Raising Capital: Get the Money You Need to Grow Your Business

Chapter 3The Role Your Business Plan Plays

Entrepreneurs and owners of businesses at all stages of growth know that effective business planning is critical to a company’s long-term success and its ability to raise capital. As a result, much has been written by bankers, accountants, consultants, and academicians on the preparation of a business plan. Yet it seems that the more information there is, the more confused people get about what a business plan should include. There’s no one “right answer.” A business plan should tell a compelling story, make an argument, and conservatively predict the future, and companies have different stories to tell, different arguments to make, and different futures to predict. It has been said that failing to plan ...