Continued from page 1
7) First Drafts Are Always A Laugh. ************************************* The first draft of your plan will undoubtedly resemble incoherent ramblings--jumbled stream-of-semi-consciousness ideas that look nothing like what you had hoped it would. Don't be disappointed or frustrated.
8) You Deserve A Break Today. ********************************* Put
draft away for a few days, come back to it fresh, and begin revising and rewriting. Magically, after several more revisions,
ideas will all come together and
language of
plan will flow.
9) The Plan Is Your Baby--It Needs To Look Like You. **************************************************** The business plan should reflect
personality of your management team, and
type of company you want to create. As
reader goes through it, he/she should get to know
people involved in
company, their vision, their objectives, and their enthusiasm for
company and
industry. Tell
story of your company in your own voice. A plan for a music production company would look much different than a plan for a medical device manufacturer.
10) Not Everyone Has A Flair For Fiction. ****************************************** Business plans are essentially works of fiction--documents that talk about what you imagine, plan and hope may occur in
future, not what has already occurred. This type of writing is difficult for everyone. You've heard of "writer's block". The problems you are having keeping
words flowing are precisely
ones faced by
great writers, except many of them have to keep going because
publisher has given them a unreachable deadline and they've already spent their advance, but you of course, having read tip #1 Rome Wasn't Planned, Funded, and Built in One Day have allowed plenty of time to finish
business plan--so there's no reason to feel pressured. Right?

Dee Power and Brian Hill are authors of "Attracing Capital From Angels: How Their Money and Their Experience Can Help You Build a Successful Company," http://www.AttractingCapitalFromAngels.com published by John Wiley & Sons 2002 and "Inside Secrets To Venture Capital" http://www.InsideSecretsToVentureCapital.com, published by John Wiley & Sons 2001