“I’m not looking forward to writing my business plan.\u00a0 I have no idea what to say or how to say it!”\u00a0 Sound familiar?\u00a0 Most of us can think of a million things we’d rather be doing than wracking our brains out over a business plan.\u00a0 Before you completely rub out the eraser on your pencil…read Entre-Plan.\u00a0 It’s a do-it-yourselfer on writing business plans.\u00a0 This website takes each major section of your plan–Executive Summary, Market, and Operational Plans to name three–asks thought-stimulating questions, gives you tips on what investors are looking for, and advice on what you should do to fit their bill.\u00a0 Entre-Plan tells you what to say in your business plan, and, more importantly, how to say it.<\/p>\n
You’ll find as you read through this guide that certain questions pop up more than once.\u00a0 For instance, the question about “market need” appears three or four times.\u00a0 Although I’m not recommending you make a big deal about your product’s market fulfillment in all four sections, you don’t want investors to forget about it either.\u00a0 A general rule of thumb is not to repeat yourself–unless you’ve got something important to say.\u00a0 Use your discretion!\u00a0 The same is true for suggested page lengths.\u00a0 You may find two pages is not enough room to flex your muscles on your company’s marketing plan–so go to three or even four pages.\u00a0 Just don’t make a habit of saying more than you need to.\u00a0 Everybody knows how irritating people are that talk too much.\u00a0 Remember you can save nitty gritty details for the back of your plan, or make them available upon request.<\/p>\n
Another point I’d like to mention is that Entre-Plan is not meant to be an everything-you-need-to-know guide on writing business plans.\u00a0 The questions are representative, but not exhaustive; and they apply mostly to start-ups.\u00a0 Also, don’t feel you somehow have to squeeze every last question into your plan.\u00a0 It’s not desirable, nor possible.\u00a0 Pick out the points pertaining to your business, and build on its strengths, however don’t neglect your business’ weaknesses either.\u00a0 Mention your soft spots in a tactful way–one where you project confidence in dealing with anticipated and unanticipated problems.\u00a0 The last thing is, Entre-Plan is not fill-in-the-blanks.\u00a0 Although this may seem like a simple solution to writing a business plan; it under-estimates the diversity and complexity not only between industries, but amongst companies within the same industry.<\/p>\n
Finally, the greatest axiom, which all writers live and breathe is know your audience.\u00a0 Ask yourself these three questions:<\/p>\n
You wouldn’t write to your investors the same way as you would to your best friend in school.\u00a0 At the same time you don’t want your style to be like cardboard.\u00a0 Imagine yourself writing to Uncle Bob–be relaxed, colloquial, humorous, but show respect.<\/p>\n
Always keep in the back of your mind that your business plan is a mirror-image of yourself.\u00a0 From it investors will determine what kind of person you are, and whether your business has potential.\u00a0 First impressions are everything.\u00a0 Whether or not you get a chance to meet investors face-to-face hinges primarily on your business plan.\u00a0 Try to project yourself and your business in a positive, clear, and realistic light, and you won’t go wrong.\u00a0 Good luck!<\/p>\n
Whenever you’re sitting across from some important person, always picture him sitting there in a suit of long red underwear:\u00a0 That’s the way I always operated in business.\u00a0 Joseph P. Kennedy.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “I’m not looking forward to writing my business plan.\u00a0 I have no idea what to say or how to say it!”\u00a0 Sound familiar?\u00a0 Most of us can think of a million things we’d rather be doing than wracking our brains out over a business plan.\u00a0 Before you completely rub out the eraser on your pencil…read […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18,"href":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}