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How to Write Killer Business Plans - Part 2
by Neil Best
Published on this site: April 17th, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
Keep your eye on the Executive Summary
The first thing your potential funding audience needs to be
reading is your executive summary. There is a saying in the
film industry that no great script is written, only rewritten,
and in a way that's how you need to treat your executive summary. It's the most essential part of your plan because
it acts like a shop window to the plan inside, and it needs
to draw the potential investor in.
Why use 5 words when you can use 3? Why be vague when you
can be direct? It's got to punch above its weight class and
have impact, so don't be afraid of rewriting it until you
know it off by heart.
Start with a paragraph about each important part of the overall
plan, and avoid repetition. In the very first paragraphs,
spell out what it is that your business does, who does it,
and why it does it, and how it makes money doing it, along
with the funding requirements and repayment / exit plan.
The more exact you can be, the better.
To Finish first, first you've got to Finish.
Knowing when to end your plan is almost an art form in itself,
and whilst it's no bad idea to have a living breathing document
for internal purposes, failure to bring things to a conclusion
is a real turnoff for external investors. Over half think
that business plans are too long, and therefore lose interest,
or simply have other pressing engagements they must deal with
before they'll ever get to the end of yours.
The flip side of this is also true: Too short and the
investor will be given the impression that you haven't given
this enough thought or done enough research, or worst case
scenario will have insufficient information to form a sensible
investment decision. Uncertainty is the seed of doubt, and
doubt is definitely not a basis for risking investment dollars.
Like the tale of Goldilocks the plan needs to be "just
right", and while each business will vary significantly,
some where between 12 and 25 pages seems to be the plan porridge
that gets eaten all up!
Demonstrate a Need not Greed.
Somewhere along the way you have to show that you've done
some market research, and that you've thought about what this
truly means in respect of your business.
The point here is to think about the niche or zone or subsector
you operate in. For example the world car market is billions
of dollars, but if you're setting up a hand car-wash in your
local town then this is not the size of your market.
Think about relevance and about the customer's reality. While
you might have the ambition for hand car-wash world domination,
take the first step first, then the second. Show how the customer
has a need or desire for your product. Don't assume the investor
will know. Spell it out.
Explain how you will fulfil that need with your products and
services. Cover how the customer will find you, or how you
will get your message across to them. Discuss the frequency
of that need. Some sales people call this the itch cycle.
Every so often you've just got to scratch it.
For example, everyone who has a car has a need to have it
serviced at least once a year. Everyone who likes ketchup
will want some more when it runs out.
Factor these buy cycles into your research.
Neil Best For more fantastic tips on building quality
business plans , and for business plan examples in a diverse
number of categories visit
http://www.smallbusinessfinancetips.com/sample-business-plans.html
now.
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