So you've decided you need to write a business plan - now
what? Where do you start? Here are four quick tips that
will help you get going right away. The main thing is to
GET STARTED. Here's how:
A business plan is in essence a creative writing project.
You want the plan to be an interesting read, not a long
pedantic discussion. When you're approaching lenders or
investors, you have to put on your marketing hat and make
your company's future sound exciting.
So write your plan as an exciting description of the
opportunity you see that lies ahead. Are you excited (you
should be!). Then let that excitement shine through in the
narrative of your business plan. You want to infect the
reader with the same excitement you have, don't you?!
WRITE YOUR PLAN IN A STYLE THAT FITS YOUR INDUSTRY AND YOUR
OWN STYLE The business plan for a sports bar company would
sound much different than a plan for a bank. Make your
plan sound like you; put some of your personality and
philosophy in the plan, so after reading the plan an
investor or lender would feel as though he/she knows you.
BE ENTHUSIASTIC IN YOUR APPROACH When you talk to
entrepreneurs about their company, they usually get so
enthusiastic that they almost wear you out. Then you get
their business plan and it reads like the operations manual
that came with your DVD player. The purpose of the
business plan is to create excitement in the minds of the
investors, in other words to activate the area of their
brains devoted to greed. If you can't be enthusiastic
about your business plan who can?
AVOID GETTING MIRED IN INDUSTRY JARGON Internet companies,
medical companies and computer companies all tend to dwell
on minute details about their technology and don't
adequately develop the business reasons why they are going
to make money for themselves and the investors. Explain
the technology in laymen's terms and then focus on why your
company will make money and how it will make money.
BE OPEN ABOUT THE RISKS AS WELL AS THE OPPORTUNITIES There
are downsides to every business venture, recognizing those
risks shows that you've considered all the alternatives.
In the discussion come up with how your company will react
to certain risks. That demonstrates smart management.
A CD ROM CAN'T REPLACE YOUR MIND! More and more
entrepreneurs are relying on business plan writing
software. These products are sometimes helpful in
formatting the plan and creating the financial schedules,
but they can't formulate your strategies for you. The
heart of the business plan is explaining how you are going
to sell more of your product or service than your
competitors, and operate your business at high enough
profit margins to generate a superior rate of return for
investors.
The CD-ROM you might purchase has no idea how to do any of
this. It's spent nearly all of its life on a shelf, in a
box. How exciting is that?
The main idea here is that, to engage the reader of your
plan, you need to share your sense of excitement about the
opportunity. Yes, you will have lots of analysis, SWOT,
financials and the like, but you want to make sure that
your reader is engaged and interested from the first
paragraph - so get excited, already!
----------------------------------------------------
Henri Schauffler, The CEO Coach, has dedicated the last 20
years to helping small businesses like yours to "Outmanage,
Outhire, Outsell and Outprofit All the Competition." For a
FREE business assessment and tune up to see exactly how you
are doing in all Eight Essential Areas for Business
Success, go to http://www.QuickBizQuiz.com .
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