Page 173 - Business Plans that Work A Guide for Small Business

162 • Business Plans that Work

opportunity?), and how the investment will help you move the business to
the next level. If the investors are excited after reading your summary and
reviewing your slides, they will likely ask you in to discuss the opportu-
nity. Think of the stand-alone summary and PowerPoint slides as a hook.
You are trying to entice the investors to learn more. If the meeting goes
well and the investor is still interested, she may ask for the full plan. Many
investors use the business plan as a roadmap to conduct due diligence—to
investigate whether your claims are valid or just a pipe dream. But before
you can get there, you need to hook the investor.
The dehydrated business plan is derived from your full business
plan. First and foremost, you need to add a cover page, similar to the
1
one that you have included on the business plan. Add visuals such as
product pictures, competitor maps, customer profiles, and so forth. In
addition to filling out details on all the subsections of the plan, provide
as much information on the team as possible. Harkening back to the
old adage that investors prefer to back A-level teams with B ideas versus
B teams with A ideas, you need to convince them that you can execute
on the opportunity. In the appendix, we evaluate Lazybones’s slides. If
Dan were seeking outside investors, he would send the slides along with
an expanded executive summary to prime the investors for a potential
meeting.
Creating PowerPoint slides is a valuable exercise in that it forces you
to think about your opportunity visually. The 12 or so slides should cover
the following areas:

1. Cover page showing product picture, company name, and contact
information
2. Opportunity description emphasizing customer problem or need that
you hope to solve
3. Your product or service illustrating how it solves the customer’s
problem, with some details (as needed) to better describe your
product
4. Competition overview

1 Remember in Chapter 2 we suggested that the first step you might do is write a
dehydrated plan because it is a good document to share with team members and other
trusted advisers who can help you develop your business. The dehydrated plan you
write at the end of the business planning process is much more articulate than the
previous version. It has the ability to hook investors.