Writing A Great Business Plan
Bad ideas we've seen

From the tutorial building a business plan that sells

Given that the secret purpose of a business plan is to go through the research and analysis to enable you to really think through your business, you'd think that hiring a third-party to write your business plan was a really bad idea.

You'd be right.

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We'll be honest, if you have zero writing skills then hiring someone to polish your rough gemstone can be a wise move, but the contract business plan writers we've met tend to do far more than you really want. They'll do your research, write the competitive analysis, maybe even have some spreadsheets they can drop in.

But that defeats the entire purpose of writing a business plan in the first place. Take it from us: don't hire someone unless it's just to polish the final product. Write it yourself.

Oh, and using a "business plan software package" or template has many of the same pitfalls: make sure that when the plan is completed, you've really had to work to produce it. You won't get a good business plan in less than 100 hours of work, guaranteed.

And, needless to say, if your business plan isn't very good, it suggests that your business isn't very good either.

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