An abbreviated business plan can be very effective in getting your point across if it's done correctly. It's commonly believed that most plans longer than 30 pages are destined for the trash, as busy investors rarely have time or interest to sift through endless presentations to determine whether a plan is a good fit for their portfolio. A much better approach is coming in with a brief, compelling analysis and a quick snapshot of the business objectives and highlights. A short pro forma and image-driven description of what you'll deliver can generally achieve this. Sometimes called an executive summary or a company expose, the abbreviated business plan can be a great addition to your toolkit, but it needs to account for all of the following:
• What markets do you serve?
• What is the ultimate market opportunity?
• Who are you competing with, most directly?
• What experience do you bring to the table?
• What success have you had to date?
• What are the estimated profit margins for the next 3-5 years, in brief?
The plan should also give a quick overview of some of the marketing strategies that you could use in your implementation plan to get the business off the ground. If you already have revenues, a past performance snapshot and company history section are a good idea. In either event, you should show your anticipated use of funds, as any investor will want to know that you have a solid grasp on how to allocate your seed capital. The detail you include in the pro forma is at your discretion, but showing revenue, P&L, and balance sheet data is a good idea and can be done even with an economy of page length. MasterPlans can develop this business plan on your behalf. We specialize in full plans but have expert writers and modelers on staff who put together executive summaries and other abridged plans every day. The call is free: (877) 453-2011.
