When Writing a Business Plan, Consider Your Reader and Audience

Once you have developed, integrated andVariables, Corporate Culture Fit, Type of Relationship,
implemented your Comprehensive Business Plan forControl Mechanisms, Exit Strategies, Termination,
the success of your business into your Company'sLiquidation, Buy-Sell Agreements and so on.
Operations, you can go about creating ancillary4) Supplier Plan: Cementing your supplier relationships
Business Plans for various audiences. Remember tocan be essential to your Company's success. Ask
write these specialized documents from the viewpointyourself: What can a specific supplier do to help your
of the person(s) reading it. It is a snap to pull out certainbusiness?
sections of your Comprehensive document and create5) Customer Plan: You can utilize this to make your
these targeted documents. Some examples:customers true partners in the growth and future of
1) Investor Plan: Investors and Venture Capital Groupsyour Company. Find out specifically what your
often advertise what they are looking for in ancustomers want and need (not what you think they
investment. This should be the template you follow.need) and present them a Product/Service, Marketing
They are interested in your Experience, Track Record,and Strategic Plan to meet those needs.
Integrity, Competitive Advantage, Growth, Uniqueness,6) Marketing Plan: A good Marketing document will help
Gaps and Threats, Integrated Marketing, Strategic andyour Marketing Team develop, expand and create
Financial Projections and so on. A good Investornew markets. A very effective tool to link your Sales
document consists of highly targeted information to aDivision with your Marketing Team so development
specific investor's or venture capitalist's requirements.and communications are two way and intertwined.
2) Lender Plan: This doc is combined with a LoanDisjointed Marketing and Sales Teams are often
Package to directly target a specific Lender's fundingdisastrous.
parameters and requirements. Things like Experience,7) Strategic Plan: This planning forces all your
Track Record, Cash Flow, Loan to Value or Cost,departments and divisions to work together to
Debt Service, Debt to Equity Ratio, Financialproduce a synergistic document that addresses all
Statements and so forth are key elements. Eachlevels of your Company and their contributions to the
Lender has different things they look for whenCompany's goals and success. The Strategy actually
considering funding a loan so tailor around thesetranslates your Business Plan into effective and
parameters.believable Financials.
3) Joint Venture / Strategic Alliance Plan: Achieving aRemember: You write a specific plan for a specific
common objective through shared resources at apurpose to a specific audience. This list is not all
lower cost and lower risk can be highly lucrative, limitinginclusive. The point is to develop the Comprehensive
your dependence on outside funding sources.doc first; then forming ancillary docs is a snap and very
Important sections of this doc could addresseffective.
Objectives, Anti-Trust Issues, Resources, Geographic