Tip For Writing Winning Investment Business Plans

In my experience many UK business plans are written solely as investment business plans to improve funding. I wish more business owners would make planning part of their everyday operations. But because they don't, I thought it might be beneficial to pull together some key tips for writing winning investment business plans.

There are many potential pitfalls that a business proprietor and business plan writer has to be aware of when seeking loan or investment funding. I have listed my top tips to help you and your advisors plan and write an absolute investment business plan.

Before I go further, it really is worth reiterating that your business plan should tell a story about who you are, what you do, how you go about carrying it out and where you need it all to end up, or at least where you are headed on the next 3 to 5 years.

If your story is for the eyes of potential investors, you should establish credibility and you need to do this without boring them to tears, i.e. in as short an area as possible. If you're not good at writing clearly and concisely about yourself and your business, it really is worth having a business plan writer to assist you.

At the end of the day what the investor will be seeking to find out is whether your organization is worth investing in, which means they need to understand how much risk is involved in making the proposed investment.

Below are a few tips and things to think about when writing your investment business plans

Sell yourself as well as your business

Remember the investor will not believe in you as well as your business, as if you do, so you are selling yourself as well as your business. It's understandable you need to be honest, but additionally show yourself and your business in a good light. Be more info as you can. You should try to make your plan significantly less than around 30 pages, excluding appendices (that is not 30 pages of minuscule type! 12 pts is a great typeface size).

Set the scene

Even set up businesses have history, if you are a start-up say why you're starting this particular business and everything you as well as your team's experience is, that equips you to create and run the business. A word of warning for start-ups you need to be able to demonstrate 'proof of concept'. If you fail to do this you're unlikely to get funding. For anyone who is already established, discuss your track record and how you got to what your location is today.

Get a good team together and say why they're good

For an investment business plan, specifically (less so for a business plans for a bank loan or overdraft), it is advisable to demonstrate that you have assembled a good team, covering all the main skills you will need in your business, including a financial advisor and a legal advisor. Describe the knowledge, skills and experience that every brings to the business enterprise and what their role is.

Make sure you can find no unresolved issues in your business or your plan

Investors won't want any unresolved issues left in the plan, so if there items that need resolving, such as a patent that is because of run out, that's very important to the business, or a key person that is coming up for retirement, cope with them before seeking investment.

Include an executive summary

The investor really wants to get yourself a feel quickly for what the business is about as well as your earning potential, so ensure that you include an executive summary, make it possible for the reader to gauge the risks and potential rewards when they start reading your plan.

The following headings are a guide to the primary regions of content for investment business plans (if you use business planning software all these sections will be covered by the software):

Executive Summary

General Background

Business Environment

Business Background

Operations

Marketing

InvestmentFinancial Plan

Add a well thought through finance plan

The finance plan must look forward for at least three years and include a balance sheet forecast, a profit and loss forecast and a cashflow forecast. Good business planning software such as for example Business Plan Pro is invaluable in assisting you obtain the financial sheets together. Don't be tempted to be over optimistic in your forecasts. Put a while into your figures to ensure your forecasts are as accurate since you can reasonably make them.

Present your winning investment business plan nicely

Presentation is essential, so bind your plan, include an index and write in plain English without needing jargon. The people who read investment business plans won't have understanding of every business sector, so that they may not have as much knowledge about your business sector as you do. Treat them being an educated layperson regarding what they may find out about your business sector. If your plan has been around for a while, update it before giving it to a fresh potential investor.

I wish you every success with raising finance for your business.

If you want help with finding a funder, or writing UK business plans I may be able to assist, find out more about my business planning services by third , link http://www.businesstalent.co.uk/business_plan_course_information_52.html

I use Business Plan Pro to create my clients' business plans, if you want to learn more about Business Plan Pro follow this link http://www.businesstalent.co.uk/business_plan_software_65.html

I am a business advisor and management consultant located in London, UK.