Business Plan Buyer Beware!

We receive many inquiries every day from people seeking business plans. Smart shoppers typically will obtain information from 3-4 professionals before selecting their business plan consultant. Unfortunately, the Internet and the bricks and mortar world have many out-of-work bankers, lone wolf consultants and so-called professional that both cloud important issues needed in a business plan and use bait and switch techniques, including business plan pricing.

These facts and the inexperience of many entrepreneurs lead almost half of our inquiries on a business plan to ask us what the price would be without offering any details whatsoever on their business venture. Unfortunately, many unscrupulous so-call professionals quote the same price for all business plans in their bait and switch approach. The results are two-fold 90% of the time. Either a business plan that does not have a detailed Market Plan, Forecasts or other sections needed to raise capital, or a cookie cutter approach that makes a coffee shop business plan look like a plan for a revolutionary new technology.

Businesses are radically different, as are their goals. A restaurant, cleaners or spa with a local following requires a minimum market analysis while that new technology with potential national or worldwide sales requires extensive analysis to produce a viable plan. Of course, most business plans we receive completed by others are missing a detailed market analysis, one of the reasons they have failed. Again, the reason? A so-called expert quoted a flat rate and then didn’t do the work needed with a low ball flat rate. The old adage of your parents rings true here: You get what you pay for.

Typically an exchange of information would take 4-5 emails or one 5-10 minute phone call for us to determine the scope of your goals and for us to provide you with the best price based on your needs and our related experience. With extensive varied experience, we complete custom business plans, often with a major head start in understanding your business