by MaryAnn Shank
http://www.businessplanmaster.com
© 2006
“Writing a business plan” sounds really
tough, and it can be. But there are a number of things the smart
entrepreneur can do to make it easier.
For instance, justwhatkindofstuffyouthinkgetsreadlikethis?
Imagine pages full of that, with virtually no margins, no paragraph
breaks, no breathing room. Lenders, investors and angel investors
are confronted with piles of business plans like that every day.
Take a breath. Then lure your reader into the
plan with snappy headlines and easy to read formatting.
Do you know why the Wall Street Journal and USA
Today use headlines? Because it’s the only way anyone will
read a story. More to the point, it’s the only way anyone
will buy their paper. (Mmmm, sounds like you may have something
in common with newspapers.)
Take a look at your favorite newspaper. Those
headlines tell a story. Sometimes they ooze with conspiracy, and
once in a while they stand majestic. Note:
Martha Jailed
The War is Over
The Watergate Starts to Smell
Your business plan needs to do no less. The headlines
and section heads need to draw the reader in, not with an announcement,
but with an invitation. Compare these:
The Executive Team
The Audio Industry
The Advisory Board
with these:
Strong Executive Team is Led by Industry Insider
Audio – the Industry that Reinvents Itself
7 Top Scientists Lead the Advisory Board
So which set are you going to read?
Lenders of all ilk get far too many business
plans – certainly more than they can possibly fund. Simply
getting your business plan read is a big step in the right direction.
Try this trick. Imagine that you are indeed
writing a newspaper, one that competes with another strong paper
in your town. What headline would you put on that paper to encourage
readers to buy yours, and not the other?
Honesty, of course, is essential. But within
that honesty there are a thousand ways to make the same statement.
How many ways are there to say that it is spring time?
· It is spring
· It is April 22
· Lilacs are in bloom
· Snow is melting in the mountains
· Baseball camps are in full force
And how many ways are there to say that your
business idea is a good one?
· This is a good idea
· An innovative approach
· A sure-fire winner
· A strong contender for funding
· A strong team in an equally strong market
· Lots of community support
· This fills a need in the marketplace
· The company draws on the experience of each of its members
· Two years of strong growth
· Impressive projections
Now jot down some headlines for your company.
You may or may not be able to use them. Try first just to jot
down every idea, a brain storming session.
Now use the best of those headlines to help structure
your business plan. If “Nobel Prize Winner Heads Advisory
Board” is your strongest headline, then lead with that story.
If “A Prime Location in a Prime Shopping Center” is
your strongest headline, then that is your lead.
Let the strength of the headlines pull your business
plan up a notch or two. The power of your business may surprise
even you!
Before you actually begin writing, take the time
to really look at a good publication, something like the Wall
Street Journal. Look at the styling and the use of headlines and
sub-heads. Note how the ideas keep a steady flow, with an invitation
to read.
Your business plan likely won’t look like
the venerable WSJ, or any other major publication, but odds are
that it will look a whole lot better than most, and it will therefore
be read much more readily. And that, after all, is what you are
after.
