Author Login | Popular Articles | RSS Feeds | Sitemap

Home | Business | Entrepreneurialism


Secrets of a Great Business Plan

By: Dave Miller

You've got a great idea for a business - you know it will be successful - if you can just get the money to make it happen. You know that the best way to present your project to lenders is with a business plan.

Lenders have money to lend - if they can just find a business that they can reasonably expect to be successful. They know that the easiest way to review a project is by reading its business plan.

Presenting your business plan to a ready lender should be a match made in heaven, right? Yes, but...

Every borrower thinks that theirs is a great deal. To hear some borrowers tell it, the millions will magically appear with no chance of failure. Life is good and it's going to get better.

Lenders, on the other hand, are paid to make objective judgments - to get past the sales pitch and identify the real deal. Lenders don't care what you think about your project - they know that you love the deal even before they open your business plan. Their job is to make an objective assessment of your plan. In a word, they need facts.

A fact can be defined as knowledge or information based on reality. While you can present anything as knowledge or information, the lender will decide whether or not they believe that your information is based on reality. Do the following and lenders will likely conclude that your statements are factual:

Keep your statements clear and concise - unread is worse than unbelievable it's unknown. Use as few words as possible while still getting across your message. Lose the flowery adjectives and state simple, objective, reasons why your business plan will succeed.

Avoid technical or industry jargon. If you must use jargon, make sure that you explain its meaning. No one is impressed that you know all the latest buzzwords within your industry. Rather, they are unimpressed that you weren't able to communicate your message without resorting to jargon.

Quote research and sources. To state "the industry will grow at a rate of 15% annually" is likely to be read as a sales pitch. To state "A recent US Department of Commerce study shows that..." is likely to be read as fact. Good sources of low cost or free independent research include government agencies, industry associations, franchisors and, if yours is an industry with public companies, stock analysts.

Avoid stating your own opinions. Rather than saying "We believe..." state the reason you believe, hopefully, as a believable fact. If you must use an unsubstantiated opinion try to use that of an outside professional (your accountant, lawyer, appraiser, etc.).

The watch phrases for a successful business plan are "short, sweet and to the point" and "factual and if not provable, believable". A short, well written plan loaded with verifiable facts is much more likely to succeed that a long, poorly written one, loaded with flowery writing and your personal opinions.

The one area of your business plan to which the above does not apply is the Executive Summary. Look for our forthcoming article on that subject.

Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

About the Author:
About Author:
Dave Miller is a business consultant with 27 years experience writing business plans. He is also the creator of FundablePlans business plan software.

| Print | Ezine Ready | |

Recent Entrepreneurialism Articles

  • A guide to your new business enterprises By: Esteri - Many people argue that those entrepreneurs who succeed in their new business enterprises are those who are born and not made. While if you are right in motion with the wheel of this changing planet, you would beg to differ with this notion like me. I mean, what the hell are natives from whatever corner of this globe supposed to do to deal with negative effects of globalization such as unemployment?
  • “Rise of Women Entrepreneurs” – What inspires women to start their own business? By: Kim DeYoung - You don’t have to look far to notice the rise of women entrepreneurs. What inspires and drives these women? There are many reasons from a great idea, to a lack of fulfillment in their current job, to the excitement of taking a risk to the need to create a work/life balance. What about you? Are you an entrepreneur or maybe considering it? Take a look at what might be motivating you: • Economic necessity. Some women are working full-time and still can’t make ends meet.
  • Maverick Business Insider's Newsletter: Getting Inside the Minds of The World's Best Business Owners By: Terry Wygal The Quick House Buyer - There might be a lot of questions going on around your head after hearing about this one of a kind offer by Yanik Silver; questions like What is the Maverick Business Adventures and What Do They Do, What is Maverick Business Insider's Newsletter all About etc. Well, let's find out. Maverick Business Adventures is a company that Yanik created approximately one year ago and is now host to some of the most successful self-made business owners as an unparalleled "Business Mastermind" program.
  • Exfuze Unique Home based Business Opportunities By: Pat Historian - Exfuze, the newly introduced health drink, has not only revolutionized the global market in this field, but at the same time it has opened up new opportunities for home-based business. Collaborative efforts of Mr. Rick and Don Cotton has given birth to this company and at the same time it is carrying forward their dream to leverage the company as one of the best direct sales company in the global scenario. The Exfuze 7+ health drink, in spite of having so many qualities, is very competitively priced.
  • Few Guidelines to Grow your Affiliates By: HARISH KUMAR - The promise of earning profits without really doing much of anything has enticed a lot of people towards affiliate marketing. But does affiliate marketing really work this way? As an affiliate, all that is required of you is to simply place the merchant's ad on your website. Then after that, you virtually do nothing but wait for anyone to click on the merchant's ad and later collect your profits. Easy, right? Well, not quite often. Many affiliates earn almost nothing from their affiliate programs simply because they do nothing.
  • Government Grants to Start a Business - 3 Guidelines to Boost Approval Chances By: Neil Bradley - Venture capitalists are limiting themselves from investing in more business launches because of the current state of the economy. I am pretty certain that you want to kickstart a business of your own. You already had your ideas and plans drawn up. The only thing you will beg for now is the capital. In this business article, you will be taught how to increase your chances of approval when handing in your application for government grants to start a business.
  • Famous Women Entrepreneurs – Three Things They Know About Success By: Kim DeYoung - I find it very inspirational to learn from famous women entrepreneurs who had an idea and made it happen. What’s interesting about some of these women is that they didn’t necessarily have the ideal background or circumstances for success but that didn’t hold them back. They overcame their obstacles and became successful in a business world dominated by men. There is a pattern that emerges when you take a look at what these diverse women entrepreneurs have in common—women like Mary Kay Ash, Anita Roddick and Debbi Fields.
  • 13 Tips For Selling Products On eBay and Building a Business By: James Stein - Benefits Of Starting Your Own eBay Internet Home Business Today, many people are looking for opportunities to earn money online, and selling merchandise on eBay is one of the popular ways of earning money on the internet. Many people have built their entire business around nothing more than eBay and have become very successful eBay Power Sellers.
  • Hidden opportunities By: marcashton - A mate of mine told me an interesting story last week which I wanted to share with our readers. He has been consulting to a biggish firm for about 6 months now and so he has gotten quite a good idea of how the politics and the people in the office environment work. Most of them don't know his role in the business and assume he's largely an administrative type which suits his role just fine.
  • Bringing Fundraising Back In-House - A $13,000 School Success By: V. Blazejowski - October 28, 2008 - How do you spell success? Well the students of the Wyman School spelled it 30 different ways! On October 10th, the Wyman School of Massachusetts held a PTO Ideas' Educational Challenge fundraiser and this 200-student, public school raised just over $13,000 in about 2 weeks. How did they do this? Students collected pledges for each correctly-spelled word on a spelling test. A simple concept with a dramatic outcome!

Search Ebay

Still can't find what you are looking for? Search for it!


Submit Your link to the Open Link Directory Project

Copyright 2005-2008 MJE Sales, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Proud member of the ArticleCkr Search Network Search Network!
ArticleSnatch.com is free for both publishers and authors to use and is supported entirely from advertising revenue.
Use of our service is protected by our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.