What a Bankable Business Plan is, and How it Can Help You Start a Successful Enterprise

Bankable Business Plans are able to attract financial support from bankers, partners, and investors. By addressing issues that are important to them, you can convince them to believe in your concept because it’ll bring them success, as well as satisfaction for you.

Bankable Business Plans Serve a Specific Purpose

A good business plan will:

• Test the feasibility of your idea.
• Determine the best financial resources to start your business through investors or partners.
• Secure enough debt by establishing loans, lines of credit, or payment terms.
• Identify the key people to work with you as employees, partners, or consultants.
• Establish business relationships with your customers, suppliers, or distributors.
• Create an operational template for the successful management of your business.

Bankable Business Plans Don’t Follow Formulas

An experienced investor or lender needs just two seconds to spot a canned, generic, and lifeless plan. By doing the work to create a thorough description of your proposed venture, your plan will be compelling and motivate others to support your efforts.

Bankable Business Plans Follow Good Business Thinking

You’ll go through the entire process from the conception of your initial idea, to testing it against basic criteria, to researching the market and the competition, to developing strategies, and finally, to creating a plan for implementation.

Bankable Business Plans Can Be Created Regardless of Your Skills

You don’t need extensive knowledge of spreadsheet programs or accounting principles. The only skills you need to create a bankable business plan are passion and perseverance in learning how to do it effectively.

Bankable Business Plans Focus on Financial Issues

You’ll learn how to make use of the Risk Management Association (RMA) data to create a credible plan. Since most bankers and investors will compare your projections to the RMA data, knowing how to get and use these numbers is like being given the answers to a test ahead of time.

Bankable Business Plans are for Starting, Growing, or Buying a Business

Whether you’re starting a new business, growing an established business, or buying an existing business, you need a strong business plan.

Your Business Plan is an Extension of You

Your plan speaks for you. If your plan is inadequate or unfocused, people will assume that you’re inadequate or unfocused.

But by presenting a plan that’s organized, complete, easy to read, and persuasive, you’re implying that you’re a person who can make this business concept a success.

The Six Immutable Points

You can ensure that your business plan communicates your strengths by stressing six immutable points:

1. You are profit oriented. People have many reasons for wanting to start, buy, or build a business, and profit is not always the most important goal. But profit is what drives business, and you need it make it clear that profit is your focus.
2. You are honest. If people participate in your plan by investing money, extending you credit, or becoming your employees, they need to know that you’re honest. Be honest about past failures, whether you’ve been fired from a job or started a business that went belly up. This almost always raises the esteem in which others hold you.
3. You are qualified. You don’t need to possess all the qualifications necessary to undertake what the proposal requires. You do, however, need to demonstrate that you’re capable of identifying colleagues or becoming partners with others who have the technical knowledge that you lack.
4. You are thorough. The plan must be comprehensive in your approach to your venture. The Ten Essential Action Steps must be followed completely.
5. You are committed to meeting everyone’s needs. You’ll have responsibilities that include providing timely and complete financial statements, keeping the company current in all its taxes, and sharing your profits according to the company’s shareholder agreements. Your plan must demonstrate that you’re aware of these responsibilities, that you take them seriously, and will carry them out fully.
6. You are flexible. As soon as your business plan is complete, it’ll probably be out of date already. Your plan exists in a rapidly changing world. Deal with these changes by:
• Frequently updating your plan.
• Welcoming the chance to revise, because each time you refine your plan, you make it better.
• Keeping track of revisions by placing the date of each version on the cover page and the page headers.

Entrepreneurship is a Team Sport

Entrepreneurs are business people who undertake ventures without regard to the resources under their direct control. To grow a successful venture, you must be able to recruit and manage many resources – both human and financial.

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