Michelle Goodman will be available via live chat to give advice on how you can be a successful entrepreneur. Live chat: 7.29.07 at 7pm EST, here on Writers Revealed.

Late last year, I wrote an article on how to craft a kickass business plan. What you can’t see in the online version of the article are the do’s and don’ts of business plan writing. So I’ve posted them here. But first let me say that the simpler your business model, the simpler your plan can be. It’s when you’re going for the big money (loans, investors) that you need a big beefy plan. A freelance writer, however, can get away with a one- or two-page plan; when you’re a company of one with little overhead, the main purpose of the plan is to get real with your finances (what you have and what you need), identify your target market and competition, and clearly define your goals (e.g., “I want to land three Fortune 500 clients by June 08,” “I want to ten clips in markets like the NY Times and WA Post,” etc).

OK, so without further adieu, my business plan do’s and don’ts…

Do…

• Flesh out everything but the executive summary of your plan first: the numbers, the competition, the industry trends. If you write the executive summary first, you wind up with a vaguer, weaker document.
• Toot your own horn. Don’t be afraid to promote yourself. It’s not bragging. Leaders list their achievements –plain and simple. Investors will want to see this.
• Be clear and concise. Ensure each section of your plan stays on topic. You want to make it easy for an investor or advisor who’s just skimming it to find the information they need.
• Obliterate all industry jargon from your plan. Likewise, nix all superlatives and adjectives. Prove you’re unique without having to come right out and say so.

Don’t…

• Say that you have no competition.
  Customers and investors won’t buy it. If there is nothing else like it out there, there probably isn’t a market for it, say the experts.
• Fudge the numbers or present only best-case financial scenarios. Use reliable numbers that are as recent as possible. Investors will challenge your numbers anyway, so you need to be able to defend them.
• Try to hide your weaknesses. Instead, include a “challenges that keep me awake at night” section in your plan to address the bigger hurdles — and your ideas for resolving them.
• Write a tome. If you’re writing a business plan for yourself (as opposed to investors), it can be as short as 10 pages. If you’re writing a plan for investors, keep it under 35 pages.

Some resources that can help with a business plan:

• SCORE.org. Free or low-cost business classes and one-on-one consulting throughout the U.S.
• The Planning
  Shop. All kinds of bestselling business planning books. They’re also the people behind TitleZ, a highly addictive site for us publishing types.
• Springboard Enterprises. A nonprofit that educates women on landing business funding. Great free resources on their site. (See the Learning Center section.)
• Venture Architects. A woman-owned consulting firm that helps those seeking financing write better business plans.
• Are business plans really evil? After you’ve read all the “rules” from the aforementioned experts, check out this take on more fluid, informal business planning from BootstrapMe — especially valuable if you’re not seeking any big
  fat financing.

Related: Should I Start My Work at Home Business? (via Guy Kawasaki)

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 3:49 am and is filed under Live Chat, Non Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.