hi I’m Evan Carmichael welcome to
another edition of ask Evan in today’s
episode I’m going to answer a question
from one of my readers Nelson who wrote
to me asking me to check out his
business plan and I thought the easiest
way to do it would be to do a screencast
so you can kind of watch along with me
so Nelson is one of my Twitter followers
and watches some YouTube videos of mine
and he’s trying to get funding for this
business idea he’s based in South Africa
and wanted my advice on his plan and so
he attached it along with a whole bunch
of different attachments down here so I
just opened the major document here at
the business plan and having a
background as being the venture
capitalists we used to raise half a
million to 15 million dollars for
companies to expand their businesses and
I looked at I don’t know how new
business plans too many to count and we
rejected you know 99% of them and most
of them were rejected right here at this
face so somebody even emails me a plan
and don’t they get a quick look and then
they get a rejection notice pretty
quickly soon after so this will be a
kind of sneak peek as to how I looked at
business plans for any of those of you
who are looking to raise funding
hopefully this helps
so just looking up the document here’s
this document so we’ll just go through
it quickly so business plan fine Pasi
events management CCTA on print so I’m
not exactly sure what all this is it
looks like the company’s name is on
print I don’t know what all of this is
before I haven’t kind of seen that kind
of model maybe it’s past the events
management and I don’t know what this
means but so I’m a little confused
already from the just the first page
going down so the table contents it’s
fine one thing I noticed here you know
you want to make it look as professional
as you can so it’s great to have a table
of contents everything’s aligned nicely
the right side here looks way off so you
know clean that up a little bit so
people get a positive impression of you
and your business so you know
the numbers could be aligned better
these are some weird-looking numbers
down here breakeven is on page 221 you
know just little things like that if an
investor right like right away here this
is almost game over right if somebody
submits this kind of business plan to me
when I was in my venture capital days
your almost game over you have to really
Wow me after this if there’s any kind of
errors or sloppiness on your you know
table of contents you’re probably gonna
have a lot more mistakes later on so you
want to really go through it with a
fine-tooth comb what I would typically
look for and looking at business plan is
I start with the executive summary I
then go to the about us of the the team
which I don’t really see this little bit
about the business so we’ll check that
out but there’s nothing about management
BIOS and then we go down to the
financials so let’s start with the
executive summary and see what it’s all
about
from the an executive summary airborn
communication see see the company so I’m
now even more confused because it’s
airborne communication CC and at the top
it’s past the events management and on
print so I’m not really sure what the
name of this company is so it’s
registered in 2007 by Nelson a thirty
year old black male I don’t know if this
is relevant if you’re blocking out or
how old you are
company was registering response is
identifying the opportunity to open to
open establish a print on demand graphic
design service so right here grammatical
mistake so to open you know or establish
wouldn’t have both of them so probably
this point that’s it I’m done as an
investor you know I have on your other
business plans to look at and don’t have
time for this one anymore well just just
to kind of quickly go through the review
I’ll keep going
for your sake Nelson so going through
sponsor form the company the offer
graphic design print on demand service
product which product will be recently
priced so another grammatical mistake
there the business focus on service
quality and turnaround time sponsor to
attain
services hooli you can of stuff okay so
you haven’t you haven’t grabbed me and
the the job of your executive summary
here is you want to grab the reader to
say this is really interesting I want to
learn more so you got to do that in the
first couple sentences
I want to know you know what the demand
is like in your markets all its shows
here is that you saw an opportunity it
would be good to have you know a little
more data and also show what is that you
do that’s unique and different so a
print on demand graphic design service
doesn’t really showcase what’s you know
so different about you you’re gonna
focus on service quality and turnaround
time you know everybody’s gonna say that
so again you haven’t you haven’t pulled
me so for a busy investor or banker
who’s seen tons of these you’re you’re
more likely to get rejected if you can’t
grab them quickly so I focus on cleaning
this up a little bit really showing that
there’s a strong demand for your
business in your area and grabbing them
quickly with what makes you different
and why you’re gonna succeed where other
companies have failed so this is good to
show the the source of fun so I guess
you’re gonna be doing a hundred thousand
we know whatever your currency is here
and then you’re gonna be asking for four
hundred fifty thousand in return I don’t
know what that converts to in terms of
dollars so if that’s a reasonable amount
for start-up or not one thing I noticed
here is is a mistake here on the numbers
the source of funds an application of
funds this should be 550 instead of 450
all right so both numbers should add up
ideally to 550 and these two will add up
to 550 so there’s some you know
numerical error here of how you’re gonna
be you know spending using the funds
again you know as somebody you’re
talking to guys who are gonna pour over
your numbers you got to make sure that
every number makes complete sense and
you can you can break it down really
clearly so right away again if there’s
any mistake with your numbers you’re
probably gonna get a no pretty quickly
so I’d want to go through that a little
more clearly
I don’t know again what the conversion
here is the dollars it looks like you
might want to think about having some
more working capital this might be the
low you said somewhere that you’re
you’re not gonna even be making a loss
of the first five months so you might
need a little more working capital than
this especially if it takes you longer
than five months to get profitable so
that’s something to consider if I’m
giving you money you might be concerned
that you would spend all this money
buying up all your equipments and
supplies and then you wouldn’t have
enough money to actually run your
business so that that might cause me
some concern is somebody potentially
giving you some money let’s skip down
and see if we can find out a little bit
more about your business so sponsor is a
thirty year old black male again I don’t
know I don’t know why that makes a
difference if you’re black or not or how
old you are necessarily accepting
experience in graphic design business
print web marketing branding animation
TV attach the marking manager experience
as well there mumbling to myself as I
read CV attached I would include more
here so this was a number two thing that
I looked at as as a venture capitalist
is who’s the team and it’s great to have
the CV but if you don’t grab people
again here quickly then you’re not going
to get a yes you’re making them do extra
work so I would I would quickly show
here some of the highlights of both of
your careers and why you guys are
uniquely situated to become a success in
this industry where you know others may
not have been as successful that’s the
biggest worry for any investors they’re
gonna give you money and you’re gonna
lose it Ryan anybody can spend money but
not everybody can make money or earn
money and that’s the biggest fear for an
investor is that they’re gonna lend you
all this money and you’re gonna just
blow it and not be able to make a return
so that seems to be it so this is all
you have on your management team so I
definitely ramp that up do show more
about yourself your experience show that
you have an existing client base of
people you’ve worked with any momentum
you can show at all if you’ve been in
the media if you’re an expert I need any
big-name clients that they might
recognize and since you’re both kind of
young what I might suggest is also
having some advisors join on so advice
is a great way to show some momentum
with your business and you want to tap
into people who have a little bit more
experience than you do and whose name
might carry some more weight than you do
how you compensate an advisor
it could be monetary so you could pay
them a fee but a lot of times people
will agree to be an advisor just just to
help because people you know want to
help other entrepreneurs and see them
become successful so even though they
may not have a formal role with the
business if they agree to lend their
name especially for a business plan
it adds a lot of credibility so if I’m
an investor and I’m looking through this
document and I see the name of somebody
who I recognized then that might make me
want to at least keep reading on with
the document okay so yes I clean up the
table of contents then work on your
executive summary make it more grabbing
fix up your numbers definitely add more
on your management BIOS and then the
next thing would be to look at your
financials I won’t go into it here just
so we don’t reveal all your numbers
publicly but I would definitely make
sure that all your numbers add up
properly the the bankers or investors
are definitely gonna look through every
number and you need to have an answer
for why each number exists on that page
and how you’re gonna use that money if
you hesitate at all then you’re probably
gonna get a note right they might pick
one number off of that huge sheet and
say why are you spending X on Y right
why are you spending this much money to
buy whatever it is and you have to have
a really clear answer and if you
hesitate then it shows that you haven’t
really thought it out much and you’re
not probably gonna get the money so
hopefully that helps now for those
watching the video if you like the video
you want to see more like this please
give it a thumbs up it makes me want to
do more of these videos for you I really
enjoyed and hopefully it’s adding value
to you your business so I always love
things seeing those thumbs ups come in
and if you have a comment about this
video about his business plan or if you
have a question that you’d like me to
help you out with feel free to leave it
in the comment section below and we’ll
see you on the next episode
you
another edition of ask Evan in today’s
episode I’m going to answer a question
from one of my readers Nelson who wrote
to me asking me to check out his
business plan and I thought the easiest
way to do it would be to do a screencast
so you can kind of watch along with me
so Nelson is one of my Twitter followers
and watches some YouTube videos of mine
and he’s trying to get funding for this
business idea he’s based in South Africa
and wanted my advice on his plan and so
he attached it along with a whole bunch
of different attachments down here so I
just opened the major document here at
the business plan and having a
background as being the venture
capitalists we used to raise half a
million to 15 million dollars for
companies to expand their businesses and
I looked at I don’t know how new
business plans too many to count and we
rejected you know 99% of them and most
of them were rejected right here at this
face so somebody even emails me a plan
and don’t they get a quick look and then
they get a rejection notice pretty
quickly soon after so this will be a
kind of sneak peek as to how I looked at
business plans for any of those of you
who are looking to raise funding
hopefully this helps
so just looking up the document here’s
this document so we’ll just go through
it quickly so business plan fine Pasi
events management CCTA on print so I’m
not exactly sure what all this is it
looks like the company’s name is on
print I don’t know what all of this is
before I haven’t kind of seen that kind
of model maybe it’s past the events
management and I don’t know what this
means but so I’m a little confused
already from the just the first page
going down so the table contents it’s
fine one thing I noticed here you know
you want to make it look as professional
as you can so it’s great to have a table
of contents everything’s aligned nicely
the right side here looks way off so you
know clean that up a little bit so
people get a positive impression of you
and your business so you know
the numbers could be aligned better
these are some weird-looking numbers
down here breakeven is on page 221 you
know just little things like that if an
investor right like right away here this
is almost game over right if somebody
submits this kind of business plan to me
when I was in my venture capital days
your almost game over you have to really
Wow me after this if there’s any kind of
errors or sloppiness on your you know
table of contents you’re probably gonna
have a lot more mistakes later on so you
want to really go through it with a
fine-tooth comb what I would typically
look for and looking at business plan is
I start with the executive summary I
then go to the about us of the the team
which I don’t really see this little bit
about the business so we’ll check that
out but there’s nothing about management
BIOS and then we go down to the
financials so let’s start with the
executive summary and see what it’s all
about
from the an executive summary airborn
communication see see the company so I’m
now even more confused because it’s
airborne communication CC and at the top
it’s past the events management and on
print so I’m not really sure what the
name of this company is so it’s
registered in 2007 by Nelson a thirty
year old black male I don’t know if this
is relevant if you’re blocking out or
how old you are
company was registering response is
identifying the opportunity to open to
open establish a print on demand graphic
design service so right here grammatical
mistake so to open you know or establish
wouldn’t have both of them so probably
this point that’s it I’m done as an
investor you know I have on your other
business plans to look at and don’t have
time for this one anymore well just just
to kind of quickly go through the review
I’ll keep going
for your sake Nelson so going through
sponsor form the company the offer
graphic design print on demand service
product which product will be recently
priced so another grammatical mistake
there the business focus on service
quality and turnaround time sponsor to
attain
services hooli you can of stuff okay so
you haven’t you haven’t grabbed me and
the the job of your executive summary
here is you want to grab the reader to
say this is really interesting I want to
learn more so you got to do that in the
first couple sentences
I want to know you know what the demand
is like in your markets all its shows
here is that you saw an opportunity it
would be good to have you know a little
more data and also show what is that you
do that’s unique and different so a
print on demand graphic design service
doesn’t really showcase what’s you know
so different about you you’re gonna
focus on service quality and turnaround
time you know everybody’s gonna say that
so again you haven’t you haven’t pulled
me so for a busy investor or banker
who’s seen tons of these you’re you’re
more likely to get rejected if you can’t
grab them quickly so I focus on cleaning
this up a little bit really showing that
there’s a strong demand for your
business in your area and grabbing them
quickly with what makes you different
and why you’re gonna succeed where other
companies have failed so this is good to
show the the source of fun so I guess
you’re gonna be doing a hundred thousand
we know whatever your currency is here
and then you’re gonna be asking for four
hundred fifty thousand in return I don’t
know what that converts to in terms of
dollars so if that’s a reasonable amount
for start-up or not one thing I noticed
here is is a mistake here on the numbers
the source of funds an application of
funds this should be 550 instead of 450
all right so both numbers should add up
ideally to 550 and these two will add up
to 550 so there’s some you know
numerical error here of how you’re gonna
be you know spending using the funds
again you know as somebody you’re
talking to guys who are gonna pour over
your numbers you got to make sure that
every number makes complete sense and
you can you can break it down really
clearly so right away again if there’s
any mistake with your numbers you’re
probably gonna get a no pretty quickly
so I’d want to go through that a little
more clearly
I don’t know again what the conversion
here is the dollars it looks like you
might want to think about having some
more working capital this might be the
low you said somewhere that you’re
you’re not gonna even be making a loss
of the first five months so you might
need a little more working capital than
this especially if it takes you longer
than five months to get profitable so
that’s something to consider if I’m
giving you money you might be concerned
that you would spend all this money
buying up all your equipments and
supplies and then you wouldn’t have
enough money to actually run your
business so that that might cause me
some concern is somebody potentially
giving you some money let’s skip down
and see if we can find out a little bit
more about your business so sponsor is a
thirty year old black male again I don’t
know I don’t know why that makes a
difference if you’re black or not or how
old you are necessarily accepting
experience in graphic design business
print web marketing branding animation
TV attach the marking manager experience
as well there mumbling to myself as I
read CV attached I would include more
here so this was a number two thing that
I looked at as as a venture capitalist
is who’s the team and it’s great to have
the CV but if you don’t grab people
again here quickly then you’re not going
to get a yes you’re making them do extra
work so I would I would quickly show
here some of the highlights of both of
your careers and why you guys are
uniquely situated to become a success in
this industry where you know others may
not have been as successful that’s the
biggest worry for any investors they’re
gonna give you money and you’re gonna
lose it Ryan anybody can spend money but
not everybody can make money or earn
money and that’s the biggest fear for an
investor is that they’re gonna lend you
all this money and you’re gonna just
blow it and not be able to make a return
so that seems to be it so this is all
you have on your management team so I
definitely ramp that up do show more
about yourself your experience show that
you have an existing client base of
people you’ve worked with any momentum
you can show at all if you’ve been in
the media if you’re an expert I need any
big-name clients that they might
recognize and since you’re both kind of
young what I might suggest is also
having some advisors join on so advice
is a great way to show some momentum
with your business and you want to tap
into people who have a little bit more
experience than you do and whose name
might carry some more weight than you do
how you compensate an advisor
it could be monetary so you could pay
them a fee but a lot of times people
will agree to be an advisor just just to
help because people you know want to
help other entrepreneurs and see them
become successful so even though they
may not have a formal role with the
business if they agree to lend their
name especially for a business plan
it adds a lot of credibility so if I’m
an investor and I’m looking through this
document and I see the name of somebody
who I recognized then that might make me
want to at least keep reading on with
the document okay so yes I clean up the
table of contents then work on your
executive summary make it more grabbing
fix up your numbers definitely add more
on your management BIOS and then the
next thing would be to look at your
financials I won’t go into it here just
so we don’t reveal all your numbers
publicly but I would definitely make
sure that all your numbers add up
properly the the bankers or investors
are definitely gonna look through every
number and you need to have an answer
for why each number exists on that page
and how you’re gonna use that money if
you hesitate at all then you’re probably
gonna get a note right they might pick
one number off of that huge sheet and
say why are you spending X on Y right
why are you spending this much money to
buy whatever it is and you have to have
a really clear answer and if you
hesitate then it shows that you haven’t
really thought it out much and you’re
not probably gonna get the money so
hopefully that helps now for those
watching the video if you like the video
you want to see more like this please
give it a thumbs up it makes me want to
do more of these videos for you I really
enjoyed and hopefully it’s adding value
to you your business so I always love
things seeing those thumbs ups come in
and if you have a comment about this
video about his business plan or if you
have a question that you’d like me to
help you out with feel free to leave it
in the comment section below and we’ll
see you on the next episode
you
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