If you are planning on applying for business credit or finance, one of the first things your bank will ask to see is your business plan. Even if you are not applying for financing a business plan is worth the effort to write. Here are a few good reasons to get it done:
The Business Plan will help convince you and a bank that your business has an opportunity for success. Just sitting down and writing your plan forces you to ask yourself question about your business you might not have thought about before.
If you are applying for credit and finance, your business plan can send a clear message about your business that you might not be able to express face to face. Simply planning ahead shows your lender you have a clear focus of what you want to accomplish with your business.
With a business plan you can monitor your progress with your objectives. This allows you to spot quickly if you are switching gears or going in a direction you don’t want to continue.
When putting your thoughts on paper you will realize if you need to do more research to reach your business goals. Your business plan will give you a rough figure for the amount of financing you actually will need.
A business plan will simply help you get funding. Banks and other lenders turn down businesses when they don’t have enough information about the business or if they do not clearly understand what you want your business to be able to do. A business plan provides all of this information the lender needs to get all their questions answered.
Even if you don’t need financing right now, by the time you are finished with your business plan you will have a real understanding of your business and where you want to go with it.