To begin, key point to consider in developing your business plan is time restraints of your audience. If your audience is a retired angel investor, he may have few obligations and can spend an hour reviewing your business plan. However, more likely scenario is that a venture capitalist, corporate investor or loan officer will review your plan while sitting at a desk topped with fifty other business plans. As such, it is critical that your plan conveys its key points quickly and easily – this is where graphs or charts come in.

In determining whether to use a graph or chart, consider old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” The point here is that picture should save a thousand words. That is, graph or chart should supplement text; it should not be explained ad naseum in text, or that defeats its purpose. Likewise, graph or chart must be relevant and support text, rather than detract from it.

Most companies agree on need to keep up to date. Most companies agree on need for an efficient workforce. Most companies agree on need to train their staff.

So why don’t most companies do it?

All successful companies do.

Why is it that so often first thing that gets cut back when times are hard is training?

It saves money in short term. But it costs money in long term. It costs money when good guys leave. It costs money when upturn comes and all you have left is a demoralised under trained workforce. It costs money when you have to bring them all back up to speed in a hurry.