How to Write a Winning Business Plan

I have helped many businesses with their business plans and I always tell them that one thing is very important: know your audience.

People write a business plan for different purposes and for different audiences.

Sometimes they write it for a lender. Sometimes they write it for an investor. And sometimes they simply write it for themselves.

And depending on who your audience is, the emphasis should be different.

Why? Because different audiences have different goals and interests. They care about different things.

That’s why I think a cookie cutter business plan app doesn’t work.

Let’s use writing a business plan for a startup to pitch to an investor as an example.

What is a startup investor looking for? What do they want to achieve? What is their goal? What do they care?

It’s very simple.

They want to make money. And they want to make a lot of money, more than 10 times their investment.

Therefore, the goal of your business plan is to convince the investors that you can make them a lot of money.

So, how can you convince investors that you can make them a lot of money?

Here is how you do it:

A. You need to tell them exactly what problem you are solving and why your target audience is affected enough by this problem that they will pay to get a solution.

B. What is your solution? How are you solving this problem? Why is this solution so great?

C. What is your product? Why is your product a great solution to this problem? What is the technology?

D. Do you have a sizable, addressable market? Show me the number.

E. What is your plan to reach these customers?

F. What is your business model? How do you make money? What’s your pricing model?

G. Who are your competitors? Why are you better?

H. Who is in your team? What makes them so great?

I. What are your current sales numbers? How many clients do you have? How many clients will you have in 1, 2, 3 years? What will your sales be like in 1, 2, 3 years? Show me the chart.

J. A three or five year financial projection.

K. How much money are you looking for? What are you planning to use the money for?

Investors are practical, impatient, and results driven. Give them exactly what they want and they will give you what you want - the money.