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Don’t let words get in the way when preparing your business plan

Guest post by: Marcus Tarrant

Article Overview: Many first time business planners have the following issues in preparing a business plan: • Deciding on the document structure that best suits their business and planning requirements • Writing an executive summary • Waffling about their businesses that obscures the core messages to the reader • Understanding where to start with the financials The core problem with the standard business planning process is that it is open ended. Even templates don’t help a great deal.

Don’t let words get in the way when preparing your business plan

An example of the approach taken by a business planning template may include, a section titled “Business Overview”. You the author are only guided with the words “Tell us about the business in 200-250 words”. Given this vague brief, many authors will waffle on without knowing what questions to answer and what “hot buttons” to hit.

The act of constructing sentences often gets in the way of providing a clear message. Starting a business plan by writing a document is more than likely to result in a poor and obscured result.

Business Planning HQ has pioneered a new approach to business planning which takes less time, is more efficient, and better presents an outline of your business. By using a series of structured questions, developed as a result constructing and analysing hundreds of business plans, these outcomes are possible.

For example, by asking the question “Tell us the Number 1 short term objective of your business”, and automatically populating this into a specific pre-constructed sentence, we are better able to guide the user and generate a clear, concise business plan in less time.

The added advantage of this process is that the questions actually guide the business plan author to think about the business, and ensure the business elements are consistent, rather than focusing on the grammar, sentence construction and waffling!

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Article Tags: Business Model, Business Plan, Business Planning, Business Plans



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Is A Business Plan A Waste Of Time? - According to various government statistics, up to 80% of businesses will fail within their first five years of operation. That number is staggering to me. At the same time, when I look at most business owners, most of them do not have a business plan for where they want to go. When you ask entrepreneurs why they don’t have a business plan, most of them will say something like: “it’s too much work”, “I’m not trying to raise money”, “it’s all in my head already”, or “my business changes too often for a business plan to be worthwhile.” Sound familiar? Did you write a business plan for your company when you first started? Are you planning on doing it for your new business idea?
Re: Is A Business Plan A Waste Of Time? - A business plan is never a waste of time. A friend of mine was funded by the quality of his business plan. The banker looked at his business plan and concluded that he knows what he is doing.
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