There are a number of ways to get your business plan done. You can write the whole thing yourself, have it done professionally, or use software. Using business plan software is very risky and gives you the lowest chance of achieving funding. Below are three top reasons business plans from software packages simply don’t work.
1. You plan looks just like everybody else’s – Once you’ve seen a business plan that was put together with business plan software, you’ve seen them all. These software packages generally place the plans in the same order and are formatted exactly the same. While it might look nice, the investor or bank officer can identify it as software-completed immediately and this puts you at a significant disadvantage right away.
2. It’s difficult to stress your competitive advantages – A custom business plan can have a little more freedom to express your advantages over your competitors. While a software plan is stuck talking about an advantage in one place, the top advantages really should be worked in within several places of a well-written plan. This drives home what your main advantages are and helps the investor understand why they should invest in your business.
3. No expert advice and input – While using software does help you put the plan together that meets the investor needs, you have no advice or input from experts that work in the field. Having experts involved in the process early on can keep you from making critical mistakes and gives your business plan an overall better opportunity to get funded.
