At first it seems like a horribly daunting task. But once you get going you'll find that writing the business plan is not as tough as it seems. You can begin with some of the easy steps first. Some of these are as follows:

If you get hung up on a particular part of the plan, don’t worry because you can skip it for now and just come back and fill it in later. You also don't have to worry about making a perfect first draft either because you can just get some thoughts down to get the process going and you can always come back and fix it up later.

Throughout the writing of your business plan you want to keep in mind who your intended audience is going to be and why you are writing the plan in the first place. For example if you are trying to attract equity investors you are going to want to emphasize the big upside of your business’ profit potential.

While doing this, you will also need to be particularly careful to make sure that you choose to adequately disclose the risks and uncertainties that are involved in your business, because investors will often look for someone to blame if their investment disappears.

If you are trying to get debt financing for your business then you are going to want to emphasize not the huge upside profit potential but rather the certainty that the debt can be repaid. In fact, when you talk of big profits you may just scare away debt financiers because high profit potential usually means high risks as well.

If you are writing a business plan that is meant to help you run the business better you may want to skip or write very simple sections with all of the general background information on the company and the industry, and instead focus most of your plan on the areas of your plan that are currently most important to you.

Basically the first half of the business plan is going to be geared towards helping you to develop and support and solid business strategy. This is where you will look at the market, the industry itself, customers and competitors. You will also have to look at your customer needs and the benefits of the various current products and services that are available to you.

You will have to really look at the strengths and weaknesses of each competing like business in your area and try to find any opportunities for your and your ideas in the marketplace. All of these steps are largely aimed at helping you create a strategy for your business.

The second half of the business plan is going to be used to execute your selected business strategy. Your pharmacy’s products and services, your marketing and your operations should all closely tie in with your strategy. So while it may be easy for you to choose a well thought out strategy for your plan, I would personally recommend you give a lot of thought to the strategy that will set the course for your business.

In today's crowded marketplace, you're probably going to have serious competition no matter how creative and original your own business concept is. That is why you are going to need to think as competitively as possible throughout your entire business plan.

You need to be able to realistically identify where you will do things in similar manner as your competitors, as well as where you will do things differently. You will want to acknowledge where you have real strengths and where you have real weaknesses.

You should also fully understand that in order for you to try to run a major aspect of your business significantly better than your competitors may be a very difficult challenge; especially since there are so many of them out there today. Because of this, you are better off if you focus your planning on being different than your competition rather than just on competing with them less directly. For example: Can you find a particular market niche to focus on? Can you find a unique strategy to build your business on?

A lot of business plans sound good on paper, but don't work at all when they are used in the real world marketplace. It's often very difficult to attract people to a new business when there are so many out there already. Just because its better doesn't mean people are going to switch to it because most of us have been going to the same businesses in our communities our entire lives.

People or companies have established buying patterns and are currently doing business with someone else. In order for you to get them to do business with you, you are going to need to do more than the others do in order to attract them to your place of business instead.

You've got to steal them away from someone else's business basically so be ready for this. It's also quite possible that when you enter the marketplace, that your competitors may react with their own new products or services or by cutting their prices or offering even more or similar strategies as you.

You need to know that while it's easy to overestimate sales projections it's just as easy to underestimate how much it will cost to run it as well; especially for a start-up business. There are always going to be a hefty amount of cost overruns, expensive problems, and specialty items that you need that you have simply overlooked. So you will want to be very conservative and try to have an extra wad of cash hidden away just in case.

Outline of a complete business plan:

Telling you how to develop a complete business plan is just not the same as showing you exactly what needs to be included in one. Below is exactly what you need to include in your business plan so that you have a decent place to start. Here is a quick nine-step guide to what you will need in your company's business plan:

1.	The executive summary: The executive summary is what introduces your business strategy to the reader and probably is the most important section for lending institutions. If you can't convince a grant agency in the first two or three pages that you've got a good business proposal for them to listen to and that you're not going to leave without some funding to help you get started. This summary is also important as a communication tool for employees as well as any potential customers who need to understand your goals and ideas.
2.	A small section on company startup: This section of your business plan is where you have to clearly explain the thought behind the company's creation and how you or your business associate came up with the idea to start your business.
3.	Your company goal: You will have to use this section to explain in as few paragraphs as possible what your short and long-term goals for the company are. How fast do you think it will grow? Who will be your primary customers?
4.	Biographies of management: This section will be used define your management team and what their purposes are. This section should include information such as the names and backgrounds of lead members of the management team and their responsibilities.
5.	The product/service you will offer: This is where it is a must that you include a key piece of information that needs to be included in this section; which will be a discussion of how your pharmacy actually differs from every other business on the market.
6.	The market potential: This is the section where you will really want to remember that you've got to convince everyone that you're after is relatively large and growing. You'll need to do some research for this section. If you’re planning to open a locally based business, you need to check out the demand for your offering within a certain radius that is based on what you determine is a reasonable distance from your business. If you are planning to open a Web-based business or one that relies on both the Internet and local traffic for revenues, you'll need to evaluate demand on a local and/or a national basis. You can also seek to get this type of information online as many different sites will perform this analysis for you.
7.	The marketing strategy: This is the section where you will have to ask yourself how you plan to tell the world you're open for business. For example, questions like; Will you advertise in print, television or on the Web or all of these? Will you use online marketing tools like search optimization, to get your company listed on search engines and advertised on other Web sites? You'll also need to include how much you plan to spend on marketing.
8.	A 3-5 year financial projection: This section should have a summary of your expected financial forecasts, including spreadsheets showing the method that you used to reach these projections. You'll want to use your balance sheets, income statements and cash-flow projections for the entire period that year. The summary in this section is also where you would tell grant agencies how much money you'd like to get in order to cover your startup costs. The assumptions that you make in this section will make or break your company's success. If you're unsure about using this kind of financial modeling, find a professional.
9.	An exit strategy. All good business plans include a section that lays out the benchmarks you'll use in deciding to call it quits. The strategy could be based on a specific figure, revenue growth, the market's reception to your idea, or a consensus among top officers.