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.
Got a Question? Ask.
Ask the community a question about this article:
Frequently Asked Questions
Best way to transform a book into an eBook?
By: 1000Club | 01-10-2007
What is the best way to transform a book into an eBook? And where to publish it? How to promote it? Tks !!!!
Harry Potter DVD
By: natush | 30-09-2007
How many "Harry Potter" DVDs were sold worldwide in 2006?
Harry Potter DVD
By: natush | 30-09-2007
How many "Harry Potter" DVDs were sold worldwide in 2006??
Question on Math Business: John Baxter signed a ...
By: cbusch | 27-09-2007
Question on Math Business:John Baxter signed a promissory note agreeing to pay the bank $950.00 in 45 days. If the bank charged $10.20 for the loan, what was the discount rate?
Corporate branding and technology outsourcing...unintelligent?
By: pluralconcepts | 27-09-2007
Plural Concepts is a corporate branding and technology outsourcing company. We are a team of practical consultants who provide our clients with what we call 'adaptive intelligence'. We have designed our bandwith of expertise in such a way that our technology outsourcing bandwidth provides us with a competive edge to support our corporate branding services.We are a new organization, probably an year old but we have come up with the capability of understanding the immense importance intelligence plays in everthing, may it be technology out sourcing or corporate branding.My question is can corporate branding be independent of technology? And when it comes to technology, doesnt adaptive intelligence play a significant role in building up a corporate brand through empowered technology?
Have contemporay business practices contaminated ...
By: yogu | 23-09-2007
have contemporay business practices contaminated cultural and ethical values
Q&A Powered by:
Latest Business Articles
Develop a Better Business Model Faster by Analyzing Past Performance as Though These Were New Tests
By: Donald Mitchell | 21/08/2008
Past successes and failures show clues concerning opportunities and hurdles for creating superior business models. Learn from those experiences.
Secret Wholesale List Suppliers: Exposed!
By: Joaquin Reveron | 20/08/2008
You have a business. You need a wholesale list source to expand your product line and surely for possibilities of profiting more from the acquirement of wholesale products from such suppliers. Precisely, one of the easiest ways to get a source contact list of distributors and wholesalers is by hitting...
Wholesale Video Games: Extreme Infamous Tactics!
By: Joaquin Reveron | 20/08/2008
Let say that you have a successful wholesale video games accessory and your back up is your affiliated company that offers DVDs. Pay attention, this is one of the tools many of us on the top use to beat many competitors, make competitors paralyzed and not even make them think...
6 Reasons to Start a Drop Ship Baby Gift Ecommerce Business
By: Stuart Sherm | 20/08/2008
Starting any Ecommerce business is a daunting task, but here are some ideas where you can make money, have virtually no overhead and never leave your home. What you need is to join a great drop ship gift program.
Essentially you are aware that when you buy certain gifts online they...
Why Not to Start a Wholesale Video Games Business!
By: Joaquin Reveron | 20/08/2008
Many people tell you how lovely it is to start a home business, how magnificent it really of having more time with their family, kids, friends and plainly and enjoying what life has to offer with the extra time from a home office. It is true, it is fascinating,...
Do You Really Need a Job or Feel Maximum Incommodity?
By: Joaquin Reveron | 20/08/2008
Noting that many of our culture and society dislikes incommodity, incommodity according to most dictionaries is defined as inconvenient. Generally incommodity is logically and truly defined as something that causes that causes difficulty, trouble, or lack of ease. Society is indeed correct when it comes to its definition, however, you...
Top 10 List of Wholesale Business Tools For Success
By: Joaquin Reveron | 20/08/2008
What tools to succeed with an online business? Before you start with the list of wholesale business tools that you will need for starting your business online, know what kind of business you are getting into. Before thinking of the list of wholesale materials that you should get, one of...
Bankruptcy Leads-How to Get the Best Leads For Affordable Prices
By: Andrew Mason | 20/08/2008
In order for your bankruptcy business to thrive, getting good bankruptcy leads is essential. Obviously, the success of any business is finding good customers, and before they become customers, you have to market to them properly in order to get them in the door and doing business with you.
This whole...
More from Neil Best
How Do I Build A Winning Business Plan? - Part 2
By: Neil Best | 25/04/2006 | Business
Competitor Analysis - Keep it Real Failure to identify competitors in your business plan is a warning sign to potential investors that either:- you've not done enough research; you haven't acknowledged the competition you face; or that actually the marke
How To Write Killer Business Plans - Part 1
By: Neil Best | 07/03/2006 | Writing
First The Bad News.. There is no single magic formula for developing a winning business plan (But you knew that anyway. Right?) And Now The Good News..
Business 
