Are there really certain words or expression you shouldn’t use in your business plan? The Wall Street Journal seems to think—and we agree. In an article that you should absolutely read if you’re working a business plan, the Journal gives its list of thing you should never say—and most are right on point:

-”Huge.” As in your market is “huge” or that your opportunity is “huge.” Says the Journal: “Translation: The writer hasn’t bothered to get reliable data on the market size, or has failed to think carefully about the initial target market, which almost always should be quite narrow.” To which we’d add that you should probably just avoid all superlatives in general. They make investors’ heads hurt.

-”Revolutionary.” Unless you’re inventing the next iPhone, you probably shouldn’t use grandiose words and phrases like “revolutionary” or “game changing.” We agree with the Wall Street Journal when they say that such words suggest that, “We are so enamored with our idea that we have not thought clearly about how to distinguish it from the other approaches and are not interested in what the customer thinks of it. Customers simply aren’t visionary enough to fully appreciate our technology.” While that may be going a biiiit far, we share the sentiment.

-”No competition.” This one’s our huckleberry. No matter what you may think, nearly every business has one form or another of competition. It just might not be obvious. “If there’s a single phrase that can send a business plan directly into the trash, this is it,” writes the Journal. “Of course you have competition! To prospective investors, perhaps surprisingly, competition may be a good sign, as it suggests that there’s a problem that someone besides you thinks is worth solving.”

While we think those are dead-on, the Journal took issue with a few that seemed a bit shakier to us. For instance:

-”Conservative.” According to the Journal, “Investors know that initial sales numbers—never mind the profits—rarely pan out. So, let the numbers speak for themselves, based on the evidence you’ve gathered.” While it’s quite likely that investors will assume that the numbers you’ve forecasted are conservative (and they should be) we see nothing wrong with driving the point home that you haven’t projected insane figures.

-”Assumptions.” While the Journal says: “If you’re ‘assuming’ most of your numbers, you’d better stop now,” we don’t know that there’s really any good way to create financial projections other to assume them. There’s no way you’re getting realistic figures on a first pass for a business that hasn’t yet started. Some educated guessing’s just part of the game.

What do you guys think? Are there other phrases or words that should be stricken from business plan vernacular? Tell us what you think in the comments section below (pretty please)!

If you’re one of this blog’s two readers, you’ve probably noticed that things have been a bit slow around businessplan.com the past week. If you’ve just stumbled upon us, rest assured that there’s real content here…occasionally. While we’d like to say that the dearth of business plan goodness is the result of working on the 3GS or helping reintroduce wolverines into the wild, the truth is far less riveting. (Seriously—you don’t want to hear it.)

Suffice it to say, another dead week won’t pass. Check back on Monday for more business plan content, criticism, and other bits of entrepreneurial news. In the meantime, these wolverines are cute, aren’t they?

With capital drying up and small business loans as scarce as ever, business plan competitions—long the stalwart of university business programs—are increasingly starting to seem like a more attractive option. Just take a look at the numbers, says the New York Times:

“The Wharton Business Plan Competition, for example, awards $20,000 in cash and $10,000 in legal services to its top entrant. Harvard Business School’s traditional track competition awards $25,000 in cash and $25,000 in business services to its winner. M.I.T’s Clean Energy Prize includes $200,000 in cash. And Rice University offers a whopping $225,000 prize to its first-place winner, including $125,000 in equity investment, $20,000 in cash and more than $80,000 in services.”

So it’s not exactly venture capital-type money, but it’s a start. And winning one of these competitions confers a certain level of prestige on the winners. Yet with more entrepreneurs entering their business plan in competitions these days, what’s it take to actually bring home the bacon?

The New York Times rounded up a panel of experts this week who shared their tips for winning a business plan competition. Be forewarned, however: while you’re not exactly dealing with lottery odds, business plans competitions are like any other competition. They’re tough to win. With that being said, here’s our round-up of what the Times and her experts say you can do to improve your chances of scoring a win at a business plan competition:

1) Pick the right competition. Don’t enter your cloud computing business plan into a competition promoting green technology. It’s just common sense. With business plan competition hosts now ranging from Wal-Mart to the Brooklyn Public Library, there’s almost certainly a contest that suits your needs. Do your homework. Once you’ve pinned down the competitions you’d like to enter, consider contacting past participants—including winners, losers, and judges—to get a handle on what the competition’s all about. If it doesn’t sound like the right competition for your business plan, don’t waste your time.

2) Give yourself time to prepare. This point holds true whether you’re entering a business plan competition or not. Don’t hastily throw together a document and expect it to be a winner. Plan for a minimum of three months to complete your plan: “The earlier the prep begins,” says George Abe, a faculty director at UCLA’s Anderson School who has seven years of judging experience, “the better the plan is. You can get away with three months minimum if you have a product or service crystal clear in your mind. But you cannot be figuring out a market and competitive story in 60 days.”

3) Give judges something to hang their hats on. Here’s one of the things we commonly hear from entrepreneurs about their business: that it’ll beat the competition by “just being better.” That’s not logic, that’s your ego talking. Says the Times: “Judges are often impressed by serious market research: the results of customer surveys, for example, or of pilot sales programs. That may have been what gave a team from the London Business School the edge in Columbia Business School’s first Odyssey competition this year.”

Good luck!

Here’s some good news for all you underage entrepreneurs out there in the blogosphere: super VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson and network supplier Cisco announced today that they’re holding a global student business plan competition that’s going down in a few weeks.

Unfortunately (for you) DFJ and Cisco have already picked the contenders, who hail from universities in Brazil, China, the UK, and even the American southwest. Participants will pitch their plans via live feed (set up by Cisco, naturally) on June 30, and the winner will take home a quarter million in seed money and is promised advice and mentorship from the brains at Cisco and DFJ. That’s a decided step up from most competitions that offer a trophy cup and a $50 check. Sadly, however, the runner up gets nothing. Stay tuned in the next few weeks for a glimpse of the winner(s)—and the losers. There will be video!