"Writing a business plan" sounds really tough,
and it can be. But there are a number of things the smart
entrepreneur can do to make it easier.
For instance, justwhatkindofstuffyouthinkgetsreadlikethis?
Imagine pages full of that, with virtually no margins, no
paragraph breaks, no breathing room. Lenders, investors and
angel investors are confronted with piles of business plans
like that every day, many of which contain illegible, scrunched
up pages stuffed with pompous text.
Take a breath. Then lure your reader into the plan with snappy
headlines and easy to read formatting.
Do you know why the Wall Street Journal and USA Today use
headlines? Because it's the only way anyone will read a story.
More to the point, it's the only way anyone will buy their
paper. (Mmmm, sounds like you may have something in common
with newspapers.)
Take a look at your favorite newspaper. Those headlines tell
a story. Sometimes they ooze with conspiracy, and once in
a while they stand majestic. Note:
Martha Jailed
The War is Over
The Watergate Starts to Smell
Your business plan needs to do no less. The headlines and
section heads need to draw the reader in, not with an announcement,
but with an invitation. Compare these:
The Executive Team
The Audio Industry
The Advisory Board
with these:
Strong Executive Team is Led by Industry Insider
Audio - the Industry that Reinvents Itself
7 Top Scientists Lead the Advisory Board
So which set are you going to read?
Lenders of all ilk get far too many business plans - certainly
more than they can possibly fund. Simply getting your business
plan read is a big step in the right direction.
Try this trick. Imagine that you are indeed writing a newspaper,
one that competes with another strong paper in your town.
What headline would you put on that paper to encourage readers
to buy yours, and not the other?
Honesty, of course, is essential. But within that honesty
there are a thousand ways to make the same statement.
How many ways are there to say that it is spring time?
It is spring
It is April 22
Lilacs are in bloom
Snow is melting in the mountains
Baseball camps are in full force
And how many ways are there to say that your business
idea is a good one?
This is a good idea
An innovative approach
A sure-fire winner
A strong contender for funding
A strong team in an equally strong market
Lots of community support
This fills a need in the marketplace
The company draws on the experience of each of its members
Two years of strong growth
Impressive projections
Now jot down some headlines for your company. You may or
may not be able to use them. Try first just to jot down every
idea, a brain storming session.
Now use the best of those headlines to help structure your
business plan. If "Nobel Prize Winner Heads Advisory
Board" is your strongest headline, then lead with that
story. If "A Prime Location in a Prime Shopping Center"
is your strongest headline, then that is your lead.
Let the strength of the headlines pull your business plan
up a notch or two. The power of your business may surprise
even you!
Before you actually begin writing, take the time to really
look at a good publication, something like the Wall Street
Journal. Look at the styling and the use of headlines and
sub-heads. Note how the ideas keep a steady flow, with an
invitation to read.
Your business plan likely won't look like the venerable WSJ,
or any other major publication, but odds are that it will
look a whole lot better than most, and it will therefore be
read much more readily. And that, after all, is what you are
after.
MaryAnn Shank is an innovative pro in the world of
business plans. The best of traditional and cutting edge techniques
are at her website http://www.businessplanmaster.com.
