Gale Business: Plan Builder
Integrated Access to Business and Legal Resources
Gale Business: Plan Builder is a step-by-step online planning tool for starting, managing and optimizing a business or nonprofit. The program’s intuitive dashboard walks users through five areas of exploration to develop a business plan focused on long-term success.
Giving patrons a direct path to additional resources and tools at their points of need, Gale Business: Plan Builder provides integrated access to Gale Business: Entrepreneurship, Gale Business: DemographicsNow and Gale LegalForms when libraries subscribe to any of these products.
As current business owners or new entrepreneurs progress through the guided workflow, they will encounter up to 400 highly-curated links to “Helpful Resources” that will inform and assist them in completing business planning activities.
For example:
When patrons are prompted to address state taxes in the Financial Projections section of the product, they can link to two Gale Business: Entrepreneurship articles for more context and background on the subject and Gale LegalForms to access relevant state tax forms.
Five areas of guided business planning:
Gale Business: Plan Builder provides a framework to move through the entire business development lifecycle.
Entrepreneur Profile Helps users explore what they can bring to the table as an entrepreneur and assess where they stand in preparing to start a business.
Business Ideation Provides users with tools such as Canvas, Lean Canvas, SWOT, and Porter’s Five Forces to plan the high-level framework
in which their business will operate.
Break-Even Analysis Deliver insight to determine when a user’s
business will be able to cover expenses and begin to realize a profit.
Business Plans Prepare users for presentations to potential investors and lenders—this section includes an executive summary, lean business plan, full business plan, pitch deck, and strategic marketing plan.
Financial Projections Provide a robust analysis of a company’s financial future encompassing capital expenditures, sales, equity, taxes, inventory and more.
Additional benefits include:
Tools for nonprofits Help nonprofit organizations in your community by providing specific tools and features aligned closely to the needs of the social entrepreneur such as a Mission Canvas, Bylaws Template and Nonprofit Pitch Deck.
Easy Pickup Allows users to jump back in at the exact point in a previous session with the Pick Up Where You Left Off feature.
Learning Library Allows users to easily search or browse articles to deepen their business knowledge.
Learn more about the integrated access to business and legal resources >>
FEATURED REVIEW
"Gale Business: Plan Builder is an improvement over the myriad business plan wizards and templates available online. Users can easily turn small business ideas, plans, and finances into a coherent foundational document and continue to rely on the database as the business evolves. With applications that are varied and full of potential, Gale Business: Plan Builder will be a welcome resource for undergraduates, instructors, and, above all, entrepreneurs at any stage of establishing a business. Educational sessions introducing the tool may garner widespread interest."
- Library Journal
Look Inside
Additional Details
subjects covered
- Business & Economics
- Business and Industry
Platform Features & Tools
A Guided Approach
An intuitive dashboard leads users through five steps of business planning.
Deliverables on Demand
Download or email documents for printing, sharing, or review.
Helpful Tips
On-page “Guide me” windows give in-context help and orient users to the tools and templates.
Reviews & Testimonials
“Gale Business: Plan Builder helped us build NaperLaunch [a co-working business space] right from the start. In less than two years, we built an entire entrepreneurial ecosystem at our library. We have some attendees drive up to two hours to attend our weekly Thursday morning roundtables.”
