Select: Business Tools

In addition to moving home or getting married, one of the biggest decisions you can make in your life is to change career. Indeed, how many of us have thought about starting up our own business and would do if only we knew how to develop a proper plan?

Originally sold as PlanIT, Select: Business Tools claims to provide everything you need to develop a well-written business plan. Whether you're starting a bold new enterprise or trying to manage an existing one, the package aims to get you on the right track and is divided into three sections: Business Plan; Marketing Plan; and Business Letters.

Business Plan provides two ways of producing a professional proposal - either through the main software or in a spreadsheet format.

The former is focused more towards those that are already in full flow and need fleshing out in areas such as sales channels, business objectives, staff management and financial details. The latter provides templates for various types of business, from sole trader to fully-fledged company. The spreadsheet can be used to project profit and loss, cash flow, and sales figures, based on a series of assumptions.

The Marketing Plan can be used to define areas such as the target market, competition and marketing methods, while Business Letters provides templates for typical letters you might need to help you sound professional. Once you've finished working with each module, you can convert the results into various formats.

While the package is aimed at those just starting out in business, its drab interface and heavy use of jargon is likely to put many people off.

It can make the whole process seem much more complicated than it is and, if nothing else, it could certainly do with a set of Microsoft-style hand-holding wizards.

Business Tools is a powerful utility for analysing and managing a business idea, and as such is tremendous value for a tenner.

Contact: Focus Multimedia 01889 570156
www.focusmm.co.uk