3 Reasons Why Your Business Plan Stinks

There’s a problem with your business plan. I haven’t read it. I don’t know what your product or service is, or what problem it solves. But I know this: there are holes in what you think is an amazing business plan, and you need to fix them if you want anyone to read it, let alone invest.

Most people never even finish reading poor business plans because they have learned to recognize instantly when an idea hasn’t been fully fleshed out, the entrepreneur doesn’t understand the problem they’re trying to solve, or when there’s just no evidence to support the claims being made in the business proposal. I go over how to write an effective business plan in my book on business success, in which I lay out the principles you need to know to write a convincing proposal that really does your idea—and the work behind it—justice.

Your Idea Gets Lost in the Details

Any good idea you have is lost in an overwritten business plan. Sure, people want figures and facts that will back up your business plan (market research, competitive analysis, budget estimates, financial projections for the first few years, etc.), but these elements should be referenced in your business proposal, not spelled out in full like a master’s thesis.

Unless you avoid common mistakes, people will spot you as a entrepreneurial wannabe.

Unless you avoid common mistakes, people will spot you as a entrepreneurial wannabe.

Hide the details elegantly; you don’t need to front-load everything into the proposal. If an investor is intrigued, they can drill-down into that cost analysis to see your staffing plan, your materials estimates and your projected revenue. Put those things in separate documents and keep the main proposal itself as a birds-eye view of the business plan essentials, as laid out in my book, MakeMillions.Com:

  • The problem that needs a solution.
  • Your solution to that problem.
  • Convincing evidence that your solution will work.
  • A non-sugar-coated assessment of the risks associated with your venture.

If you lay these things out in a simple, easy-to-digest form that doesn’t try to win readers over with jargon, your idea will be able to stand on its own. You’ll really have a good chance that people will read the whole proposal, and your research will show through in the organization of the data you’ve collected.

Your Market Research is Light or Nonexistent

If it’s evident that you haven’t done an exhaustive amount of research on the niche you want to occupy, people will simply pass your proposal over. In fact, I’d say that a proposal without research isn’t really a proposal at all; it’s just wishful thinking on paper.

No one will believe you can compete without understanding the current players in the market space you want to break into. No matter how impressive your product is, investors will want to be reassured that established players don’t already have something better in the pipeline. If you’re entering an already competitive niche, you’ll really need to spell out why you’ll be able to compete with the big players in the space, and that your idea is unique enough not to get lost in the crowd.

The worst thing you could do is leave out analysis of some of your obvious competitors in the space or ignore similar products to yours from even smaller players who may be poised to eat your lunch. If someone can find out more about your competition with a simple Google search than they can reading your proposal, they’re not going to take you seriously, and they shouldn’t.

You Don’t Talk about What You Don’t Know

Experienced investors and business people will be able to see blind spots in your plan. Do you? If so, you’d better spell them out in detail, describing exactly what information you don’t have that could impact the likelihood of success, and why you think you’ll be able to succeed anyway.

Every business plan involves some basic assumptions (about the economic climate, about customer demand, about competition, etc.), which you should spell out logically in order to show your investors and potential partners that your plan is firmly based in reality. Avoiding these subjects makes it seem like you’re either unprepared or being deceptive about the actual risks associated with the proposal.

Mike Mann, social activist and serial entrepreneur, is the author of MakeMillions.Com, a business book focused on making money in small business in order to better serve society. Read or download the book today for insight on his philosophy on wedding entrepreneurship and charitable goals