Business Plans 101

[mightyventures]

So you're ready to create a killer business plan, which will yield a killer executive summary and a killer financing pitch. The first thing you MUST do? Put in the hours to make it perfect, because you'll be repurposing the content in sales presentations, marketing collateral and white papers, recruiting pitches, and on your website.

Next, be sure to address the following:

* People (Have you hired the right ones?)
* Product or service (Can you build and deliver it? Will it fly?)
* Market (Is it big enough? Can you reach it?)
* Financial (How much will it cost us?)

When pitching potential investors, there's no way to eliminate the financial risk completely, so focus on showing how solid your people are, how exceptional your product or service is (and why), and how huge the market you're going after is PLUS how you'll capture it. You must define your current and potential competitors too, in honest, realistic terms. Remember, your plan needs to reduce your investors' fear of risk and increase their greed for gain.