The Difference Between an Internal Business Plan and a Bank Business Plan

People tend to speak of a business plan as a one-size-fits-all concept but, this is just not the case. The way you approach a Business Plan can drastically vary depending on the purpose and the audience. Internal business plans specifically will vary quite dramatically from plans meant for external parties, such as a Bank Business plan.

Purpose

The greatest difference between a Business Plan Written for internal use and a bank business plan is the purpose. When you write an internal business plan, it is for your own use. It is usually meant primarily as a way to test out your business concept and/or provide a roadmap to business success.

Meanwhile, a bank business plan is written with the intention of convincing an outside party that your business concept is viable, will be successful, and is worth funding. In some ways, it’s similar to creating an internal business plan but, there are many elements that will differ. In the bank business plan, it is much more about clearly articulating the business concept and less about creating a step by step plan.

Depth

While the main elements of your business plan, especially your financials, should not differ between these two types of plans, the way you present them and the level of detail you go into on certain aspects will differ. There are certain aspects of an internal business plan that will be unwritten as they are already known in your mind. The level of depth of Market Research may be different as well. Again, this relates back to purpose. When you are writing a bank business plan, you will focus more on selling the business than simply planning the business and this will augment which sections you focus on most closely.

Personal Finances

In your internal business plan, you are unlikely to include any information about your personal financial situation besides what funds you are contributing to the business. However, in a bank business plan, lenders will be extremely interested in your personal credit and financial situation. In most small business bank loans, the individual owner or owners are on the hook for the loan in the case the business fails. This is high stakes for a bank, so they need to ensure that not only do you have a business plan that is likely to succeed, but that you are financially responsible and are likely to honor the loan regardless the future of the business.

Formality

Your own business plan can be written in any format with any type of language. You are more concerned with creating a plan than being able to communicate it to others in any sort of structured format. Some internal business plans have even been drafted on napkins and transferred to paper later (or never). When you are creating a bank business plan, it is expected to be written in formal business language and follow a traditional business plan format.

Despite the differences between these two types of plans, the fundamental aspects of an internal vs. bank business plan are similar. In the end, it is all about building a solid foundation on which to start or grow your business. However, how you approach them will is like to vary drastically. Don’t be afraid to consider a professional business plan writer if you need to craft a Bank Business Plan and feel as though this task is out of your element.

How Financial Modeling is Utilized by Professional Business Plan Writers

Professional business plan writers use all the tools at their disposal to create exceptional, winning business plans for their clients. One such tool is financial models. Professional Business Plan Writers will utilize financial modeling for a number of reasons but, primarily to create and backup the financial projections.

Understanding Financial Models vs. Financial Projections

Financial models are often confused with financial projections. However, these two are fundamentally different. Projections are a static, snapshot of an expected future financial position. Financial Modeling may be used to produce Financial Projections but, they are not one in the same. Financial modeling is an adaptive process that involves creating an interactive financial model that can be changed for various scenarios based on various inputs. Financial modeling is used to not just settle on things like financial projections but, also to provide vital financial information to make daily business decisions.

Financial Modeling in Business Planning

Professional Business Plan writers are often involved in creating the financial projections that will accompany a business plan. They will take information from various data sources and plug them into financial models to help solidify or support the current projections.

Through the process of doing the research for a business plan and depending on the depth of that research, professional business plan writers will learn information that will change some of the assumptions in the business plan. Market research being one of these key drivers. Things that may result from market research that may be used in Financial Modeling include total market size, competitor market share, or anticipated selling price of products and services.

As the numbers used to generate the projections are verified or confirmed, they will be plugged into a financial model that will give a new picture of potential revenues and expenses. When these numbers come together, they help set final projections.

Use in Investor Business Plans

Financial modeling is especially useful in investor business plans. Investors often want to calculate the potential for their investment under different scenarios. Have a working financial model that you can used during an investor meeting can help speed up the process of coming to a decision. You and the potential investor are able to get a preliminary feel of where both of your comfort zones are for the amount of their investment and their potential share of the business, at the time you meet with them.

Often this step will be done by either or both parties after the meeting. It is unlikely investors will make a snap decision on the spot as they usually want to do their own due diligence but, being able to plug numbers in, together, can get you closer to a final offer and avoid some of the back and forth that usually takes place after an initial meeting.

If you plan to utilize professional Business Plan Writers for your business planning needs, make sure you understand what they offer. All businesses will require different level of assistance depending where they are in the business planning process. Some business plan writers merely write your plan based on your existing information. Others offer consulting, whether included in the plan or additional, to help guide the decisions you are making about your business. Others still will help you plan your business basically from scratch including conducting your Market Research and creating your financials.

Key Aspects of a Successful Local Franchise Business Plan for Miami

Are you a local Miami-based business that is considering franchising your brand? Here’s what you’ll need to know for your Franchise Business Plan for Miami to be a success.

Make Sure Your Business is a Fit

The first step to having a successful franchise business plan for Miami is to ensure your business is a good fit for franchising. Franchising is an appealing way to expand your business. It allows you to open new stores without being responsible for staffing or capital requirements. Unfortunately, not every business will make a successful franchise.

The key elements to being a good fit are established success, a unique concept, distinct brand, and easily replicable systems. In other words, your business should be at least a couple years old with consistent profitability, your brand should be unique and appealing, and the way in which you operate should be able to be taught to a new business owner within a matter of a few weeks or months. If you can check all these boxes, you should proceed to draft your franchise Business Plan.

Should You Expand Locally, Nationally, or Beyond?

If your Miami business is working, is that because of the local market? Would it appeal to people in other cities, states, or types of areas? You will need to determine if you want to franchise locally within the other areas of the city, nationally, or even globally. 

 

The first step in determining this is conducting, or hiring a firm to conduct, detailed Market Research. This will feed into your franchise business plan as well. If you want to stay only in the Miami area that is fine and may make the most sense for your business depending on your product or service. Just make sure there is enough room in the market that your own franchises won’t cannibalize each other’s sales. It is important to remember that your success ultimately relies on your franchisee’s success.

Deep Understanding of the Local Market

If you are planning on only developing your Franchise Business Plan Miami, make sure you fully understand that differences in different areas of the city. Regardless what your product is or how “Miami” it may feel, if there is not a large enough market in specific neighborhoods, it won’t be successful there. As you will be relying on different segments of the city to support your additional franchises, you need to help ensure a viable market exists before you try to sell the franchise business plan to other would-be franchisees.

Well Developed Systems

As already stated, one of the most important aspects of a successful franchise is easily replicable systems. These need to not only feel replicable to you but, need to be able to be documented as well. This is not only for the early stages of planning your franchisee training but, to be included as evidence in your franchise business plan for Miami. When you put together your franchise business plan, you need to prove that your business meets the replicable standard. If you are able to document them and include them in your plan you will do a better job of convincing someone to buy into your Franchise Business Plan, regardless of the capacity (lender, investor, partner, potential franchisee, etc.).

How Professional Business Plan Writers Approach an SBA Business Plan

There are many ways to tackle a business plan. Often, that will depend on the intended audience. When writing an SBA business plan, it should be written specifically with business and financial experts in mind. You need to also be aware of their main goal – to fund businesses that will be able to repay their loans. To that end, professional business plan writers will approach an SBA Business Plan in a specific way.

Strong Executive Summary – The executive summary serves as an introduction and overview of your entire business. It is for this reason that Professional Business Plan Writers will write this section last, only after the rest of the plan is complete. Only once the entire SBA business plan is written should you take on the task of trying to synthesize the entire business into a one-page summary. Not only do you want to touch on all the main parts, you want to do it in an engaging way that exemplifies the key strengths of the business.

Formal Writing – In terms of SBA business plan, you are presenting to the SBA and to financial lenders. Both of these groups are not only accustomed to viewing business plans, they are also professionals. They expect the language and presentation to be formal. They want to know that you take your SBA business plan – and by association your business – seriously. Professional Business Plan writers know that formal language is a good way to do this and set the appropriate tone.

Modest, Detailed Financials – There are certain audiences who only want top line financials. They either have no need or no desire to see the math behind everything, right down to every trash bin you will purchase. This couldn’t be farther from the truth for an SBA business plan as you are presenting to a financial lender who is used to analyzing numbers for a living. Professional Business Plan Writers ensure that every last detail is included to prove that the numbers are sound and well-considered. They will also make sure that the projections are modest. Specifically, for an SBA business plan, one of the best approaches is to under promise and over deliver.

Detailed Market Research – The financials must be well supported. One of the strongest ways to do this is through detailed market research. Your Market Research will show there is a true need and interest for your product. It will also show there is space within the market for your business to succeed. Professional business plan writers know that this is always an important aspect of a business plan. However, it can be weighted even more heavily in an SBA business plan where the focus is on long-term stability and business success.

Writing an SBA Business Plan can be nerve wracking, especially for new entrepreneurs. It is wise to invest in professional business plan writers to ensure the most polished, convincing plan possible. However, if you can’t afford to hire one or choose not to, you can at least learn from their approach.

3 Reasons to Hire a Business Plan Writer to Create Your Pitch Deck

After writing a business plan, whether you hire a Business Plan Writer or not, you may feel you have all the information you need to craft your pitch deck yourself. However, there are many reason that a business plan writer is much better suited for this task and you should consider hiring one, whether you had one work on the business plan or not.

1. It’s Really Important – If you need a pitch deck, it’s most likely for a potential investor. If you’re at the point of soliciting investors, you obviously require outside capital to launch or grow your business. If you don’t get an investment, it’s likely you will either have incredibly slow growth or won’t ever launch at all. It may seem that your business plan is the most important document you’ve ever created but, you have to get an investor interested enough to read it. That’s why the Pitch Deck may actually be the most important document you ever create for your business.

Why wouldn’t you trust something this important to an experienced professional? The professional in this case is a business plan writer. There are those out there that advertise themselves as a pitch deck writer. However, a business plan writer with an eye (or team) for design, will be better suited to craft your pitch deck. They will fully understand the business plan and they are also skilled at knowing what information appeals to the right audience, in this case investors.

2. Objective View of Your Business Plan – After spending weeks, months, or even years considering every aspect of your business it’s often hard to be objective. Especially after creating your Business Plan, you tend to see every detail as vital. This just isn’t the case when it comes to sharing the information with a potential investor for the first time. The pitch deck needs to be concise and only cover what investors really care about. Remember, the entire purpose of the pitch deck is to get an investor interested enough to want to explore all the details.

A business plan writer will not be attached to or view your business in the same way as you. This objectivity, along with their prior experience, gives them the ability to tease out the most important aspects of your business plan in the eyes of an investor. As you present your Professional Pitch Deck, potential investors are likely to ask questions. That is where your knowledge of every detail of your business becomes critical but, you need to get investors to be point of being interested enough to ask questions.

3. Mix of Right Info with Right Design – Your pitch deck isn’t just about providing the right information and the right amount of it. It’s also about presenting it in a way that is visually appealing. Again, the whole notion is to keep eyes on the presentation and get an investor interested. A business plan writer will either have design skills themselves or will use someone else to create visual elements while they focus on content. In either case, the perfect mix of these two aspects it what makes a pitch deck truly captivating.

There are many reasons to hire a Business Plan Writer to craft your pitch deck. However, it can be an expensive endeavor which is why many people may shy away from the idea. When you consider the importance of the pitch deck and how much better suited a business plan writer is to do it, it should become clear that it is an investment worth making.

Important Considerations for Your SBA Business Plan if your Business Plan is for Miami

If you have a business plan for Miami and are working on an SBA loan, you’re going to need an SBA Business Plan. Planning a Miami-based business, like any business located in a major city, requires attention to a specific set of details that SBA business plans for other locations will not require.

Location and Office Space – The expense of the office is always something to be concerned about. That is especially true if you are writing an SBA Business Plan for Miami. If you are going to plan your business to be located in Miami, you are going to need to defend that choice because many of your costs are going to be higher simply because of your chose location.

If you have justifiable reason to locate in the city, you are going to need to be highly selective about your office or store location. If you are in retail, naturally your choices are limited. However, you may want to consider offering a boutique in-person shopping experience to limit the size of the retail space you need. This means you keep very limited stock on hand and order the rest to be delivered in store, or have your customers order off your website for home delivery.

If you are not in retail, ask yourself if all of your employees need to be in the office in person. Keep your office as small as possible and be realistic about who and how often they need to be in the space. You may even want to consider a fully remote model. If you are unsure about your long-term needs, renting or purchasing a larger space may be advantageous if you are able to offer coworking spaces and/or sublease. If priced correctly, this will actually create an additional revenue stream with a profit. Either way, the intent with the SBA Business Plan in Miami is to show you are cognizant of the exorbitant rent prices and either working to minimize this aspect or using it to your advantage.

Diversity & Appeal to Local Culture – If your SBA business plan is for a Miami-based business whose target market is also Miami, then you need to keep diversity at front of mind. One of Miami’s nicknames is the “Capital of Latin America”. Nearly 70 percent of the population is Hispanic and around half of all residents speak Spanish fluently. This isn’t just about speaking the language, or running marketing in the language, you also need to truly understand the culture. This will touch every aspect of your business from hiring and employment to product/service development. Unless you have a very highly specific target market that excludes this majority demographic, you need to make sure it is at the core of your business in every aspect.

There are many things unique about having a business in Miami however, these two are among the most important. Your SBA Business Plan will need to take these things into account and address them if you want your business plan for Miami to be viewed as complete and well-considered.

How to Narrow Your Search for Franchise Business Plan Writers in Miami

Searching through hundreds of Business Plan Writers in Miami can be overwhelming. It can be especially difficult when you’re specifically looking for someone that can do a franchise business plan. Business plan writers in Miami, and elsewhere, tend to focus on writing business plans for those that are seeking outside funding through lenders and investors. Although you may need to find funding to develop your franchise business plan, there are many unique aspects about a franchise that need to be considered for a traditional business plan. There are ways to narrow your search to find the right franchise business plan writer in Miami for you!

Franchise Business Plan Experience – One of the quickest ways to narrow down your search for business plan writers in Miami is to exclude those that do not have Franchise Business Plan experience. Some business plan writers will have a portfolio on their website making this easy to discern. Others may also have a blog and you can scan their topics to see if they ever share useful information about franchises or franchise business plans. If you have no indication, contact your top choices to inquire if they have handled franchise business plans.

Focus on Audience – Another way to tell if business plan writers in Miami will be a good fit to write your franchise business plan is to gain a sense about their focus on audience. A good franchise business plan should be easy to understand by nearly any audience. However, especially with franchises, you may need one plan that will appeal to multiple audiences. Business plan writers in Miami that focus on writing plans with audience in mind will likely be the best ones to write your franchise business plan.

Referrals and Recommendations – The internet is a treasure trove of reviews but, it can be hard to know which ones to trust. If you’re in the Miami area, talk to people, either in person or through local business internet groups, about the Business Plan writers in Miami that they’ve used. If you’ve connected with other successful franchisors, you may want to ask them regardless of their location. If you are adamant about using business plan writers from Miami, it is always possible that other franchisors may have used companies that have partners or offices in Miami.

Experience – Years in business can tell you a great deal about the overall success of a business. That’s not to say that newer companies will not be able to meet your expectations. However, when trying to narrow a long list of potential independent business plan writers or firms, years in business and number of business plans completed can be a good place to start.

Creating the perfect Franchise Business Plan can be a tall task, especially when you will need to use the plan for multiple audiences, as you often do with franchises. Finding business plan writers in Miami who are up to this task can be a process itself. Begin your search with the tips above, look for other factors that are key for you, and schedule a call with a couple writers that you think might be a match. Following these steps will ensure you find a Business Plan Writer that represents your franchise well.

How NOT to Write Your Pitch Deck, According to a Business Plan Writer

Sometimes, the place to start when figuring out how to do something, is to know what not to do. That same method can apply to your Pitch Deck. A business plan writer is the best way to go when writing a pitch deck. If you are unable or don’t want to hire one, you can at least learn from the most common mistakes they’ve seen.

Making it too long – This is one of the most common mistakes that a Business Plan Writer sees. Potential investors see pitch decks all the time. If you can’t gain their attention and interest in less than 12 slides, you’re probably not going to be able to and may not even understand your own business plan well enough yet.

Not using visuals – A Business Plan writer will tell you that your pitch deck is the place to infuse all the creativity you stifled when writing your business plan. The entire purpose of your pitch deck is to get an investor interested enough to read your plan. Don’t be afraid of images, graphs and charts, and other visual elements. In the pitch deck stage, it is all about keeping eyes on the screen.

Using animations – With the focus on design in mind, it’s important to note that this does not include animations or transitions within the slides. Many investors are going to want your pitch deck ahead of time or will ask you to send a copy after your presentation. You can’t have visualizations/transitions in a PDF. Even during the presentation, animations or transitions can be distracting.

Using a standard PowerPoint template – Using a standard template without any of your own design elements will make it look like a presentation belongs in decades gone by. There are so many custom templates and other programs out there now. If you’re not a design person, that’s okay, all the more reason to hire a business plan writer with a good eye.

Having too much text – You are giving a complete topline overview of your business. That is the entire purpose of the Professional Pitch Deck. If the investor wants to dig deeper, they will ask questions or consult your business plan. When you cram too many words and too much detail onto a slide, not only is it hard to read, it’s overwhelming and will almost always lead to an investor losing interest. Keep it simple. Remember, you want them to ask questions!

Not providing enough info on your team - Even the best business concept and plan will fail in execution if it lacks a strong team. If you work with a business plan writer, they will spend more time than you likely think is necessary trying to understand the complementary skills and experience of all team members. They do this because the team is one of the key elements that factor into an investor’s decision. Make sure you devote a slide to your team and explain how collectively, they have all the necessary qualifications to run your business successfully.

Avoiding the above might not mean your pitch deck is perfect but, it will help you avoid common mistakes. It is always worth the investment to trust a professional, such as a Business Plan Writer, with the tall task of writing and/or designing your pitch deck. But, if you insist on going at it alone, avoiding the missteps above is a good place to start!

What Professional Business Plan Writers Want You to Know Before Hiring Them

Business plan writers, although very skilled in business, are not consultants. If they are, they offer that as a separate or additional service. If you want to get the most out of your business plan, these are the things that a Professional Business Pan writer will expect you to have figured out when you approach them.

Know the Basics

Business plan writers will usually start the process of writing your business plan by sending you a detailed questionnaire to complete. The purpose of this is to get the basic details they will need to successfully write your plan. It will also challenge you to consider all the fundamental aspects of your plan.

As the business plan writers review your responses and begin to work on your plan, they will make a list of follow up questions. If you cannot complete the questionnaire with some level of detail, you are not ready to have professional Business Plan Writers work on your plan.

Have Team Members Lined Up

You and your business are only as strong as your team. Especially if your reason for writing a business plan is to appeal to outside funders, you need to show you have a team that is capable of being successful. This means having key members with a wide set of skills and experience. You should not venture to create a formal, professional business plan until your team has been lined up.

Do Your Market Research

Professional business plan writers will naturally expand on Market Research information. They often have access to databases of consumer insights and the like. It is also in their best interest to do some of their own market research to ensure your business plan is as strong as possible. However, if you have not done basic research into the industry or covered other vital aspects like identifying main competitors, defining your target market or considered pricing, business plan writers will often charge extra for this or may refuse to do your plan until this information is provided.

Have Detailed Financial Assumptions

One of the top reasons people hire professional business plan writers is because they are unsure of how to approach or create formal Financial Projections. There are two main pieces of information they will need to work these out in an accurate fashion. The first is all the expenses you expect to incur in the first year. You need to think about everything from trash cans and printer paper to the salaries/benefit costs of your staff and major equipment purchases. You should also know how much you plan to charge and have sales targets in mind. If you have these two pieces of information, professional business plan writers will usually be able to work out the rest.

If you only have a half-baked business idea, there are some professional business plan writers that will still take the job and will work to tease the missing information out of you. Others, however, will not begin a project without you being able to satisfactorily express the main aspects of your business. It is also in your best interest to have these things worked out before considering business plan writers. Quality, professional Business Plan writers can be expensive. You will only truly get the best result if your business concept is well considered prior to hiring them.