I was responsible for the management and leasing of a shopping center that housed 15 businesses.  Many of the businesses had come and gone, unable to make their plans come to fruition.  One day I received a call from a business woman who wanted to open up a children’s book store.  Not too far down the street were two large booksellers and my first thought was “how will she make it against this competition.”

She told me that she had a business plan and would drop it off to me.  I was actually a little shocked because although we would like to see a business plan for every space we leased, it seemed that we rarely did.  Her business plan contained all of the sections shown on A Business Plan checklist, and I could tell she had given her proposed business extensive thought and investigation.  We leased her the space based on this business plan.  Twenty years later she is still in business delighting the area children with her products and services.