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Some people think it’s best to answer all possible questions in a business plan. Most people who read a lot of business plans would disagree.
Webology consultant Stowe Boyd prefers a 10-page document that includes enough information to get the point across, without rambling. Stowe lays out the process.
I’ve written a few business plans in my day, and read lots. Less really is more.
This approach might not work if you’re launching a commercial bank, or some other company in a heavily-regulated environment. There are times when you have to anticipate and answer many questions that anal-retentive regulators are going to ask.
But for my money, a short business plan should be able to tell the important aspects of your concept. There’s nothing wrong with including several accompanying documents that provide a more detailed description of some aspects of your plans.
Here is what Stowe says you can do with 10 pages:
- Executive Summary — 1 page
- About The Business — includes company legal status, history, and trimmed-to-the-bone bios of the management team — 1 page
- The Product (or Service) — the description and value proposition of the company’s product or services — 2 pages
- Market and Competition – description, size, and trends in the market; and trimmed-to-the-bone description of competitors — 2 pages
- Technology (or Processes) — A condensed overview of the technology that underlies the product (or service). (Note: I believe that tech companies need another document, geared for techies, that details the product’s design, status, and product roadmap in detail, as well.) — 1 page
- Sales and Marketing — How are people going to find out about the product/service, how do you engage with them to get them to pay for it, and how much does it cost? — 2 pages
- Financials — A condensed description of the company’s finances, especially with regard to sources and uses of cash. (Note: the company will need more in depth financials, as well, but they should be represented in different formats, not in a business plan.) — 1 page
He adds that the other benefit of condensing your business plan into a short format is that you can’t have large, rambling sections on different aspects of your plans that read like they were written by different authors (because they were).
Summing it all up concisely forces you to enunciate your company’s objectives quickly and clearly.
Update: I added some extra text to indicate what were Stowe’s original ideas (most of this post), as a reader could have assumed these were my responses to Stowe’s thoughts, rather than just summarizing what he said.
Tags: business, strategy, startups, entrepreneur, business plans, companies, management, clarity
This has everything to do with knowing who your investment customer will be. We can assume a bank will demand the 40 page version, yet a private lender may base there decision on different criteria. Ask your investor if they want a 10 or 40 page version – they will happily tell you their preference. Have both available.
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These are great ideas. Having it short and sweet not only benefits the person who reads it, but you will be able to better explain your business to others.
Sorry about that, I’ll fix it.
I think you should do a better job with quotation marks: it’s not clear who wrote what here.