Don’t Pay Someone to Write Your Business Plan

I was asked the other day, “Can I pay you to write my business plan?” I said, “Sure.  But then it will be MY business plan, not yours.” Here is what would happen: You would tell me the essentials - the who, what, where, when, why, how - of your business but leave the details to me.  For example, in your marketing plan, maybe you would lay out what kind of marketing you want in your first year.  Then I would include all kinds of specifics that I think would be cool.  Same with your financial statements.  You would give me some rough estimates.  I would do the work to determine what I think are reasonable costs. Next Step: Talking to a Bank. After the business plan is complete, you (not me) would walk it over to the bank and sit down with a loan offer. Who would proceed to ask you all kinds of questions.  And you would not know the answers.  More than embarrassing, this would be the end of your hope for a loan from this bank. Even if you don’t need a loan, why would you have someone else write your business plan?  It’s your business; it should be your plan.  OK, I get that you don’t like to write.  But this does not have to be the Great American Novel.  It is just straightforward description of what you plan to do. A business plan is a living document.  It keeps changing.  If you decide later to go to a bank to get funds to expand, or move into a larger office, or add more equipment, you can dust off your business plan, update it quickly with current financial data, and away you go. I have said before that a business plan is essential to getting your business started right. So just get going and write the thing.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be complete. Image: lupoianfla@sxc.hu