Your business plan is an opportunity to convince both yourself and any potential investors that the project you are proposing is viable. There­ fore you should view it not only as a proposal to be used for raising capital but also as a strategic plan for the business, to be used to monitor and control future performance. It is possible, therefore, that it will be substantial and, perhaps, complex. However, your investors will not have the advantage of your familiarity with the product or market and so it is important to ensure that the document is RELEVANT/

LEGIBLE/EASY TO FOLLOW and COMPREHENSIVE. The latter point implies that you must include data or information on all aspects of the proposed business, organised in a logical fashion, and covering:

which you expect to result in: MONEY TO BE INVESTED FORECAST CASH FLOWS FORECAST PROFITS

In order to help your reader digest such a wealth of information it is essential that your document should start with a SUMMARY. Not only will this help him to organise his thoughts and understand the size and nature of the proposed project, but it can also serve to arrest and capture his interest. It must be remembered that investors deal with many applications each day and a badly presented proposal can at best irritate and antagonise and at worst totally mislead. Your summary must persuade him to continue to read the rest of the document because your product is interesting, the project may be viable and you seem to know what you are doing. It should cover, ideally, one page but certainly no more than two and explain:

(a) What is the product: a short description highlighting the

a description of the: PRODUCT TECHNOLOGY MARKET COMPETITION

your proposed: MARKET STRATEGY PRODUCT STRATEGY ORGANISATION STRATEGY

special features. (b) Who you are: introduce yourself and show any

special expertise which will give the investor confidence that you are likely to be successful.