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How to Effectively Pitch a Business Idea

• 27 Aug 2020

You’ve identified an underserved need and validated your startup idea . Now it’s time to talk about your business to potential investors. Yet, how do you effectively communicate your idea’s promise and possible impact on the market?

Pitching a business idea is one of the most nerve-wracking parts of any entrepreneur’s journey. It’s what stands in the way between your vision and the financing needed to turn it into a reality. Although daunting, there are steps you can take to ensure a greater chance of success.

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What Makes a Great Pitch?

To make a successful pitch, entrepreneurs must exhibit several characteristics to convince investors to fund their innovative ideas .

Every entrepreneur needs an intricate understanding of their idea, target market, growth strategy, product-market fit , and overall business model . This differentiates your business concept and solidifies the steps needed to make it a reality. The perfect pitch shows investors your proof of concept and instills confidence that they can expect a return on investment .

Check out our video on pitching below, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more explainer content!

Another crucial component of a successful pitch is understanding the venture capital (VC) ecosystem.

“It’s critical for entrepreneurs to understand the background and motivations of venture capitalists so when entrepreneurs seek them out to help fund their venture, they know what to prioritize in a firm and how to build a strong, trusting relationship,” says Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Jeffrey Bussgang in the online course Launching Tech Ventures .

To secure funding and support, here are essential steps to ensure your pitch is effective.

How to Pitch a Business Idea

1. know who you’re pitching.

Some entrepreneurs try to get in front of every investor, despite their industry expertise or firm’s investment stage. Consider that, when you accept an investment, it’s about more than money; you enter a partnership. You must perform your due diligence and research potential investors before making your pitch.

When researching, ask yourself:

What industries do they invest in?

A VC firm’s industry focus depends on what the partners’ niche is and where their passions lie. Some firms specialize in a particular sector, such as financial technology (fintech) or education technology (edtech).

For example, Rethink Education is a venture capital fund that invests in early- and growth-stage edtech startups, while Blockchain Capital is dedicated to financing companies innovating in the crypto market. Others are generalists and span several industries.

Knowing the types of companies the firm invests in can help you tailor your pitch and zero in on their presumed priorities.

What stage do they invest in?

If you’re in the earliest stages of business development, you won’t receive growth equity, which is reserved for mature companies that need capital to expand operations, enter a new market, or acquire another business. Before making your pitch, have a rough estimate of the money and resources you need to launch, and then align yourself with investors who can help at that particular stage.

What’s the investor’s track record?

Dig deeper into the investor’s experience and investment history to determine the types of companies they typically finance, the background knowledge they might already have, and whether your personalities will mesh. This information will enable you to modify your pitch and determine if this is the right person or fund to partner with.

“The best venture capitalists become trusted partners and advisors to the founders and team,” says HBS Professor William Sahlman in the online course Entrepreneurship Essentials . “They help recruit key employees. They introduce the company to potential customers. They help raise subsequent rounds of capital. In some cases, they signal that the firm they've backed is a winner, which helps make that assertion true.”

Given the benefits and high stakes, the more you know going into a pitch, the better.

2. Consider How You Present Yourself, Not Simply Your Idea

Although your ideas and skills matter , your personality is equally as important. According to research published in the Harvard Business Review , venture capitalists’ interest in a startup “was driven less by judgments that the founder was competent than by perceptions about character and trustworthiness.”

Investors also want to know they’re entering a partnership with the right people. Jennifer Fonstad, co-founder of Aspect Ventures , acknowledges in Entrepreneurship Essentials that her investment firm “thinks about team and team dynamics as being very critical.”

Investors want to know whether the founders have worked together before, if your startup’s early hires have complementary skill sets, and whether you’ll be flexible, open-minded, and willing to embrace different perspectives.

Think about this as you prepare your pitch. If investors poke holes in your idea, will you get defensive? When they ask for financial projections, will you exaggerate the numbers? Hopefully, your answers are “no”—firms want to partner with founders they can trust who are open to guidance and mentorship—but if you’re second-guessing your reactions, consider what you might be asked and practice your responses.

As Sahlman reinforces in Entrepreneurship Essentials : “Most experienced investors look at the people first and the opportunity second. Even when a team is young and inexperienced, an investor depends on them to make the right decisions.”

3. Tell a Story

When describing your business idea, zero in on the problem you address for your target audience and how you solve it better than the competition. You could do this by presenting a real-life scenario in which you describe the pain point a current or prospective customer faced and how your product or service fixed the issue. This can help engage investors on a personal level and inspire them to see your idea’s potential.

By complementing your spreadsheets and charts with a compelling story, you can paint a fuller picture of your startup’s future and more effectively highlight its business opportunity.

4. Cover the Details

While it’s important to set the stage, you also need to cover the specifics. In your pitch deck, concisely define your value proposition and share a memorable tagline for investors to leave the meeting with.

According to Bussgang in Launching Tech Ventures , every pitch to an investor should contain the following:

• Intro: Focus on answering important questions like who you are, why you’re asking for funding, and what your founder-market fit is.
• Problem: Talk about your ideal customer’s pain point and how you plan to solve it.
• Solution: Explain how your idea is a compelling solution and why it’s better than existing solutions.
• Opportunity and Market Size: Provide your total addressable market (TAM), serviceable addressable market (SAM), and serviceable obtainable market (SOM) through research.
• Competitive Analysis: Understand your unique differences in the market that can help you sustain a competitive advantage.
• Go-to-Market Plan: Clarify how you’re going to reach your customers.
• Business Model: Describe how you’re going to make money.
• Financials: Define what your financial projections are and how you’re going to provide returns for investors.
• The Ask: Detail how much funding you need, how long it will last, and what milestones you hope to achieve.

“VCs will expect entrepreneurs to clearly define the milestones they need to achieve with each round of funding,” Bussgang continues. “Entrepreneurs should know what experiments they will run to reach these milestones and what they expect the results will be.”

5. Show the Roadmap

Although you’re in your business’s early stages, investors want to know how they’ll cash out in the end.

“To truly understand the motivations behind VC firms, remember that they are professional investors,” Bussgang explains in Launching Tech Ventures . “Their objective is to generate the maximum return for their limited partners with a dual fiduciary duty to their investors and the company.”

To clinch your pitch, highlight your exit strategy and the options available.

The most common exit strategies include:

• Acquisition: When one company buys most or all of another company’s shares to gain control of it
• Merger: When two existing companies unite into one new company
• Initial Public Offering (IPO): When a private company issues its first sale of stocks to the public and can start raising capital from public investors

Related: What Are Mergers & Acquisitions? 4 Key Risks

3 Kinds of Pitches for Entrepreneurs

While all effective pitches share foundational elements, you should use different types depending on the scenario. To increase your chances of success, tailor your pitch to your audience and the available time frame.

1. The Elevator Pitch

This is one of the most popular pitches. Use this when you need to communicate their startup’s value in 60 seconds or less.

An effective elevator pitch should be concise, convincing, and convey your startup’s value proposition and differentiators. For tech business ideas, mention the innovative technology that sets your concept apart. At the end, include a call to action, such as the amount of capital required to launch.

2. The Short-Form Pitch

You should portray your business idea’s value to prospective clients and investors as efficiently as possible. This means summarizing the most important elements of your idea in a way that makes them want to hear more. Highlight the market size, how you’ll create barriers for competition, your plan to monetize the business, and how much financing you need.

Short-form pitches can run from three to 10 minutes; if you’re pitching in a competitive setting, note any length requirements. These shorter pitches can pique investors’ interest and earn you the chance to present a long-form pitch.

3. The Long-Form Pitch

Sometimes, you’re fortunate enough to have more than a few minutes to pitch your idea. If this opportunity presents itself, it’s crucial to make the most of your time and address every aspect of your business plan.

“You’re not just trying to start any business,” Bussgang says in Launching Tech Ventures . “You’re trying to create a business that’s profitable, sustainable, and valuable.

Zero in on your story and share a real-life scenario. Detail the market size to illustrate demand and clear examples of how you’ll attract and retain customers, particularly in light of competitors. This will show you’re planning for—and ahead of—future challenges.

You should also have a blueprint for testing product-market fit and early results, along with a detailed monetization plan. Lastly, share your exit strategy and the amount of capital needed to, one day, achieve it. Your long-form pitch should communicate your business concept clearly and concisely, open the possibility for follow-up questions, and capture the investors’ interest.

Consider preparing all three pitch lengths to be ready for any opportunity. It’s important to stay agile so you can modify your pitch to fit specific length requirements.

Landing the Pitch

Every investor prioritizes different data and information. Yet, if you start by choosing the right investor and then align their needs with your proposed market opportunity, value proposition, and exit strategy, you have a chance at landing the pitch.

“In some ways, startup success depends just as much on whether your hypothesis about the future is right, as it does on whether your idea is a good one,” Bussgang explains in Launching Tech Ventures .

As a result, it’s important for you to do your due diligence before pitching your business idea to investors.

If you’re interested in learning more about what investors look for and how you can create value, explore Entrepreneurship Essentials and Launching Tech Ventures , two of our entrepreneurship and innovation courses . Not sure which is the right fit? Download our free course flowchart to determine which best aligns with your goals.

This post was updated on July 28, 2023. It was originally published on August 27, 2020.

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How to Create a Business Plan Presentation [Plus Templates]

Written by: Masooma Memon

Creating a wow business plan presentation is a myth. Or, is it? The truth is, as long as your business idea is in your head, it’s perfect. But it comes undone as soon as you try to translate it into a presentation.

We get that. We’ve all been there.

But, this shouldn’t stop you from creating the perfect business plan presentation you’ve been dreaming of. After all, dreams come true. And, to help your dream of creating a winning business presentation jump into reality, we’ve created this guide for you.

We’ll cover everything that you have in mind including how many slides does your business idea presentation need, what goes into those slides, and how to create a business plan presentation with Visme.

Here's a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit Business Plan Presentation templates you can edit, share and download with Visme

Along the way, we’ll also show you a series of ready-to-use business plan presentation templates that you can customize to use as your own. See? We did say creating a presentation isn’t rocket science.

Ready to learn how to create a business presentation?

Let’s get started already.

What is a Business Plan Presentation?

We know a business plan as a formal document that includes your business goals, mission, strategy and the rest of the starting-a-business shebang. 

A business plan presentation is all that with added pressure since you’ve to convey the entire information in slides – clearly and concisely. 

Hey executives! Looking to cut design costs?

• Spend less time on presentations and more time strategizing
• Ensure your brand looks and feels visually consistent across all your organization's documents
• Impress clients and stakeholders with boardroom ready presentations

Sign up. It’s free.

Put another way, you don’t have wordy documents to convey your ideas. Instead, you’ll need to be clear about selling your idea to investors by sharing all the important details in an engaging and succinct manner. 

How Many Slides Does Your Business Presentation Need?

Ideally, between 10-12 slides are best. As you plan your presentation’s content and the slides you need to accommodate it, keep in mind the following two rules.

Firstly, Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 rule . Here’s what it’s about.

• 10 slides (or around 10 slides if needed) 
• 20 minutes (the longer your presentation, the great you risk losing your audience’s attention)
• 30 font size (an essential that we’ll look into in the next section) 

Secondly, the 9 minute rule . Although this one’s for salespeople, it helps presenters too. Short and powerful messages leave a far deeper impression than a long, rambling presentation. Besides, you’ve your audience’s attention as well. 

So, make sure you deliver 2-3 slides per minute or try a closer version.

But, hang on. 

What if you need more slides? Say, over 12 slides. 

Over 12 slides is a no-go zone. You can go for 13, but any more and you end up choking your audience with a lot of information. Something called information overload , and you shouldn’t do that. So scale down.

Basics of Creating a Business Plan Presentation

With the recap out of the way, let’s talk about the fundamentals of preparing a business presentation that you need to keep front and center as you plan.

Your message needs to be clear and concise.

This is the heart of any successful presentation — one that makes it a winner. To ensure your message comes off coherently, explain your business idea to yourself.

The stronger your grip on your idea, the better you’d be able to explain it in a few sentences, or paragraphs at most. 

In other words, make sure you can summarize your plans into an elevator pitch. Also, don’t forget, use simple language — can a child understand your business idea? If so, you’re in the right direction. 

The presentation slides need to be easy to read and understand.

If a clear message is the heart of a prizewinning (read: investor winning) presentation, good readability and ease in understanding are the lungs, working to keep your presentation alive and breathing. 

The question now is, how do you go about creating digestible slides? Here are a couple of things that can help.

Choose a font or two that's easy to read.

Garamond, Helvetica and Gill Sans are some of the best fonts to use in a presentation .

And while you’re at it, select a readable font size. 30 points is a good benchmark size to keep in mind like we discussed above. 

Take a look at how well the font size is adjusted in this template. The changing font size also creates a visual flow that navigates viewers’ attention.

Pick a color contrast that’s easy on the eyes.

Know those bright colors that hurt the eye and are hard to look at? Steer away from them. A subtle color combination works best like in the Visme presentation template below.

Use minimal text.

To do so, read each word carefully and ask yourself: can I do just fine without this word? If you find yourself replying in the affirmative to this question, remove the word. In short, make each word earn its keep.

Here’s a template using only as many words as needed to get the message across.

Pay attention to the visual elements in each slide.

The goal is simple: you’ve got to use design elements smartly without over doing them. Sure, you’ve heard a picture is worth a thousand words, but nailing visual components in your presentation can take some effort. 

Put another way, it isn’t about throwing in a bunch of thumbnail images and icons to each slide and calling it a day. Instead, it’s about adding them thoughtfully so they’re impactful rather than extra baggage. 

Check out this template from Visme to get an idea of what we’re talking about here.

On the whole, aim for creating a business plan presentation that’s readable, comprehensible and clutter-free. 

10 Slides You Need in Your Business Plan Presentation

Now that you know how your slides need to look, let’s talk about another important point – your presentation’s slides and what they need to talk about. 

The bare minimum slides you need are 10. Remember, cover only one business aspect per slide.  Here’s what your slides should be about.

Slide 1: The Title Slide

This needs no explanation — it’s your introductory page that should include your business’s name, any slogan that you may have, and a logo as well (if it’s ready). Don’t forget to add your name to the slide. 

Since this is the first slide, it needs to be an impression maker. One way to create such a slide is to rely on a powerful image that showcases your business idea. 

Take, for example, this presentation template by Visme. It pretty much speaks for itself, narrating the business idea is related to social media scheduling.

Looking for the perfect image for your presentation? Grab one from a pool of 700+ free presentation images . 

Slide 2: The Problem Your Business Solves

Dedicate your second slide to diving into the pain point your business solves.  You can use facts to make things convincing. But, there’s nothing that beats a good story. 

Here is an amazing business plan presentation example that does just that.

Image Source

Additionally, make sure you let your design do the talking. For instance, this presentation template uses a few words and pairs them with icons that explain facts.

Slide 3: Your Business’s Solution

Now that you’ve introduced the problem, give the solution. 

This is the part where your story comes to its happy ending. And what’s the happy ending? Your business idea.  

Again, make sure your solution-offering slide isn’t wordy, but digestible. Try a diagram or sketch to explain your idea like here.

Slide 4: Your Pricing Plan

Okay, so investors know you’ve a great idea that you’ve delivered in an even greater story format. They’re impressed. What’s next? Your pricing structure. 

Go on to tell who your customers are, what your revenue sources are going to be, and how much you expect customers to pay for your product/service? 

But, instead of writing it all, present your pricing plans in a simple-to-grasp chart. 

Here’s what I mean.

Slide 5: Business Operations Information

Now is the time you give your audience an inside peep into the operating nuts and bolts of your business. 

Where will your business headquarters be located? What about the staff that runs the show in the background. What equipment will you need? Answer all that in this slide. 

Just make sure you offer all this info in a chart or diagram.

Slide 6: Your Marketing Plan

Next, tell your audience how you plan to market your business. 

Nope, "TV and ads" is not the right answer. Instead, share your marketing plan including the channels you’ll use and how you plan to do so. 

Planning to make a separate marketing presentation? Dig into this guide to create one with free templates.

Slide 7: Industry Overview

In other words, this slide is for competitor analysis. Make sure you keep it clipped and use a positive approach. 

Defaming or bad-mouthing competitors won’t help. What’ll make a difference in your favor though is how well you explain your unique selling proposition (USP) or what makes your business a winner. 

Share this information in a comparison chart or outline the key pointers using bullet points like this template below does.

Slide 8: Financial Projections

Time to pull out the crystal ball that shows the future!

Answer the following in this slide: what financial projections do you’ve for the next 3 years and 5 years to come. Then, explain how you reached those numbers. 

Slide 9: Your Team

Here’s the part when you talk about the key players who’ll help you build your business. 

See how this template intros teammates.

Slide 10: Concluding Slide

This is your last slide. It’s best to close your presentation with your contact details (check out the slide below for an idea) and a sense of urgency.

But why the urgency, you ask? Because you want to tell your audience that now is the right time for your business to enter the market. 

Customize this presentation template and make it your own! Edit and Download

How to Design a Business Plan Presentation with Visme

So far, you’ve learned a lot of theory on making a business plan presentation. It’s time to put all that and more into practice. 

Start off with writing your content. And, go on to design your slides next. 

With Visme, you’ve two ways to go about creating your presentation: either start with a template or work from the scratch. 

Have you already started making your presentation in PowerPoint, but only just discovered Visme?  No worries! Nobody’s going to ask you to start over.

Instead, simply follow the steps in here to import your PowerPoint presentation in Visme .  Or, watch this video to understand how do so.

Now, let’s start designing.

Design a Business Plan Presentation Using a Visme Template

1. pick a template.

Visme offers templates in various categories, so you’ll be sure to find a template that fits your business idea. 

For instance, here’s a business presentation template.

Here’s something for those of you with an idea in the finance sector.

Plus, a template for a product idea.

Each of the available templates are editable, which means if there’s something you want to change about it, you can easily do so.

Looking for something that takes creativity to a whole new level? Pick from one of our animated presentation templates.

2. Adjust the Slides

Once you’ve picked your template, click  Add New Slide to bring other slides from the template into your presentation. Pick and choose any and all of the slides you need to use in your business plan presentation.

You can also bring in slides that you've previously saved to your slide library to help customize your presentation even further.

3. Customize the Template

Lastly, customize your template’s font and color. 

If you already haven’t settled on your brand colors, dive into color psychology to pick colors for your presentation that inspire trust.

Take advantage of Dynamic Fields to always keep important data like names, dates and contact information accurate. Once you've customized the fields and assigned values , your data will be pulled in throughout your project.

Alternatively, you can create your presentation from the ground up. How so? 

Let’s show you the steps you need to take. 

Create a Presentation From a Themed-Canvas in Visme

1. log in to visme and pick your theme.

First, log into your Visme account and pull up a blank canvas by clicking Create on the left of your dashboard. 

Pick your theme next. Remember to give this some thought instead of selecting the theme that appeals to you. Ask yourself which theme reflects your business idea and which would suit your audience the best? 

2. Add Details to the Title Slide

Once done, start working on your title slide. You already get a dedicated space for the title and subtitle, so you don’t need to worry about aligning the two correctly. 

If you need to add another line to your first slide, click on the Header & Text on the left. This’ll show you a variety of options to play with. 

Here’s a peek.

3. Beautify with Icons, Illustrations or Images

To replace the icon, click on it and hit Replace Icon on the top of the drawing board. This will show you a variety of icons — choose whichever icon(s) that meet your goals the best. 

You can also cancel the icon options to see other elements to add. Those could be Shapes , Arrows & Lines , and (drum roll, please) Animated Graphics including animated illustrations, gestures, characters and more. 

If you plan to power your first slide with images, select Photos on the extreme left and you’ll get the option to either select images from Visme’s library or upload your own image.

4. Add More Slides

Moving on to the next slide now. Find out the Add New Slide option on the right side of your dashboard. This will get you the following screen.

Say you need an introduction slide now. Click that and you’ll get a variety of intro slides from the theme you’ve selected.

Go on to design your intro slide. Then work on other slides in the same manner. 

If you’re planning to create an animated presentation, don’t forget to check out these quick tips to animate your presentation .  

How to Make Your Business Plan Presentation Memorable

Before we wrap this up, let’s leave you with some bonus tips to make your presentation memorable. This way, investors will be more likely to say ‘yes’ to your idea. 

Make an Interactive Presentation

Undoubtedly, interactivity breathes life into your business idea, helping you stand out. Interested in creating an interactive business presentation?

Here are 17 tips to get you started. You can also take a look at how to create an interactive quiz within your presentation below.

Create engaging interactive content with Visme.

• Add interactive pop-ups and hover effects
• Increase interest and engagement on your design
• Lead your audience to specific content with interactivity

Pay Attention to Your Presentation’s Design

Not only is visual design an important component of any presentation , but it’s also what hooks your audience. It takes about 50 milliseconds for your audience to assess a design’s visual appeal. So, it's best you aim for leaving a visual impression. 

Use a powerful image like this template does.

Or try a color-based design like the one in the presentation template below (not going to play favorites, but this is one of my fav Visme presentation templates).

Visualize Data

Wherever you can, use line charts, Venn diagrams, pie charts, and any of the various chart types at your disposal.

But why should you use charts to share your data? Simple: data visualization makes boring numbers easy to understand in one glance. Besides, making them interesting to look at. 

Here’s a donut graph in a presentation, for example.

And a plotted graph.

You can also add infographics to your presentations to take them to a whole new level.

Create a Business Plan Presentation That Wins Investors

Creating a business plan presentation really isn’t much of a tough nut to crack. Consider half your work done if you’re cent percent clear about your business idea. This way your presentation’s content will come easy to you. 

As for the design? Leave that to Visme. Sign up today for free and go on to create a clear, clutter-free business presentation that leaves a solid impression on your audience.

Create beautiful presentations faster with Visme.

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About the Author

Masooma Memon is a pizza-loving freelance writer by day and a novel nerd by night. She crafts research-backed, actionable blog posts for SaaS and marketing brands who aim to employ quality content to educate and engage with their audience.

How to Present a Business Plan to Potential Investors

By Fernando Berrocal

Being able to properly market your business plan to potential investors is an essential skill for any startup entrepreneur . When your audience isn't yet engaged, you can easily go overboard on the specifics, or you can show off too little of your startup when your audience expects more. In either case, making a mistake like this might lose you a potential investor who was already interested. In this post, we'll provide you with a strong foundation of information that should assist you to avoid common mistakes that might obstruct your fundraising efforts.

Determine the Amount of Enthusiasm: You must be able to match the material you're delivering to the degree of interest of the individuals you're presenting your business plan to. People who are inexperienced with your project won’t have the patience to read a big booklet. Individuals who are familiar with your idea and business and want to make a significant commitment, on the other hand, would anticipate such information. Unfortunately, this means that a single document will not be enough. It's helpful to think about the process in terms of a sales funnel. The business plan message you present should fit into one of these categories in order of least to most interested.

Elevator Pitch : To people you've just met, you should be able to convey the entire business in a few phrases. It's worthwhile to polish this presentation because you'll be giving it to a variety of stakeholders in your business regularly.

Short Pitch Deck, Lean Canvas , or Executive Summary of a Business Proposal:   The brief pitch deck is the industry standard for presenting a business concept to potential investors. However, while the short pitch deck is wonderful for meetings, it loses a little when sent through email for people to read because it is text-heavy. As a result, the Lean Canvas and the executive summary of the business plan may be more appropriate in these situations. These documents have the advantage of being brief while still providing more information than a one-sentence elevator pitch.

Detailed Pitch Deck : A presentation designed to be emailed. It has the same structure as a short pitch deck and provides the same material, but it is more text-heavy and detailed. Instead of the standard 5 to 10-minute pitches, they might be utilized for 15 to 40-minute presentations. Again, devoting 40 minutes to your project indicates that your audience is already intrigued.

Full Business Plan: It's only beneficial to those who plan to invest in the initiative — often investors, but also co-founders, and others. Keep in mind that, while the business plan is typically used to attract investors, its primary function is to provide clarity to the founding team about the way forward.

• The basics of persuading a startup investor of the viability of your concept remain the same whether you use a business plan or a pitch deck.
• Complexity is typically counterproductive since it might cause your audience to get confused. The more complex the strategy, the more likely it's to fail when put into action.
• Start with the issue you're dealing with and the solution you're suggesting:
• Demonstrate the project's potential by discussing the total addressable market and your potential market penetration .
• Give evidence, ideally, enough traction figures to persuade the audience that the tale you're delivering is true.
• Demonstrate the team's competency by exhibiting extensive domain knowledge and, preferably, experience.

Finally, make the request. You have more room in a business plan to discuss what you're searching for – investors, partners, and so on – as well as what you need the resources for. If you can satisfactorily address the problems listed above, you'll be ok on your way to persuading potential investors and partners.

Business Plan should be well-structured: People usually scan through business plans and then use them as a reference resource if they require particular information. This implies that it must be organized rationally for individuals to easily find the information they need. The following is an excellent business plan structure:

• A Summary, also known as an Executive Summary, of the whole plan. It can be delivered as a separate document.
• Discuss the problem, the solution, the target market, the segments, and possibly the competitors.
• Execution of Marketing and Operations Strategy ; milestones are useful for illustrating the path ahead; success measures are also a good idea.
• Cap table, management team, and hiring plan for open/prospective roles are all part of the business structure.
• Financial predictions such as profit and loss and net present value estimates.

In summary, presenting a business concept to investors isn't as simple as it looks, so take the time to learn what the investor expects to see and prepare the necessary documents to make a strong case. However, the pitch deck and business plan are only a framework; the substance is what matters, so make sure you have something useful to say in your business plan.

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How to Present Your Business Plan

Hitting a home run with potential investors requires selecting the right pitch..

Every entrepreneur has to present a business plan to outsiders at some point if he or she is seeking a loan or investment in the company. Obtaining venture capital funding, angel investment, or even bank loans for a business is increasingly difficult in a tough economy. You don't want a poor pitch to impede you ability to score financing for your business. In fact, it's imperative to have a pitch and presentation that showcases your idea, your potential, your market and your ability to provide investors with a return on their investment. The business pitch is different than the business plan. But you need to have your plan drafted before you can fine-tune your pitch. "People misunderstand that the pitch is a different medium than the plan," says Tim Berry, president and founder of Palo Alto Software, maker of Business Plan Pro software, who blogs at bplans.com. "They misunderstand that somehow plan is going to sell the business. The plan is the screenplay for the business. You have to have it before you can put together your pitch. The pitch is a summary of the plan." The following pages will cover how to prepare your pitch, how to choose potential investors, and some basics for delivering the best presentation possible. Prepare Your Pitch and Presentation A business pitch consists of an effort to convince others that your idea for a business is a good one. The pitch involves summing up your business plan -- going over your product/service offerings, your market, your leadership, and why you will succeed. Informally, you may have done this a thousand times already. "It can be as simple as your reality check in a one-person business, or agreeing with a spouse or significant other, your team members or your boss," Berry says. The more formal process of pitching and presenting is usually before an audience of venture capitalists, angel investors, or bank loan officers in an effort to secure a loan or investment in your company. Usually, an entrepreneur starts off by asking for a certain amount of money, and the value proposition for the investor -- such as what percentage of equity in the business that investment would buy. Most of the time, an entrepreneur would make a formal presentation -- often with a slideshow -- to help illustrate a pitch. The formal presentation is typically followed by a question and answer session. Investors often mull over the details and, if they make an offer, will perform due diligence on the financials before turning over any funds.

Know Your Business Plan . The first rule of thumb is to write a business plan and to know that plan inside and out before pitching and presenting to outside investors. The written business plan is often the way to get in the door with investors. If they like your plan, they may invite you to pitch and present. You may get only one chance to present to this group. Don't blow it by seeming ill-informed or being unable to answer questions. "It's crazy to think you can jump into this process without having thought through the details that come up in a business plan," Berry says. "You're not going to cover those details in many encounters with investors, but you need to know your plan backwards and forwards, inside out before you start, whether you show it to investors in early meetings or not. There is no room for filling in the details later. You are supposed to have them ready to go from the first encounter." Venture capitalists, for example, may have 100 or so business plans piled on their desk at any given time. They only listen to formal pitches and presentations from a handful. Your business plan needs to include the necessary components -- the business concept, market, management team, financial projections, marketing plan, etc. You should have a hand in drafting the plan if you are the presenter so that you are intimately familiar with all the details. The goal of the business plan is to convince investors that you are worth the risk of investment.

Your pitch and presentation need to build on that theme. "It really has to pop them," says Linda Pinson, author of Automate Your Business Plan for Windows® and Anatomy of a Business Plan, who runs a publishing and software business Out of Your Mind and Into the Marketplace . Pinson also was selected by the U.S. Small Business Administration to write its government business plan publication. "It's got to say to that VC 'What's in this for me?' It's got to have an overview of what you're asking and what you're trading for it. Is this a business that looks like it will have fast and sustainable growth and get the returns to the investor that he or she is looking for?"

Determine How Much Funding to Request . The reason an entrepreneur makes a pitch is most often to request funding. But just how much to ask for is often key. "Match your financing goals to reality," Berry says. "Don't think you're going to get millions in venture capital unless you have a good track record with previous startups, a very strong potential business, and a realistic exit strategy. If you're looking for a few hundred thousand dollars, look into angel investors, seed money investors and/or seed money funds. Understand which investors want high-growth and high-risk strategies, and which will accept lower growth and lower risk." Many of the decisions by investors are based more than financials. "A lot is based on the personal confidence they have in you. It's not just numbers on a piece of paper," Pinson says. "Today is a very difficult time for investment capital." One way to prove to investors that you are investment-worthy is to show that you are investing in the business, too, by putting up your own capital and being willing to trade some equity for their financing.

Prepare Your Message . A pitch needs to be prepared in a variety of formats to take advantage of not only the formal pitch and presentation meeting but the informal chance meeting in an airplane or elevator. Here are a few types of pitches: •    E-mail message and elevator pitch. Every entrepreneur should have a short, concise speech ready whether they step onto an elevator or prepare to travel on an airplane. You never know who is going to be sharing the ride with you. "It's the 60-second or two- or three-minute pitch where one person in a seat tells the other person about their business," Berry says. The key words to keep in mind while crafting this message are: quick, powerful, and condensed.  You won't have the investor's attention for long so condense this message. Berry suggests a one-page e-mail and/or a 60-second elevator speech are sufficient. •    Summary memo. This is a lengthier treatment of your elevator pitch. It consists of a 2-5 page memo summarizing the need or want you fill as a business offering, your target market, differentiation, growth prospects, management team, and your financing plan, Berry says. It's important to emphasize how much money you need from investors, how much of your company ownership you're prepared to give in exchange, and how you're going to turn that back into money for them, including when and how much, he says. •    Pitch presentation. This is your more formal pitch presentation that you make to investors. Cover the same elements included in your summary memo and in the executive summary of your business plan. Plan on 20 minutes maximum with no more than 10 slides, and use pictures and diagrams, not bullet points, Berry says. "Don't ever read bullet points in a presentation."

Dig Deeper: Finding the Perfect Pitch

How to Choose Potential Investors

Research Potential Partners . Potential investors can range from family members and friends to venture capitalists or angel investors. "You should choose an investor as carefully as you choose a spouse," Berry says. "Look for investors who will be good long-term partners. They have to be comfortable with you and you with them." That's because you are going to be spending a lot of time with your investors if they become financial partners in your business. There are meetings, reports, and reviews. They may also seek new management if you don't do a good job meeting your goals. "If you want partners who will just give you money and leave you alone, search for investors who do that -- and good luck with that," Berry says. "Very few people write checks to businesses and then forget about them." In today's economy, you have to explore many different avenues before you secure financing. On one hand, venture capitalists frown upon businesses that blanket potential investors with their business plans. "Do not under any circumstances shower potential investors with mass print or electronic mailings," Berry says. "They'll know you did, and it won't work. Instead, focus on a few, well-researched targets." On the other hand, if you only approach one or two potential investors, you may have to wait a long time before hearing back.  "You're probably pretty quickly going to see that most of them are going to say, 'No, this won't work today. Our funding is not there for this now," Pinson says. Here are some tips on finding the right investors to approach: •    Who you target is very important. Pinson advises that you research which investors tend to know your industry well and invest in companies in your industry. She says you may want to start by approaching those investors with your plan. •    It's not always good to go it alone. "It's good to find intermediaries," Pinson says. Sometimes intermediaries can help you connect with the right investors. Join the chamber of commerce, talk to business professors, and search the Web. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) sponsors about 1,000 Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) around the country, most often hosted by universities, colleges, or state economic development agencies. SBDCs are designed to help entrepreneurs start, finance and run their businesses. Their counselors may know potential investors and may be able to introduce you. •    Seek compatibility. You should want investors who will become partners in building the business as well as funding it. Do your research and ask the right questions. "Do they know people who can help you? Are they familiar with your business area? Do they share your long-term goals for growth and eventual exit?" says Berry. "Are they good partners? Do the people in companies they've invested in regret it?"

Dig Deeper: Five Tips for Selecting an Investment Partner

Pitch and Presentation Tips It's important to be versatile and to be able to deliver your pitch in a variety of different media. These days, a growing number of businesses take to YouTube to deliver their business pitch. Some angel investors like Berry have taken to reviewing some of the YouTube pitches before scheduling a face-to-face meeting with an entrepreneur. "It's a new world," Berry says. "That lets me see the people as they talk about their business and how they manage communication. It gives you more access to information faster." Berry's new pitch website suggests entrepreneurs adhere to the following five steps to deliver the perfect pitch: •    Be specific and concise. Know what you want to say. Know your business plan. Pick out what matters most. •    Sell yourself. This is the "why me" section. Talk about your skills, background, vision and why you can make it work. •    Sell your offering. Berry calls this the "heart" of the pitch. What need does your business fill? Why is anyone going to buy your product or service? •    Close the deal. This is where you put your salesman's cap on. Make sure to make a strong finish. •    Nail your delivery. Practice makes perfect. So practice your pitch and presentation in front of family, friends, business associates, etc. and get feedback on how to improve it. You also need to avoid some key pitfalls. •    Don't memorize the presentation. "Know it like the back of your hand and be able to give it fluidly, using different words each time," Berry says. •    Avoid PowerPoint faux pas. The formal pitch is usually accompanied by a presentation, most often a slideshow, which you should also hand out to attendees at the pitch presentation. "Avoid bad PowerPoint like the plague," Berry advises. •    Keep in mind what's in it for investors. "Describe what benefits you offer to specific investors and how that will make your investors money," Berry advises.

Stay Flexible . In the text books, the standard process is that you make an elevator speech that produces a request to see your business plan, followed by an opportunity to pitch, which ends with investors offering you funding. However, Berry says, "The real world is not nearly as orderly as this would imply." Follow up with the investor but remember that the relationship is only going to work if it is mutually advantageous. If they want to invest, make sure you work with an attorney you really trust. In the end, you should think of the pitch and present process as a filter. "If nobody wants to invest in your business, yes, you might be the true visionary in a world of lesser beings, but -- no disrespect intended -- it's much more likely that the world is delivering you an important message," Berry says. "Maybe you need to revise your plan, go back to the drawing board and improve it. On the other hand, maybe this idea has fatal flaws and isn't going to work, and your failure to raise money has saved you a lot of heartache."

Dig Deeper: How to Improve Your Presentation Skills Presenting Your Business Plan: Additional Resources The Funded Research on histories and lists of different high-end investors. Small Business Development Centers (SBCC) Provides management assistance to current and prospective small business owners. Bplans Business Pitch Author Tim Berry's website dedicated to pitching your business plan. How to Change the World: The 10-20-30 Rule of PowerPoint Blog entry on pitching by venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki  

A refreshed look at leadership from the desk of CEO and chief content officer Stephanie Mehta

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How To Present A Business Plan: 9 Key Elements

• By Judhajit Sen
• April 22, 2024

Key Takeaways:

• A business plan serves as a roadmap for your business journey, outlining its purpose, operations, and future trajectory.
• A business plan presentation, or pitch deck, is a condensed version of your plan that showcases essential details to potential investors or partners.
• A compelling plan presentation is crucial for securing funding, attracting investors, and rallying support for your venture.
• A successful presentation includes the executive summary, company overview, business opportunity, management and leadership team, product and service details, sales and marketing plan, funding request, financial projections, and the appendix. Each section plays a vital role in articulating your business vision and potential for success.

A business plan is like a map of your business journey. It’s a formal paper explaining what your business is all about and what it aims to do. Think of it as a kind of storybook about your business, where you tell people what it does, how it works, and where it’s headed.

Inside a business plan, you’ll find information about the business structure, who’s in charge, and how things are set up. It also discusses how the company plans to sell stuff and make money with fancy financial projections. Plus, it lists everything the business needs, like equipment and supplies, to do its job well.

A winning business plan is like a guidebook for your business adventure. When you write a business plan, it helps you figure out where you’re going, what you need to get there, and how you’ll know when you’ve arrived. And if you’re looking for extra cash for your business, having a solid plan can help persuade folks to invest in your big ideas.

Business Plan Presentation

A business plan presentation, sometimes called a “pitch deck,” is like a slideshow introducing your business basics. It’s something you show during a meeting, whether in person or on Zoom, to give folks the lowdown on your business.

A good presentation covers the essentials: what you’re all about, who you’re trying to reach, how your business works, and what you’re asking for. When you’re presenting your plan, you’re not just sharing your cool idea—you’re hoping to get your audience to help you out with something.

Importance of a Business Plan Presentation

A plan presentation is crucial for your business journey. It’s not just about jotting down ideas; it’s a strategic tool that can help you overcome hurdles and spot opportunities you might have missed. When you present your business plan successfully, you’re clarifying it for yourself and making a compelling case for potential backers—like lenders, investors, or partners—that your venture has what it takes to succeed.

Research backs this up: Studies suggest that entrepreneurs who create a business plan are more likely to build viable businesses and secure funding than those who don’t. It’s not just about writing it down; how you present your plan matters. A polished, professional-looking presentation can make all the difference whether you seek a business loan, pitch your business to investors, or wooing potential partners.

Your business plan is a roadmap for your business endeavors, guiding your decisions and actions.  It’s not just a document for internal use; it’s also a key asset in external interactions. From securing loans to attracting investors or leasing a commercial space, having a solid plan can open doors and set you on the path to success in various professional arenas.

Following are nine tips for presenting your business plan step-by-step.

Executive Summary: A Snapshot of Your Business

The executive summary is the highlight reel of your plan presentation, offering a quick glimpse into your business. It’s your chance to grab the attention of potential investors and lenders right from the start, so it needs to be engaging and informative.

Start by revisiting your plan and picking out the most significant bits. Consider what makes your business unique and why  it’s  poised for success. Highlight vital elements like your business concept, goals, and vision for the future. Describe your offerings and what sets it apart from the competition. Identify your target market and outline your strategy to reach them.

Give a snapshot of your financial standing and lay out your projected revenue and profits for the next few years. Be clear about how much money you need to achieve your goals. Introduce the members of your management team, emphasizing their relevant experience.

The executive summary  must include:

• Your mission statement.
• Details about your products or services.
• Information  about your team.
• Your plans for growth.

Keep it concise yet comprehensive, giving readers a clear understanding of your business and why they should invest.

Company Overview: Setting the Stage for Success

The company overview section of your business plan demonstrates why your venture is poised for greatness. Start by pinpointing the problem your business aims to solve and who will benefit from your solution. Provide demographic data about your target customers and highlight what differentiates your company from the competition, whether it’s specialized expertise or unique product features.

Offer a brief history of your business and detail your products or services. Explain how your offerings address the identified problem and outline your business model , such as direct-to-consumer sales or online distribution. Clarify your business structure, whether it’s a sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation, and why this setup is advantageous.

Use storytelling techniques to make the problem relatable to your audience and emphasize the significance of your solution. Describe how your offerings meets your customers’ needs and surpasses alternatives in the market.

Outline your revenue model, whether it’s through direct sales, subscription fees, or advertising revenue. Provide examples of early success, such as initial customers, pre-orders, or signed contracts, to demonstrate the viability of your business and build confidence in its prospects. This section sets the stage for the rest of your presentation, showcasing the potential for success and garnering interest from potential investors or partners.

Business Opportunity: Seizing the Moment

This section of your business presentation showcases the potential for growth in your chosen market. Begin by delving into your market analysis, which sheds light on the landscape of your industry. Research competitors’ actions, identify trends and understand what resonates with customers.

Investors look for growth potential of your business, so provide insights into your target market’s size and demographics. Conduct a SWOT analysis to highlight your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Detail how you developed projections, citing interviews or market research data to lend credibility.

Describe the industry’s current state and areas ripe for improvement. If your business operates locally, assess the market in your area and identify gaps or areas for enhancement. List competitors and explain how your business will stand out in the crowd.

Use data to illustrate your business’s performance compared to others in the industry. Incorporate facts and statistics from reputable sources to bolster your presentation’s credibility and professionalism.

Finally, articulate the size of your market and the specific business opportunities it presents. Utilize market research to quantify potential customers and identify target segments. This section paints a clear picture of the market landscape and underscores the vast opportunities awaiting your business’s success.

The Management and Leadership Team: Key Players in Success

Spotlight the individuals driving your business forward. Start by confirming your business’s legal entity status, whether it’s an LLC or another form. Then, introduce your ownership and leadership teams, clarifying roles with an organizational chart and providing resumes to showcase key members’ skills and experience.

Investors often prioritize the team behind a business over the idea itself. Highlight the expertise and talent of your management team through short bios that emphasize relevant experience and industry recognition. Consider including headshots to put faces to names and build rapport.

Describe your organization’s structure, whether it’s a sole proprietorship, LLC, or corporation. If you plan to hire staff or rely on outside consultants , outline your staffing plans here. Investors are looking for assurance that you’ve consulted experts in your field needed to drive your business forward.

Ultimately, investors want to know why your team is the right one to bring your business idea to life. Use this section to showcase the capabilities and dedication of your team, emphasizing their ability to turn your vision into reality. The strength of your team can be the deciding factor in securing support for your business venture.

Product and Service Details: Delivering Value to Customers

Start by describing what you offer and how it meets the needs of your market. Highlight its unique features and the benefits it brings to customers. If you’re taking steps to protect your intellectual property, such as trademarks or patents, be sure to mention it. Similarly, if you’re investing in research and development to enhance your offerings, explain how this will benefit your business and customers alike.

Success depends on offering products or services that customers want or need. Explain the value your offerings provide, how they differ from competitors, and the buying cycle. Demonstrating your understanding of customer needs and preferences boosts confidence in your ability to deliver.

If you’re pursuing intellectual property protections like copyrights or patents, outline your strategy. Additionally, discuss any ongoing research and development efforts aimed at expanding your product line or improving existing offerings. This showcases your commitment to innovation and highlights potential avenues for future revenue growth. By clearly articulating your product and service details, you lay the groundwork for success and instill confidence in potential investors or partners.

Sales and Marketing Plan: Reaching Your Audience

In crafting your sales and marketing plan, remember that even the best product needs a push to reach customers. Outline your strategy for reaching, convincing, and retaining your target audience. Describe the steps leading to a sale, essentially designing your sales funnel, a crucial aspect of effective planning.

Give details on how you’ll spread the word about your offerings. Will you utilize paid online ads, social media promotions, direct mail, local print ads, radio or TV sponsorships, YouTube content, or other methods? List all chosen approaches.

Ensure clarity on the sales journey and why it resonates with your target and existing customer segments. If you’ve begun implementing these methods, share data on their effectiveness.

Include an overview slide of your marketing and sales plan , emphasizing how you’ll reach and sell to your target market. You’ve identified your audience; now explain how you’ll engage and convert them. This section underscores your commitment to connecting with customers and driving sales, essential for business growth and success.

Funding Request: Securing Support for Growth

Outline your financial needs and how you plan to use that money to fuel your business’s growth over the next five years. Clearly articulate the amount of funding required and its intended use, whether for marketing, research and development, hiring key personnel, or expansion into new markets or locations.

Specify whether you’re seeking equity, debt, or a combination of both, and outline the terms  you’re  seeking for the funding. Potential investors or lenders will want to understand the rationale behind the requested amount and the type of financing being sought.

If you’re contributing personal funds to the project, highlight this to demonstrate your commitment and confidence in the venture. It shows that you have “skin in the game “  and are invested in its success.

Explain the purpose behind the funding request, detailing how it will support your business objectives and drive growth. Whether it’s to enhance product development, scale operations, or increase market presence, clarify why the funding is necessary and how it aligns with your overall business strategy. This section is crucial for garnering support from investors or lenders, showcasing your vision and readiness to take your business to the next level.

Financial Projections: Mapping Your Business’s Future

Demonstrating profitability is paramount to securing funding for your business. If your company is operational, include financial statements like profit and loss, balance sheets, income, and cash flow statements.

For both established and new business, a five-year financial plan is crucial. Detail forecasted income and expenditures, breaking the first year into quarterly or monthly projections. Utilize professional-looking charts, graphs, and tables for clarity.

Even if your business lacks past financial data, preparing a budget and financial plan showcases your domain understanding. For new ventures, utilize resources like the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) guide or SCORE’s financial projections template. For existing businesses, provide income statements, profit and loss statements, and balance sheets, ideally covering the past three years.

Detail specific steps to achieve outlined financial goals, with more emphasis on the first year. Include interactive spreadsheets for a detailed financial analysis covering production costs, profits, planned investments, and tax projections.

A detailed sales forecast spanning up to five years helps attract outside support. If your business hasn’t launched yet, utilize market research for estimates.

In your presentation, highlight key financial data such as sales forecasts, profit projections, and estimated profitability timelines. Aim to pique interest and prompt further inquiries using facts and figures without overwhelming your audience with excessive details.

Appendix: Additional Resources for In-Depth Understanding

In the appendix section at the end of your presentation , provide supplementary materials to address potential questions and offer deeper insights into your business. Anticipate inquiries and include slides that offer the information you need, showcasing your thorough preparation and understanding of all aspects of your venture.

While the core slides of your PowerPoint presentation capture the essence of your business, the appendix offers additional resources to enrich understanding. Depending on your industry, include permits, licenses, deeds, professional certifications, media clips, patents, customer contracts, and other relevant documents. These materials offer investors and bankers a comprehensive view of your business’s potential.

Consider including a list of critical concepts and industry terms to aid understanding, mainly if your business operates in a niche field. This ensures clarity and fosters better comprehension among readers unfamiliar with industry-specific terminology.

Remember, the appendix is an opportunity to provide supplementary information that bolsters your presentation and demonstrates your thoroughness and preparedness. While the plan document may not be directly referenced, the planning process equips you to present and advocate for your business efficiently.

Navigating Your Business Journey: How To Present A Business Plan

Crafting a plan presentation is akin to mapping out your entrepreneurial journey. It’s more than just a slideshow; it’s your opportunity to portray a vivid picture of your business, its potential, and its path to success. Whether you’re seeking funding, pitching to investors, or rallying support from partners, a well-prepared presentation can make all the difference.

At its core, the presentation distills the essence of your venture into digestible bits, offering a snapshot of your business basics. It covers everything from your business concept and target audience to your revenue model and financial projections. But it’s not just about sharing information—it’s about persuading your audience to join you on your business adventure.

By outlining the importance of a plan presentation and dissecting its key components, we’ve delved into the strategic approach needed to craft a compelling pitch. From the executive summary to business projections, each section plays a vital role in articulating your vision and garnering support for your venture.

Armed with insights into what makes a successful plan presentation, you’re better equipped to navigate the complexities of entrepreneurship. Whether you’re a veteran business owner or a debutant entrepreneur, a well-crafted presentation can pave the way for future growth and success. So, harness the power of storytelling , data, and strategic planning to chart a course for your business’s bright future.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is a business plan, and why is it important?

A business plan is like a roadmap for your business journey, detailing what your business is about, what it aims to achieve, and how it plans to do so. Think of it as a storybook about your business, explaining its concept, structure, target market, marketing strategy, financial projections, and more. It’s essential because it helps you clarify your business vision, spot opportunities, overcome obstacles, and persuade potential backers to invest in your ideas .

2. What is a business plan presentation, and why do I need it?

A business plan presentation, also known as a “pitch deck, “  is a slideshow that introduces the basics of your business to potential investors, lenders, or partners. It offers a concise overview of your business concept, target audience, operations, and funding needs. It’s crucial because it allows you to present your business in a visually appealing and engaging format, making it easier for others to understand and support your venture.

3. What are the critical elements of a successful plan presentation?

A successful plan presentation comprises several key elements, including the executive summary, company overview, business opportunity, the management and leadership team, product and service details, sales and marketing plan, funding request, financial projections, and appendix. Whether you want to grab your audience’s attention or provide detailed insights into your business and its potential for success, each section serves a specific purpose,

4. How can I make my plan presentation more compelling?

Focus on storytelling, clarity, and professionalism to make your presentation more compelling. Use engaging visuals , such as charts, graphs, and images, to illustrate key points and data. Keep your language simple and concise, avoiding  jargon that may confuse your audience.  Practice your presentation beforehand to ensure smooth delivery and confidence. Finally, be prepared to answer queries and address concerns raised by your audience, demonstrating your knowledge and readiness to lead your business to success.

Supercharge Your Business Plan Presentation with Prezentium

Transform your plan presentation from ordinary to outstanding with Prezentium ‘s AI-powered services. Whether  you’re  pitching to investors, seeking funding, or sharing your vision with stakeholders, Prezentium equips you with the tools and expertise to create killer presentations that captivate your audience.

Overnight Presentations : Need a polished presentation in record time? Email your requirements to Prezentium by 5:30 pm PST, and we’ll work our magic overnight. By 9:30 am PST the following business day, you’ll receive a stellar presentation delivered straight to your inbox—ready to impress.

Presentation Specialists : Our team of experts at Prezentium is here to bring your ideas to life. From transforming meeting notes into exquisite presentations to crafting new designs and templates, we’ve got you covered. Let us help you elevate your presentation game and make a lasting impression.

Zenith Learning : Elevate your communication skills with Prezentium’s interactive workshops and training programs. Combining structured problem-solving with visual storytelling, our programs empower you to communicate with impact and clarity.

Unlock the full potential of your presentation with Prezentium’s AI-powered services. From compelling visuals to data-driven insights, we’re here to help you shine. Contact us today to supercharge your presentation and take your business to new heights!

Why wait? Avail a complimentary 1-on-1 session with our presentation expert. See how other enterprise leaders are creating impactful presentations with us.

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Mastering executive communication: strategies, benefits, and best practices, 7 tips for crafting a winning sales presentation.

How to Write a Convincing Business Plan for Investors

Noah Parsons

9 min. read

Updated May 10, 2024

Raising money for your business is a major effort. You need lists of investors to reach out to and you need to be prepared for your investor meetings to increase your chances of getting funded . You need to practice your pitch and be ready to intelligently answer any number of questions about your business. A key to making this entire process much easier is to invest a little time and write a business plan . It’s true — not all investors will ask to see your business plan. But the process of putting together a business plan will ensure that you’ve thought through every aspect of your business and you’re ready to answer any questions that come up during the fundraising process.

• Why do investors want to see a business plan?

The business plan document itself isn’t what’s important to investors. It’s the knowledge that you’ve generated by going through the process that’s important. Having a business plan shows that you’ve done the homework of thinking through how your business will work and what goals you’re trying to achieve.

When you put together a business plan, you have to spend time thinking about things like your target market , your sales, and marketing strategy , the problem you solve for your customers, and who your key competitors are . A business plan provides the structure for thinking through these things and documents your answers so you’re prepared for the inevitable questions investors will ask about your business. 

Even if investors never ask to see your business plan, the work you’ve done to prepare it will ensure that you can intelligently answer the questions you’ll get. And, if an investor does ask for your business plan, then you’re prepared and ready to hand it over. After all, nothing could be worse than arriving at an investor meeting and then getting a request for a business plan and not having one ready.

Beyond understanding your business strategy, investors will also want to understand your financial forecasts. They want to know how your business will function from a financial standpoint — what is typically called your “ business model .” They’ll also want to know what it will take for your business to be profitable and where you anticipate spending money to grow the business. A complete financial plan is part of any business plan, so investing a little time here will serve you well. 

• What do investors want to see in a business plan?

There’s no such thing as a perfect business plan and investors know this. After all, they’ve spent years, and often decades, hearing business pitches, reading business plans, investing in companies, and watching them both succeed and fail. As entrepreneur and investor Steve Blank likes to say, “No business plan survives first contact with a customer.” 

If this is true, then why bother writing a business plan at all? What’s the value of planning and why do investors want them if they know the plan will shortly be outdated?

The secret is that it’s the planning process, not the final plan, that’s valuable. Investors want to know that you’ve thought about your idea, documented your assumptions, and are on track to validate those assumptions so that you can remove risk from your business. 

So what do investors want to see in your business plan? Beyond the typical sections , here are the most important things that investors want to see in your plan.

A vision for the future

Investors, particularly those investing in early-stage startups, want to understand your vision . Where do you see your company going in the future? Who will your customers be and what problems will you solve for them? Your vision may take years to execute — and it’s likely that the vision will change and evolve over time — but investors want to know that you’re thinking beyond tomorrow and into the future.

Product/market fit and traction

Investors want more than just an idea. They want evidence that you are solving a problem for customers. Your customers have to want what you are selling for you to build a successful business and your business plan needs to describe the evidence that you’ve found that proves that you’ll be able to sell your products and services to customers. If you have “traction” in the form of early sales and customers, that’s even better.

Funding needed and use of funds

When you’re pitching investors, you need to know how much you’re asking for. Your financial forecast should help you figure this out. You’ll want to raise enough money to cover planned expenses and cash flow requirements plus some additional funding as a safety net. In addition, you’ll want to specify exactly how you plan on using your investment . In a business plan, this section is often called “sources and uses of investment.”

A strong management team

A good idea is really only a small part of the equation for a successful business. In fact, lots of people have good business ideas — it’s the people that can execute well that generally succeed. Investors will pay a lot of attention to the section of your plan where you talk about your management team because they want to know that you can transform your idea into a successful business. If you have gaps and still need to hire key employees, that’s OK. Communicating that you understand what your needs are is the most important thing.

An exit strategy

When investors give you money to start and grow your business, they are looking to eventually make a return on their investment. This could happen by eventually selling your business to a larger company or even by going public. One way or another, investors will want to know your thoughts about an eventual exit strategy for your business.

• What documents do investors want to see?

Even if investors never ask for a detailed business plan, your business planning process should produce a few key documents that investors will want to see. Here’s what you need to be prepared to pitch investors:

Cover letter

These days, a lot of fundraising outreach is done over email and you’ll need a concise cover letter that sparks investor interest. Your cover letter needs to be very brief, but describe the problem you’re solving for your target market.

Great cover letters are sometimes in a “story” format that hooks readers with a real-world, relatable example of the problems your customers face and how our product or service The goal of the cover letter isn’t to explain every aspect of your business. It’s just to spark interest and get a meeting with an investor where you’ll have more time to actually pitch your business. Keep your cover letter brief, engaging, and to the point.

If you get an investor meeting, you’ll almost certainly need a pitch deck to present your idea in more detail and showcase your business idea. Your pitch deck will cover the problem you’re solving, your solution, your target market, and key market trends.

Further Reading: What to include in your pitch deck

Executive summary and/or one-page plan

You might not get a meeting right away. Your cover letter may generate a request for additional information and this is where a solid executive summary or one-page business plan comes in handy. This document, while still short, is more detailed than your cover letter and explains a bit more about your business in a page or two.

Read more about what goes into a great executive summary and how to build a lone-page business plan.

Financial forecasts

Investors will inevitably want to see your financial forecasts. You’ll need a sales forecast, expense budget , cash flow forecast , profit and loss, and balance sheet . If you have historical results, you should plan on sharing those too as well as any other key metrics about your business. Investors will always look deep under the hood of your business, so be prepared to share all the details of how your business will work from a financial perspective.

• What to include in your investor business plan

When you put together a detailed business plan for investors, you’ll follow a fairly standard format. Of course, feel free to customize your plan to fit your business needs. Remember: your business plan isn’t about the plan document that you create — it’s about the planning process that helps you think through and develop your business strategy. Here’s what most investor business plans will include:

Executive Summary

Usually written last, your executive summary is an overview of your business. As I mentioned earlier, you might use the executive summary as a stand-alone document to provide investors more detail about your business in a concise form. Read our guide on executive summaries here .

Opportunity

The opportunity section of your plan covers the problem you are solving, what your solution is, and highlights any data you have to prove that people will spend money on what you’re offering. If you have customer validation in any form, this is where you highlight that information.

Market Analysis

Describe what your target market is and key trends that are occurring in this market . Is the market growing? Are buying patterns changing? How is your business positioned to take advantage of these changes? Be sure to spend some time discussing your competition and how your target market solves their problems today and how your solution is superior.

Marketing & Sales Plan 

Most businesses need to figure out how to get the word out and attract customers. Your business plan should include a marketing plan that describes how you’re going to reach your target market and any key marketing initiatives that you’re going to undertake. You should also spend time describing your sales plan, especially if your sales process takes time to close customers.

Milestones / Roadmap

Outline key milestones you hope to achieve and when you plan on achieving them. This section should cover key dates for product development, key partnerships you need to create, and any other important goals you plan on achieving.

Company & Management

Here’s where you describe the nuts and bolts of your business. How is your organization structured? Who is on your team and what are their backgrounds? Are there any important positions that you still need to recruit for?

Financial Plan

As I mentioned, you’ll need to create a profit and loss, cash flow, and balance sheet forecast. Your financial plan should be optimistic, yet realistic. This is a tough balance and your forecast is certain to be wrong, but you need to document your assumptions and plans for the business.

Finally, you can include an appendix for any key additional information you want to share. Product diagrams, additional details on how you deliver your service, or additional research can all be included.

• What comes next?

Writing a business plan for investors is really about preparing you to pitch your business . It’s quite likely that you’ll never get asked for the actual business plan document. But, the process will prepare you better than anything else to answer any questions investors may have.

Noah is the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. He started his career at Yahoo! and then helped start the user review site Epinions.com. From there he started a software distribution business in the UK before coming to Palo Alto Software to run the marketing and product teams.

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How to Write a Business Plan in 9 Steps (+ Template and Examples)

Every successful business has one thing in common, a good and well-executed business plan. A business plan is more than a document, it is a complete guide that outlines the goals your business wants to achieve, including its financial goals . It helps you analyze results, make strategic decisions, show your business operations and growth.

If you want to start a business or already have one and need to pitch it to investors for funding, writing a good business plan improves your chances of attracting financiers. As a startup, if you want to secure loans from financial institutions, part of the requirements involve submitting your business plan.

Writing a business plan does not have to be a complicated or time-consuming process. In this article, you will learn the step-by-step process for writing a successful business plan.

You will also learn what you need a business plan for, tips and strategies for writing a convincing business plan, business plan examples and templates that will save you tons of time, and the alternatives to the traditional business plan.

Let’s get started.

What Do You Need A Business Plan For?

Businesses create business plans for different purposes such as to secure funds, monitor business growth, measure your marketing strategies, and measure your business success.

1. Secure Funds

One of the primary reasons for writing a business plan is to secure funds, either from financial institutions/agencies or investors.

For you to effectively acquire funds, your business plan must contain the key elements of your business plan . For example, your business plan should include your growth plans, goals you want to achieve, and milestones you have recorded.

A business plan can also attract new business partners that are willing to contribute financially and intellectually. If you are writing a business plan to a bank, your project must show your traction , that is, the proof that you can pay back any loan borrowed.

Also, if you are writing to an investor, your plan must contain evidence that you can effectively utilize the funds you want them to invest in your business. Here, you are using your business plan to persuade a group or an individual that your business is a source of a good investment.

2. Monitor Business Growth

A business plan can help you track cash flows in your business. It steers your business to greater heights. A business plan capable of tracking business growth should contain:

• The business goals
• Methods to achieve the goals
• Time-frame for attaining those goals

A good business plan should guide you through every step in achieving your goals. It can also track the allocation of assets to every aspect of the business. You can tell when you are spending more than you should on a project.

You can compare a business plan to a written GPS. It helps you manage your business and hints at the right time to expand your business.

3. Measure Business Success

A business plan can help you measure your business success rate. Some small-scale businesses are thriving better than more prominent companies because of their track record of success.

Right from the onset of your business operation, set goals and work towards them. Write a plan to guide you through your procedures. Use your plan to measure how much you have achieved and how much is left to attain.

You can also weigh your success by monitoring the position of your brand relative to competitors. On the other hand, a business plan can also show you why you have not achieved a goal. It can tell if you have elapsed the time frame you set to attain a goal.

4. Document Your Marketing Strategies

You can use a business plan to document your marketing plans. Every business should have an effective marketing plan.

Competition mandates every business owner to go the extraordinary mile to remain relevant in the market. Your business plan should contain your marketing strategies that work. You can measure the success rate of your marketing plans.

In your business plan, your marketing strategy must answer the questions:

• How do you want to reach your target audience?
• How do you plan to retain your customers?
• What is/are your pricing plans?
• What is your budget for marketing?

How to Write a Business Plan Step-by-Step

1. create your executive summary.

The executive summary is a snapshot of your business or a high-level overview of your business purposes and plans . Although the executive summary is the first section in your business plan, most people write it last. The length of the executive summary is not more than two pages.

Generally, there are nine sections in a business plan, the executive summary should condense essential ideas from the other eight sections.

A good executive summary should do the following:

• A Snapshot of Growth Potential. Briefly inform the reader about your company and why it will be successful)
• Contain your Mission Statement which explains what the main objective or focus of your business is.
• Product Description and Differentiation. Brief description of your products or services and why it is different from other solutions in the market.
• The Team. Basic information about your company’s leadership team and employees
• Business Concept. A solid description of what your business does.
• Target Market. The customers you plan to sell to.
• Marketing Strategy. Your plans on reaching and selling to your customers
• Current Financial State. Brief information about what revenue your business currently generates.
• Projected Financial State. Brief information about what you foresee your business revenue to be in the future.

The executive summary is the make-or-break section of your business plan. If your summary cannot in less than two pages cannot clearly describe how your business will solve a particular problem of your target audience and make a profit, your business plan is set on a faulty foundation.

Avoid using the executive summary to hype your business, instead, focus on helping the reader understand the what and how of your plan.

View the executive summary as an opportunity to introduce your vision for your company. You know your executive summary is powerful when it can answer these key questions:

• Who is your target audience?
• What sector or industry are you in?
• What are your products and services?
• What is the future of your industry?
• Is your company scaleable?
• Who are the owners and leaders of your company? What are their backgrounds and experience levels?
• What is the motivation for starting your company?
• What are the next steps?

Writing the executive summary last although it is the most important section of your business plan is an excellent idea. The reason why is because it is a high-level overview of your business plan. It is the section that determines whether potential investors and lenders will read further or not.

The executive summary can be a stand-alone document that covers everything in your business plan. It is not uncommon for investors to request only the executive summary when evaluating your business. If the information in the executive summary impresses them, they will ask for the complete business plan.

If you are writing your business plan for your planning purposes, you do not need to write the executive summary.

2. Add Your Company Overview

The company overview or description is the next section in your business plan after the executive summary. It describes what your business does.

Adding your company overview can be tricky especially when your business is still in the planning stages. Existing businesses can easily summarize their current operations but may encounter difficulties trying to explain what they plan to become.

Your company overview should contain the following:

• What products and services you will provide
• Geographical markets and locations your company have a presence
• What you need to run your business
• Who your target audience or customers are
• Who will service your customers
• Your company’s purpose, mission, and vision
• Information about your company’s founders
• Who the founders are
• Notable achievements of your company so far

When creating a company overview, you have to focus on three basics: identifying your industry, identifying your customer, and explaining the problem you solve.

If you are stuck when creating your company overview, try to answer some of these questions that pertain to you.

• Who are you targeting? (The answer is not everyone)
• What pain point does your product or service solve for your customers that they will be willing to spend money on resolving?
• How does your product or service overcome that pain point?
• Where is the location of your business?
• What products, equipment, and services do you need to run your business?
• How is your company’s product or service different from your competition in the eyes of your customers?
• How many employees do you need and what skills do you require them to have?

After answering some or all of these questions, you will get more than enough information you need to write your company overview or description section. When writing this section, describe what your company does for your customers.

The company description or overview section contains three elements: mission statement, history, and objectives.

• Mission Statement

The mission statement refers to the reason why your business or company is existing. It goes beyond what you do or sell, it is about the ‘why’. A good mission statement should be emotional and inspirational.

Your mission statement should follow the KISS rule (Keep It Simple, Stupid). For example, Shopify’s mission statement is “Make commerce better for everyone.”

When describing your company’s history, make it simple and avoid the temptation of tying it to a defensive narrative. Write it in the manner you would a profile. Your company’s history should include the following information:

• Founding Date
• Major Milestones
• Location(s)
• Flagship Products or Services
• Number of Employees
• Executive Leadership Roles

When you fill in this information, you use it to write one or two paragraphs about your company’s history.

Business Objectives

Your business objective must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.) Failure to clearly identify your business objectives does not inspire confidence and makes it hard for your team members to work towards a common purpose.

3. Perform Market and Competitive Analyses to Proof a Big Enough Business Opportunity

The third step in writing a business plan is the market and competitive analysis section. Every business, no matter the size, needs to perform comprehensive market and competitive analyses before it enters into a market.

Performing market and competitive analyses are critical for the success of your business. It helps you avoid entering the right market with the wrong product, or vice versa. Anyone reading your business plans, especially financiers and financial institutions will want to see proof that there is a big enough business opportunity you are targeting.

This section is where you describe the market and industry you want to operate in and show the big opportunities in the market that your business can leverage to make a profit. If you noticed any unique trends when doing your research, show them in this section.

Market analysis alone is not enough, you have to add competitive analysis to strengthen this section. There are already businesses in the industry or market, how do you plan to take a share of the market from them?

You have to clearly illustrate the competitive landscape in your business plan. Are there areas your competitors are doing well? Are there areas where they are not doing so well? Show it.

Make it clear in this section why you are moving into the industry and what weaknesses are present there that you plan to explain. How are your competitors going to react to your market entry? How do you plan to get customers? Do you plan on taking your competitors' competitors, tap into other sources for customers, or both?

Illustrate the competitive landscape as well. What are your competitors doing well and not so well?

Answering these questions and thoughts will aid your market and competitive analysis of the opportunities in your space. Depending on how sophisticated your industry is, or the expectations of your financiers, you may need to carry out a more comprehensive market and competitive analysis to prove that big business opportunity.

Instead of looking at the market and competitive analyses as one entity, separating them will make the research even more comprehensive.

Market Analysis

Market analysis, boarding speaking, refers to research a business carried out on its industry, market, and competitors. It helps businesses gain a good understanding of their target market and the outlook of their industry. Before starting a company, it is vital to carry out market research to find out if the market is viable.

The market analysis section is a key part of the business plan. It is the section where you identify who your best clients or customers are. You cannot omit this section, without it your business plan is incomplete.

A good market analysis will tell your readers how you fit into the existing market and what makes you stand out. This section requires in-depth research, it will probably be the most time-consuming part of the business plan to write.

• Market Research

To create a compelling market analysis that will win over investors and financial institutions, you have to carry out thorough market research . Your market research should be targeted at your primary target market for your products or services. Here is what you want to find out about your target market.

• Your target market’s needs or pain points
• The existing solutions for their pain points
• Geographic Location
• Demographics

The purpose of carrying out a marketing analysis is to get all the information you need to show that you have a solid and thorough understanding of your target audience.

Only after you have fully understood the people you plan to sell your products or services to, can you evaluate correctly if your target market will be interested in your products or services.

You can easily convince interested parties to invest in your business if you can show them you thoroughly understand the market and show them that there is a market for your products or services.

How to Quantify Your Target Market

One of the goals of your marketing research is to understand who your ideal customers are and their purchasing power. To quantify your target market, you have to determine the following:

• Your Potential Customers: They are the people you plan to target. For example, if you sell accounting software for small businesses , then anyone who runs an enterprise or large business is unlikely to be your customers. Also, individuals who do not have a business will most likely not be interested in your product.
• Total Households: If you are selling household products such as heating and air conditioning systems, determining the number of total households is more important than finding out the total population in the area you want to sell to. The logic is simple, people buy the product but it is the household that uses it.
• Median Income: You need to know the median income of your target market. If you target a market that cannot afford to buy your products and services, your business will not last long.
• Income by Demographics: If your potential customers belong to a certain age group or gender, determining income levels by demographics is necessary. For example, if you sell men's clothes, your target audience is men.

What Does a Good Market Analysis Entail?

Your business does not exist on its own, it can only flourish within an industry and alongside competitors. Market analysis takes into consideration your industry, target market, and competitors. Understanding these three entities will drastically improve your company’s chances of success.

You can view your market analysis as an examination of the market you want to break into and an education on the emerging trends and themes in that market. Good market analyses include the following:

• Industry Description. You find out about the history of your industry, the current and future market size, and who the largest players/companies are in your industry.
• Overview of Target Market. You research your target market and its characteristics. Who are you targeting? Note, it cannot be everyone, it has to be a specific group. You also have to find out all information possible about your customers that can help you understand how and why they make buying decisions.
• Size of Target Market: You need to know the size of your target market, how frequently they buy, and the expected quantity they buy so you do not risk overproducing and having lots of bad inventory. Researching the size of your target market will help you determine if it is big enough for sustained business or not.
• Growth Potential: Before picking a target market, you want to be sure there are lots of potential for future growth. You want to avoid going for an industry that is declining slowly or rapidly with almost zero growth potential.
• Market Share Potential: Does your business stand a good chance of taking a good share of the market?
• Market Pricing and Promotional Strategies: Your market analysis should give you an idea of the price point you can expect to charge for your products and services. Researching your target market will also give you ideas of pricing strategies you can implement to break into the market or to enjoy maximum profits.
• Potential Barriers to Entry: One of the biggest benefits of conducting market analysis is that it shows you every potential barrier to entry your business will likely encounter. It is a good idea to discuss potential barriers to entry such as changing technology. It informs readers of your business plan that you understand the market.
• Research on Competitors: You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and how you can exploit them for the benefit of your business. Find patterns and trends among your competitors that make them successful, discover what works and what doesn’t, and see what you can do better.

The market analysis section is not just for talking about your target market, industry, and competitors. You also have to explain how your company can fill the hole you have identified in the market.

Here are some questions you can answer that can help you position your product or service in a positive light to your readers.

• Is your product or service of superior quality?
• What additional features do you offer that your competitors do not offer?
• Are you targeting a ‘new’ market?

Basically, your market analysis should include an analysis of what already exists in the market and an explanation of how your company fits into the market.

Competitive Analysis

In the competitive analysis section, y ou have to understand who your direct and indirect competitions are, and how successful they are in the marketplace. It is the section where you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, the advantage(s) they possess in the market and show the unique features or qualities that make you different from your competitors.

Many businesses do market analysis and competitive analysis together. However, to fully understand what the competitive analysis entails, it is essential to separate it from the market analysis.

Competitive analysis for your business can also include analysis on how to overcome barriers to entry in your target market.

The primary goal of conducting a competitive analysis is to distinguish your business from your competitors. A strong competitive analysis is essential if you want to convince potential funding sources to invest in your business. You have to show potential investors and lenders that your business has what it takes to compete in the marketplace successfully.

Competitive analysis will s how you what the strengths of your competition are and what they are doing to maintain that advantage.

When doing your competitive research, you first have to identify your competitor and then get all the information you can about them. The idea of spending time to identify your competitor and learn everything about them may seem daunting but it is well worth it.

Find answers to the following questions after you have identified who your competitors are.

• What are your successful competitors doing?
• Why is what they are doing working?
• Can your business do it better?
• What are the weaknesses of your successful competitors?
• What are they not doing well?
• Can your business turn its weaknesses into strengths?
• How good is your competitors’ customer service?
• Where do your competitors invest in advertising?
• What sales and pricing strategies are they using?
• What marketing strategies are they using?
• What kind of press coverage do they get?
• What are their customers saying about your competitors (both the positive and negative)?

If your competitors have a website, it is a good idea to visit their websites for more competitors’ research. Check their “About Us” page for more information.

If you are presenting your business plan to investors, you need to clearly distinguish yourself from your competitors. Investors can easily tell when you have not properly researched your competitors.

Take time to think about what unique qualities or features set you apart from your competitors. If you do not have any direct competition offering your product to the market, it does not mean you leave out the competitor analysis section blank. Instead research on other companies that are providing a similar product, or whose product is solving the problem your product solves.

The next step is to create a table listing the top competitors you want to include in your business plan. Ensure you list your business as the last and on the right. What you just created is known as the competitor analysis table.

Direct vs Indirect Competition

You cannot know if your product or service will be a fit for your target market if you have not understood your business and the competitive landscape.

There is no market you want to target where you will not encounter competition, even if your product is innovative. Including competitive analysis in your business plan is essential.

If you are entering an established market, you need to explain how you plan to differentiate your products from the available options in the market. Also, include a list of few companies that you view as your direct competitors The competition you face in an established market is your direct competition.

In situations where you are entering a market with no direct competition, it does not mean there is no competition there. Consider your indirect competition that offers substitutes for the products or services you offer.

For example, if you sell an innovative SaaS product, let us say a project management software , a company offering time management software is your indirect competition.

There is an easy way to find out who your indirect competitors are in the absence of no direct competitors. You simply have to research how your potential customers are solving the problems that your product or service seeks to solve. That is your direct competition.

Factors that Differentiate Your Business from the Competition

There are three main factors that any business can use to differentiate itself from its competition. They are cost leadership, product differentiation, and market segmentation.

1. Cost Leadership

A strategy you can impose to maximize your profits and gain an edge over your competitors. It involves offering lower prices than what the majority of your competitors are offering.

A common practice among businesses looking to enter into a market where there are dominant players is to use free trials or pricing to attract as many customers as possible to their offer.

2. Product Differentiation

Your product or service should have a unique selling proposition (USP) that your competitors do not have or do not stress in their marketing.

Part of the marketing strategy should involve making your products unique and different from your competitors. It does not have to be different from your competitors, it can be the addition to a feature or benefit that your competitors do not currently have.

3. Market Segmentation

As a new business seeking to break into an industry, you will gain more success from focusing on a specific niche or target market, and not the whole industry.

If your competitors are focused on a general need or target market, you can differentiate yourself from them by having a small and hyper-targeted audience. For example, if your competitors are selling men’s clothes in their online stores , you can sell hoodies for men.

4. Define Your Business and Management Structure

The next step in your business plan is your business and management structure. It is the section where you describe the legal structure of your business and the team running it.

Your business is only as good as the management team that runs it, while the management team can only strive when there is a proper business and management structure in place.

If your company is a sole proprietor or a limited liability company (LLC), a general or limited partnership, or a C or an S corporation, state it clearly in this section.

Use an organizational chart to show the management structure in your business. Clearly show who is in charge of what area in your company. It is where you show how each key manager or team leader’s unique experience can contribute immensely to the success of your company. You can also opt to add the resumes and CVs of the key players in your company.

The business and management structure section should show who the owner is, and other owners of the businesses (if the business has other owners). For businesses or companies with multiple owners, include the percent ownership of the various owners and clearly show the extent of each others’ involvement in the company.

Investors want to know who is behind the company and the team running it to determine if it has the right management to achieve its set goals.

Management Team

The management team section is where you show that you have the right team in place to successfully execute the business operations and ideas. Take time to create the management structure for your business. Think about all the important roles and responsibilities that you need managers for to grow your business.

Include brief bios of each key team member and ensure you highlight only the relevant information that is needed. If your team members have background industry experience or have held top positions for other companies and achieved success while filling that role, highlight it in this section.

A common mistake that many startups make is assigning C-level titles such as (CMO and CEO) to everyone on their team. It is unrealistic for a small business to have those titles. While it may look good on paper for the ego of your team members, it can prevent investors from investing in your business.

Instead of building an unrealistic management structure that does not fit your business reality, it is best to allow business titles to grow as the business grows. Starting everyone at the top leaves no room for future change or growth, which is bad for productivity.

Your management team does not have to be complete before you start writing your business plan. You can have a complete business plan even when there are managerial positions that are empty and need filling.

If you have management gaps in your team, simply show the gaps and indicate you are searching for the right candidates for the role(s). Investors do not expect you to have a full management team when you are just starting your business.

Key Questions to Answer When Structuring Your Management Team

• Who are the key leaders?
• What experiences, skills, and educational backgrounds do you expect your key leaders to have?
• Do your key leaders have industry experience?
• What positions will they fill and what duties will they perform in those positions?
• What level of authority do the key leaders have and what are their responsibilities?
• What is the salary for the various management positions that will attract the ideal candidates?

Additional Tips for Writing the Management Structure Section

1. Avoid Adding ‘Ghost’ Names to Your Management Team

There is always that temptation to include a ‘ghost’ name to your management team to attract and influence investors to invest in your business. Although the presence of these celebrity management team members may attract the attention of investors, it can cause your business to lose any credibility if you get found out.

Seasoned investors will investigate further the members of your management team before committing fully to your business If they find out that the celebrity name used does not play any actual role in your business, they will not invest and may write you off as dishonest.

2. Focus on Credentials But Pay Extra Attention to the Roles

Investors want to know the experience that your key team members have to determine if they can successfully reach the company’s growth and financial goals.

While it is an excellent boost for your key management team to have the right credentials, you also want to pay extra attention to the roles they will play in your company.

Organizational Chart

Adding an organizational chart in this section of your business plan is not necessary, you can do it in your business plan’s appendix.

If you are exploring funding options, it is not uncommon to get asked for your organizational chart. The function of an organizational chart goes beyond raising money, you can also use it as a useful planning tool for your business.

An organizational chart can help you identify how best to structure your management team for maximum productivity and point you towards key roles you need to fill in the future.

You can use the organizational chart to show your company’s internal management structure such as the roles and responsibilities of your management team, and relationships that exist between them.

5. Describe Your Product and Service Offering

In your business plan, you have to describe what you sell or the service you plan to offer. It is the next step after defining your business and management structure. The products and services section is where you sell the benefits of your business.

Here you have to explain how your product or service will benefit your customers and describe your product lifecycle. It is also the section where you write down your plans for intellectual property like patent filings and copyrighting.

The research and development that you are undertaking for your product or service need to be explained in detail in this section. However, do not get too technical, sell the general idea and its benefits.

If you have any diagrams or intricate designs of your product or service, do not include them in the products and services section. Instead, leave them for the addendum page. Also, if you are leaving out diagrams or designs for the addendum, ensure you add this phrase “For more detail, visit the addendum Page #.”

Your product and service section in your business plan should include the following:

• A detailed explanation that clearly shows how your product or service works.
• The pricing model for your product or service.
• Your business’ sales and distribution strategy.
• The ideal customers that want your product or service.
• The benefits of your products and services.
• Reason(s) why your product or service is a better alternative to what your competitors are currently offering in the market.
• Plans for filling the orders you receive
• If you have current or pending patents, copyrights, and trademarks for your product or service, you can also discuss them in this section.

What to Focus On When Describing the Benefits, Lifecycle, and Production Process of Your Products or Services

In the products and services section, you have to distill the benefits, lifecycle, and production process of your products and services.

When describing the benefits of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Unique features
• Translating the unique features into benefits
• The emotional, psychological, and practical payoffs to attract customers
• Intellectual property rights or any patents

When describing the product life cycle of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Upsells, cross-sells, and down-sells
• Time between purchases
• Plans for research and development.

When describing the production process for your products or services, you need to think about the following:

• The creation of new or existing products and services.
• The sources for the raw materials or components you need for production.
• Assembling the products
• Maintaining quality control
• Supply-chain logistics (receiving the raw materials and delivering the finished products)
• The day-to-day management of the production processes, bookkeeping, and inventory.

Tips for Writing the Products or Services Section of Your Business Plan

1. Avoid Technical Descriptions and Industry Buzzwords

The products and services section of your business plan should clearly describe the products and services that your company provides. However, it is not a section to include technical jargons that anyone outside your industry will not understand.

A good practice is to remove highly detailed or technical descriptions in favor of simple terms. Industry buzzwords are not necessary, if there are simpler terms you can use, then use them. If you plan to use your business plan to source funds, making the product or service section so technical will do you no favors.

2. Describe How Your Products or Services Differ from Your Competitors

When potential investors look at your business plan, they want to know how the products and services you are offering differ from that of your competition. Differentiating your products or services from your competition in a way that makes your solution more attractive is critical.

If you are going the innovative path and there is no market currently for your product or service, you need to describe in this section why the market needs your product or service.

For example, overnight delivery was a niche business that only a few companies were participating in. Federal Express (FedEx) had to show in its business plan that there was a large opportunity for that service and they justified why the market needed that service.

3. Long or Short Products or Services Section

Should your products or services section be short? Does the long products or services section attract more investors?

There are no straightforward answers to these questions. Whether your products or services section should be long or relatively short depends on the nature of your business.

If your business is product-focused, then automatically you need to use more space to describe the details of your products. However, if the product your business sells is a commodity item that relies on competitive pricing or other pricing strategies, you do not have to use up so much space to provide significant details about the product.

Likewise, if you are selling a commodity that is available in numerous outlets, then you do not have to spend time on writing a long products or services section.

The key to the success of your business is most likely the effectiveness of your marketing strategies compared to your competitors. Use more space to address that section.

If you are creating a new product or service that the market does not know about, your products or services section can be lengthy. The reason why is because you need to explain everything about the product or service such as the nature of the product, its use case, and values.

A short products or services section for an innovative product or service will not give the readers enough information to properly evaluate your business.

4. Describe Your Relationships with Vendors or Suppliers

Your business will rely on vendors or suppliers to supply raw materials or the components needed to make your products. In your products and services section, describe your relationships with your vendors and suppliers fully.

Avoid the mistake of relying on only one supplier or vendor. If that supplier or vendor fails to supply or goes out of business, you can easily face supply problems and struggle to meet your demands. Plan to set up multiple vendor or supplier relationships for better business stability.

5. Your Primary Goal Is to Convince Your Readers

The primary goal of your business plan is to convince your readers that your business is viable and to create a guide for your business to follow. It applies to the products and services section.

When drafting this section, think like the reader. See your reader as someone who has no idea about your products and services. You are using the products and services section to provide the needed information to help your reader understand your products and services. As a result, you have to be clear and to the point.

While you want to educate your readers about your products or services, you also do not want to bore them with lots of technical details. Show your products and services and not your fancy choice of words.

Your products and services section should provide the answer to the “what” question for your business. You and your management team may run the business, but it is your products and services that are the lifeblood of the business.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing your Products and Services Section

Answering these questions can help you write your products and services section quickly and in a way that will appeal to your readers.

• Are your products existing on the market or are they still in the development stage?
• What is your timeline for adding new products and services to the market?
• What are the positives that make your products and services different from your competitors?
• Do your products and services have any competitive advantage that your competitors’ products and services do not currently have?
• Do your products or services have any competitive disadvantages that you need to overcome to compete with your competitors? If your answer is yes, state how you plan to overcome them,
• How much does it cost to produce your products or services? How much do you plan to sell it for?
• What is the price for your products and services compared to your competitors? Is pricing an issue?
• What are your operating costs and will it be low enough for you to compete with your competitors and still take home a reasonable profit margin?
• What is your plan for acquiring your products? Are you involved in the production of your products or services?
• Are you the manufacturer and produce all the components you need to create your products? Do you assemble your products by using components supplied by other manufacturers? Do you purchase your products directly from suppliers or wholesalers?
• Do you have a steady supply of products that you need to start your business? (If your business is yet to kick-off)
• How do you plan to distribute your products or services to the market?

You can also hint at the marketing or promotion plans you have for your products or services such as how you plan to build awareness or retain customers. The next section is where you can go fully into details about your business’s marketing and sales plan.

6. Show and Explain Your Marketing and Sales Plan

Providing great products and services is wonderful, but it means nothing if you do not have a marketing and sales plan to inform your customers about them. Your marketing and sales plan is critical to the success of your business.

The sales and marketing section is where you show and offer a detailed explanation of your marketing and sales plan and how you plan to execute it. It covers your pricing plan, proposed advertising and promotion activities, activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success, and the benefits of your products and services.

There are several ways you can approach your marketing and sales strategy. Ideally, your marketing and sales strategy has to fit the unique needs of your business.

In this section, you describe how the plans your business has for attracting and retaining customers, and the exact process for making a sale happen. It is essential to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales plans because you are still going to reference this section when you are making financial projections for your business.

Outline Your Business’ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

The sales and marketing section is where you outline your business’s unique selling proposition (USP). When you are developing your unique selling proposition, think about the strongest reasons why people should buy from you over your competition. That reason(s) is most likely a good fit to serve as your unique selling proposition (USP).

Target Market and Target Audience

Plans on how to get your products or services to your target market and how to get your target audience to buy them go into this section. You also highlight the strengths of your business here, particularly what sets them apart from your competition.

Before you start writing your marketing and sales plan, you need to have properly defined your target audience and fleshed out your buyer persona. If you do not first understand the individual you are marketing to, your marketing and sales plan will lack any substance and easily fall.

Creating a Smart Marketing and Sales Plan

Marketing your products and services is an investment that requires you to spend money. Like any other investment, you have to generate a good return on investment (ROI) to justify using that marketing and sales plan. Good marketing and sales plans bring in high sales and profits to your company.

Avoid spending money on unproductive marketing channels. Do your research and find out the best marketing and sales plan that works best for your company.

Your marketing and sales plan can be broken into different parts: your positioning statement, pricing, promotion, packaging, advertising, public relations, content marketing, social media, and strategic alliances.

Your Positioning Statement

Your positioning statement is the first part of your marketing and sales plan. It refers to the way you present your company to your customers.

Are you the premium solution, the low-price solution, or are you the intermediary between the two extremes in the market? What do you offer that your competitors do not that can give you leverage in the market?

Before you start writing your positioning statement, you need to spend some time evaluating the current market conditions. Here are some questions that can help you to evaluate the market

• What are the unique features or benefits that you offer that your competitors lack?
• What are your customers’ primary needs and wants?
• Why should a customer choose you over your competition? How do you plan to differentiate yourself from the competition?
• How does your company’s solution compare with other solutions in the market?

After answering these questions, then you can start writing your positioning statement. Your positioning statement does not have to be in-depth or too long.

All you need to explain with your positioning statement are two focus areas. The first is the position of your company within the competitive landscape. The other focus area is the core value proposition that sets your company apart from other alternatives that your ideal customer might consider.

Here is a simple template you can use to develop a positioning statement.

For [description of target market] who [need of target market], [product or service] [how it meets the need]. Unlike [top competition], it [most essential distinguishing feature].

For example, let’s create the positioning statement for fictional accounting software and QuickBooks alternative , TBooks.

“For small business owners who need accounting services, TBooks is an accounting software that helps small businesses handle their small business bookkeeping basics quickly and easily. Unlike Wave, TBooks gives small businesses access to live sessions with top accountants.”

You can edit this positioning statement sample and fill it with your business details.

After writing your positioning statement, the next step is the pricing of your offerings. The overall positioning strategy you set in your positioning statement will often determine how you price your products or services.

Pricing is a powerful tool that sends a strong message to your customers. Failure to get your pricing strategy right can make or mar your business. If you are targeting a low-income audience, setting a premium price can result in low sales.

You can use pricing to communicate your positioning to your customers. For example, if you are offering a product at a premium price, you are sending a message to your customers that the product belongs to the premium category.

Basic Rules to Follow When Pricing Your Offering

Setting a price for your offering involves more than just putting a price tag on it. Deciding on the right pricing for your offering requires following some basic rules. They include covering your costs, primary and secondary profit center pricing, and matching the market rate.

• Covering Your Costs: The price you set for your products or service should be more than it costs you to produce and deliver them. Every business has the same goal, to make a profit. Depending on the strategy you want to use, there are exceptions to this rule. However, the vast majority of businesses follow this rule.
• Primary and Secondary Profit Center Pricing: When a company sets its price above the cost of production, it is making that product its primary profit center. A company can also decide not to make its initial price its primary profit center by selling below or at even with its production cost. It rather depends on the support product or even maintenance that is associated with the initial purchase to make its profit. The initial price thus became its secondary profit center.
• Matching the Market Rate: A good rule to follow when pricing your products or services is to match your pricing with consumer demand and expectations. If you price your products or services beyond the price your customer perceives as the ideal price range, you may end up with no customers. Pricing your products too low below what your customer perceives as the ideal price range may lead to them undervaluing your offering.

Pricing Strategy

Your pricing strategy influences the price of your offering. There are several pricing strategies available for you to choose from when examining the right pricing strategy for your business. They include cost-plus pricing, market-based pricing, value pricing, and more.

• Cost-plus Pricing: This strategy is one of the simplest and oldest pricing strategies. Here you consider the cost of producing a unit of your product and then add a profit to it to arrive at your market price. It is an effective pricing strategy for manufacturers because it helps them cover their initial costs. Another name for the cost-plus pricing strategy is the markup pricing strategy.
• Market-based Pricing: This pricing strategy analyses the market including competitors’ pricing and then sets a price based on what the market is expecting. With this pricing strategy, you can either set your price at the low-end or high-end of the market.
• Value Pricing: This pricing strategy involves setting a price based on the value you are providing to your customer. When adopting a value-based pricing strategy, you have to set a price that your customers are willing to pay. Service-based businesses such as small business insurance providers , luxury goods sellers, and the fashion industry use this pricing strategy.

After carefully sorting out your positioning statement and pricing, the next item to look at is your promotional strategy. Your promotional strategy explains how you plan on communicating with your customers and prospects.

As a business, you must measure all your costs, including the cost of your promotions. You also want to measure how much sales your promotions bring for your business to determine its usefulness. Promotional strategies or programs that do not lead to profit need to be removed.

There are different types of promotional strategies you can adopt for your business, they include advertising, public relations, and content marketing.

Advertising

Your business plan should include your advertising plan which can be found in the marketing and sales plan section. You need to include an overview of your advertising plans such as the areas you plan to spend money on to advertise your business and offers.

Ensure that you make it clear in this section if your business will be advertising online or using the more traditional offline media, or the combination of both online and offline media. You can also include the advertising medium you want to use to raise awareness about your business and offers.

Some common online advertising mediums you can use include social media ads, landing pages, sales pages, SEO, Pay-Per-Click, emails, Google Ads, and others. Some common traditional and offline advertising mediums include word of mouth, radios, direct mail, televisions, flyers, billboards, posters, and others.

A key component of your advertising strategy is how you plan to measure the effectiveness and success of your advertising campaign. There is no point in sticking with an advertising plan or medium that does not produce results for your business in the long run.

Public Relations

A great way to reach your customers is to get the media to cover your business or product. Publicity, especially good ones, should be a part of your marketing and sales plan. In this section, show your plans for getting prominent reviews of your product from reputable publications and sources.

Your business needs that exposure to grow. If public relations is a crucial part of your promotional strategy, provide details about your public relations plan here.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a popular promotional strategy used by businesses to inform and attract their customers. It is about teaching and educating your prospects on various topics of interest in your niche, it does not just involve informing them about the benefits and features of the products and services you have,

Businesses publish content usually for free where they provide useful information, tips, and advice so that their target market can be made aware of the importance of their products and services. Content marketing strategies seek to nurture prospects into buyers over time by simply providing value.

Your company can create a blog where it will be publishing content for its target market. You will need to use the best website builder such as Wix and Squarespace and the best web hosting services such as Bluehost, Hostinger, and other Bluehost alternatives to create a functional blog or website.

If content marketing is a crucial part of your promotional strategy (as it should be), detail your plans under promotions.

Including high-quality images of the packaging of your product in your business plan is a lovely idea. You can add the images of the packaging of that product in the marketing and sales plan section. If you are not selling a product, then you do not need to include any worry about the physical packaging of your product.

When organizing the packaging section of your business plan, you can answer the following questions to make maximum use of this section.

• Is your choice of packaging consistent with your positioning strategy?
• What key value proposition does your packaging communicate? (It should reflect the key value proposition of your business)
• How does your packaging compare to that of your competitors?

Social Media

Your 21st-century business needs to have a good social media presence. Not having one is leaving out opportunities for growth and reaching out to your prospect.

You do not have to join the thousands of social media platforms out there. What you need to do is join the ones that your customers are active on and be active there.

Businesses use social media to provide information about their products such as promotions, discounts, the benefits of their products, and content on their blogs.

Social media is also a platform for engaging with your customers and getting feedback about your products or services. Make no mistake, more and more of your prospects are using social media channels to find more information about companies.

You need to consider the social media channels you want to prioritize your business (prioritize the ones your customers are active in) and your branding plans in this section.

Strategic Alliances

If your company plans to work closely with other companies as part of your sales and marketing plan, include it in this section. Prove details about those partnerships in your business plan if you have already established them.

Strategic alliances can be beneficial for all parties involved including your company. Working closely with another company in the form of a partnership can provide access to a different target market segment for your company.

The company you are partnering with may also gain access to your target market or simply offer a new product or service (that of your company) to its customers.

Mutually beneficial partnerships can cover the weaknesses of one company with the strength of another. You should consider strategic alliances with companies that sell complimentary products to yours. For example, if you provide printers, you can partner with a company that produces ink since the customers that buy printers from you will also need inks for printing.

Steps Involved in Creating a Marketing and Sales Plan

1. Focus on Your Target Market

Identify who your customers are, the market you want to target. Then determine the best ways to get your products or services to your potential customers.

2. Evaluate Your Competition

One of the goals of having a marketing plan is to distinguish yourself from your competition. You cannot stand out from them without first knowing them in and out.

You can know your competitors by gathering information about their products, pricing, service, and advertising campaigns.

These questions can help you know your competition.

• What makes your competition successful?
• What are their weaknesses?
• What are customers saying about your competition?

3. Consider Your Brand

Customers' perception of your brand has a strong impact on your sales. Your marketing and sales plan should seek to bolster the image of your brand. Before you start marketing your business, think about the message you want to pass across about your business and your products and services.

4. Focus on Benefits

The majority of your customers do not view your product in terms of features, what they want to know is the benefits and solutions your product offers. Think about the problems your product solves and the benefits it delivers, and use it to create the right sales and marketing message.

Your marketing plan should focus on what you want your customer to get instead of what you provide. Identify those benefits in your marketing and sales plan.

5. Focus on Differentiation

Your marketing and sales plan should look for a unique angle they can take that differentiates your business from the competition, even if the products offered are similar. Some good areas of differentiation you can use are your benefits, pricing, and features.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing Your Marketing and Sales Plan

• What is your company’s budget for sales and marketing campaigns?
• What key metrics will you use to determine if your marketing plans are successful?
• What are your alternatives if your initial marketing efforts do not succeed?
• Who are the sales representatives you need to promote your products or services?
• What are the marketing and sales channels you plan to use? How do you plan to get your products in front of your ideal customers?
• Where will you sell your products?

You may want to include samples of marketing materials you plan to use such as print ads, website descriptions, and social media ads. While it is not compulsory to include these samples, it can help you better communicate your marketing and sales plan and objectives.

The purpose of the marketing and sales section is to answer this question “How will you reach your customers?” If you cannot convincingly provide an answer to this question, you need to rework your marketing and sales section.

7. Clearly Show Your Funding Request

If you are writing your business plan to ask for funding from investors or financial institutions, the funding request section is where you will outline your funding requirements. The funding request section should answer the question ‘How much money will your business need in the near future (3 to 5 years)?’

A good funding request section will clearly outline and explain the amount of funding your business needs over the next five years. You need to know the amount of money your business needs to make an accurate funding request.

Also, when writing your funding request, provide details of how the funds will be used over the period. Specify if you want to use the funds to buy raw materials or machinery, pay salaries, pay for advertisements, and cover specific bills such as rent and electricity.

In addition to explaining what you want to use the funds requested for, you need to clearly state the projected return on investment (ROI) . Investors and creditors want to know if your business can generate profit for them if they put funds into it.

Ensure you do not inflate the figures and stay as realistic as possible. Investors and financial institutions you are seeking funds from will do their research before investing money in your business.

If you are not sure of an exact number to request from, you can use some range of numbers as rough estimates. Add a best-case scenario and a work-case scenario to your funding request. Also, include a description of your strategic future financial plans such as selling your business or paying off debts.

Funding Request: Debt or Equity?

When making your funding request, specify the type of funding you want. Do you want debt or equity? Draw out the terms that will be applicable for the funding, and the length of time the funding request will cover.

Case for Equity

If your new business has not yet started generating profits, you are most likely preparing to sell equity in your business to raise capital at the early stage. Equity here refers to ownership. In this case, you are selling a portion of your company to raise capital.

Although this method of raising capital for your business does not put your business in debt, keep in mind that an equity owner may expect to play a key role in company decisions even if he does not hold a major stake in the company.

Most equity sales for startups are usually private transactions . If you are making a funding request by offering equity in exchange for funding, let the investor know that they will be paid a dividend (a share of the company’s profit). Also, let the investor know the process for selling their equity in your business.

Case for Debt

You may decide not to offer equity in exchange for funds, instead, you make a funding request with the promise to pay back the money borrowed at the agreed time frame.

When making a funding request with an agreement to pay back, note that you will have to repay your creditors both the principal amount borrowed and the interest on it. Financial institutions offer this type of funding for businesses.

Large companies combine both equity and debt in their capital structure. When drafting your business plan, decide if you want to offer both or one over the other.

Before you sell equity in exchange for funding in your business, consider if you are willing to accept not being in total control of your business. Also, before you seek loans in your funding request section, ensure that the terms of repayment are favorable.

You should set a clear timeline in your funding request so that potential investors and creditors can know what you are expecting. Some investors and creditors may agree to your funding request and then delay payment for longer than 30 days, meanwhile, your business needs an immediate cash injection to operate efficiently.

Additional Tips for Writing the Funding Request Section of your Business Plan

The funding request section is not necessary for every business, it is only needed by businesses who plan to use their business plan to secure funding.

If you are adding the funding request section to your business plan, provide an itemized summary of how you plan to use the funds requested. Hiring a lawyer, accountant, or other professionals may be necessary for the proper development of this section.

You should also gather and use financial statements that add credibility and support to your funding requests. Ensure that the financial statements you use should include your projected financial data such as projected cash flows, forecast statements, and expenditure budgets.

If you are an existing business, include all historical financial statements such as cash flow statements, balance sheets and income statements .

Provide monthly and quarterly financial statements for a year. If your business has records that date back beyond the one-year mark, add the yearly statements of those years. These documents are for the appendix section of your business plan.

8. Detail Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projections

If you used the funding request section in your business plan, supplement it with a financial plan, metrics, and projections. This section paints a picture of the past performance of your business and then goes ahead to make an informed projection about its future.

The goal of this section is to convince readers that your business is going to be a financial success. It outlines your business plan to generate enough profit to repay the loan (with interest if applicable) and to generate a decent return on investment for investors.

If you have an existing business already in operation, use this section to demonstrate stability through finance. This section should include your cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements covering the last three to five years. If your business has some acceptable collateral that you can use to acquire loans, list it in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

Apart from current financial statements, this section should also contain a prospective financial outlook that spans the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and capital expenditure budget.

If your business is new and is not yet generating profit, use clear and realistic projections to show the potentials of your business.

When drafting this section, research industry norms and the performance of comparable businesses. Your financial projections should cover at least five years. State the logic behind your financial projections. Remember you can always make adjustments to this section as the variables change.

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section create a baseline which your business can either exceed or fail to reach. If your business fails to reach your projections in this section, you need to understand why it failed.

Investors and loan managers spend a lot of time going through the financial plan, metrics, and projection section compared to other parts of the business plan. Ensure you spend time creating credible financial analyses for your business in this section.

Many entrepreneurs find this section daunting to write. You do not need a business degree to create a solid financial forecast for your business. Business finances, especially for startups, are not as complicated as they seem. There are several online tools and templates that make writing this section so much easier.

Use Graphs and Charts

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business. Charts and images make it easier to communicate your finances.

Accuracy in this section is key, ensure you carefully analyze your past financial statements properly before making financial projects.

Address the Risk Factors and Show Realistic Financial Projections

Keep your financial plan, metrics, and projection realistic. It is okay to be optimistic in your financial projection, however, you have to justify it.

You should also address the various risk factors associated with your business in this section. Investors want to know the potential risks involved, show them. You should also show your plans for mitigating those risks.

What You Should In The Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection Section of Your Business Plan

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section of your business plan should have monthly sales and revenue forecasts for the first year. It should also include annual projections that cover 3 to 5 years.

A three-year projection is a basic requirement to have in your business plan. However, some investors may request a five-year forecast.

Your business plan should include the following financial statements: sales forecast, personnel plan, income statement, income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, and an exit strategy.

1. Sales Forecast

Sales forecast refers to your projections about the number of sales your business is going to record over the next few years. It is typically broken into several rows, with each row assigned to a core product or service that your business is offering.

One common mistake people make in their business plan is to break down the sales forecast section into long details. A sales forecast should forecast the high-level details.

For example, if you are forecasting sales for a payroll software provider, you could break down your forecast into target market segments or subscription categories.

Your sales forecast section should also have a corresponding row for each sales row to cover the direct cost or Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). The objective of these rows is to show the expenses that your business incurs in making and delivering your product or service.

Note that your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) should only cover those direct costs incurred when making your products. Other indirect expenses such as insurance, salaries, payroll tax, and rent should not be included.

For example, the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for a restaurant is the cost of ingredients while for a consulting company it will be the cost of paper and other presentation materials.

2. Personnel Plan

The personnel plan section is where you provide details about the payment plan for your employees. For a small business, you can easily list every position in your company and how much you plan to pay in the personnel plan.

However, for larger businesses, you have to break the personnel plan into functional groups such as sales and marketing.

The personnel plan will also include the cost of an employee beyond salary, commonly referred to as the employee burden. These costs include insurance, payroll taxes , and other essential costs incurred monthly as a result of having employees on your payroll.

3. Income Statement

The income statement section shows if your business is making a profit or taking a loss. Another name for the income statement is the profit and loss (P&L). It takes data from your sales forecast and personnel plan and adds other ongoing expenses you incur while running your business.

Every business plan should have an income statement. It subtracts your business expenses from its earnings to show if your business is generating profit or incurring losses.

The income statement has the following items: sales, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), gross margin, operating expenses, total operating expenses, operating income , total expenses, and net profit.

• Sales refer to the revenue your business generates from selling its products or services. Other names for sales are income or revenue.
• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) refers to the total cost of selling your products. Other names for COGS are direct costs or cost of sales. Manufacturing businesses use the Costs of Goods Manufactured (COGM) .
• Gross Margin is the figure you get when you subtract your COGS from your sales. In your income statement, you can express it as a percentage of total sales (Gross margin / Sales = Gross Margin Percent).
• Operating Expenses refer to all the expenses you incur from running your business. It exempts the COGS because it stands alone as a core part of your income statement. You also have to exclude taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Your operating expenses include salaries, marketing expenses, research and development (R&D) expenses, and other expenses.
• Total Operating Expenses refers to the sum of all your operating expenses including those exemptions named above under operating expenses.
• Operating Income refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It is simply known as the acronym EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). Calculating your operating income is simple, all you need to do is to subtract your COGS and total operating expenses from your sales.
• Total Expenses refer to the sum of your operating expenses and your business’ interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
• Net profit shows whether your business has made a profit or taken a loss during a given timeframe.

4. Cash Flow Statement

The cash flow statement tracks the money you have in the bank at any given point. It is often confused with the income statement or the profit and loss statement. They are both different types of financial statements. The income statement calculates your profits and losses while the cash flow statement shows you how much you have in the bank.

5. Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is a financial statement that provides an overview of the financial health of your business. It contains information about the assets and liabilities of your company, and owner’s or shareholders’ equity.

You can get the net worth of your company by subtracting your company’s liabilities from its assets.

6. Exit Strategy

The exit strategy refers to a probable plan for selling your business either to the public in an IPO or to another company. It is the last thing you include in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

You can choose to omit the exit strategy from your business plan if you plan to maintain full ownership of your business and do not plan on seeking angel investment or virtual capitalist (VC) funding.

Investors may want to know what your exit plan is. They invest in your business to get a good return on investment.

Your exit strategy does not have to include long and boring details. Ensure you identify some interested parties who may be interested in buying the company if it becomes a success.

Key Questions to Answer with Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection

Your financial plan, metrics, and projection section helps investors, creditors, or your internal managers to understand what your expenses are, the amount of cash you need, and what it takes to make your company profitable. It also shows what you will be doing with any funding.

You do not need to show actual financial data if you do not have one. Adding forecasts and projections to your financial statements is added proof that your strategy is feasible and shows investors you have planned properly.

Here are some key questions to answer to help you develop this section.

• What is your sales forecast for the next year?
• When will your company achieve a positive cash flow?
• What are the core expenses you need to operate?
• How much money do you need upfront to operate or grow your company?
• How will you use the loans or investments?

9. Add an Appendix to Your Business Plan

Adding an appendix to your business plan is optional. It is a useful place to put any charts, tables, legal notes, definitions, permits, résumés, and other critical information that do not fit into other sections of your business plan.

The appendix section is where you would want to include details of a patent or patent-pending if you have one. You can always add illustrations or images of your products here. It is the last section of your business plan.

When writing your business plan, there are details you cut short or remove to prevent the entire section from becoming too lengthy. There are also details you want to include in the business plan but are not a good fit for any of the previous sections. You can add that additional information to the appendix section.

Businesses also use the appendix section to include supporting documents or other materials specially requested by investors or lenders.

You can include just about any information that supports the assumptions and statements you made in the business plan under the appendix. It is the one place in the business plan where unrelated data and information can coexist amicably.

If your appendix section is lengthy, try organizing it by adding a table of contents at the beginning of the appendix section. It is also advisable to group similar information to make it easier for the reader to access them.

A well-organized appendix section makes it easier to share your information clearly and concisely. Add footnotes throughout the rest of the business plan or make references in the plan to the documents in the appendix.

The appendix section is usually only necessary if you are seeking funding from investors or lenders, or hoping to attract partners.

People reading business plans do not want to spend time going through a heap of backup information, numbers, and charts. Keep these documents or information in the Appendix section in case the reader wants to dig deeper.

Common Items to Include in the Appendix Section of Your Business Plan

The appendix section includes documents that supplement or support the information or claims given in other sections of the business plans. Common items you can include in the appendix section include:

• Additional data about the process of manufacturing or creation
• Additional description of products or services such as product schematics
• Additional financial documents or projections
• Articles of incorporation and status
• Backup for market research or competitive analysis
• Bank statements
• Business registries
• Client testimonials (if your business is already running)
• Copies of insurances
• Credit histories (personal or/and business)
• Deeds and permits
• Equipment leases
• Examples of marketing and advertising collateral
• Industry associations and memberships
• Images of product
• Intellectual property
• Key customer contracts
• Legal documents and other contracts
• Letters of reference
• Links to references
• Market research data
• Organizational charts
• Photographs of potential facilities
• Professional licenses pertaining to your legal structure or type of business
• Purchase orders
• Resumes of the founder(s) and key managers
• State and federal identification numbers or codes
• Trademarks or patents’ registrations

Avoid using the appendix section as a place to dump any document or information you feel like adding. Only add documents or information that you support or increase the credibility of your business plan.

Tips and Strategies for Writing a Convincing Business Plan

To achieve a perfect business plan, you need to consider some key tips and strategies. These tips will raise the efficiency of your business plan above average.

1. Know Your Audience

When writing a business plan, you need to know your audience . Business owners write business plans for different reasons. Your business plan has to be specific. For example, you can write business plans to potential investors, banks, and even fellow board members of the company.

The audience you are writing to determines the structure of the business plan. As a business owner, you have to know your audience. Not everyone will be your audience. Knowing your audience will help you to narrow the scope of your business plan.

Consider what your audience wants to see in your projects, the likely questions they might ask, and what interests them.

• A business plan used to address a company's board members will center on its employment schemes, internal affairs, projects, stakeholders, etc.
• A business plan for financial institutions will talk about the size of your market and the chances for you to pay back any loans you demand.
• A business plan for investors will show proof that you can return the investment capital within a specific time. In addition, it discusses your financial projections, tractions, and market size.

2. Get Inspiration from People

Writing a business plan from scratch as an entrepreneur can be daunting. That is why you need the right inspiration to push you to write one. You can gain inspiration from the successful business plans of other businesses. Look at their business plans, the style they use, the structure of the project, etc.

To make your business plan easier to create, search companies related to your business to get an exact copy of what you need to create an effective business plan. You can also make references while citing examples in your business plans.

When drafting your business plan, get as much help from others as you possibly can. By getting inspiration from people, you can create something better than what they have.

3. Avoid Being Over Optimistic

Many business owners make use of strong adjectives to qualify their content. One of the big mistakes entrepreneurs make when preparing a business plan is promising too much.

The use of superlatives and over-optimistic claims can prepare the audience for more than you can offer. In the end, you disappoint the confidence they have in you.

In most cases, the best option is to be realistic with your claims and statistics. Most of the investors can sense a bit of incompetency from the overuse of superlatives. As a new entrepreneur, do not be tempted to over-promise to get the interests of investors.

The concept of entrepreneurship centers on risks, nothing is certain when you make future analyses. What separates the best is the ability to do careful research and work towards achieving that, not promising more than you can achieve.

To make an excellent first impression as an entrepreneur, replace superlatives with compelling data-driven content. In this way, you are more specific than someone promising a huge ROI from an investment.

4. Keep it Simple and Short

When writing business plans, ensure you keep them simple throughout. Irrespective of the purpose of the business plan, your goal is to convince the audience.

One way to achieve this goal is to make them understand your proposal. Therefore, it would be best if you avoid the use of complex grammar to express yourself. It would be a huge turn-off if the people you want to convince are not familiar with your use of words.

Another thing to note is the length of your business plan. It would be best if you made it as brief as possible.

You hardly see investors or agencies that read through an extremely long document. In that case, if your first few pages can’t convince them, then you have lost it. The more pages you write, the higher the chances of you derailing from the essential contents.

To ensure your business plan has a high conversion rate, you need to dispose of every unnecessary information. For example, if you have a strategy that you are not sure of, it would be best to leave it out of the plan.

5. Make an Outline and Follow Through

A perfect business plan must have touched every part needed to convince the audience. Business owners get easily tempted to concentrate more on their products than on other sections. Doing this can be detrimental to the efficiency of the business plan.

For example, imagine you talking about a product but omitting or providing very little information about the target audience. You will leave your clients confused.

To ensure that your business plan communicates your full business model to readers, you have to input all the necessary information in it. One of the best ways to achieve this is to design a structure and stick to it.

This structure is what guides you throughout the writing. To make your work easier, you can assign an estimated word count or page limit to every section to avoid making it too bulky for easy reading. As a guide, the necessary things your business plan must contain are:

• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Product or service description
• Target audience
• Market size
• Competition analysis
• Financial projections

Some specific businesses can include some other essential sections, but these are the key sections that must be in every business plan.

6. Ask a Professional to Proofread

When writing a business plan, you must tie all loose ends to get a perfect result. When you are done with writing, call a professional to go through the document for you. You are bound to make mistakes, and the way to correct them is to get external help.

You should get a professional in your field who can relate to every section of your business plan. It would be easier for the professional to notice the inner flaws in the document than an editor with no knowledge of your business.

In addition to getting a professional to proofread, get an editor to proofread and edit your document. The editor will help you identify grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and inappropriate writing styles.

Writing a business plan can be daunting, but you can surmount that obstacle and get the best out of it with these tips.

Business Plan Examples and Templates That’ll Save You Tons of Time

1. hubspot's one-page business plan.

The one-page business plan template by HubSpot is the perfect guide for businesses of any size, irrespective of their business strategy. Although the template is condensed into a page, your final business plan should not be a page long! The template is designed to ask helpful questions that can help you develop your business plan.

Hubspot’s one-page business plan template is divided into nine fields:

• Business opportunity
• Company description
• Industry analysis
• Target market
• Implementation timeline
• Marketing plan
• Financial summary
• Funding required

2. Bplan’s Free Business Plan Template

Bplans' free business plan template is investor-approved. It is a rich template used by prestigious educational institutions such as Babson College and Princeton University to teach entrepreneurs how to create a business plan.

The template has six sections: the executive summary, opportunity, execution, company, financial plan, and appendix. There is a step-by-step guide for writing every little detail in the business plan. Follow the instructions each step of the way and you will create a business plan that impresses investors or lenders easily.

3. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

HubSpot’s downloadable business plan template is a more comprehensive option compared to the one-page business template by HubSpot. This free and downloadable business plan template is designed for entrepreneurs.

The template is a comprehensive guide and checklist for business owners just starting their businesses. It tells you everything you need to fill in each section of the business plan and how to do it.

There are nine sections in this business plan template: an executive summary, company and business description, product and services line, market analysis, marketing plan, sales plan, legal notes, financial considerations, and appendix.

4. Business Plan by My Own Business Institute

My Own Business Institute (MOBI) which is a part of Santa Clara University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship offers a free business plan template. You can either copy the free business template from the link provided above or download it as a Word document.

The comprehensive template consists of a whopping 15 sections.

• The Business Profile
• The Vision and the People
• Home-Based Business and Freelance Business Opportunities
• Organization
• Licenses and Permits
• Business Insurance
• Communication Tools
• Acquisitions
• Location and Leasing
• Accounting and Cash Flow
• Opening and Marketing
• Managing Employees
• Expanding and Handling Problems

There are lots of helpful tips on how to fill each section in the free business plan template by MOBI.

5. Score's Business Plan Template for Startups

Score is an American nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs build successful companies. This business plan template for startups by Score is available for free download. The business plan template asks a whooping 150 generic questions that help entrepreneurs from different fields to set up the perfect business plan.

The business plan template for startups contains clear instructions and worksheets, all you have to do is answer the questions and fill the worksheets.

There are nine sections in the business plan template: executive summary, company description, products and services, marketing plan, operational plan, management and organization, startup expenses and capitalization, financial plan, and appendices.

The ‘refining the plan’ resource contains instructions that help you modify your business plan to suit your specific needs, industry, and target audience. After you have completed Score’s business plan template, you can work with a SCORE mentor for expert advice in business planning.

6. Minimalist Architecture Business Plan Template by Venngage

The minimalist architecture business plan template is a simple template by Venngage that you can customize to suit your business needs .

There are five sections in the template: an executive summary, statement of problem, approach and methodology, qualifications, and schedule and benchmark. The business plan template has instructions that guide users on what to fill in each section.

7. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers two free business plan templates, filled with practical real-life examples that you can model to create your business plan. Both free business plan templates are written by fictional business owners: Rebecca who owns a consulting firm, and Andrew who owns a toy company.

There are five sections in the two SBA’s free business plan templates.

• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Service Line
• Marketing and Sales

8. The $100 Startup's One-Page Business Plan

The one-page business plan by the $100 startup is a simple business plan template for entrepreneurs who do not want to create a long and complicated plan . You can include more details in the appendices for funders who want more information beyond what you can put in the one-page business plan.

There are five sections in the one-page business plan such as overview, ka-ching, hustling, success, and obstacles or challenges or open questions. You can answer all the questions using one or two sentences.

9. PandaDoc’s Free Business Plan Template

The free business plan template by PandaDoc is a comprehensive 15-page document that describes the information you should include in every section.

There are 11 sections in PandaDoc’s free business plan template.

• Executive summary
• Business description
• Products and services
• Operations plan
• Management organization
• Financial plan
• Conclusion / Call to action
• Confidentiality statement

You have to sign up for its 14-day free trial to access the template. You will find different business plan templates on PandaDoc once you sign up (including templates for general businesses and specific businesses such as bakeries, startups, restaurants, salons, hotels, and coffee shops)

PandaDoc allows you to customize its business plan templates to fit the needs of your business. After editing the template, you can send it to interested parties and track opens and views through PandaDoc.

10. Invoiceberry Templates for Word, Open Office, Excel, or PPT

InvoiceBerry is a U.K based online invoicing and tracking platform that offers free business plan templates in .docx, .odt, .xlsx, and .pptx formats for freelancers and small businesses.

Before you can download the free business plan template, it will ask you to give it your email address. After you complete the little task, it will send the download link to your inbox for you to download. It also provides a business plan checklist in .xlsx file format that ensures you add the right information to the business plan.

Alternatives to the Traditional Business Plan

A business plan is very important in mapping out how one expects their business to grow over a set number of years, particularly when they need external investment in their business. However, many investors do not have the time to watch you present your business plan. It is a long and boring read.

Luckily, there are three alternatives to the traditional business plan (the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck). These alternatives are less laborious and easier and quicker to present to investors.

Business Model Canvas (BMC)

The business model canvas is a business tool used to present all the important components of setting up a business, such as customers, route to market, value proposition, and finance in a single sheet. It provides a very focused blueprint that defines your business initially which you can later expand on if needed.

The sheet is divided mainly into company, industry, and consumer models that are interconnected in how they find problems and proffer solutions.

Segments of the Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas was developed by founder Alexander Osterwalder to answer important business questions. It contains nine segments.

• Key Partners: Who will be occupying important executive positions in your business? What do they bring to the table? Will there be a third party involved with the company?
• Key Activities: What important activities will production entail? What activities will be carried out to ensure the smooth running of the company?
• The Product’s Value Propositions: What does your product do? How will it be different from other products?
• Customer Segments: What demography of consumers are you targeting? What are the habits of these consumers? Who are the MVPs of your target consumers?
• Customer Relationships: How will the team support and work with its customer base? How do you intend to build and maintain trust with the customer?
• Key Resources: What type of personnel and tools will be needed? What size of the budget will they need access to?
• Channels: How do you plan to create awareness of your products? How do you intend to transport your product to the customer?
• Cost Structure: What is the estimated cost of production? How much will distribution cost?
• Revenue Streams: For what value are customers willing to pay? How do they prefer to pay for the product? Are there any external revenues attached apart from the main source? How do the revenue streams contribute to the overall revenue?

Lean Canvas

The lean canvas is a problem-oriented alternative to the standard business model canvas. It was proposed by Ash Maurya, creator of Lean Stack as a development of the business model generation. It uses a more problem-focused approach and it majorly targets entrepreneurs and startup businesses.

Lean Canvas uses the same 9 blocks concept as the business model canvas, however, they have been modified slightly to suit the needs and purpose of a small startup. The key partners, key activities, customer relationships, and key resources are replaced by new segments which are:

• Problem: Simple and straightforward number of problems you have identified, ideally three.
• Solution: The solutions to each problem.
• Unfair Advantage: Something you possess that can't be easily bought or replicated.
• Key Metrics: Important numbers that will tell how your business is doing.

Startup Pitch Deck

While the business model canvas compresses into a factual sheet, startup pitch decks expand flamboyantly.

Pitch decks, through slides, convey your business plan, often through graphs and images used to emphasize estimations and observations in your presentation. Entrepreneurs often use pitch decks to fully convince their target audience of their plans before discussing funding arrangements.

Considering the likelihood of it being used in a small time frame, a good startup pitch deck should ideally contain 20 slides or less to have enough time to answer questions from the audience.

Unlike the standard and lean business model canvases, a pitch deck doesn't have a set template on how to present your business plan but there are still important components to it. These components often mirror those of the business model canvas except that they are in slide form and contain more details.

Using Airbnb (one of the most successful start-ups in recent history) for reference, the important components of a good slide are listed below.

• Cover/Introduction Slide: Here, you should include your company's name and mission statement. Your mission statement should be a very catchy tagline. Also, include personal information and contact details to provide an easy link for potential investors.
• Problem Slide: This slide requires you to create a connection with the audience or the investor that you are pitching. For example in their pitch, Airbnb summarized the most important problems it would solve in three brief points – pricing of hotels, disconnection from city culture, and connection problems for local bookings.
• Solution Slide: This slide includes your core value proposition. List simple and direct solutions to the problems you have mentioned
• Customer Analysis: Here you will provide information on the customers you will be offering your service to. The identity of your customers plays an important part in fundraising as well as the long-run viability of the business.
• Market Validation: Use competitive analysis to show numbers that prove the presence of a market for your product, industry behavior in the present and the long run, as well as the percentage of the market you aim to attract. It shows that you understand your competitors and customers and convinces investors of the opportunities presented in the market.
• Business Model: Your business model is the hook of your presentation. It may vary in complexity but it should generally include a pricing system informed by your market analysis. The goal of the slide is to confirm your business model is easy to implement.
• Marketing Strategy: This slide should summarize a few customer acquisition methods that you plan to use to grow the business.
• Competitive Advantage: What this slide will do is provide information on what will set you apart and make you a more attractive option to customers. It could be the possession of technology that is not widely known in the market.
• Team Slide: Here you will give a brief description of your team. Include your key management personnel here and their specific roles in the company. Include their educational background, job history, and skillsets. Also, talk about their accomplishments in their careers so far to build investors' confidence in members of your team.
• Traction Slide: This validates the company’s business model by showing growth through early sales and support. The slide aims to reduce any lingering fears in potential investors by showing realistic periodic milestones and profit margins. It can include current sales, growth, valuable customers, pre-orders, or data from surveys outlining current consumer interest.
• Funding Slide: This slide is popularly referred to as ‘the ask'. Here you will include important details like how much is needed to get your business off the ground and how the funding will be spent to help the company reach its goals.
• Appendix Slides: Your pitch deck appendix should always be included alongside a standard pitch presentation. It consists of additional slides you could not show in the pitch deck but you need to complement your presentation.

It is important to support your calculations with pictorial renditions. Infographics, such as pie charts or bar graphs, will be more effective in presenting the information than just listing numbers. For example, a six-month graph that shows rising profit margins will easily look more impressive than merely writing it.

Lastly, since a pitch deck is primarily used to secure meetings and you may be sharing your pitch with several investors, it is advisable to keep a separate public version that doesn't include financials. Only disclose the one with projections once you have secured a link with an investor.

Advantages of the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck over the Traditional Business Plan

• Time-Saving: Writing a detailed traditional business plan could take weeks or months. On the other hand, all three alternatives can be done in a few days or even one night of brainstorming if you have a comprehensive understanding of your business.
• Easier to Understand: Since the information presented is almost entirely factual, it puts focus on what is most important in running the business. They cut away the excess pages of fillers in a traditional business plan and allow investors to see what is driving the business and what is getting in the way.
• Easy to Update: Businesses typically present their business plans to many potential investors before they secure funding. What this means is that you may regularly have to amend your presentation to update statistics or adjust to audience-specific needs. For a traditional business plan, this could mean rewriting a whole section of your plan. For the three alternatives, updating is much easier because they are not voluminous.
• Guide for a More In-depth Business Plan: All three alternatives have the added benefit of being able to double as a sketch of your business plan if the need to create one arises in the future.

Business Plan FAQ

Business plans are important for any entrepreneur who is looking for a framework to run their company over some time or seeking external support. Although they are essential for new businesses, every company should ideally have a business plan to track their growth from time to time.  They can be used by startups seeking investments or loans to convey their business ideas or an employee to convince his boss of the feasibility of starting a new project. They can also be used by companies seeking to recruit high-profile employee targets into key positions or trying to secure partnerships with other firms.

Business plans often vary depending on your target audience, the scope, and the goals for the plan. Startup plans are the most common among the different types of business plans.  A start-up plan is used by a new business to present all the necessary information to help get the business up and running. They are usually used by entrepreneurs who are seeking funding from investors or bank loans. The established company alternative to a start-up plan is a feasibility plan. A feasibility plan is often used by an established company looking for new business opportunities. They are used to show the upsides of creating a new product for a consumer base. Because the audience is usually company people, it requires less company analysis. The third type of business plan is the lean business plan. A lean business plan is a brief, straight-to-the-point breakdown of your ideas and analysis for your business. It does not contain details of your proposal and can be written on one page. Finally, you have the what-if plan. As it implies, a what-if plan is a preparation for the worst-case scenario. You must always be prepared for the possibility of your original plan being rejected. A good what-if plan will serve as a good plan B to the original.

A good business plan has 10 key components. They include an executive plan, product analysis, desired customer base, company analysis, industry analysis, marketing strategy, sales strategy, financial projection, funding, and appendix. Executive Plan Your business should begin with your executive plan. An executive plan will provide early insight into what you are planning to achieve with your business. It should include your mission statement and highlight some of the important points which you will explain later. Product Analysis The next component of your business plan is your product analysis. A key part of this section is explaining the type of item or service you are going to offer as well as the market problems your product will solve. Desired Consumer Base Your product analysis should be supplemented with a detailed breakdown of your desired consumer base. Investors are always interested in knowing the economic power of your market as well as potential MVP customers. Company Analysis The next component of your business plan is your company analysis. Here, you explain how you want to run your business. It will include your operational strategy, an insight into the workforce needed to keep the company running, and important executive positions. It will also provide a calculation of expected operational costs.  Industry Analysis A good business plan should also contain well laid out industry analysis. It is important to convince potential investors you know the companies you will be competing with, as well as your plans to gain an edge on the competition. Marketing Strategy Your business plan should also include your marketing strategy. This is how you intend to spread awareness of your product. It should include a detailed explanation of the company brand as well as your advertising methods. Sales Strategy Your sales strategy comes after the market strategy. Here you give an overview of your company's pricing strategy and how you aim to maximize profits. You can also explain how your prices will adapt to market behaviors. Financial Projection The financial projection is the next component of your business plan. It explains your company's expected running cost and revenue earned during the tenure of the business plan. Financial projection gives a clear idea of how your company will develop in the future. Funding The next component of your business plan is funding. You have to detail how much external investment you need to get your business idea off the ground here. Appendix The last component of your plan is the appendix. This is where you put licenses, graphs, or key information that does not fit in any of the other components.

The business model canvas is a business management tool used to quickly define your business idea and model. It is often used when investors need you to pitch your business idea during a brief window.

A pitch deck is similar to a business model canvas except that it makes use of slides in its presentation. A pitch is not primarily used to secure funding, rather its main purpose is to entice potential investors by selling a very optimistic outlook on the business.

Business plan competitions help you evaluate the strength of your business plan. By participating in business plan competitions, you are improving your experience. The experience provides you with a degree of validation while practicing important skills. The main motivation for entering into the competitions is often to secure funding by finishing in podium positions. There is also the chance that you may catch the eye of a casual observer outside of the competition. These competitions also provide good networking opportunities. You could meet mentors who will take a keen interest in guiding you in your business journey. You also have the opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs whose ideas can complement yours.

Exlore Further

• 12 Key Elements of a Business Plan (Top Components Explained)
• 13 Sources of Business Finance For Companies & Sole Traders
• 5 Common Types of Business Structures (+ Pros & Cons)
• How to Buy a Business in 8 Steps (+ Due Diligence Checklist)

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Martin luenendonk.

Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.

This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.

How to Present a Business Plan to Potential Investors

Helping ideas to grow into measurable success. InnMind Expert in Metaverse, Crypto, Marketing Growth.

More posts by Val Baev.

Being able to sell your business plan to potential investors effectively is undoubtedly a fundamental skill for a startup founder.

Unfortunately, doing it correctly is not very intuitive. You can easily go overboard on the details too early when your audience is not yet interested enough, or you can showcase too little. Either way, such a mistake could cost you a potential investor.

This article would give you a solid backbone of info, which should help you avoid such basic mistakes that can slow down your fundraising process .

1 Judge the Level of Interest

You need to adeptly match the information you are presenting with the level of interest of the people you are communicating your business plan to.

People who don’t know much about your project won’t have the interest and patience to read a full 30-page document. At the same time, people who are familiar with your project and business and want to make a serious commitment would expect such details.

Regrettably, this means that one document wouldn’t be enough.

It helps to imagine the process as a sales funnel. From least-interested to most-interested, people should receive the following business plan communication:

2 Elevator pitch

You should be able to summarize the whole business in a few sentences to people you’re just meeting. It pays dividends to polish this presentation, as you would have to give it constantly to all kinds of stakeholders in your business. You can also use writing services like Trust My Paper , where experts will help you create a quality business plan early in your career.

3 Pitch Deck

Short pitch deck, lean canvas, or business plan executive summary: the short pitch deck is the industry-standard way to present a startup idea to potentially interested parties. That said, the short pitch deck is great for meetings, but it suffers a bit when you send it by email for people to read, as it is short on text. Because of this, the Lean Canvas and the business plan executive summary could do a better job on such occasions (or even better – you can combine the short pitch deck with one of the other two documents). These documents have the benefit of being succinct but at the same time giving more information than the few-sentence long elevator pitch.

4 Detailed Pitch Deck

An online presentation made especially to send by email. It has the same structure and contains the same information as the short pitch deck, but it is more text-heavy and detailed. It could also be used for 15 to 40 min presentations instead of the standard 5 to 10-minute pitches. Once again, committing 40 minutes to your project suggests your audience is already relatively interested.

5 Business Plan

Finally, the full business plan. It is useful only to people who intend to commit to the project – usually investors, but also partners, co-founders, etc. Keep in mind that even though the business plan is usually used as a tool to attract investors, its main purpose is to give the founding team clarity of the path ahead.

Sell the Core Business Idea Efficiently

Whether you use a business plan or a pitch deck, the central principles of convincing a startup investor of the viability of your project remain the same.

• Clarity is paramount . Complexity is usually counter-productive because it risks confusing your audience. Moreover, the more complex the plan, the higher the chance it would go wrong when executed.
• Start with the problem you are tackling (make sure it’s a real problem) and the solution you are proposing.
• Showcase the (hopefully big) upside of the project by talking about the total addressable market and your possible market penetration.
• Give evidence – ideally traction numbers sufficient to convince the audience that the story you are telling is founded in reality.
• Showcase the competence of the team – demonstrating deep domain knowledge and ideally, experience is paramount.
• Talk about competition and your competitive advantages . Saying there’s no competition is usually a sign of a bad understanding of the space, so do your research diligently.

Finally, finish with the ask. In a business plan, you have more space to explore what you are looking for – investors, partners, etc., and what you need the resources for.

If you cover the points from above to a satisfying degree, then you are off to a great start to convince potential investors and partners.

Structure Your Business Plan Meticulously

Keep in mind that the business plan isn’t necessarily a document that’s meant to be read from A to Z. Usually people would skim-read it, and then they would use it as a reference document every time they need specific information. This means that it needs to be structured logically to allow people to easily find the information they are looking for even before they’ve read the whole document.

The business plan structure is not set in stone, but people expect to find specific pieces of information there, so being too creative with the structure is counter-productive.

A good business plan structure is the following:

• Executive Summary : a summary of the whole plan, can be sent as a separate document as discussed above;
• Opportunity : talk about the problem, solution, target market, segments, and possibly competition;
• Execution : marketing and operations plan; milestones are helpful to illustrate the road ahead; success metrics are also a great idea;
• Company Structure : cap table, management team, hiring plan for open/perspective positions;
• Finance : financial projections – P&L and ideally net present value projections; needed funding; appendix: anything else, plus pictures and videos supporting the story.

Presenting a business project to investors isn’t as straightforward as one would think, so it pays dividends to invest the needed time to understand what the investor expects to see and to develop the needed documentation that would allow you to build a convincing case.

That said, the pitch deck and the business plan are just a framework – needless to say, the important thing is the content, so make sure you have worthwhile things to say in your business plan.

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How to present a business plan to potential investors

Table of Contents

Specify the problem your business solves

Tell a story in your presentation, do your homework, have confidence and rehearse your presentation, save time on your business finances with countingup.

Presenting your business plan can be a scary prospect for business owners. Laying your hard work bare to be examined by someone who doesn’t know you or your business can feel intimidating. 

This article will help to prepare you to present a business plan to potential investors, through the following steps:

• Share the problem your business solves

When writing your business plan you should have identified a gap in the market that your products/services occupy. This proves there is a viable market and audience who need your business to fix an issue they have.

Investors will be unlikely to be interested in the business if you cannot prove that your company fulfils a need for customers. When you only have between ten to twenty minutes to sell them on your business, investors want to see quickly that a business is sustainable and will be viable long term.

When planning your presentation, lead with the pain point for the target customer, and how your business solves it. 

Next, illustrate the problem through statistics on the current market. What products or services are out there currently? Show how your business has the edge over your competitors, or what benefits your company can offer a customer when they buy from you over somewhere else. 

To help you prepare, read our guides on how to write up a competitor analysis as well as the market trends part of your business plan.

No one is as passionate about your business as you are. You need to convey that to your potential investors.

You may have told people the story of how you started your business a hundred times over, but these investors will be hearing it for the first time. Be personable, and make them excited to work with you through the passion you have for your venture.

The numbers you’ve gathered in your business plan will speak for themselves but you need to tell a story with them. Create your presentation around why you want to achieve certain goals, not just the how . This is where your enthusiasm and expertise can shine through, for investors to see why you care so much about what you’re doing. They need to buy into you as a business owner and operator, as well as the business idea itself.

How many times have you seen someone fumble their numbers on Dragons Den? This is where entrepreneurs get caught out, and investors will be unlikely to want to work with a business owner that doesn’t know their figures well enough. 

Do your homework before you present the business plan to any potential investors. Learn your market analysis and your financial figures inside out and back to front, because investors are likely to question you on these during the presentation. 

Leave your financial figures until near the end of your presentation because the numbers need context. Include your past performance, your current performance, seasonal trends (is your business more popular at certain times of the year), and your projections for the future.

Be realistic about your sales projections and forecasting figures. Don’t be tempted to overpromise to impress your potential investors, because the truth will come to light when they do their due diligence before you receive any capital. 

If you have not started trading yet you can find out more about forecasting in our other blogs . If you already have sales figure to hand, here is how to create a very basic projection for a product-based business:

• Calculate how many units of a product you sell each month.
• Understand if you have seasonal dips or peaks and adjust the monthly figure appropriately for these months.
• Then add up the total for the year.

If you provide services, then you can do the same by showing how much money will be coming in from contracts or clients you have already won. Calculate how much you’ll be making from each client over the year. Do the same for any customers that are in the pipeline for your business (clients that you are in the process of trying to win). This will also help you find out how many clients/projects you need to win to keep a good amount of cash flow .

Be modest when it comes to your predictions. Set realistic goals that you will be able to sustain because the worst thing you can do is promise an investor that you can make them ‘X amount by next year’ and not be able to deliver.

Exuding confidence and presenting with impact is a skill you will have to learn to present a business plan to potential investors. Making eye contact and using open body language does not come naturally to everyone, but it’s important to look assured when you’re presenting your business plan.

A way to practice this confidence is to record yourself in the weeks or days leading up to the presentation.  Video yourself to examine your body language, or record audio so you can listen to the cadence of your voice and identify where you need pauses or more information.

As cringeworthy as this task might feel, it will make a massive difference to the way you present. Seeing yourself from another perspective will be invaluable in identifying areas to improve.

Another thing to practice is being interrupted. In a real investor meeting, you are likely to be stopped and asked to expand on certain figures or areas. Don’t let this trip you up because you only practised the presentation in one long continuous flow. 

To plan for this scenario, present the business plan to a friend or colleague and have them ask you questions throughout. This will prepare you for a variety of questions at any point in your presentation.

Whilst you are preparing to present your business plan to potential investors, the Countingup app can help you keep on top of your business finances. The business current account with built-in accounting software helps you save hours on accounting admin, so that you can focus on growing your business. Find out more here .

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7 Things Investors Are Looking for in a Business Plan

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A business plan is a comprehensive document that outlines a company’s mission, goals, finances, revenue, and market data.

The primary purpose of a business plan is to convince banks and/or investors to loan you money, but there are several other benefits.

Business plans help create accountability within an organization, offer a holistic view of the company, and can repeatedly be used as a frame of reference.

Ultimately, a business plan mitigates risk. It summarizes all business areas and details how those areas ( marketing , operations) impact growth.

And there’s no way around it; if you want to fund from an investor, especially if you’re just starting your business , you need a business plan.

Any entrepreneur would be lucky to meet with an angel investor or venture capitalist. But the initial pitch, meeting, and presentation are all the tip of the iceberg.

What comes next is most important.

The potential investor will want a detailed business plan and will conduct due diligence to ensure you’re a worthy investment. With that in mind, here’s what investors are looking for in a business plan:

Strong Executive Summary

The executive summary is the first portion of your business plan and should be captivating enough to give a solid first impression.

Think of your executive summary as your website landing page. If visitors come to your website and can’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll move on to the next best thing.

Your executive summary should introduce the company and explain what you do and what makes you unique. It gives investors a complete overview of your business and should summarize key details in other business plan sections. This section is typically one page long and should be written last.

Start your executive summary by introducing yourself; follow up with an explanation of why your business matters and how it fills a gap in the market or solves a particular problem. Take a business plan example for inspiration for writing a practical executive summary.

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Complete Financial Forecast

Whether you have no sales or are generating revenue in the hundreds of thousands, every investor will scrutinize your financial plan to determine financial feasibility accurately. This section of your plan needs to be fully fleshed out and leave no grey area or room for further questions.

It’s essential to put yourself in the shoes of an investor. Based on your financial outlook, do you see yourself as a risky or promising investment? Your financial forecast should include the following:

Projected profit and loss statement Projects how much revenue you’ll generate and the profit you’ll make on those sales

Break-even analysis A detailed look at how many products you need to sell to cover fixed and variable production costs

Projected balance sheet Estimate of total assets and liabilities

Cash flow statement Details all cash inflows and outflows

Business ratios Calculations that illustrate the relationship between items (i.e., total sales and the number of employees).

To accurately build out your financial forecast, you must assess your market share (your market research section is also crucial to investors). Start from the bottom by highlighting your total addressable market and the percentage you’ll be targeting. Then you can dive a little deeper by outlining your segmented addressable market and share of the market. Investing sites can also help you better perceive the state of the market and other data for a more accurate forecast.

Want free financial templates for your business plan?

You will find a terrific collection of important templates, including a SWOT analysis, sales forecast template, profit and loss template, cash flow template, and balance sheet template, in this comprehensive guide on how to write a business plan.

Customer Acquisition Costs

Investors want to know how much it will cost to acquire new customers.

Understanding your customer acquisition costs (CAC) helps you grow healthy and scalable and shows investors that you know exactly what it takes to get a customer on board.

Knowing your CAC is more important than ever; the cost of acquiring new customers has increased by 60% over the past five years .

Customer acquisition costs are determined by examining the total cost of sales and marketing necessary to acquire new customers. You can calculate your CAC by dividing the total cost of marketing and sales by the number of customers acquired.

Your CAC can also help simplify your decision-making process, optimize your marketing strategies to focus on customer lifetime value, and paint a complete picture of your payback period (the amount of time it takes to recover the cost of an investment).

Strong Execution

A business plan is like an image. And as the age-old saying goes, “An image is worth a thousand words.”

Similarly, your business plan reveals much about who you are as a business owner. Let’s say that you have strong sales and an optimistic financial forecast. Is your business plan missing the necessary documentation and data points that support this? Is it rife with grammatical errors and improper formatting?

Execution is telling. How you communicate your business and your mission is just as important as the details within the plan. A hastily written or ambiguous business plan will result in more questions and hesitance.

If you can’t take the time to write a solid business plan, what else will you take shortcuts on?

The Financial Ask & Answer

The financial ask and answer addresses two crucial questions: How much money are you asking for, and what will you do with it?

The investment you’re seeking should be clear in your business plan (typically mentioned in the executive summary and expounded upon in the financial plan). How you intend to use the money should also be clear and logical.

Investors need to know that you’ll spend their money responsibly and that there’s proof that how you spend the money will result in revenue growth. Every dollar should be allocated to a specific destination for a good reason.

For instance, you cannot ask for a $500,000 investment without explaining how and why you arrived at this number. The business plan in the below example of a functional company called Culina states how much they’re asking for and why. In this case, Culina is raising $15 million to ramp up hardware manufacturing, improve UX and UI, expand marketing efforts, and fulfill pre-orders before the holiday season.

Strong Management

Your business plan should prove that you have a strong management team.

Many investors run their portfolios with a people-first mentality. This means that who you are is just as important as what you offer. Your business plan’s “Management” or “Team” section is great for humanizing your company and highlighting your strengths.

What makes your team especially capable of running and guiding this business toward profitability? What’s your background? Have you won any awards or participated in any incubator programs? Do you have relevant experience (either in running a business or working in the industry)?

Answer these questions to show investors that you’re uniquely qualified to lead.

Thorough Understanding of Your Market

Is there a market for your product or service, how can you reach your market, and what share of the market do you have a stronghold on?

Demonstrating a thorough understanding of your market and target demographic is crucial. Many businesses have failed because they didn’t conduct market research or speak to their customers and clients. Product validation should precede fundraising efforts.

“Market size” is a basic number that every investor looks for. Your competitive analysis , market research, metrics, and customer surveys should all be factored into the equation.

If you’re struggling to understand your market and position, you can start by gathering primary data from the Census and Labor Bureau. Many industries also have formal associations and publish their research online. You can purchase these studies or commission a market research firm to spearhead your research.

An interested investor can make or break your business and should be taken seriously. You wouldn’t rush through an Ivy League college application and shouldn’t submit a hastily written business plan.

Take the time to detail every aspect of your business and consider working with a business plan writer to ensure you communicate your message effectively. If an investor is impressed with your business plan, chances are you’ll score pivotal funding.

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How to Present a Business Plan to Potential Investors

If you’ve ever considered raising money for your business, you know that the first step is to present your business plan to potential investors.

A well-written and well-presented business plan can impress investors. After all, if you’re asking someone else for funding then they must know what they’re getting into — and what makes their investment worth the risk. Here is a guide on how to present a business plan. Let’s check the details. But before that, we need to know the definition of a business plan.

What is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a written document that describes the nature of a business and its future goals. It also contains the history of the business, financial information, and an introduction to the management team. A business plan is used to present these goals to investors and lenders.

The Importance of a Business Plan to Investors

A business plan is important to investors because it gives them an overview of your company’s financial situation, management team, and how you plan to grow . It is also one of the most effective tools for measuring your progress and making sure that you are on track with your goals.

Investors will want to see a comprehensive business plan if they invest in your company. They may not have the time to read it all, but they still want to get a sense of how things operate so they can decide whether or not you’re worthwhile based on what you’ve presented to them.

What Investors Look For in a Business Plan?

A good business plan should be clear and concise, with a clear purpose and direction, and it should be able to precisely define the value of your product or service. It should also be well-supported by research, data, and statistics. Investors want to know that you’ve done your job — that you’ve researched the market and seen how other similar businesses have succeeded or failed. They want to see that you have a reason for starting this business.

Now it’s time to dive into business plan tips for understanding how to present it to investors.

1. Prepare the Executive Summary

A business plan’s executive summary is a short, 1-4 page document that provides an overview of the entire business plan. The goal of the executive summary is to give potential investors a snapshot of what they’re getting when they invest their money in your company, so you’ll want to include key information like:

• The main ideas that you want to discuss in the remaining sections
• The purpose of your business and the main highlights
• You target audience
• A description of your company and its products or services
• The marketing strategies
• Your company’s vision and mission statements
• Market opportunities
• Competitive analysis
• Financial information
• Owners and staff
• Your future plans and goals

2. Do Research

When it comes to business plans, research is the most important step in the process. Your research should include:

• The market and competitors — Find out who’s already in your target market space, and what they’re doing well that you could learn from or improve upon as an entrepreneur and business owner.
• Industry trends — Researching industry trends will help provide context for your business plan by showing which areas of business are growing rapidly. This will also expose any weaknesses in your company’s strategy that could prevent growth down the road.
• Financial information — Look up financial information related specifically to you.
• Legal requirements — You also need to take into account any legal requirements for starting a business in your country.

3. Address All the Questions Investors May Ask

You should also have a list of questions that you expect investors will ask, and be prepared to answer them. If you don’t, someone else at the table may pose a question that makes you look unprepared. This can be embarrassing and could make investors question your ability to run the company.

Additionally, if investors are interested in learning more about your business, they’ll be asking questions anyway — so why not have some ready?

4. Focus on the Competitive Advantage

When it comes to presenting your business plan, you’re likely to be asked about the competitive advantage of your business. Your unique selling proposition (USP) is the essence of your business. It’s a short statement that describes what makes you different from other businesses in your field. A good USP will highlight any special features or advantages that make it easier for customers to buy from you instead of your competitors.

When you explain what sets your business apart from others, you’ll demonstrate that there is a need for what you’re offering and why people should choose it over other products or services.

How do you do this? In a few sentences, explain what sets your idea apart from all other similar ones. What makes it unique? How will it be different from competitors? If there aren’t any direct competitors, what is missing in the marketplace that makes yours a worthwhile investment opportunity?

Digi-Tip: You should also address any potential concerns about your abilities or experience.

5. Have a Business Plan Presentation

Preparing a business plan presentation is a lot like preparing a sales pitch. You have to make sure that you’re doing your best to convince potential investors that your company is worth their time and money.

Here are some tips for getting started:

• Start with the end in mind. What do you want investors to think when they’re done reading your plan? What do they need to hear from you? If you know what you want them to feel, it’ll be easier for you to figure out how best to present it.
• Include all the relevant information in one place. It’s easy for readers’ eyes to glaze over when they’re presented with too much information at once, so try grouping everything together in an easy-to-follow way.
• Use visuals like graphs, charts, and other visual representations of information when possible — this makes it easier for readers’ brains to process the information being presented and will help them remember what’s important when they go back over it later on.

Digi-Tip: Use design tools (e.g. Canva, Visme, Adobe Spark, etc.) to create a memorable and brand-themed presentation.

Hopefully, this article has helped you get started with your business plan. Remember that there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to writing one, so don’t be afraid to experiment. Good luck!

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10 Captivating Ways to Present a Business Plan to Investors Younger Than You

By Nina Sharpe

Only a few short years ago, Millennials were trading Pokémon cards and worrying whether they’d ever pay off student loans or own property. Now, one of the most driven generations the world has ever seen is all grown up and ready to invest. This means you could find yourself pitching a business plan to investors younger than you – and your presentation needs to be nothing less than captivating.

The generation of digital natives made it clear from the start that they were ready and willing to take Generation X’s bucking of trends to new levels. It’s clear that, if you pitch a business plan to younger investors, the one thing you cannot do is to take a traditional approach. How to Create A Business Plan

As different as the Millennials approach may be, the potential investors among them aren’t exempt from the fact that only 100 out of 1,000 pitches receive funding , and of those 100, only ten really succeed.

There’s no room for half-measures when approaching investors younger than you. Below are ten ways that you can make a great impression on a whole different generation.

1. Practice Makes Perfect

OK, the first tip doesn’t apply to the boardroom, office, or other location of the meeting between you and the potential investors. Instead, it needs to happen long before your meeting is due to start – the “it” being practising your pitch, then practising it again.

You need to practise until you can pitch your idea efficiently, fluently, and confidently. You’ll want to avoid umms, ahhs, and the lifeless reading of your notes during your presentation.

2. Dress For Success

We could repeat the old saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” until pigs fly, but even the publishing industry understands the importance of eye-catching, attractive cover art. The reality is that looks do count, and if you look like you don’t care about your appearance, investors may think that you’ll put as little effort into your proposed business idea.

On the other hand, if you dress in a way that conveys an air of confidence, competence, success, and style, you’re likely to be taken more seriously. As much as older generations laughed at Gen-X, Millennials, and Gen-Z, all three have shown themselves to be fashion-forward.

3. Be Enthusiastic And Passionate

No matter how many times you’ve pitched your idea, you need to bring passion and enthusiasm to your presentation.

When you’re trying to secure funding for a business plan, there’s no room for being a dead fish or clinging to your comfort zones. There are plenty of things in life that you can fake, but enthusiasm isn’t one of them. If you’re genuinely enthusiastic about your plan, investors with a go-getter attitude will recognise that you’ve got what it takes.

4. Use Storytelling In Your Presentation

For tens of thousands of years, human beings have gathered around fires, under trees, and in places of education, and told each other stories. There’s no denying the entertainment value of storytelling, but it’s also a powerful way of conveying ideas and making an unforgettable impression on the audience.

Tell the potential investors the story behind your idea and inject as much pathos into it as possible. Use video, memes, props, and any other related content in your storytelling. Include the facts and figures in the printed materials or digital documents you provide to back up your actions.

5. Be Attentive To Time

Time is an essential element when presenting a business plan to anyone – young or old. Ensure your pitch doesn’t take longer than 10 minutes. Tell them the presentation will take 10 minutes, and then deliver it in nine.

If they tell you that they will give you 15 minutes to pitch, do it in 10. But be sure to pace yourself, so you don’t sound rushed.

6. Maintain Your Focus

To be able to present a business plan using storytelling in 10 minutes or less you need to maintain your focus. Don’t deviate from the core elements of your pitch . They are the main points on which your potential investors will base their decision.

7. Explain Your Product And Why It’s Unique

Your presentation must leave no doubt about what your product is and why it’s unique. Explain it to the investors and do so in a way that’s short and sweet. If you have a prototype or example of your product that they can look at, even better.

8. Describe Your Target Audience And How You’ll Attract Them

Give your potential investors a graphic idea of who your target customer is and do it literally with the help of a picture and appropriate data points.

Include psychographics and demographics in this part of your presentation. You should also mention any marketing ideas or techniques you intend to use to showcase your product and attract your target customers. Be sure to outline a social media strategy in your business plan template too, as this speaks to the younger generation.

9. Include The Revenue Model

If investors decide to fund a business idea, they do so because they believe it will make them money. That’s what it’s all about, so be sure to explain the revenue model as part of your pitch. Let the investors know how you plan to apply that model in your business, why you are worthwhile investing in , and what ROI is expected.

10. Mention The Social And Environmental Impacts Of Your Idea

Young generations have shown overwhelming concern and support of environmental and social justice issues . If you’re pitching to investors younger than you, you can be sure that they’ll want to know whether their investment in your idea will have a positive or negative social or environmental impact.

Bonus Tip – Anticipate Their Questions

When writing and practising your pitch, try to anticipate any questions it may inspire in your potential investors. Then re-word where necessary to include the answers to those questions. This helps ensure your presentation is informative to the point that your audience may not need to ask any questions at all.

As you can see, the keys to pitching a business plan in captivating ways are to look the part, sound the part, and to be creative, passionate, and focused.

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How to Write an Investment Proposal [Template + Examples]

Published: June 28, 2024

As a writer, I’m extremely familiar with the concept of proposals. We write these sorts of proposals to convert clients, persuade buyers, and grow our business in the short term. However, investment proposals are a bit different — these proposals are written with a unique purpose for a specific audience and with some high stakes attached.

An investment proposal is the key to long-term business growth for many businesses, so it’s important to get it right.

In this article, I’ll define investment proposals, compare them to the business proposal, and then break down the components. I’ll provide a template, look at investment proposal examples, and even hear some tips for writing from a professional.

Table of Contents

What is an Investment Proposal?

Investment proposal vs. business proposal, 10 components of an investment proposal, how to write an investment proposal [+template], investment proposal examples [+tips].

An investment proposal is a document outlining the plan for a business. You use it to attract or convert investors to fund your organization. It covers the strategy of your business, the market, and financial projections, making it an essential document for conversion — empowering them to invest.

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5 Steps to Move Beyond Small Talk and Start the Business You've Always Dreamed of Make your business idea a reality by following these five no-nonsense steps.

By Gideon Kimbrell Edited by Chelsea Brown Jun 24, 2024

Key Takeaways

• Many aspiring entrepreneurs struggle to move beyond discussions and take the leap to build their businesses due to uncertainties and potential setbacks.
• This article highlights five key steps to help you turn your business idea into a reality.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

In the fast-paced world of entrepreneurship, turning ideas into action is often the hardest part. Many aspiring entrepreneurs find their business ideas stuck in endless dinner table conversations or coffee break chats, never moving beyond their initial idea. Taking the leap from discussing a business to building one can be daunting, full of uncertainties and potential setbacks.

In fact, business applications don't always result in business formations. Of the 20.4 million business applications filed between 2020 and 2023, only about 1.9 million businesses were actually formed, meaning less than 10% of applications come to fruition. This highlights the significant gap between intention and execution. To bridge this gap and help you turn your business idea from small talk into a tangible reality, here are five steps to guide you.

Related: Have a Business Idea? Here's How To Put It into Action.

1. Remember what spurred you to act

My journey into entrepreneurship started with a jolt. After being unfairly let go from a job where I'd given my all, I felt a mix of anger and determination. I'd cut their costs in half and boosted their revenue, yet there I was, out the door. It was a wake-up call — I never wanted to feel that powerless again. Not long after, I received multiple job offers, one from a Fortune 100 company and another from a hot Silicon Valley startup. I took both, working crazy hours and traveling, but I soon realized this wasn't sustainable. That's when I decided to hire help and fully commit to my own software development business. The key takeaway? Embrace what drives you. Use those intense experiences — whether it's feeling wronged or just wanting more control over your life — as the fuel to move past doubt and hesitation. Turn that passion into productive action.

2. Carve out the time

Many aspiring entrepreneurs wait for the perfect moment to start their business, but the truth is, there's no perfect time . Successful entrepreneurs often begin their journeys later in life, such as Vera Wang at age 40 and Ray Kroc at 52, proving that it's never too late to start. The key is to prioritize your venture and carve out dedicated time to work on it. Whether it's early mornings, late evenings or weekends, find a consistent slot in your schedule to focus on your business. Treat this time as sacred and non-negotiable. By making your startup a priority and consistently dedicating time to it, you'll steadily make progress and bring your vision to life.

3. Start small and scale up

Many aspiring entrepreneurs make the mistake of starting too big, which can be overwhelming. Instead, focus on the smallest viable version of your idea that solves a problem. Begin with a simple MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and test its traction before thinking about scaling up. Dedicate a consistent amount of time each week to your startup, even if it's just a few hours. Simplifying tasks and achieving small wins will build your confidence and keep you moving forward.

I take this approach when raising capital , which can be daunting, especially with the looming risk of rejection. I tackled this reluctance by taking small steps — reviewing previous investment materials, making initial edits and practicing pitches with trusted friends. This process gradually built my confidence and motivation, allowing me to refine my pitch and business plan effectively. Breaking the task into smaller steps helps you build momentum and overcome those initial doubts.

Related: Go Small or Go Home: Why Fast Growth Isn't the Best Solution for Your Startup

4. Get your first user quickly

Getting your first user or customer as soon as possible is crucial. Early feedback is invaluable for refining your product and ensuring you're on the right track. Start by developing your MVP, even if it requires external funding. If you don't have the funds to hire developers or build out the initial version, consider taking a small loan or seeking investment from friends and family.

The goal is to launch a "bare bones" but functional product to gather real-world feedback. This early input will help you make necessary adjustments and improve your offering before a larger rollout. Plus, having real users validates your idea and can make it easier to secure further investment. Take Airbnb, for example. The founders launched a basic version of their website during a conference in San Francisco to test their idea. This early feedback was critical in shaping the platform into the global giant it is today.

5. Find mentors and network effectively

Finding mentors and networking with other entrepreneurs can be game-changers for your business. Mentors provide invaluable advice and help keep you on track, drawing from their own experiences and expertise. Networking with fellow entrepreneurs offers motivation, insights and potential collaborations. However, focus on building informal connections over attending formal networking events. Informal settings tend to foster more genuine interactions and meaningful relationships. Discover where successful entrepreneurs gather — whether it's local bars, industry meetups, or casual events — and make an effort to connect organically.

These authentic relationships can provide support, inspiration and practical guidance as you navigate your entrepreneurial journey. According to the UPS Store, 70% of small businesses that receive mentoring survive for more than five years, which is double the survival rate of businesses that do not receive mentoring.

Related: 4 Benefits of Finding a Mentor

Take inspiration from successful entrepreneurs like Ryan Estis, who pushed through self-doubt to build his business. Estis's journey shows how crucial resilience and learning from mistakes are. As one of his mentors told him, "You're going to make mistakes. It's the ability to overcome those mistakes that's the litmus test of a good entrepreneur." By embracing these steps and tackling the journey with determination and resilience, you can move past the small talk and start building the business you've always dreamed of.

Co-Founder and CEO, InList.com

Gideon Kimbrell is the co-founder and CEO of Miami-based InList.com , an app for booking reservations at exclusive nightlife, charity, and entertainment events.

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