a spreadsheet like environment which helps you build up forecasts, profit and loss estimates and so on. The figures are entered via templates which ensure that the calculations are correct and that when the whole plan is printed, it has a cohesive quality.
Equally important in getting over the big picture are charts. You can use the default design or choose the custom option to set up your own layouts and formats.
All aspects are considered and you'll be required to consider the possibility of a web site and how you'll use it, sales forecasts, the management team, marketing and industry analysis. Whilst this sort of things is obvious to more expert planners, many people will find this invaluable and may suffer from more than one "light bulb on" moment as they realise they have yet to consider an important aspect of their new business.
Finally, the program will check your plan for a range of problems and advise you of them. This is an important stage that could save you a lot of embarrassment later.
Once all your data is in, you can then choose to print out the results as they are or to export the plan to Microsoft Word for further tweaking. You can export only the sections you want to. Some sections are more suitable for exporting to Microsoft Excel and that too is supported.
Other output options include HTML for publishing to the web (or an Intranet) and usefully, Adobe Acrobat format. The latter is a great way to distribute the plan to as wide an audience as possible.
Guidance
As noted, Business Plan Pro 2004 has a superb manual. The program itself has lots of useful information as you progress through the construction of your plan. Each section has an overview, sometimes some example texts and usually some links to additional resources you may find useful. As such, this tool is an excellent choice for the first time planner who is unsure of exactly how to approach things.
Business Plan Pro 2004 also includes a large number of sample plans although for some strange reason, these need to be accessed online. Whilst useful as inspiration, it is best to avoid plagiarising them too much as it would be easier to just write your own than to worry about editing them to fit in your own details.
Minor glitches
We did come across some minor glitches along the way. Opening up the online help produces a scripting error every time although it didn't stop the help from appearing or working. We also noticed some sections referred to chapters in the manual that didn't tie up e.g. we were referred to "Chapter 9: Planning for Implementation" when chapter 9 actually contained information on working with Microsoft Word. Another odd one is that it is impossible to delete the first row in tables although subsequent rows can be removed.
Conclusion
We were very impressed with Business Plan Pro 2004. It can cope with a wide variety of situations and had a good mix of handholding for beginners but freedom of expression for more experienced planners. Its ability to handle UK VAT and the Euro are also welcome. There were a number of small bugs which weren't show stoppers but concerned us nonetheless. Despite those, we feel Business Plan Pro is a great tool for anyone wanting to put together a quality business plan for a wide range of business types.
