Provide a full analysis of the market, its characteristics, growth potential and all relevant trends. Include a competitive analysis, which describes the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors within your market and your competitive advantage. Securing strategic alliances with key players in the industry, distributors, vendors, etc., shows venture capitalists and angels that others trust you, want to work with you and establishes proof of concept, which is particularly important for a start up. This definitely increases an investor s confidence in you. Having big-name strategic partners or having an existing customer base impresses even more.
Investors don t give a large sum of money in one chunk.
You ll need to address how much will be needed, when each contribution will be made and what the goals are to be accomplished in that period. For start-ups, a personal investment on the part of the entrepreneur demonstrates his or her seriousness and willingness to take on part of the risk and shows investors the entrepreneur s commitment to the project. Be sure the cover page has the name of your company, logo, its address, phone and fax numbers and company URL, plus the name and title of the contact with email address. Include a table of contents that provides a logical arrangement of the sections of your business plan, with page numbers. Believe it or not entrepreneurs sometimes overlook these small details.