| Business plan help is on the way. Use these tips when | | | | in this age when technology is evolving so quickly, it is |
| you're coming up with your business plan financial | | | | impossible to accurately forecast 3 years out, let alone |
| projections. | | | | 7. Concentrate instead on answering these questions: |
| Don't make the assumption that the reader can | | | | How fast are we going to use the investor's money, |
| understand your business plan assumptions. | | | | when does the company's cash flow turn positive, and |
| By the time you are finished with your projections, you | | | | what margins can this company earn? |
| will be very familiar with the assumptions you used to | | | | The Hard Truth About Software |
| construct your financial models. A first time reader of | | | | There are a number of business plan software |
| your business plan will not. Are you certain that you | | | | packages that sell thousands and thousands of copies. |
| made it easy to follow your logic? | | | | Software can be very helpful in developing financial |
| The best projections for your business plan are | | | | models and preparing projections. But they are not |
| well-rounded ones. | | | | going to write the narrative sections of the business |
| Telling the investor that his projected return is 52.444% | | | | plan for you, so you may be disappointed in the results |
| is not any More impressive than saying you project a | | | | you get from using a computer program in building |
| return of roughly 50%. Many entrepreneurs come | | | | your business plan. How can the programmers of |
| down with a bad case of spurious exactitude when | | | | "Super Duper Hot Business Plan Whizzo" or whatever |
| doing projections. This seems to be a highly contagious | | | | the software is called, possibly know how your plan |
| disease. | | | | should look since they have never met you and do not |
| Hold the Scenarios | | | | know anything about your company? |
| Many people think that the more complex their financial | | | | Incidentally, for the average cost of these software |
| models are, and the more "what if" scenarios they | | | | packages, you can take a family of four out to dinner, |
| concoct, the higher their chances of being funded. A | | | | and at least two of them can order dessert. |
| variation of this is the business plan that has | | | | Hopefully these tips were a help for your business |
| projections seemingly for decades. Fifty pages of | | | | plan. |
| imaginary numbers are not better than five. Particularly | | | | |