Business Plan Experts Paul Grant and Barbara Corcoran
In my last blog, I wrote about investing gurus Paul Grant and Barbara Corcoran. Grant and Corcoran are experts in business plan development, and they both have had hundreds of business plans come across their respective desks.
One segment of business plans that Grant and Corcoran both feel are the most important is the Executive Summary. Grant, the author of “Why Business Plans are Not as Important as you Think”, feels that “the most important part of the business plan because it is what the investor will actually read if they want to invest in an entrepreneur’s company.” Corcoran, the author of “If You Don’t Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails”, and, a “Shark” on the ABC Network show, “Shark Tank”, believes that investors receive a plethora of business plans, so the Executive Summary should be effective in telling your story.
For the business plan for my company, Spotdog and Angel Productions, I will follow the advice of Paul Grant and Barbara Corcoran. My Executive Summary will be the toast of the business plan town. Of course I will include the facts, figures and particulars, however, a large portion of my time and effort will be spent creating a “poem” of an Executive Summary. Initially, I felt that the financial segments of the plan would be what most investors would focus on. As Grant and Corcoran both believe, investors want to know about your ideal far before they look through your plan to get to the financials. If this is true, than the Executive Summary has to grab, and keep, the attention of the potential investor(s).
As a potential business owner, I don’t want my time and effort to go for naught, and my business plan placed in the round, plastic liner encased file cabinet on the floor!
