How to Create and Deliver a Winning Business Plan Presentation That Will Get You Money

If you're finishing up your business plan and starting to think about presenting the plan to potential investors and lenders, you MUST spend quality time and energy preparing your presentation. The business plan represents you and your company; it doesn't have to be in a gold embossed leather binder with four color photographs but it does have to look professional. So after you have written the final edit of your plan, ask yourself these questions:

Does the business plan include a title page with your company name, a person's name and the address and phone numbers? Don't just clip a business card to the front page, it could get separated.

Has your business plan been proofed and spell checked? And by a real person, not just your word processor?

Did you check all abbreviations or acronyms to make sure the first time they're used they're explained, ie., World Wide Web (www)?

Have you gone through the business plan to make sure all technical terms are explained?

Are the pages numbered?

Do the page numbers for the index match the actual page numbers?

Have you edited the business plan to see what you can include in the Appendix rather than in the body of the business plan?

Has someone unfamiliar with your company read the business plan and understood it?

Is your executive summary limited to no more than 3 pages?

Have you had someone unfamiliar with your company read just the executive summary and understand your company?

Are your margins at least one inch wide on each side, top and bottom?

Is your font size at least 11, preferably 12?

If you are using a word processing system which allows color graphics, have you changed the color graphics to grayscale for printing? Or will you be printing the business plan in color?

Have you checked to make sure you didn't use too many fonts and font sizes?

Have you taken advantage of bullet points, shading, indents, and borders to add visual interest to your business plan? (Just don't go overboard.)

Do you make judicious use of graphs, charts and graphics to make your points? If not, consider making the extra time to add these in - if you need help, get a staff person to research or create the graphics you will need. And make them color, if possible, for better effect.

Is the use of your page titles and headings consistent in format throughout the business plan?

You can print your business plan on both sides of the paper, just make sure it's printed on quality paper so that the printing doesn't bleed through to the other side.

If you are using duplicating or copying services to print your business plans, is the quality nearly perfect?

The main thing to consider it: When my prospective funder picks up this booklet, will they be drawn in? Will it be pleasing to the eye and engaging of the mind? Follow these tips and your business plan will indeed have these effects and more for your intended target - possible investors, partners or buyers.

Henri Schauffler, the CEO Coach, has been helping independent CEOs, home business executives and small business owners learn how to grow their businesses for over 20 years. To get the rest of these "7 Things You Must Know..." click here: http://www.EntrepreneurFreedom.com/article Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Henri_Schauffler

4 Tips For Writing a Killer Business Plan

So you've decided you need to write a business plan - now what? Where do you start? Here are four quick tips that will help you get going right away. The main thing is to GET STARTED. Here's how:

A business plan is in essence a creative writing project. You want the plan to be an interesting read, not a long pedantic discussion. When you're approaching lenders or investors, you have to put on your marketing hat and make your company's future sound exciting.

So write your plan as an exciting description of the opportunity you see that lies ahead. Are you excited (you should be!). Then let that excitement shine through in the narrative of your business plan. You want to infect the reader with the same excitement you have, don't you?!

WRITE YOUR PLAN IN A STYLE THAT FITS YOUR INDUSTRY AND YOUR OWN STYLE

The business plan for a sports bar company would sound much different than a plan for a bank. Make your plan sound like you; put some of your personality and philosophy in the plan, so after reading the plan an investor or lender would feel as though he/she knows you.

BE ENTHUSIASTIC IN YOUR APPROACH

When you talk to entrepreneurs about their company, they usually get so enthusiastic that they almost wear you out. Then you get their business plan and it reads like the operations manual that came with your DVD player. The purpose of the business plan is to create excitement in the minds of the investors, in other words to activate the area of their brains devoted to greed. If you can't be enthusiastic about your business plan who can?

AVOID GETTING MIRED IN INDUSTRY JARGON

Internet companies, medical companies and computer companies all tend to dwell on minute details about their technology and don't adequately develop the business reasons why they are going to make money for themselves and the investors. Explain the technology in layman's terms and then focus on why your company will make money and how it will make money.

BE OPEN ABOUT THE RISKS AS WELL AS THE OPPORTUNITIES

There are downsides to every business venture, recognizing those risks shows that you've considered all the alternatives. In the discussion come up with how your company will react to certain risks. That demonstrates smart management.

A CD ROM CAN'T REPLACE YOUR MIND!

More and more entrepreneurs are relying on business plan writing software. These products are sometimes helpful in formatting the plan and creating the financial schedules, but they can't formulate your strategies for you. The heart of the business plan is explaining how you are going to sell more of your product or service than your competitors, and operate your business at high enough profit margins to generate a superior rate of return for investors.

The CD-ROM you might purchase has no idea how to do any of this. It's spent nearly all of its life on a shelf, in a box. How exciting is that?

The main idea here is that, to engage the reader of your plan, you need to share your sense of excitement about the opportunity. Yes, you will have lots of analysis, SWOT, financials and the like, but you want to make sure that your reader is engaged and interested from the first paragraph - so get excited, already!

Henri Schauffler, the CEO Coach, has been helping independent CEOs, home business executives and small business owners learn how to grow their businesses for over 20 years. To get the rest of these "7 Things You Must Know..." click here: http://www.EntrepreneurFreedom.com/article Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Henri_Schauffler