A Business Plan, as all good entrepreneurs starting out in life should know is foundation, or rather a springboard, towards establishment and growth of a new business. A business plan is an essential tool for companies raising capital – and your business plan needs to be Investor Ready.

What is an Investor Ready business plan? An investor ready business plan is a document that has been professionally prepared to meet needs of both Venture Capitalists and Angel investors. In your Business Plan, you should be able to see your own project through investor's eye. Your plan must be able to answer concerns of an investor.

The investors, both VCs and angels, are risking their hard earned capital by investing in your venture in hope of long term returns that are worth many times their original investment. An Investor Ready Business Plan demonstrates to investors that you are an expert in your industry and that you have a clear mission. An entrepreneur addresses these needs by prepareing a comprehensive and detailed view of their business objectives and goals. Some important sections that address different concerns of investors are below:

Management

Investors invest in management - not just ideas. It is very important that you express your knowledge, passion and dedication to your business as best as you can. The competence of your team along with their experience levels and their commitment levels are also factors that investors look into before making their investment decisions.

Customers

It is important to communicate to investors that you understand needs and requirements of your customers and to articulate your marketing strategy within your business plan.

Product/Service Description

When Managers Play PR Card

The payoff for business, non-profit or association managers can be a real assist towards meeting their department, division or subsidiary objectives.

Playing that public relations card means they’ve decided to pursue their objectives by reaching, persuading and moving those outside audiences whose behaviors most affect their organizations, to actions those managers desire.

Here’s a blueprint to help them do just that: people act on their own perception of facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired- action very people whose behaviors affect organization most, public relations mission is accomplished.

In other words, here is PR blueprint and tools you need to persuade your most important external stakeholders to your way of thinking. And then move them to take actions that lead to your success.

First step? Shift attention of PR team assigned to your unit away from communications tactics and over to a more effective action plan like one outlined above.

You’ll know it’s worth effort when you begin to see stakeholder behaviors like strong increases in inquiries, more repeat purchases, new proposals for strategic alliances or joint ventures, a fresh round of employment inquiries, or stronger contribution levels.

Lay it all out for PR people who work for your unit, especially why it’s a must to list in priority order those key outside audiences whose behaviors impact your operation most. Talk about importance of discovering how your organization is perceived by those audience members. Particularly because such perceptions almost always result in predictable behaviors that can affect success of your unit for better or for worse.

If you have a large, uncommitted budget, you can use professional survey counsel to interact with target audience members and ask important questions. “Do you know anything about us? Do you have an opinion about our products or services? Have you ever had a transaction with us? Was it a positive experience?” Or, members of your public relations team can handle this crucial task since perception, persuasion and behavior are prime concerns of theirs, or certainly should be.