You’ve decided to request funding for your company. You have searched online for business plan templates and samples. You downloaded ones that you believed would be great for your company. Then you realize that you know your business inside and out but you’re having a hard time organizing your thoughts. You also know that you may only have one opportunity to present your written and oral plan to an interested party.
Hiring the right business plan expert may help you get approval. A business plan writing service is an excellent resource to use. They’ll make sure your plan has all the necessary elements that professional investors and banks seek within the document so your application will stand out.
When seeking a professional business plan writer, there are three indicators that will separate the good from the great:
1) The business plan writer assigned to your project has owned her own business outside of writing business plans and general business coaching/consulting.
2) The company feverishly studies all aspects of business and keeps up to date on the latest information about lead generation and sales conversion.
3) The financial forecast team member knows how to read financial statements and can tell you what’s happening in the business based on the numbers.
After you have narrowed down your choices of specialists, it is important to ask them certain questions to discover the process and avenue that they will take to compile your business plan format. Here are the questions and the answers you should be looking for.
Q: Do you offer several types of consulting or are you a specialist in business plan writing?
A: Question…if you need heart surgery, do you go to a general practitioner or a heart surgeon? When you’re requesting hundreds of thousands (or millions) in capital, who should you call? A specialist will have a deep understanding of what funding sources are looking for, the best options for your business, and how to write and present your business plan so you’ll receive multiple offers.
Q: What experience do you have? What’s your process for assembling funding packages?
A: A great business plan writer has a proven process for extracting important information about your company and helping you assemble a plan that multiple sources want to fund.
Q: If you were working on our business plan, what information would you place into the document so we would be approved for funding?
A: The time for theory is over. Ask him or her for specific information that they would put in your plan and make sure you come to an agreement on what would be placed in the final draft.
Q: How do you create the cash flow projections and financial forecasts required?
A: A seasoned business plan specialist will use your past financials plus the information within your future marketing and team building plan to create your financial forecast. Every action you take in your business has a cost – even if it’s hiring a free intern!
Q: What testimonials or endorsem*nts do you have?
A: Great business plan writers will have a reputation for being reliable and achieving positive outcomes for their clients. Referrals, testimonials, and endorsem*nts will provide a history of performance for the specialist.
Q: What guarantee do you offer?
A: Reputable business plan writers will never guarantee you’ll raise money because there are elements out of their control (ie your credit, collateral, ability to pitch, etc). However, a business plan writer that is confident in their work and has had proven results will offer some type of guarantee to your business regarding the quality of their work product.
It’s simple. You know your business inside and out. The writer knows the bank’s concerns inside and out. The business plan writing company is able to organize your plan and pitch, craft your business’ story, and complete financial forecasts that mitigate the bank’s risk concerns.
Cheree Warrick, founder of The Profit Partner, develops business plans for companies throughout the mid-Atlantic (Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C., New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York) and helps her clients obtain bank loans or angel financing for their growing small businesses.
