10 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make Writing Business Plans

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Présentation du plan en faveur des personnes sourdes ou malentendantes

A business growth plan is not just about creating a tool to raise money or recruit members of your leadership team or even to set your marketing strategy. Its there to help you define or describe a “picture” of your business and where it is going which you can tweak as it grows. Get it wrong and your going nowhere fast. Here are 10 common mistakes made by entrepreneurs when building their business plans.

Being All Things to All People

Not being specific about your business model in terms of what it is, how it does it and who it does it for, meaning you end up trying to do everything but at the same time nothing in particular very well.

The purpose of a plan is not to please every possible reader but to clearly outline the market opportunity to the reader and demonstrate how you are going to go about gaining your market share, keep it simple by focusing on the main problem, need or industry you will be serving.

Building A Boring Business

A business plan is in effect a marketing tool as well as a financial aid. If you are unable to make it interesting enough for your readers to go through it there is little chance of raising finance or getting your leadership team together. And remember to make it look like it means business and that starts right from the front cover.

Over Sizing The Market

I have personally seen this kill off a number of businesses who made predictions based on so called industry experts. Also getting so wrapped up in your own idea can have the brain wondering all over the place and soon you’ve taken over the world. Large and impressive numbers look unrealistic and unprofessional as most businesses never have it that easy, so it’s better to be conservative. In business making big promises and not keeping them is a fatal mistake and will lose you both respect and faith from investors, members of your team and eventually your customers.

No Confidence In What You Are Selling

If you or your team don’t believe in what you are doing then sure as eggs is eggs nobody else will. Having a plan written down is one thing, but you must be able to demonstrate your determination to follow it through and be able to backup your ideas and predictions in person. Investors use plans to filter out opportunities, but ultimately they back and invest in people and you need to show them you are the right person. This should permeate through all channels you will be using to communicate and directlywith your customers and suppliers as they also need to have faith and belief in what you say and are going to do.

Lack Of Depth And Personality

The world of business is full of catchphrases and concepts that are paraphrased all over the place. Most don’t understand what they really mean and if probed would be unable to expand beyond those simple ideas. Sure you need to be consistent about your message or theme and going about communicating it, but thinking outside your immediate space will enable you to use situations and examples which support your message and which most people can relate too.

Blinding People With Gibber Jabber

Knowing too much about something can be a dangerous thing especially when you’re trying to convey that idea to somebody else. It’s easy to assume that they understand what you are talking about and have a full grasp of those specific terms or the language used within your industry but it is rarely the case.

In complex or technical markets you will find much of this going on with customers trying to decipher and sift through of jargon to find out answers to simple questions like; “How can you help me with this” ?

Keep your language simple and use conversational terminology as if you were trying to describe it to a friend.

Lack Of Consistency

One minute it’s this, the next minute it’s that. Chopping and changing your ideas because they are built on flimsy ground is a sure sign of trouble ahead. The answer is simple, do the research and make sure you have enough evidence, facts and information to support your views and ideas and to keep them firmly rooted. Just because the wind changes direction it does not mean that your overall course or destination should change if it’s the right one.

Closed To Outside Views And Advice

Before presenting your plan you should practise delivering it to a variety of audiences to get a feel for how it come across to others and make any changes necessary before presenting it to your final audience. If at this point you still have fundamental errors and omissions in your plan it tells investors that you are still unsure about what you are doing and that it’s not yet ready for investment. Use each pitch and presentation to gain your confidence and improve your delivery while addressing weaknesses identified by your listeners and reviewers.

Open To Everybody’s Views And Advice

Like a boat rocking from side to side it’s pointless trying to cater for everything and every eventuality. Stick to the core parts of your business and the most important markets and customers you will be servicing and take on board views about the most threatening, concerning and weakest part of your plan in those areas. Like the 80/20 rule, 80% of your planning success will be come from only 20% of what’s contained in your written plan.

Not Recognising The Competition

Everybody has competition in some shape or form whether it’s alternative choices, fighting for your customers budget or trend changes in the market there is always something that will add a competitive element to what you are doing. Ignoring these factors in your plan will show that you are unable to consider potential problems and therefore solutions as your head is firmly stuck in the sand.

If it’s just to make your plan seem more likely to succeed then think again, investors will pull it out and drill down into it and if you are unable to show that you’ve given this area some careful consideration then your plan will be discarded.

Conclusions

Be different but be yourself. Do your research and practise. Delivery it simply, having been submerged in the inner complexities and encompass the important details.

Now go plan something!