Often people who are very good in business will have their friends come to them when they have an idea of a new company to start. Generally, we all recommend that it makes sense to prepare a business plan to help bring investors on board, or to take to the bank to borrow the money to start their company. Still, it is a lot of work to prepare a business plan, and it is even harder if the individual wanting to start the new firm doesn’t know where to start themselves.

This is why I recommend if you are doing such entrepreneurial planning that you discuss many things with the person who has the concept for the new venture, and work with them every step of the way. One way I have found to do this, is to prepare an outline prior to creating the plan, and then ask the entrepreneur:

“If you can give me a sentence or two under as many of the headings as possible, this will help speed up the process. So the plan is convincing, don’t worry we will constantly be changing it as we go, saving old drafts. It’s about “planning” not just completing it to show to your Angle or pitching to potential investors.”

Next, I explain that, “first, as I build this plan, I was hoping you might spend a couple of hours making some notes. Perhaps, print the outline I’ve prepared and think about it.”

A seasoned MBA student, small-business owner, or long-standing entrepreneur will have no problem putting together a plan if they have all the right information up front. Putting together a rough draft is not all that hard, if you have the major components in place. Once a rough draft business plan is put together, the person with the concept can then began to write in the margins, in between the double space sentences.

And if the process goes back and forth like this for three or four times, you are bound to have a solid strategy that looks and feels right, and it is ready to put to the test to secure the financial needs of the future business. Please consider all this.

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