Welcome to LivePlan! As you dive into your business planning process, you’ll find that LivePlan offers more than templates and tools. With the LivePlan Assistant, you can streamline your planning process by generating content and getting tailored suggestions for various parts of your plan. This guide explains what the LivePlan Assistant can do for you and how it can be a helpful tool for your business planning journey.
Whether starting from scratch or refining your business plan, the LivePlan Assistant provides valuable assistance with writing and brainstorming, helping you make the most of your time and energy.
Why use the LivePlan Assistant?
Business planning can be complex, especially when you’re juggling multiple aspects of your business. The LivePlan Assistant is designed to simplify that process by offering:
- Quick Drafts and Suggestions: The Assistant helps generate draft content based on your input, allowing you to focus more on refining your ideas rather than starting from a blank slate.
- Content Iteration: If you already have content written, the Assistant can help refine, expand, or adjust the tone to ensure your message is clear and concise.
- Brainstorming: Need ideas for revenue streams or potential expenses? The Assistant can provide suggestions for your Forecast and financial planning.
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Custom Instructions for Plan Topics: Based on your business description, the Assistant can now generate custom instructions tailored to specific sections of your written plan. This helps guide your content creation, offering structure and key questions relevant to your business.
Although the LivePlan Assistant doesn’t generate specific financial figures or industry data, it can still be a powerful ally in brainstorming and refining your plan. Let’s further explore the key areas where the LivePlan Assistant can assist you.
What can you do with the LivePlan Assistant?
In the Pitch
The Pitch is where you distill your business idea into its most essential parts, such as your value proposition, target market, competitive landscape, and more. If you’re unsure how to get started, the LivePlan Assistant can help.
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Get Suggestions: Certain sections have a Get Suggestions icon in the Pitch section. Clicking this will prompt the Assistant to generate suggestions for that specific section of the Pitch, which you can then edit and refine. This can be particularly helpful when you’re working on tough-to-articulate areas like your business’ problems worth solving and marketing activities.
In the Plan
The Plan section of LivePlan is where you’ll dive deep into the details of your business strategy, operations, and financial projections. Whether you’re building your plan from the ground up or revisiting sections to refine them, the LivePlan Assistant offers a few key tools:
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For topics that don’t yet have content, the Help Me Write feature will generate draft content based on your business description and any additional input you provide. This tool is great for getting a first draft onto the page quickly, which you can then edit and further refine to fit your plan’s needs.
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f you already have content in a section but feel it could be improved, the Rewrite tool can help. With the Rewrite feature, you can adjust the tone, improve grammar, or even expand the content to fit your business’s goals better.
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LivePlan Assistant also has the ability to generate Custom Instructions for each topic in your written plan. These instructions are based on your business description and will provide specific guidance to help you stay on track. You’ll find helpful prompts and key questions that are tailored to the unique aspects of your business, along with custom examples, making it easier to address critical details while crafting your plan.
Writing a business plan can feel overwhelming, but the LivePlan Assistant makes the process more manageable by providing content suggestions and allowing you to iterate on your work; starting from a rough draft can be easier than starting from a blank page. The Custom Instructions feature adds a layer of personalization to help you focus on what matters most for your specific business, ensuring your plan is both thorough and easy to adjust as your business evolves.
In the Forecast
The Forecast section is where you outline the financial projections for your business’s future. While the LivePlan Assistant doesn’t generate specific financial figures, it can offer valuable brainstorming assistance in key areas like revenue streams, costs, and personnel expenses.
- Get Suggestions: In the Forecast’s financial tables, the LivePlan Assistant can generate suggestions for business revenue streams, direct costs, personnel, and operating expenses. These suggestions can help you think through the financial aspects of your business, ensuring nothing critical is overlooked, and they are a good jumping-off point for your own further research into your business’ financial aspects.
Forecasting is a critical part of understanding your business’s financial potential, and having suggestions for revenue streams and expenses can help ensure you’re considering all relevant factors. The LivePlan Assistant will help you to flesh out your financial model more thoroughly, even if you’re just starting with broad estimates.
Why the LivePlan Assistant is Essential for Ongoing Planning
Business planning is not a one-time task—it’s an ongoing process. The LivePlan Assistant supports you by making it easier to update and refine your plan as your business grows.
- Keep Your Plan Up-to-Date: As your business evolves, you’ll need to adjust your forecasts and strategy. The Assistant can help you generate new content or rewrite existing sections, making it easier to update your plan regularly.
- Make Strategic Adjustments: Regularly revisiting your plan helps ensure your business stays on track. The LivePlan Assistant aids this process by helping you quickly draft updates or fine-tune your existing strategies, allowing you to keep your plan aligned with your current business goals.
- Save Time: Instead of starting from scratch every time you need to update your plan, the Assistant helps you quickly generate or adjust content, saving you time and allowing you to focus on executing your strategy.
Best Practices for Using the LivePlan Assistant
Here are some additional tips to ensure you get the most out of using the LivePlan Assistant:
- Use It to Jumpstart Your Writing: The Assistant’s Help Me Write tool can help you break through writer’s block by providing content that you can refine and tailor to your business.
- Iterate as You Go: Don’t worry about making everything perfect on the first try; use the Rewrite tool to refine your content over time.
- Leverage Custom Instructions: Take full advantage of the Custom Instructions feature to help tailor each topic in your written plan. These prompts will help ensure that every aspect of your plan is relevant and specific to your business.
- Think of It as a Guide: The Assistant’s suggestions are there to help guide your thinking, but your input is what makes your plan unique. Be sure to mold the content to reflect your business’s specific goals and vision.
The LivePlan Assistant is designed to simplify your planning process by offering smart suggestions and custom instructions and helping you create meaningful content. By leveraging this tool, you can streamline your business planning and spend more time focusing on what matters most—building and growing your business. If you’d like to learn more about using this tool, you can find more details in our articles listed below: