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Growing a business:
Using your business plan to raise finance

Potential funders will probably want to see your business plan before they will invest in your business.

Tips on presenting your plan to a potential funder include:

Start with an executive summary (say only two pages long) highlighting the key features of each section of your plan

Write the plan in a language that the funder will understand, for example try to avoid technical jargon and long rambling sentences

Make sure you answer the questions that a potential funder is likely to ask, such as what you intend to do with the money, and how you intend to pay the money back

The plan should look good, be typed, be broken down into sections consisting of short, numbered, paragraphs and generally have a professional feel to it.

A good presentation should make the potential funder read your plan, but they then need to be convinced that the plan will work. Two areas that they will focus on are:

Whether the financial forecasts are realistic and consistent with the other information in the report.

Whether the management team is strong enough to implement the plan.

If you are trying to raise finance you may only get one chance to put your case across, and so it is worthwhile making sure that your business plan is suitable for the purpose. We recommend that your plan is reviewed by your accountant or business adviser. We would be happy to comment on the effectiveness of the presentation of your plan, identify any problems with the financial forecasts, or to prepare forecasts for you.