If you do not have a business plan then opening your own business is just a lot of talk. Investors, banks, employees, contractors, landlords – everyone needs to see your business plan. Even if you do not submit this business plan as part of your application to get a loan, investment or a grant , it is still crucial to have it to help yourself stay on track and to also provide research and information to those interested in supporting you.
Getting grants and loans is very competitive nowadays and only one out of 100 applications actually gets a grant in the United States. With competition this keen you may need to make multiple submissions in order to get the money you need. You must increase your chances of getting funding by applying to several grantors, investors and lenders at once. This is why it is important to have the “master document” (which is what a business plan actually is) in place so you can refer to it for support as needed.
There is grant money available from almost every company and organization that has to pay taxes. They will offer money as a grant because in the United States this is a 100% write off for them. There are even entire foundations that organize philanthropic organizations and investors on single websites so you can find them in one place at once.
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It would be a tragedy if your business did not manage to get money because you were unable to verbalize your mission, your goals or describe the steps you plan to take on the way to an organization that might lend or give you money. It is one thing to brainstorm a business but quite another to make it a reality.
It is hard to look at the expenses, paperwork and other hard realities that govern the workings of the business world and realizing how much work it is going to take. Creating a business plan forces you to do this so you can stay on track. In fact, creating a business plan can help you decide just how much money you need to ask for from a or what type of grant to apply for in the first place!
You need to look at these issues because that is exactly what your grantor and evaluators are going to be looking at when they assess your funding application. They are going to see if you have the budget, papers and plan needed to make everything a reality. They want to know that you can be rational and make good use of the money because to put it quite frankly – there are a lot of people out there that have already wasted their time and money already and gone bankrupt.
