Business Plans

For an investor, a business plan gives a sense of direction and focus for the company.

Donald Trump mentions that with a business plan you will know where you are going, what you are doing, and how you will get where you want to be. Donald Trump started off in a military academy at the age of 13, and graduated with a degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. From there, he went into the real estate industry where his father was and began his career there. Now he is a billionaire and even has a television show about the workings of a business.

Oprah Winfrey notes that it makes you recognize the the tiny things that are usually overlooked and the what-if scenarios. Oprah Winfrey made her fame with “The Oprah Show” and in its first year had a profit of $125 million. She took over the show from ABC with her own production company, Harpo.

Some of key components investors are looking for in a business plan are:

The Executive Summary- Who will be running the company? A person with a Master’s background in the same field will look more appealing than a person who is just jumping into the field that he has no credibility in.

The Product- What is it that the company is selling exactly? It should be something that stands out and can be marketable, as well as not to offend any persons of any specific group.

Financials- You must be able to show how the business should do financially, because in the end, investors really only care about making money. If you’re in a field where 99% of the companies don’t make money, you have to be able to show why your company is capable of making the money.

Presentation- The business plan should be free of any errors. This includes spelling and grammatical mistakes, as well as information. The last thing you would need is a statistic in your business plan be wrong that you thought made your business look successful. You also want to keep the business plan relatively short, because investors are busy people and shouldn’t have to deal with a 100+ page document. A good length is around 20, and it shows you put some thought into your plan.


Sources:
http://bpexpertviews.blogspot.com/
http://help.bplans.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_winfrey