Entrepreneurship, 6th Edition

9The Business Planning Process

The most important aspect of writing the business plan is not the plan itself, but all the learning that goes on as you identify your concept and then research the concept, the industry, the competitors, and most important, your customers. Today, angels, VCs, and other potential investors are unlikely to want to see a full 40+ page document. That's good, because only 1/3 of entrepreneurs write a formal business plan, 1/3 don't do any plan at all, and another 1/3 do something in the middle.¹ Professional investors will likely ask you for an executive summary, a pitch deck of 10–12 slides and some in‐depth financials. You cannot accurately construct a pitch deck, summary, or financials without doing all of the research and analysis that would have gone into a longer business plan that someone might have asked for 20 years ago. But following a rigorous process can help ensure that you don't miss any important gaps in your planning process. As General Dwight D. Eisenhower famously stated, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”² This chapter takes the view that the process undertaken in developing a tight, well‐written story is the most important thing. Furthermore, our research indicates that students who write a business plan, even if it is for an entrepreneurship class, are far more ...