Business Planning Software

Business Plan Pro

We take a look at some of the business plan software features offered by Palo Alto Software, one of the biggest names in business planning software.

Writing a business plan can be complicated and daunting -- even for experienced business owners.

Articles and books about business plan writing help, but for a more comprehensive business plan resource many entrepreneurs have turned to business plan software solutions. Business Plan Pro is widely considered to be the industry leader in a field full of business plan software competitors.

The reason Business Plan Pro is the leader in business plan software solutions is because it gives entrepreneurs the ability to create great looking business plans in a straightforward and easy-to-use format. Specifically, Business Plan Pro offers several features that make it easy to maximize the impact of your business plan.

• Ease of Use. Like most business plan software packages, Business Plan Pro gives you the ability to either create a plan from a template or start from scratch. You get over 500 editable sample business plans from a range of industries and step-by-step instructions that take you from start to finish in less than 15 steps.
• Industry Research. Business Plan Pro also includes market research for 9,000+ industry profiles and the ability to compare your projections to industry averages. When you show investors your numbers, you can do so with confidence knowing that they are based on solid figures from reliable sources.
• Customization. As you might expect, Business Plan Pro gives you the ability to fully customize your business plan. Just import your logo, graphics, photos, layouts, etc. to make your business plan look like it was designed from scratch by your own in-house staff.
• Startup Focus. Business Plan Pro is especially proud of the fact that most of its clients are startups. It's also an effective solution for business plan updates, but startup companies seem to find Business Plan Pro's features especially helpful when they have to create a business plan for the first time.
• Error Checking. After you have finished creating your business plan, the Plan Review feature
 automatically checks your numbers for common planning mistakes and offers tips and suggestions for ways to improve your plan.
• Formats. One of the most important features of Business Plan Pro is that it creates your business plan in the preferred format for banks, investors, and the SBA. You also have the option of saving your plan as an Adobe PDF, MS Word, Excel, or Powerpoint file.

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