Building A Better Business Plan
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A slideshow presentation by Irv Holmes, on tricks and tips to keep in mind when putting together your own entrepreneurial business plan.
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Building A Better Business Plan
- 2. Don’t write for you, write for your audience. It should be compelling and clearly explained. Make sure that your heart and your head spell out your goals in equal measure.
- 3. Know who you are competing against. Showing in your business plan that you know why you are strong where others fall short, and how you are competitive with your industry, will show investors you know how to grab your part of the market share.
- 4. Don’t be flowery. Every professional is busy. Don’t waste pages and minutes of their time with overly wordy proposals. You want your unique flavor, but you don’t want to be so detailed or expressive that you lose the interest of those reading.
- 5. It’s good to be assertive, but make your projections realistic. Always lean toward the conservative and talk a big game later. Investors like to see someone who will be cautious and protective of the money, and they are well- versed in financials. They will know when you’re inflating numbers to unrealistic levels.
- 6. Don’t get lost in graphics and design concepts. A well-laid out, attractive proposal is good, but a concise, information-based business plan is best. Save the artwork and the conceptual design for after you’ve hooked them with the data.
- 7. Pick up your plan from the point of view of the bank, investor, or landlord. What will they see that concerns them? Pick it apart with fresh eyes. Write down everything they may ask you. Poke holes in your own plan. If you don’t come up with the answers, it’s not a fully-formed plan. If you can’t poke any holes, you’re too close to the project and will be underprepared. There are ALWAYS concerns.
- 8. Don’t protect it. While your business plan is the lifeblood of getting your business off the ground and you should be cautious with it, you need to show it to others for feedback. Does it make sense? Does sound convincing? You can’t know until someone else reads it.
- 9. Don’t be precious about it. No business plan is perfect on the first draft. Work it. Rework it. Take out the things that don’t play, even if you love them. The more you are open to editing your business plan, the better it will be.