The ideal appearance of a finished business plan is something that's up for debate. For the Small Business Administration's purposes, a business plan should be professional in its appearance but not gaudy. In fact, pictures and graphics and icons and the like simply interrupt the flow of a document and, worse, make it hard for the banker to photocopy the business plan in order to send it to underwriting. This is a bad thing for your loan application! But it's too simplistic an answer to say that you shouldn't include visual elements – indeed, in many cases, these are the differentiators that make your plan stand out from the pack. So what's to be done? If you are presenting to investors or VCs, commonly seen as a wide-open field, adhere to the following:
• Flair is good – illustrate (show don't tell) what makes your concept or company different
• InDesign beats MS Word any day
• Have beautiful financials but don't forget that they need to be able to be modified, too!
• The plan should hold a reader's interest – pictures to supplement bios, sketches to go with your building layout, etc. are all good ideas
In brief, you should build the business plan to the specifications at which you feel it will perform best with your specific target audience. If you need to grab an investor and pull them along, make a graphics-rich business plan that describes exactly what you deliver. If you will be showing the document mainly to bankers who are accustomed to rubber-stamping collateral and credit-backed business concepts, keep it simple. The best appearance of a finished business plan is, in short, whatever you need it to be for your funders or backers. MasterPlans can help no matter what your needs may be. We have expert planners and design artists in house ready to assist you. Call us today! 877-453-2011.
