How to Write a Business Plan in a Day (or less)
A business plan can take months, or a day
Sometimes you just need to write a business plan in a jiffy. Perhaps Aunt Matilda made extra money with her investments. Or your banker invites you to drop by that afternoon for a chat. (Hey, we can all dream.)You can handle this. You can even write your business plan with flair. Truly, sometimes the time pressure takes the stuffiness out of writing and you end up with something pretty good.
First, gather together all the information you will need, such as …
FINANCIAL SUMMARIES. If you have a quarterly from your accountant, great. If you have a summary from QuickBooks, that’s fine. Even a quick rundown on Sales, Expenses, Profits and Projections. Use what you’ve got. You don’t have time to create new material. If you are handy with Excel, create a graph showing growth trends.
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARIES. Pull summaries for your top people, yourself included. Update the summaries to reflect each person’s accomplishments in this company. Bios are the core to writing a business plan, so don't sluff over this step.
MARKETING SUMMARY. Pull recent articles and studies demonstrating the state of your industry. Newspaper and journal articles are best – they are most likely to be up to date. Highlight the sections you want your reader to note. Be sure the source of the article is clear. This can be the trickiest part to get together in a rush, but this is how to write a business plan in a jiffy.
GATHER TOGETHER THE PRESS. Pull anything that has been written about your company or its principals. It could be articles printed in rags, or press releases that you created yourself.
Then, put it all into a neat package.
~ Make copies of all the stuff. Don’t ever give out originals. But do make sure you are giving out good quality copies. Smudges just don’t fly.
~ Create labels or notes. “The Company Little League team came in third!” It may not be the greatest statement you can make, but it does demonstrate your involvement in the community, and that is no small matter.
~ Create a Summary Page to go on the front. As basic as it sounds, be sure to include the name of the company, address, phone number, web site and contact information. If your interested person is truly interested, make it as easy as possible for her to contact you.
~ Create a Table of Contents. Nothing fancy. But do give a one line summary of each item that is enclosed. Setting up tabs for each section makes it a lot easier for people to locate what they are looking for.
~ Create a cover sheet that is at least a bit eye catching. You don’t have time for serious graphics work, so look for photos, or articles, or logo images.
CREATE YOUR COVER LETTER “Dear Interested Person, this is not how I write a business plan.” Well, those aren’t the words to use, but that is the idea. Call it “Summary of the Company”, or “Selected Notes on the Company”, or “Brief Update on the Company”. But don’t call it a business plan. It’s not. Your “Interested Person” will know it isn’t, so don’t try to pass it off as more than it is.
And keep a copy. It sounds like a truism to say to keep a copy of everything that you give to outside parties, but when you’re in a hurry it is an easy to overlook step. Be sure to take those few minutes and make a full copy of everything you are handing out. And stick a note on top: This was given to Interest Person No. 14 on January 2, 2008.
Now, that wasn’t so bad, was it? And a jiffy plan has more uses. If you truly gathered together the information that you used to write this business plan, you would have a solid basis for beginning a formal business plan. Keep it handy, and keep the information updated. You just never know when you will need to present it to potential vendors or potential large customers. Vendors, in particular, have flexibility in terms they can grant your company. If your jiffy business plan impresses them, you could earn additional time to pay, or a higher discount for early payment. And it all adds up.
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