Using AI to Write a Business Plan

1. Into the AI Business Plan: AI Business plans are the easiest, quickest, and most thorough way to create a business plan. I'm Geraldine Jensen, a business owner and entrepreneur. This class provides tips and tools to create a business plan that gives your business a roadmap and helps you secure investors or obtain a loan. 2. AI Business Plan : Lesson one, welcome and What you'll learn. Business plans provide a business focus and are often used as your business resume to help you find investors or obtain a business loan. Business plans are a roadmap to start and grow your business. Business plans are not static. It is good to update your business plan regularly. In this class, we are going to use the AI tools hat GPT and Google Gemini to write a business plan. The project title is Business Plan for an event organizer in Southeast Chicago. Your project is to create a business plan for an event organizer in Southeast Chicago. Once you finish your business plan, please post it to the Class Project Gallery. It's okay if you don't know anything about writing a business plan, we are going to have AI assist us from beginning to end. AI is even going to help write the questions which are called prompts. Lesson two, getting set up with AI tools to effectively use artificial intelligence in AI tools like Chat GPT and Google Gemini. First, create an account in hat GPT and Google Gemini if you don't already have one. Both hat GPT and Google Gemini have free and paid options. The free plan is more than adequate for creating a business plan. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the tools, their features, and FAQs. Try a few prompts for fun to get a feel for how it works. Also, needed for this class, upload the attached file Business Plan Outline to Google Docs located in Google Drive. You should have access to Google Drive if you have a Google account. You can create a Google account for free if needed. You will find attached to this class some financial forms you can use with or without AI for this project or for a real business plan. AI tools can help you brainstorm, draft, and research almost any topic, significantly saving time. When prompting, be specific, iterate and refine your queries to maximize output quality and relevance. As the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. We are going to start by prompting chat GPT to write an outline of a business plan to ensure we know the important parts so we can craft intelligent prompts. A business plan outline provides the parts of an business plan and organizes them for us. It also helps us identify if the answers given by AI are correct. AI makes mistakes called hallucinations. Prompting AI tool to provide outline or overviews on a topic are a good way to make sure you have adequate information to provide prompts which will give you good, useful information. Lesson three, prompts. Crafting an effective prompt is essential for developing a business plan outline. For this project, start by asking for a detailed outline for an event planning business in Southeast Chicago. You will then use this business plan outline to generate specific prompts based on the section titles. This ensure obtaining comprehensive information from Chat GPT. Do follow up prompts as needed to obtain more information about the services provided, target neighborhoods, unique value propositions and long term goals. Lesson four, customizing the outline. The information on this screen is from the business description section of the Business Plan Outline from Google Docs. It shows how to turn an online section, the bold bullet point into a prompt by using the Business Plan outline sections. Be sure to create some of your own prompts and answers to customize your project business plan. Lesson five, market research and competitors. Market research is crucial for understanding your audience, competition and opportunities. Utilize AI tools like Chat GPT to gather demographic data of potential customers and marketing trends in Southeast Chicago. For a competitor analysis, use Google Gemini. It can help assess competitors names, services, pricing, and online presence, providing a comprehensive view of the market landscape. Use the business plan outline sections, bold text bullets as prompts to complete the market analysis section of your project. Google Gemini is a powerful tool for online research and competitive analysis. It accesses websites and Google business listings to gather data on competitors services, pricing, and online presence. Use Gemini to gain insights into market trends and competitor strategies, enhancing your business' competitive edge. Specifically, you want to identify competitors. Use a prompt to obtain a list of event organizers in Southeast Chicago. Then follow up with prompts to evaluate their services, pricing strategies, and target customer groups such as weddings, birthdays, corporate events. Use prompts to obtain information about their marketing and digital presence. See the full list of suggested prompts in the business plan outline template. Lesson six, marketing and sales strategy. Effective marketing and sales strategies are very important for business visibility. Utilize websites, search engine optimization, social media, referrals and flyers to enhance discovery. Leverage artificial intelligence tools like hat GPT to craft tailored marketing plans, such as using a prompt to request a marketing plan for an event organizer in Southeast Chicago. It is important for all businesses to establish strong brand foundation, focusing on style, voice, and visuals to create a cohesive and memorable brand identity. This should be reflected in your business plan and your daily business activities. To learn more, look for our upcoming class AI for branding. Lesson seven, business structure and operations use chat GPT or Google Gemini to create a business operations plan for an event organizer in Southeast Chicago. Operations plan can streamline tasks and enhance service delivery. It should include information about your business structure and day to day operations. An operations plan should include specific operation objectives which are measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. SMRT includes specific action steps, activity timelines with deadlines, roles and responsibilities, quality control, key performance indicators, KPIs, workflow and evaluation. Lesson eight, financials and funding. Use the business plan outline sections, bold bullets as prompts to complete this section of your project. Understanding financials is important. Key elements include start up costs, pricing strategies, and revenue projections. Gather data that AI tools can use for generating cost lists and 12 month financial forecasts. You can download the attached financial forms to do a cash flow analysis, as well as have chat GPT or Google Gemini generated for you. If you use the attached spreadsheets and have access to Microsoft Excel, it has a built in AI feature. Or you can use an ad on for Google Sheets, which utilizes AI, such as numerous.ai. For funding options, explore funding options like self funding, micro loans, grants, and community support to ensure a solid financial foundation for your business. Lesson nine, pulling it all together. Finalize your business plan by assembling, formatting, and proof reading. Ensure all outline sections are included. Transform your outline into a document using clear headings and concise writing. Consider using AI tools like gamma.com to convert your outline into a polished presentation. Remember, AI makes mistakes, has hallucinations. So if an answer provided sounds wrong or if far afield disregard it. AI is the assistant. You are the boss, and it's your responsibility to double check for accuracy and thoroughness. Once you have worked your way completely through the business plan outline, copy and paste it into either Chat GPT or Google Gemini, prompt the AI tool to use this information to create an executive summary for a business plan. Copy the executive summary into your business plan outline in Google Docs. Then go to Chat GPT or Google Gemini. In the prompt box type format this outline into a business plan document, include all content. Copy all of the business plan outline, including the executive summary into chat GPT or Google Gemni. The result is your project business plan, copy and paste into a new Google Doc. Lesson ten final project Voila. You have completed your project business plan. Please upload it to the project gallery to share with others and get feedback. Very important, listen carefully. Don't upload your real actual business plan to this website. It most likely contains business information that should not be public. Most likely, when you share your real business plan, you will have them sign a legal do not disclose agreement to keep your business information, especially the finances confidential. But please do share your project business plan for an event organizer in Southeast Chicago to the gallery. This collaborative approach enhances learning and refines your plan. We appreciate your participation and encourage you to leave comments. Also, we hope you will to explore our other lessons for continued business growth.