How To Develop A Business Plan With Investor Advice

As you begin presenting your business plan to investors

, you will start to hear criticism and feedback. If investors are not forthcoming with feedback, you should certainly ask to hear their thoughts, as it shows you are open to their ideas. Hopefully, at least some of their ideas will be constructive and you can choose to incorporate those changes into your business plan.

Pick and Choose

Investors each have their own preferences when it comes to startups that they would fund. You must keep in mind that part of your plan which may strike one investor the wrong way might be exactly what another one likes. For this reason, you cannot simply incorporate all the feedback you hear from each funder. Youll have to pick and choose what to change and what to leave the same.

A good rule of thumb is to not make changes until you have heard the same feedback from multiple sources. At this point you can be relatively sure that you will stand a better chance at being funded if you move in the recommended direction. An exception to this rule would be if you hear a recommendation which seems so intuitive that you feel an immediate need to incorporate it. If your plan has not been vetted by professionals, there is a great chance this will occur.

Stay Flexible

In order to keep your plan flexible to changes, print and bind it simply. Also, do not invest in printing multiple copies at a time, as it may become entirely irrelevant if changes are needed. You may have the opportunity to send a PDF version of your business plan or executive summary to certain investors, and take advantage of this when possible to cut down on printing. Save each new version of your plan separately, but keep careful track of the latest version. Also take care to back up the files. Realize that your business plan is never truly finished, even after you achieve funding, and do everything you can to accommodate this type of iterative process.

by: Eric Powers

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