Experts Views on the Value of Business Plans

The first expert is Akira Hirai from Orange County, California. He is founder and CEO of Cayenne Consulting. He has over 20 years of experience entrepreneurship, management, business planning, financial analysis, software engineering, operations, and decision analysis (Caycon, 2013).

In his company’s blog, Hot Sauce! He writes the important questions that every business plan must answer. One questions that stood out to me was, “Why are you the best team to do this?” (Hirai, 2012). This is a very important question to answer in your business plan because you have to convince the investor that you are capable of handling the problems that will arise once the business starts making money. As Akira Hirai states, you have to make the investor trust in your team as well as your business before they give you their money (Hirai, 2012).

The next expert is Ellen Sandles, an executive director and founder of Tri-State private investors network, a private investor membership organization that serves the interests of private investors who wish to invest in early-stage opportunities. Her specialties include angel investing, venture capital, private equity and business plan analysis (LinkedIn, 2013).

            In her website, Angel Investing Funding, she gives ten tips to appeal to investors. One point she makes in the list is the importance of emphasizing your competitive advantage in your business plan. It is important to write a well “barriers to entry” for the investor. Another point she makes is having industry experience, either yourself or someone on your team. Showing that you know the industry, and have relevant experience in your plan is valuable to investors. Finally, another one of her tips is “You should recognize that raising capital takes time” (Angel Investing Funding, 2013). Raising money usually takes longer than you think.  Answering and handling questions objectively in your business plan is important to investors. The entire list is valuable so please look for the link in references, and check it out (Angel Investing Funding, 2013).

References:

Angel Investing Funding. 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.angelinvestorfunding.com

Angel Investing Funding. Ten Tips to Appeal to Angel Investors. 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.angelinvestorfunding.com/tentips.htm

Caycon. Consultant Akira Hirai. 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.caycon.com/consultant-Akira-Hirai.php

Hirai, A. Hot Sauce! Blog. Ten Questions Every Business Plan Must Answer. Aug 1, 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.caycon.com/blog/page/3/

LinkedIn. Sandles Ellen. 2013http://www.linkedin.com/in/sandlesellen