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Small Business / Entrepreneurship News

Don’t make these 5 business plan mistakes
2012-04-25

business plan, business planning, bplans, planning business, marketing plan, business plan tips, business plan mistakes,

Article identified by Jay Snider from bplans.com

 

There are numerous articles warning entrepreneurs about the danger of unrealistic projections or other major cashflow problems in their business plan. But we don’t often hear about the minor mistakes that cost business owners the loans or investment they need to take their business to the next level.

 

When you submit your business plan to investors and banks, they probably won’t be judging your plan on how well it is written, but you can be sure that if you make the mistakes below it will seriously harm your chances.

 

Typos – It’s a great shame when entrepreneurs spend countless hours on an innovative idea that could take the market by storm, only to have the idea overlooked because of misspelled words, continuous inconsistent formatting and grammatical errors. Whether you are submitting your plan for a business competition or trying to gain investment, please get someone to proof read your plan to eliminate these avoidable distractions.

 

Iffy management team – Judges in competition, lenders in banks and business angels are always interested to hear about the management side of your business. If the management team seems weak in some areas, it’s vital you include how you are planning on improving these functional areas rather than simply ignoring them. 

 

Ignoring sales and marketing – You need to identify exactly how you plan to market and sell your product, whilst recognizing the costs you will encounter when doing so. To many entrepreneurs skim over this section because they believe their product will sell itself.

 

 Not addressing the competition or other obvious hurdles – In business you will always have competition. If you don’t address your potential competitors in your business plan, you’re showing investors that you don’t have an in-depth knowledge into the market you’re trying to penetrate.

 

It’s very important you also conduct primary market research on your target market (the people you plan to sell your product to). This can be done through focus groups, interviews, surveys etc. Marketest have been helping entrepreneurs strengthen their business plans by carry out effective consumer market research for over 12 years.

  

Acronym and technical jargon overload – When you are writing your business plan always consider your audience. When you’re writing about your product if you are using very technical language or industry acronyms, be sure to spell out exactly what you mean. Remember the reader probably won’t share the same industry knowledge as you so make sure they can understand your concept.

 

Don’t let these easy to avoid mistakes ruin your chances of business development. Once your business plan is done ask other people for their objective opinion before submitting it.

 

Read More:

5 Tips for Naming Your Business

Business Etiquette: 4 Rules That Matter Now

Three Titanic business mistakes to avoid

Using your business plan

 

 

 

 

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