There are some good reasons for an entrepreneur to do the
business plan:
•First of all, because you can. If you’ve read sample
business plans and find their accounting jargon
intimidating, you are not alone. But as long as you can
clearly get your message across and have other people such
as you accountant look at the plan before it goes to lenders
or others, you can do this work yourself.
•It is in learning the business planning process that you
develop analytical thinking skills necessary to run your
business with an intimate understanding of your own business
model. Going through the planning process is an invaluable
business experience.
•You need to know the plan inside and out and really
understand the variables involved. You are the one who will
be asked the tough questions by potential investors or
lenders, such as “What will you do if only half your
expected revenue comes in?” or “What will you do if you find
out that direct mail is not working for you as your primary
marketing tool?”
Outsourcing the Business Plan Process
Entrepreneurs are fire fighters. One of the most important
jobs of an entrepreneur is to manage time, and do those
things that you are best skilled to do. Many entrepreneurs
decide to hire someone else to do their business plans,
often because they have an urgent need for the funding and
can’t afford the learning curve to be able to develop a
high-quality plan that will meet the needs of lenders or
investors.
In addition, if your funding requirements are more than
$500,000 my recommendation is to get some professional help
with this project, even if you do some of it yourself.
Some reasons to consider hiring a consultant:
•It will get done! Business planning is done much faster
with someone who knows the process. Every entrepreneur has
good intentions about getting plans completed, but months
later they still haven’t done all the work. Planning should
be high priority work, but it is hard to get to when
customer calls and employee problems require immediate
attention. The sooner the plan is completed, the sooner
funding can be attained. And the price of hiring the
consultant will be small in comparison with the increases in
growth and profitability of the business.
•It will get done in a way financial professionals will
respect. Business planning is done better by someone who
knows how finance people look at plans and what they will
and won’t question. Once you’ve been through the business
plan process many times, you know what it takes to get
funding – what to emphasize and what to play down.
•The consultant’s objectivity will allow for
non-emotionally-based projections and expectations for the
business. A consultant will be much more objective in the
process and question your assumptions, making it less likely
that the business will have problems after the funding comes
in.