I am not even an investor and there has come a time when I have occassionally glossed over a section due to the doldrum of 'been there - seen that' situation - akin statements and statistics just different specifics/details.
Since I know longer run the same business model, I am not reviewing them as much. But over the past month I have reviewed a few out of courtesy, and it spurred me to write this blog to offer some suggestions to help separate yourself from the extremely competitive area of securing money for your business project /idea.
There are some things that are absolutely required, that you must put in, and there are sometimes no ways to make that creative, but there are other things you can do to spice up your business plan to either keep your reader/potential investor engaged, or at least catch his attention as he skims through your lengthy project.
A. Table of Contents
This is the first place the investor will look so he can instantly go to what is important to him. Not many start from page one and read to the end (unless you are new to the investing world).
1. Take a look at your sections. What do you have them called?
Is there any other word or phrase you can choose to make that slight distinction between you and your competition to state the same thing?
That shows you are sharp and creative, and the investor might take note of that. He will see you put effort into something as mundane and required as the Table of Contents. Just for that reason and the different word or phrase you used (even if it is only in one section), he might be intrigued by you. That might get that investor to actually read the entire project to see where else you surprise him like that - or to follow your creative genius pattern of thinking - as you have already set yourself from the others.
2. Is there a unique section you can add in the middle of listing the typicals: 'financials', 'mission, vision statement', etc to catch their eye?
This will keep them reading down the list and maybe even get them to go instantly to that section - thereby already getting them engaged in your project.
Today, I suggested to a colleague - whose business plan I reviewed - to create a new section and I gave him the entire idea of what to state in that section. I suggested where he strategically put it as well.
It wasn't going to be a big section. Perhaps three short paragraphs at the most. But it was what was IN that section that was separating himself from the competition in the business investing industry and also from other individuals globally. This section loudly but subtly states -"I am different & take a look at what else..."
B. Presentation
This is crucial. Not many want to sit down and read a 35 - 100+ page document that is tightly packed with enormous detail in 10pt font print that also include a bunch of statistics with maybe one or 2 pictures and one pie chart or graph shoved in.
You must keep your reader enlightened, engaged, and not falling asleep - but more importantly absorbing the information so he remembers your project at the end of the day and not the other 20 he read that day (and, so he doesn't get them mixed up when he is processing his thoughts on them during the evening or 'off ' hours)
Just as in when you are writing marketing material - you should constantly ask yourself "so what" to determine if what you are providing is of value or really is needed or relevant in the material you are creating.
You should also constantly read what you have on the paper from top to bottom, from left to right, and ask yourself the following questions:
"where on this page do we loose the reader - or where on this page is their a chance we can loose the reader"?
"Is there too much information, or is there not enough"?
"Are we using the right amount of pictures with words"?
"Are we even asking questions"?
etc.
Questions make the reader stop for a split second and think - about the question - and how this might all pertain to them. Many don't realize that marketing material with questions interdispersed in them (2 max per page) help keep the message personalized to them more.
These are just starter tips that might help you enjoy the process of writing a business plan just a bit more :) It's important to put relevant information, of course - but you need to constantly keep the reader and their attention span in mind and keep your competition in mind just as much.
Strive to carve yourself out from your competition in this multi-package document any where you can. You might have a better chance of grabbing the attention of an investing party because these things grab their attention - and they figure out that you and this project is different.
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