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Add You - Serious About Writing A Business Plan... Start A Business Plan Library
Ask any hundred people whether they’re interested in increasing their wealth, and all 100 of them will say yes. But ask them if they’re ‘serious’ about it, about half will shrug. Heck, most people aren’t even ‘serious’ about their health, let alone their wealth, but it’s those people who are truly committed to action that make a real difference in their own lives. The major difference between the wealthy and the poor is that wealthy people take action (since they are committed to their wealth), whereas the poor are people who tend to think about change, but rarely take the actions necessary to make it.If you are serious about increasing your wealth, then you are going to want to read this article, because it’s the starting point – this is where it all gets very serious, and where change will follow.So you are committed, right? Since you still reading, you must be. Okay, let’s get to the meat of the issue.Many people have heard of ‘passive income’ but very few fully understand what it means. Passive income is defined as income that you do not have to work for. In other words, if you are on a sunny beach vacationing with your family, you can still be earning money. The key to generating ongoing and growing wealth is to work for passive income, instead of working income.For example, if you are a Doctor, Lawyer, Waiter or Astronaut, once you stop working, you make no money. Your working income is gone. You may have plenty of money, but you don’t make more unless you put on your work clothes, get in the
Start with Edward Baily; he wrote a surprisingly straightforward book called The Plain English Approach to Business Writing. This book, The Plain English Approach to Business Writing, is about writing as you would talk, which not only makes your writing easier to read, it's also makes it easier to write. In a brief, entertaining 124 pages Baily clearly lays out the dos and don'ts of plan English, illustrating them with examples drawn from business documents, technical manuals, trade publications, and the works of writers like Russell Baker and John D. MacDonald. The Plain English Approach to Business Writing offers practical advice on clarity, precision, organization, layout, and many other topics. Best of all, you can read it an hour...and use it for the rest of your life.
But writing well is only a part of writing. A good business plan must be persuasive. Listen carefully to what I just said: persuasive. Not misleading or untruthful, but persuasive.
Here's a book you need to look at Persuading on Paper. How's that for a title? Persuading on Paper by Marcia Yudkin. Yudkin is a writing consultant who coaches small-business owners and professionals on improving their marketing materials. In a witty and vivid style, Persuading on Paper shows you how to use the written word to convert strangers to prospects to paying customers (or in our case, investors). What I like about this book is that Yudkin takes you step-by-step th
A few months ago, we attended the recent Austech 2005 Expo. It was a large trade show that showcased over 500 manufacturers selling machines, equipment and systems.The good news was that around 40% of the exhibitors had a trade show video running. It was inspiring that many exhibitors understood the power of video to quickly convey how their products work. Made us feel warm and fuzzy inside.The bad news was that most of the videos were absolutely appalling.Why so appalling you ask? Some were bad because they had no idea of the power of production values in giving the right impression to their target market. Others had no strategy whatsoever.You need a trade show video strategyA lot of companies believe that playing their marketing video at a trade show is all there is to it.The main purpose of a marketing video is to sell a product or service. It talks about your point of differentiation, how your product works, how it can be used and it all comes together with believable testimonials. It tells your company story in around 5-8 minutes.This is perfectly suitable for showing your video in a peaceful and comfortable area – such as an office or boardroom. Where there are usually comfy seats and even surround sound for the ultimate viewing experience.By comparison, the trade show video has a difficult life. It only has seconds to grab the attention of weary passers-by. It has to make itself heard against the din of the booming PA system. And it has to be interesting e
Sample Business Plans
Start by gathering sample business plans. Look at the annual reports and S-1s, S-4s, 10ks, or 10Qs filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of companies in your industry. See how they present their case, explain their business, and discuss their industry and competition.
What exactly are these forms and how do you get them? Good question.
These are forms that public companies must file with the SEC in order to register their securities or to maintain the registration of previously registered securities with the SEC. You can find these forms by going to www.sec.gov, clicking on the Edgar database, and searching for a public company in your industry.
The key is to find the most helpful filings. These are the ones labeled S-1, S-4, 10K, and 10Q. They usually contain descriptions of the business, its products, industry, competitors and strategies. Sections that should sound familiar to you if you are planning to write a business plan.
Go to these sections and read how the company presents their business and its products. Look at how they describe the industry and their competitors. I encourage you to read as many filings in your industry as possible. See what the “big guys” are saying, the issues, challenges, and trends they see in the industry and how they’re attacking them.
Be careful though about mimicking what they write. Many of these documents are written in legalese despite the SEC’s protestations and push for plain English. Just remember, you’re doing this exercise to see how other companies have built their case to business investors.
Another approach is to gather and read professionally written business plans of companies in your industry and use them as guides to prepare your plan. Try to avoid generic business plan templates. They're too general and often not worth the investment. Either way. Start filling your business plan library with business plans and registration statements. Keep them close by and refer to them often as you write your business plan.
Strategy
Now, here's a good book to start your business plan library with. It's called: Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter. In this landmark book, Competitive Strategy, Porter shows you how to identify the forces that drive competition in your industry. Learn what moves your competitors are likely to make within it. Competitive Strategy provides a framework for evaluating the competitive alternatives you must consider and for thinking about how to change the rules of the marketplace in your favor. Competitive Strategy is the bible venture capitalist, investment bankers, and business development executives use when analyzing an industry or business venture. I use this book as the centerpiece of my business plan library. So I'm just asking you to take a look at Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter. If it suits you fine, if it doesn't suit you, keep looking till you find something that helps you understand strategy.
Opening your mind to strategic alternatives is a creative process. You can never have too many books on strategy in your business plan library. Read as much as you can to learn why some companies can sell their products more cheaply than others. Why others provide the best products...products that are just far superior to their competition. And, why some companies just always seem to provide unmatched service.
Fill your business plan library with business books that inspire, challenge and answer these questions. Read. Read. Read. And, study too. Find out how some companies are reinventing competition in their markets and obtaining funding while others are seemingly oblivious to the changing world around them.
Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema set out to find answers to these types of questions in their book The Discipline of Market Leaders. Although the authors won't appreciate this comment, I found the underlying fundamentals in The Discipline of Market Leaders to closely parallel those laid out by Porter in Competitive Strategy. Perhaps that's why I like it so much. The difference, however, is that they present their material in a less academic, more engaging way. And, they provide excellent case studies that are sure to generate many aha's! The Discipline of Market Leaders will make you think about what it is your company or new venture does better than anyone else; what unique value do you provide to your customers? How will you continually increase that value? If you can't easily answer these questions about your business, The Discipline of Market Leaders is required reading and a must for your business plan library. The business owners and entrepreneurs that can answer these questions are not only raising the value bar in their industries, they're raising capital for their businesses!
Finance and Economics
Be sure to keep your business plan library well balanced...
Let me give you a sense of that balance. First is finance and economics. We all have got to have a sense of how to make money...the universal laws of business success, no matter whether you are selling fruit from a stand or running a Fortune 500 company. Finance and economics are the basic building blocks of business. Your business plan library needs a few books on the numbers. When you understand the basics of finance and economics its possible to bringing the most complex business down to the fundamentals. You become empowered to focus on the basics and make money from your venture.
Here's a good book to help you in this area: What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. What the CEO Wants You to Know captures the basics of finance and economics and explains in clear, simple language how to do what great business owners and entrepreneurs do instinctively and persistently. Charan explains the basic building blocks of business and how to use them to figure out how your company can, does, or will make money and operate as a total business. Learn how to use these building blocks to cut through the clutter of day-to-day business and the complexity of the real world. What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. This little book is only a 137 pages: but I'm telling you, it's so well written you'll be as intrigued as I was. What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. Get it for your business plan library.
Writing
Next is writing. You have to be able to get your thoughts down on paper. Businessese, academese, legalese - all appear too often in business plans. Often preventing a knowledgeable writer with good intensions to fail at getting the message across to an intelligent, interested reader. For some reason, when people write business plans they are compelled to write "commence" and "prior to" instead of "begin" and "before." If you want to write an effective business plan, your business plan library must have books on how to be an effective writer.
Start with Edward Baily; he wrote a surprisingly straightforward book called The Plain English Approach to Business Writing. This book, The Plain English Approach to Business Writing, is about writing as you would talk, which not only makes your writing easier to read, it's also makes it easier to write. In a brief, entertaining 124 pages Baily clearly lays out the dos and don'ts of plan English, illustrating them with examples drawn from business documents, technical manuals, trade publications, and the works of writers like Russell Baker and John D. MacDonald. The Plain English Approach to Business Writing offers practical advice on clarity, precision, organization, layout, and many other topics. Best of all, you can read it an hour...and use it for the rest of your life.
But writing well is only a part of writing. A good business plan must be persuasive. Listen carefully to what I just said: persuasive. Not misleading or untruthful, but persuasive.
Here's a book you need to look at Persuading on Paper. How's that for a title? Persuading on Paper by Marcia Yudkin. Yudkin is a writing consultant who coaches small-business owners and professionals on improving their marketing materials. In a witty and vivid style, Persuading on Paper shows you how to use the written word to convert strangers to prospects to paying customers (or in our case, investors). What I like about this book is that Yudkin takes you step-by-step th
I understand the concept of complacency. Been there and done that. Complacency, according to the dictionary, is being pleased with oneself or one’s merits, advantages, and situation, often without awareness of potential danger. Have you ever been complacent? Have you ever been very happy with a situation, only to realize later that things weren’t really so great? It’s been my experience in almost 20 years of business that at one time or another, all businesses fall into the complacency trap and as the song goes, you never realize what you have until it’s gone.For many years I was the President and Owner of my family’s chain of wine stores. I remember times when things were great, and could hardly imagine things could be different. Only, things were slowly changing, unbeknownst to me For starters, Costco arrived with a flourish on the wine and spirit scene. As the number one seller of wine in the U.S., Costco has had a profound impact on the fortunes of independent retailers. At the same time, costs were going up across the board. For example, our insurance premiums (post 9/11) went through the roof. Other expense categories like real estate taxes, health insurance and workers compensation premiums were all rising. It became more difficult to run the business the way we had in the past.We fought through our “complacency” stage. You can also, but you have to ask the right questions and seek answers you don’t necessarily want. Read the following eight questions, and start protecting your company from the
Be careful though about mimicking what they write. Many of these documents are written in legalese despite the SEC’s protestations and push for plain English. Just remember, you’re doing this exercise to see how other companies have built their case to business investors.
Another approach is to gather and read professionally written business plans of companies in your industry and use them as guides to prepare your plan. Try to avoid generic business plan templates. They're too general and often not worth the investment. Either way. Start filling your business plan library with business plans and registration statements. Keep them close by and refer to them often as you write your business plan.
Strategy
Now, here's a good book to start your business plan library with. It's called: Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter. In this landmark book, Competitive Strategy, Porter shows you how to identify the forces that drive competition in your industry. Learn what moves your competitors are likely to make within it. Competitive Strategy provides a framework for evaluating the competitive alternatives you must consider and for thinking about how to change the rules of the marketplace in your favor. Competitive Strategy is the bible venture capitalist, investment bankers, and business development executives use when analyzing an industry or business venture. I use this book as the centerpiece of my business plan library. So I'm just asking you to take a look at Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter. If it suits you fine, if it doesn't suit you, keep looking till you find something that helps you understand strategy.
Opening your mind to strategic alternatives is a creative process. You can never have too many books on strategy in your business plan library. Read as much as you can to learn why some companies can sell their products more cheaply than others. Why others provide the best products...products that are just far superior to their competition. And, why some companies just always seem to provide unmatched service.
Fill your business plan library with business books that inspire, challenge and answer these questions. Read. Read. Read. And, study too. Find out how some companies are reinventing competition in their markets and obtaining funding while others are seemingly oblivious to the changing world around them.
Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema set out to find answers to these types of questions in their book The Discipline of Market Leaders. Although the authors won't appreciate this comment, I found the underlying fundamentals in The Discipline of Market Leaders to closely parallel those laid out by Porter in Competitive Strategy. Perhaps that's why I like it so much. The difference, however, is that they present their material in a less academic, more engaging way. And, they provide excellent case studies that are sure to generate many aha's! The Discipline of Market Leaders will make you think about what it is your company or new venture does better than anyone else; what unique value do you provide to your customers? How will you continually increase that value? If you can't easily answer these questions about your business, The Discipline of Market Leaders is required reading and a must for your business plan library. The business owners and entrepreneurs that can answer these questions are not only raising the value bar in their industries, they're raising capital for their businesses!
Finance and Economics
Be sure to keep your business plan library well balanced...
Let me give you a sense of that balance. First is finance and economics. We all have got to have a sense of how to make money...the universal laws of business success, no matter whether you are selling fruit from a stand or running a Fortune 500 company. Finance and economics are the basic building blocks of business. Your business plan library needs a few books on the numbers. When you understand the basics of finance and economics its possible to bringing the most complex business down to the fundamentals. You become empowered to focus on the basics and make money from your venture.
Here's a good book to help you in this area: What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. What the CEO Wants You to Know captures the basics of finance and economics and explains in clear, simple language how to do what great business owners and entrepreneurs do instinctively and persistently. Charan explains the basic building blocks of business and how to use them to figure out how your company can, does, or will make money and operate as a total business. Learn how to use these building blocks to cut through the clutter of day-to-day business and the complexity of the real world. What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. This little book is only a 137 pages: but I'm telling you, it's so well written you'll be as intrigued as I was. What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. Get it for your business plan library.
Writing
Next is writing. You have to be able to get your thoughts down on paper. Businessese, academese, legalese - all appear too often in business plans. Often preventing a knowledgeable writer with good intensions to fail at getting the message across to an intelligent, interested reader. For some reason, when people write business plans they are compelled to write "commence" and "prior to" instead of "begin" and "before." If you want to write an effective business plan, your business plan library must have books on how to be an effective writer.
Start with Edward Baily; he wrote a surprisingly straightforward book called The Plain English Approach to Business Writing. This book, The Plain English Approach to Business Writing, is about writing as you would talk, which not only makes your writing easier to read, it's also makes it easier to write. In a brief, entertaining 124 pages Baily clearly lays out the dos and don'ts of plan English, illustrating them with examples drawn from business documents, technical manuals, trade publications, and the works of writers like Russell Baker and John D. MacDonald. The Plain English Approach to Business Writing offers practical advice on clarity, precision, organization, layout, and many other topics. Best of all, you can read it an hour...and use it for the rest of your life.
But writing well is only a part of writing. A good business plan must be persuasive. Listen carefully to what I just said: persuasive. Not misleading or untruthful, but persuasive.
Here's a book you need to look at Persuading on Paper. How's that for a title? Persuading on Paper by Marcia Yudkin. Yudkin is a writing consultant who coaches small-business owners and professionals on improving their marketing materials. In a witty and vivid style, Persuading on Paper shows you how to use the written word to convert strangers to prospects to paying customers (or in our case, investors). What I like about this book is that Yudkin takes you step-by-step th
Use any of these proven techniques for marketing to increase sales. Entrepreneurs, Consultants and Business Developers can find additional information by visiting http://www.sellingadifference.comTip #1: Embark on a careful linking strategyThere are many ways for your company to appear as one of the top ten in a search engine database without having to pay money out of your marketing budget. One easy way is to do some simple research. For example, go to www.google.com and enter in some key words that would bring visitors to your own site. Make a note of the companies that appear in the top ten list to research their linking strategy.Once you have compiled your Top Ten List, use a free service like www.alexa.com to find out their linking strategy. You can find out who these companies are linking to, who is linking to them, how much traffic they are receiving and related-sites information.Use this information to craft a reciprocal link proposal. To make it easy for these sites to accept your offer, let them know that you have already added their link to your website and why you have done so. Like any good proposal, the benefits of a reciprocal relationship should be laid out clearly and succinctly.One of the easiest and fastest ways to build your linking program is to submit your site to directories.Tip #2: Use Pay-Per-Click OptionsIf your website isn’t generating a lot of traffic at this point, there are great pay-per-click options available like www.overture.com and Google
Fill your business plan library with business books that inspire, challenge and answer these questions. Read. Read. Read. And, study too. Find out how some companies are reinventing competition in their markets and obtaining funding while others are seemingly oblivious to the changing world around them.
Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema set out to find answers to these types of questions in their book The Discipline of Market Leaders. Although the authors won't appreciate this comment, I found the underlying fundamentals in The Discipline of Market Leaders to closely parallel those laid out by Porter in Competitive Strategy. Perhaps that's why I like it so much. The difference, however, is that they present their material in a less academic, more engaging way. And, they provide excellent case studies that are sure to generate many aha's! The Discipline of Market Leaders will make you think about what it is your company or new venture does better than anyone else; what unique value do you provide to your customers? How will you continually increase that value? If you can't easily answer these questions about your business, The Discipline of Market Leaders is required reading and a must for your business plan library. The business owners and entrepreneurs that can answer these questions are not only raising the value bar in their industries, they're raising capital for their businesses!
Finance and Economics
Be sure to keep your business plan library well balanced...
Let me give you a sense of that balance. First is finance and economics. We all have got to have a sense of how to make money...the universal laws of business success, no matter whether you are selling fruit from a stand or running a Fortune 500 company. Finance and economics are the basic building blocks of business. Your business plan library needs a few books on the numbers. When you understand the basics of finance and economics its possible to bringing the most complex business down to the fundamentals. You become empowered to focus on the basics and make money from your venture.
Here's a good book to help you in this area: What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. What the CEO Wants You to Know captures the basics of finance and economics and explains in clear, simple language how to do what great business owners and entrepreneurs do instinctively and persistently. Charan explains the basic building blocks of business and how to use them to figure out how your company can, does, or will make money and operate as a total business. Learn how to use these building blocks to cut through the clutter of day-to-day business and the complexity of the real world. What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. This little book is only a 137 pages: but I'm telling you, it's so well written you'll be as intrigued as I was. What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. Get it for your business plan library.
Writing
Next is writing. You have to be able to get your thoughts down on paper. Businessese, academese, legalese - all appear too often in business plans. Often preventing a knowledgeable writer with good intensions to fail at getting the message across to an intelligent, interested reader. For some reason, when people write business plans they are compelled to write "commence" and "prior to" instead of "begin" and "before." If you want to write an effective business plan, your business plan library must have books on how to be an effective writer.
Start with Edward Baily; he wrote a surprisingly straightforward book called The Plain English Approach to Business Writing. This book, The Plain English Approach to Business Writing, is about writing as you would talk, which not only makes your writing easier to read, it's also makes it easier to write. In a brief, entertaining 124 pages Baily clearly lays out the dos and don'ts of plan English, illustrating them with examples drawn from business documents, technical manuals, trade publications, and the works of writers like Russell Baker and John D. MacDonald. The Plain English Approach to Business Writing offers practical advice on clarity, precision, organization, layout, and many other topics. Best of all, you can read it an hour...and use it for the rest of your life.
But writing well is only a part of writing. A good business plan must be persuasive. Listen carefully to what I just said: persuasive. Not misleading or untruthful, but persuasive.
Here's a book you need to look at Persuading on Paper. How's that for a title? Persuading on Paper by Marcia Yudkin. Yudkin is a writing consultant who coaches small-business owners and professionals on improving their marketing materials. In a witty and vivid style, Persuading on Paper shows you how to use the written word to convert strangers to prospects to paying customers (or in our case, investors). What I like about this book is that Yudkin takes you step-by-step th
Everyone wears clothing, so why not use it to promote your business? Promotional polo shirts, caps, t-shirts and other swag with your logo on it can promote your business in ways you never thought possible. Here are some unusual ways to promote your business using promotional polo shirts or other promotional apparel.Have a photo contest.Photo contests bring out the competitor in everyone. Offer a free promotional polo shirt with your company’s logo on it, and offer a prize for the best photo taken of a person wearing your shirt. Hold the contest in store with customer votes deciding the winner. You get multiple opportunities for promotion – customers must visit your store to get their t-shirt, drop off their photo and vote for their favorites. In addition, you’ll get the publicity generated by the contest and the exposure of all those people wearing your logo on their chests. You’ll also get great promotional materials for months worth of advertising in the form of photos that you can use in your advertisements and publicity.Send out the street guerillas.Guerilla marketing is gaining momentum. It’s marketing taken to the streets instead of the usual outlets. Most companies hire models to hand out samples of their products, or coupons for their services. Go for high impact notice. Team up with a youth group to publicize a charity event. Dress the whole group in matching polo shirts with your company logo on it and send them out to blanket the streets in your col
Be sure to keep your business plan library well balanced...
Let me give you a sense of that balance. First is finance and economics. We all have got to have a sense of how to make money...the universal laws of business success, no matter whether you are selling fruit from a stand or running a Fortune 500 company. Finance and economics are the basic building blocks of business. Your business plan library needs a few books on the numbers. When you understand the basics of finance and economics its possible to bringing the most complex business down to the fundamentals. You become empowered to focus on the basics and make money from your venture.
Here's a good book to help you in this area: What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. What the CEO Wants You to Know captures the basics of finance and economics and explains in clear, simple language how to do what great business owners and entrepreneurs do instinctively and persistently. Charan explains the basic building blocks of business and how to use them to figure out how your company can, does, or will make money and operate as a total business. Learn how to use these building blocks to cut through the clutter of day-to-day business and the complexity of the real world. What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. This little book is only a 137 pages: but I'm telling you, it's so well written you'll be as intrigued as I was. What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. Get it for your business plan library.
Writing
Next is writing. You have to be able to get your thoughts down on paper. Businessese, academese, legalese - all appear too often in business plans. Often preventing a knowledgeable writer with good intensions to fail at getting the message across to an intelligent, interested reader. For some reason, when people write business plans they are compelled to write "commence" and "prior to" instead of "begin" and "before." If you want to write an effective business plan, your business plan library must have books on how to be an effective writer.
Start with Edward Baily; he wrote a surprisingly straightforward book called The Plain English Approach to Business Writing. This book, The Plain English Approach to Business Writing, is about writing as you would talk, which not only makes your writing easier to read, it's also makes it easier to write. In a brief, entertaining 124 pages Baily clearly lays out the dos and don'ts of plan English, illustrating them with examples drawn from business documents, technical manuals, trade publications, and the works of writers like Russell Baker and John D. MacDonald. The Plain English Approach to Business Writing offers practical advice on clarity, precision, organization, layout, and many other topics. Best of all, you can read it an hour...and use it for the rest of your life.
But writing well is only a part of writing. A good business plan must be persuasive. Listen carefully to what I just said: persuasive. Not misleading or untruthful, but persuasive.
Here's a book you need to look at Persuading on Paper. How's that for a title? Persuading on Paper by Marcia Yudkin. Yudkin is a writing consultant who coaches small-business owners and professionals on improving their marketing materials. In a witty and vivid style, Persuading on Paper shows you how to use the written word to convert strangers to prospects to paying customers (or in our case, investors). What I like about this book is that Yudkin takes you step-by-step th
We all know the difference between a generic “great job” and praise that really shows appreciation of the work we did. If you are asked to honor a co-worker, volunteer, or colleague, it’s worth the extra effort to find ways to personalize that tribute. Even if it’s a stand-up, quick moment of public praise, rather than a formal speech, making it personal boosts the morale of the person honored, as well as all those who are listening. And it will make you feel pretty good, too.But what do you do when you don’t know the person being honored? I am sometimes asked to write a script for an award presentation. I'm not even giving the talk myself. Although not ideal, there are ways that I deal with this situation.Ask for anecdotes. If I have the opportunity, I ask the person being honored for specifics. For example, if are awarding a great teacher, what made him or her enter the profession? What was the first day in the classroom like? What keeps them going week after week?Ask around. Oftentimes, of course, the honor is a surprise, and direct questions may not be possible. In these cases, there may be specifics to pull from if a nomination packet was prepared, or I discreetly ask colleagues or friends. They will no doubt have some examples of ways that the person really shines. Funny stories—as long as they are not mean-spirited to the honoree or anyone else—are welcome. For example, I had to write a script to honor six teachers who won a prestigious national award. Their colleagues could share wry sto
Start with Edward Baily; he wrote a surprisingly straightforward book called The Plain English Approach to Business Writing. This book, The Plain English Approach to Business Writing, is about writing as you would talk, which not only makes your writing easier to read, it's also makes it easier to write. In a brief, entertaining 124 pages Baily clearly lays out the dos and don'ts of plan English, illustrating them with examples drawn from business documents, technical manuals, trade publications, and the works of writers like Russell Baker and John D. MacDonald. The Plain English Approach to Business Writing offers practical advice on clarity, precision, organization, layout, and many other topics. Best of all, you can read it an hour...and use it for the rest of your life.
But writing well is only a part of writing. A good business plan must be persuasive. Listen carefully to what I just said: persuasive. Not misleading or untruthful, but persuasive.
Here's a book you need to look at Persuading on Paper. How's that for a title? Persuading on Paper by Marcia Yudkin. Yudkin is a writing consultant who coaches small-business owners and professionals on improving their marketing materials. In a witty and vivid style, Persuading on Paper shows you how to use the written word to convert strangers to prospects to paying customers (or in our case, investors). What I like about this book is that Yudkin takes you step-by-step through the process of creating marketing materials that sell. Don't underestimate the power of marketing copy in your business plan. You'll be surprised how her methods and strategies can help create a more powerful business plan. Persuading on Paper is a must-have for anyone who wants to attract more clients, customers, or investors.
Raising Capital
Next is an understanding of the process of obtaining capital. No business plan library would be complete without a book on the process of raising capital. Without capital your venture is destined for failure. You need to learn how to select the right venture capital firm, make presentations, and negotiate your deal.
Try this book: The Venture Capital Handbook by David Gladstone. As an executive officer at Allied Capital Corporation, a large publicly-owned, venture capital firm in the United States, David has reviewed many proposals for venture capital financing. The Venture Capital Handbook takes you through the entire process from presentation through negotiations, commitment letters, legal closings, due diligence, the exit by the venture capital company, to when the entrepreneur is left to own it all. As a result, The Venture Capital Handbook provides anyone who wants to spend the time and money with an insight into what venture capitalists really want. Prepare for the process of raising venture capital with The Venture Capital Handbook.
Selling
Finally, study the art of selling. Like it or not, when you are trying to start a business venture or raise money for your business you have to sell investors on why they should invest with you. It's like a rite of passage. But fast talking salesmanship won't raise the money you need for your business. You need an approach that respects the power of the investor…one that builds a relationship with investors. So, fill your business plan library with books on selling and presenting.
Here's a book to try: Socratic Selling by Kevin Daley with Emmett Wolfe. Socratic Selling as the title implies, uses the Socratic Method: "A method of teaching or discussion, as used by Socrates, in which one asks a series of easily answered questions which inevitably lead the answerer to a logical conclusion" (Webster's Unabridged). Dalely's concise, easy-to-follow chapters explain how to open a sales dialogue and go right to the heart of the matter. Socratic Selling is a fun and informative 162 pages for those of us who believe selling means talking with, not at, investors. Study these techniques; they can make you more effective with potential investors.
If you are serious about writing your business plan...show it. Start a business plan library that shows you are a serious student of business plans. Fill it with business plans, public filings and annual reports of businesses in your industry. Stay away from those generic business plan templates. They are too general. And, Read, read, read and study too about strategy, finance, economics, writing, selling, and how to raise capital. Spend the money. Buy the books. The reward can be great...a funded business plan.
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