What's a good way to apporach a business plan?

Ummm… A little bit too open ended.

Realistically.

And more importanly, as a living document thats needs to be re-evaluated and updated every 6 months or so.

I would focus on something that you are passionate about, because if it is for a school project, and especially if it is for real life, you are going to be devoting a massive amount of time to your project. But like the above have mentioned, your question is a bit vague. Are you interested in the steps to create one? or are you familiar with the steps but are looking for a business topic, etc?

Also, there is a program called “Business Plan Pro” from Palo Alto Software. This is pretty much the industry standard for writing business plans.

It walks you through a series of steps then assembles the plan based on your answers at the end. Which you can also edit afterwards.

Write down everything that you can think of that will relate to how you run your business, and what indicators will tell you that you’re succeeding or failing. Organize it sensibly.

If you want a more specific answer, ask a more specific question.

I agree that it has to be a living document. Guy Kawasaki said once “Write it, but don’t waste time on getting it right. Go create something and the plan will create itself.” I only partially agree. A good biz plan needs to be a credible roadmap. You will look at it every week in the beginning, then every month and so on. A sales plan, is different. That needs to be updated almost daily depending on the interaction you have with the accounts. Account Plan and Biz Plan are both good resources.