| When an organization prepares to raise money from | | | | understand. The categories may be: the need in the |
| investors or banks they need to write a business plan. | | | | market, what you can provide, how good your staff is, |
| There are a lot of mistakes that people land up | | | | the market you are targeting, capital. |
| committing. A few have been discussed here. | | | | Make sure your financial projections are realistic. A |
| Before sending or submitting a business plan to a bank | | | | company can not always go on making humongous |
| or an investor, always send an introductory letter or an | | | | profits. If assumptions are to be made, make them as |
| e-mail, you can also call them up. This way you can | | | | reasonable as possible. |
| gauge whether they are interested in the industry and | | | | Don't come across as a greedy organization in your |
| business or not. It would help you out a lot too, if you | | | | business plan. Try and be as fair and reasonable. |
| can attach a reference from an attorney or even a | | | | Spend little time thinking over the valuation and |
| banker. | | | | concentrate more on the structuring for better future |
| Once you know that the investor or bank has taken | | | | deals. |
| interest, send them the executive summary of the plan, | | | | Majority ownership shouldn't ever be equated with |
| unless of course they ask for the entire plan. | | | | control. You never know, you might just sell some |
| The first bit to which maximum attention is put is the | | | | non-voting stocks which do not give the control of |
| executive summary. So, make sure that it is practically | | | | your business away. |
| flawless. It shouldn't be very long, perhaps two pages | | | | You may read more at: How to write a Start Up |
| long. | | | | Business Plan and How to Write a Business Proposal. |
| You can break down the summary to make it easy to | | | | |