Business Plan Emphasized

I can’t tell you how important the value of a business plan is, not only does it can get a startup the funds it needs, but also it’s like an instruction manual for the business, keeping the owner on track. In the last blog “want to be a business owner, make a business plan” I talked about a coupe of business plan experts. This blog just reiterates points made and adds to them. Also what I believe to be the most important section of a business plan is. I want to keep you aware of the resources and what they are saying.

Dr. Steven Gedeon is an expert business plan writer and reviewer. One very good point he makes about business plans is that they should “have creditability, and show a guide to action?” The creditability means every plan should either list all qualified management or employees, and why these particular people will add to the success of the business. Is the business owner using their capital for employees that are an asset or just working there? Also having a guide to action shows the investors that the business owner has a plan, how to go about business and what they will need to do so.

Dave Lavinsky and Jay Turo of Growthink.com are business plan developers. A point made by them that connects with Dr. Stevens’ advice is also a good action plan and being able to reverse engineer a 5-year projection. What I find even more useful though is their point on communication. They state strategies are useless if not effectively communicated. A business plan should be gone through many times, editing out any mistakes and to make sure every point is well communicated. Make sure you do not have to be in the industry to understand the plan. If you can teach someone else something you know, that means you truly understand it.

Bill Payne an entrepreneur and business plan reviewer states that business owners should research and thoroughly prepare a plan, and organizing a good management team. Nothing is better than good research and preparation, a business owner may know their business well, that’s why they started the business, but they can never know too much. Knowledge is an advantage, and more advantage over your competitors means more of the market.

If I myself were to make any changes to my own business plan it would be any additional information I have learned due to continuous research. A business plan can always be better, thinking its good enough is just plain ignorant.

The operation section of a business plan is the most important because it shows investors and banks that the business owner understands the complete production process and how much work is involved. Business owners know what kind of business they want to start and why, but knowing what it takes to keep it operational is something else. The operation section includes: where you will have your business and how much it will cost them to stay there. What does the production process entails? giving the investor a good picture of how the business owner is utilizing their time and capital. The amount of employees the business needs, what they will be doing, and how qualified they should be. Other parts of the section include quality, inventory, supply, research, regulations, legal matter, health, safety, and financial control; all that give emphasis on not what the business is, but how it is sustained.

  

Want to be a Business owner, make a Business plan

Are you a filmmaker that wants to start your own production company or maybe just an Entrepreneur looking to start or expand a different type of business?

Starting a new business is no easy task; it takes research, marketing, and a good product/service (of course), but most of all you need capital.  Capital is financial assets or the financial value of assets such as cash. That’s where that age old saying comes from “you need money to make money”. 
Capital can be accumulated from a multitude of different sources; crowd funding, savings, or a rich uncle, but the most common ways of getting capital is by business loans or investors. 

How do you get a business loan or attract investors? A GOOD BUSINESS PLAN.
A business plan is a written document that describes in detail how a new business is going to achieve its goal, from marketing expenses to expected revenue. 
A good business plan is a great tool to get the funds you need to help grow your business, but the odds of actually getting a loan or investmentor are not guaranteed, especially if your plan is not good at all. 
What makes a good business plan? I say knowing and understanding what you’re talking about, but lets hear the opinion of an expert.
Dave Lavinsky and Jay Turo are co-founders of growthink.com which is a business plan development site, where a small team of business and entrepreneur specialist help qualifying and up and coming businesses become all they can be, by helping them acquire more capital by constructing custom business plans for their clients. 
Forbes, the wall street journal, business week, and other periodicals endorse Growthink, so they must know what they’re talking about. 

What growthink believes in is the same as other business plan development firms, but what they emphasize are 5 key attributes to a successful business plan:

• The right overall value propositions

-Successful companies only need to do 1 thing really well; offer a product/service that customers really want.

• The right marketing and sales strategy

-Most business plans include merely a cursory marketing and sales plan. Successful companies have, well thought out and comprehensive marketing and sales plans.

• The right business model

-Your business model is more important than your industry.
You must think through all the possible business models. 

• Action plans developed from reverse engineering success

-You need to decide where you’d like to be in 5 years, then reverse engineer it. 

• Are communicated brilliantly

-Strategies are useless if not effectively communicated. You’re business plan is a marketing document. Who are you marketing to? Investors/lenders/employees/partners.

Growthink fees are higher than most other companies and completion time is even longer (7-14 weeks). Growthink s a great company that says to only represent business that already have a customer base or entrepreneurs with a record of success, all so that the odds of getting the capital is increased. The entrepreneurs that demonstrate key indicators of success are more likely to succeed in their book; which is good so to always show off high approval percentages.
There are many other companies that develop business plans, which can be used with banks, venture capitalist, and angel investors. 

There is a well-known angel investor named Bill Payne whom is an entrepreneur and investor that has a side business of reviewing business plans, so that they get his professional critique before you go to a bank or investor. Bill states that entrepreneur’s focus on innovation and product and loose focus on key business plan preparation and organizing a good management team. Entrepreneurs should research their competition, their market, sales channels, and required capital when constructing a business plan, it is what makes any business plan, but important non the less. Bill can review your plan in 1-2 weeks, touching basis with you and Q&A via conference call.  As for management, Bill believes businesses fail after receiving capital mostly because management teams are unable to execute plans of success. That’s when the entrepreneur needs to re-evaluate his team. 

Angel investors are your guardian angel, they come and give you money when banks tell you No- only when they believe in the success of your business, which is what a good business plan can prove to them.  
Getting a Loan is harder than ever because of high interest rates, and so many people filing bankruptcy; they Don’t trust you! But they might trust a written plan of success.