Sources for Business Plans

Reference Books in Regenstein Reference -- First Floor Reading Room

Shupe, Angela, ed. Business Plans Handbook, Gale: New York, 1997. Call number: HD62.7. B865, located in RR.
This 4 volume work is a compilation of real business plans from around the country.
Volume 1 and 2: arranged in alphabetical order by their subject. Volume 3 and 4: emphasize current trends and the fastest growing industries, including Internet startups.
These and seven succeeding volumes are currently available for free on this website:
Reference for Business

Pinson, Linda. Anatomy of a business plan : a step-by-step guide to building a business and securing your company's future Chicago, IL : Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2001. HD30.28 .P5 2001

Walton, John B. Business Profitability Data, Weybridge Publishing: Dallas, 1998. Call number: HD62.7.B8 1998
This book compares different kinds of businesses, listing them in order of decreasing profitability.

Web Sites

FindLaw Small Business Center : excellent starting point, with articles on b-plan essentials including "Why you need to write a business plan," "Essentials of a business plan" and "How to describe your business".

Small Business Administration : step-by-step tutorial for developing your plan.

Bplans.com : read real business plans by type, including start-ups, product, service and established businesses.

Venture Capital Resource Library : business plan templates for MS Word that you can download.

Business Plan Archive : business plans and related documents from the dot com era. Free registration required for access.

Searching for Books at Regenstein

We recommend doing a subject alphabetical browse for "business planning". Currently the University of Chicago libraries have almost 200 books on business and strategic planning listed in our Online Catalog.

Selected Books

Blackwell, Edward. How to prepare a business plan London : Kogan Page, 2002. Regenstein, Stacks: HD62.5.B55 2002

Coke, Al. Seven steps to a successful business plan New York : AMACOM, 2002. Regenstein Stacks: HD30.28 .C6422 2002

Shepherd, Dean A. Attracting equity investors : positioning, preparing, and presenting the business plan Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage Publications, 1999. Regenstein Stacks: HD30.28 .S429 1998