How to Write Business Plans That Work

Writing a startup business plan that works is not as hard as it may seem at first. You may hear dire statistics about the low rate of business plan acceptance by investors and lenders, but you must keep in mind that many fail to achieve funding because of entirely avoidable mistakes.

These are a couple of the common mistakes that can cause a business plan to miss out on funding:

Sections Fail to Fulfill Their Purpose

Every section of a business plan has a purpose, which you can read about in numerous articles and see demonstrated in sample plans and business plan templates. After reading over a section you have written, ask yourself the questions the section is meant to answer and be sure you were able to provide those answers in the text. If the answers were not given or could be clearer, there is room for improvement. For example, the marketing plan must answer the primary question “how will the business reach and win customers?” If a reader completes this section and still cannot tell how exactly you plan to do this, you have work to do.

Proofreading Errors

Don’t let your plan be discarded simply because of simple spelling or grammar errors. Simple errors like this will appear unprofessional and will not inspire confidence in your skill and thoughtfulness on the part of investors. When you feel the content is ready, read the plan multiple times through, then put it aside for a day and read it through again. Read word by word and try reading the plan aloud to be sure that the wording is natural. You must also have another person whose editing ability you trust read the plan with the express goal of finding typographical or grammatical errors that you’ve missed. If you take this kind of care you can be much more certain that your plan won’t fail for a reason as silly as a typo.

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