Thank You for Reading My Business Plan

Don’t ever show your business plan to a lender or an investor without having business professionals you trust review it to see what you might be missing. When you ask someone to review it, you need to provide them with specific questions so you get specific feedback that is useful in making any necessary changes. Here is a sample of the kind of feedback form you might provide.

I am very excited about starting my own business, and I could really use your help. Please be honest and candid about the strengths and weaknesses you see in my plan. I need some good feedback before I take it to lenders/investors.

Did you understand my product/service description? Was it immediately clear to you or could it have been clearer?

Did I convince you for the need for my product/service with my research data? Do you think my business idea will succeed?

Did you like my marketing ideas? Can you think of other ways to sell or promote this business?

Do you think I did my homework about my industry/marketplace? Were there other questions you had that I didn’t answer in my description?

Could you follow my financial spreadsheets? Did they make sense to you? Did you find any of the sections overly optimistic? Did they make the case for the probable success of this business?

Did you find my management team credible? Do you think we need additional talent, skills, or experience to make this idea work?

What were the best parts of my plan? The weakest parts?

Was the appearance of the plan professional?

Any other suggestions or comments?

Thank you for your help.

How Do I Know If I Have Covered Everything in My Business Plan?

How do you know if you’ve covered everything you need to in your business plan? While you want to cover the upside of your business, you also want to think and be prepared to answer questions about the downside. Consider these worst-case scenarios:

• What if your business received no revenues for six months?
• What if sales were only 50% or less of forecasts?
• What if a major marketing effort fails?
• What if you lose your biggest customer?
• What if a key employee leaves?
• What if a major source of supply were no longer available?
• What if suppliers increase their prices on items important to your manufacturing?
• What if your competitors cut their prices?
• What if competitors come up with a new or better product or service than they currently sell?
• What if your industry experiences a slump?
• What if new governmental regulations affect your business?
• What if you experience the loss of a lease, tools, inventory?
• What if my pricing strategy isn’t working?

If any of these are likely, you should incorporate contingency plans into your business plan so investors and others can see that you are aware of the potential risks and have plans to counter them.

How do I establish priorities in my business?

No business can be all things to all people. You may only have the capital to be able to start out offering one product, but have plans to expand as your business grows. To be sure you stay on track will need to keep data and make choices in each of these areas where to invest your time and resources over time. Running a small business is a balancing act because resources are always scarce.

Finance
Operations
Marketing & Sales
Human Resources

To be sure that you focus on your priorities in each area, it is helpful to make goals for each and corresponding action plans with timetables and a list of who will be responsible to get each items done. These must include accurate budgets and a way to report on accomplishments.