Need to secure funds for kick starting or growing your business venture?
You’ll require a well-detailed business plan before approaching your investors.
But here’s the thing: Investors go through hundreds and thousands of plans every day. If yours doesn’t capture their attention in one go, you’ll lose the opportunity to win that investor.
To avoid this nightmare, prepare a business plan that checklists everything an investor seeks in a plan.
Wondering how? Read this blog post and learn how to prepare a business plan for investors. Also, understand why investors require a business plan and what they’re looking for.
Ready to dive in? Let’s get started.
Why do investors need a business plan?
While considering an investment opportunity, investors are looking for something other than a fancy business idea.
They’re looking to invest in a business opportunity that demonstrates a clear understanding of the target market and the competition. A business with clearly defined objectives, business strategies, and financials. A business that can prove its viability and financial sustainability in the long run.
That’s everything a business plan does by outlining these aspects in great detail. It answers all the questions an investor might have while considering your funding request, thereby helping them make an informed choice.
What do investors look for in a business plan?
Investors don’t expect a perfect plan. They are mainly interested to see if you have tested the business’s viability, have set goals, and can operate it successfully.
So stop striving for perfection. Simply ensure that a business plan touches on the following key aspects:
Product market fit
Investors want to see if you’re solving a viable problem and if there’s a sizable market of people who want to purchase your products. You can prove this through market share assumptions, competitors and target market analysis, beta testing, as well as traction.
Business vision and milestones
Investors want to know what you aim to achieve with your company through a clear mission and vision statement. They would like insight into the company’s long-term and short-term goals and any milestones you have achieved to date.
People in your organization
An investor wants to know the people who would execute your business idea. They would pay extra attention to this section evaluating the strengths, gaps, and weaknesses in your current team.
Funding demand
A business plan should offer a clear understanding of your funding requirements and offer answers about Return on Investment (ROI). Not only that, you need to justify the funding demands and explain your plans to utilize that funding.
These are the most important things an investor will require an answer to. With that said, let’s understand how to structure such information in your business plan.
How to write a business plan for investors?
An investor plan can be as long as 15-20 pages or as short as 1-2 pages (lean plan). Regardless, here are the key components that your business plan should have.
1. Executive summary
This section offers a quick overview of your entire business plan. Most entrepreneurs use it as a standalone document to offer investors a quick rundown of their business idea.
A well-crafted summary summarizes the key elements of a business plan such as the mission statement, products and services, market opportunity, marketing strategy, and financials in a line or two, individually.
You can even draft an executive summary that weaves all this information together into an engaging narrative. However, focus on brevity and remove all the fluff to make this section informative for investors.
2. Opportunity
The opportunity section of your business plan will define the problem you are solving and the solution you have to offer. It introduces your products and services as well as highlights their key features and Unique Selling Propositions (USPs).
In this section, you’ll prove that your company is chasing a viable problem and you have a segment of customers willing to pay for your products and services.
3. Industry and market analysis
Investors require a section on market research and analysis to see if you thoroughly understand the market you’re entering.
This section talks about the size of your industry and the market share you can capture. It outlines the emerging trends within your industry and also highlights the potential challenges you may face.
Investors also need a clear overview of your target customers. Building clear buyer personas or customer profiles at this stage can help them understand your audience better. Moreover, you can use these details to craft your business strategy and product offerings.
4. Competitors overview
Don’t shy away from talking about your competition and competitive advantage.
In this section, introduce your top competitors and conduct a SWOT analysis to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
Compare your competitors based on products, market share, target audience, revenue generation, location, and other related factors. Draw your competitive advantage and show how despite the competition your business can manage to thrive.
5. Revenue model
An investor absolutely needs an answer to how your business will make money. In your one-page business plan, you will quickly outline your revenue sources and your pricing strategies.
Explain how the chosen revenue model is fit for your business and include any additional models you plan to add in the future. Also, compare your pricing to the competitors and justify how charging less or more will be beneficial for your business.
6. Milestones and traction
Investors need to know that your business is more than just an idea. You need to prove its viability, and traction is the best way to do so.
Traction could be anything from a minimum viable product (MVP) to intellectual properties, such as early acquired customers, generated revenue, press mentions, testimonials, acquired key partnerships, or supplier contracts.
Pay extra focus to this section when you write your business plan for investors. It will instill investors’ confidence in your ability to turn ideas into a reality and build a successful business.
7. Team overview
This is your chance to introduce your team and prove how they’re the best fit for your business.
To write this section, introduce the members with a brief bio. The description should offer an overview of their professional experience, skills, and achievements along with the position they take at your company.
Moreover, don’t forget to define the organizational hierarchy as well as highlight if there are any gaps in your team and how you plan to overcome those.
8. Marketing and sales plan
Detail your strategies to acquire and retain the clients in this section.
Outline the marketing efforts you’ll make to reach your target market. This includes an overview of the marketing channels you’ll use, a marketing plan for each channel, your budget, and the metrics to track your marketing efforts.
Investors don’t expect a fool-proof line down of strategies. They just need a realistic overview of strategies that can bring you sales.
9. Company operations
This is your chance to prove that you have the means and capabilities to execute your business idea.
Define your business processes, establish SOPs, outline your hiring plan, detail your quality control processes, and list down all the equipment, technology, and resources you’ll require.
10. Financials
A brilliant business idea needs convincing financials to persuade the investors’ interest in an investment opportunity.
Investors expect a well-detailed financial plan that includes three quintessential financial statements, i.e. cash flow statement, income statement, and balance sheet.
These statements help them assess the financial health of a business as well as calculate essential future growth, profitability, and break-even ratios.
Make sure that you add the future projections for at least 3-5 years and include realistic justification for your assumptions.
11. Funding demand
Lastly, but most importantly, investors want a clear understanding of how much funding you require and your plan to utilize the same in different business activities.
Clarify what an investor will gain by investing in your business. Also, outline your repayment plan and your exit strategy.
12. Appendix
Investors might need additional documents that support the information in your plan.
Here are a few things you can include in your appendix of business plan:
- Intellectual proofs
- Registration and licensing permits
- Product pictures
- Detailed financial statements
- Raw market research
- Competitors research
Although optional, this section is quite useful in offering investors key details and proof related to your organization.
And that’s everything you need to include in your business plan for investors.
Prepare your investors’ plan with Upmetrics
A convincing business plan wins over the investors’ trust in your business and secures you the funding essential to get started.
However, despite the basic understanding, writing a crisp plan that covers all the essential information and makes a professional display takes a lot of work.
What if there was an easier way?
With the Upmetrics, you can create business plans in less than 10 minutes. All you need to do is answer some basic questions and its AI business plan generator will develop investor-ready plans from scratch in no time.
