A year ago my neighbor Bill, who is a brilliant software engineer asked me to help him  put a business plan together for a business idea that he wanted to pitch to a local Angel Investors group. I told him that I will not write his business plan for him, instead I will guide him but he will have to do the work. He protested at the beginning but since he didn’t have a choice he had to agree. Bill, as many starting entrepreneurs didn’t know where to begin or how to go about writing his business plan. He is a ‘computer geek’ and has no business education, but I have to admit; his business idea sounded very interesting.

Bill was completely intimidated by the thought of writing even a few sentences about his business concept, but given the chance, he could talk about it for hours.  His thoughts were racing and he was jumping from one idea to the next confusing not only me but himself.  Most times after Bill would tell me with excited and somewhat convincing voice about all of his ideas on approaching his customers, having a marketing campaign, and making millions of bucks overnight I would bring him back to earth by asking him a simple question such as “Bill, so who would you say will be your customer?”. Eighty percent of the time Bill would either not have an answer to my question or his answer would not be complete or backed up by any hard data.  I realized that as a business consultant many things seemed very simple to me, but to Bill, just trying to figure out what industry he is in, was a real challenge.

I met with him every day for an hour and we went over the outline of his plan, business terminology, information that he should include and also things that he should avoid.  I prepared a business plan checklist for him with questions that he needed to answer before he actually started writing his plan in order to put his thoughts in some order, learn the ins and outs of the industry he was in and his competitors, understand the importance of having a clearly defined target market, put some logic behind his financial projections by backing his numbers with an extensive market research, and many other questions which would help him understand his business better.

I have to admit, working with Bill wasn’t easy. He is a software guy, he had just come up with a great technology and all he wanted to do was talk about his technology. But, here I was, asking him what to him seemed like questions of secondary importance such as “What are your marketing objectives?”, “What is the current industry business model?”, or “What is your technology’s competitive advantages?”. Bill was so frustrated with all of my questions that he probably felt that I was trying to shoot his business idea down. He even told me that he feels that I am putting so much weight on things such as industry growth, competitors, business model, customers buying habits, that I am diminishing the importance of his technology and that we have written only one short paragraph describing it, when to him this should be the focal point of his plan.

He was convinced that if he told investors about all the details involved in the development of the technology and how it works they will be trowing their money at him. What he didn’t understand is that although investors are impressed with a good technology, or a product, or  a service, what they care the most about is the answer to the question: “How is your brilliant technology going to make me richer?”. As a consultant, convincing Bill of this fact was my most difficult task. I did not to take it personally as I knew from experience that if he wanted to be successful just having a good technology, product, or service is not enough, he needed to learn about his business from every angle.

In the end Bill was able to finish his plan and I am happy to report that  he is off to the next phase – presenting his business plan to potential investors. Although Bill didn’t particularly enjoy writing his business plan, he admitted to me that in the process he has learned essential things about his business that he never even thought about before. He also understood why the business plan should be viewed as a living document which needs to be updated constantly. I promised Bill I will help him polish his presentation. I realize that we have a long way to go and I hope in the end Bill will not only get the funding that he needs but that him and I will stay friends.

Being a business consultant is not always easy…I have worked with many Bills who were completely convinced that there is no way that they too can write a business plan.  I like to challenge my clients with many questions not because I want to put them down but because I know that once they are in front of the investors they will be challenged to the max and cannot afford not to be prepared. Writing your own business plan may seem impossible to you now, but with a little guidance, you too, just like Bill could be well on your way to impressing investors. Check my articles from the series “Writing a Business Plan – A Step by Step Guide”.

Related posts:

1. Writing the Product/Services Section of Your Business Plan