Tips and helpful advice
Unfortunately, we repeatedly find that certain errors keep recurring in our grading. You have the opportunity to easily earn points in certain areas if you simply adhere to the following guidelines:
Spelling / Grammar
Be sure to have someone else proofread your document. Experience shows that we have to deduct points for serious spelling and grammar errors in over 50% of business plans. This also includes missing words or even missing sentence fragments, which significantly impair the clarity of the explanations.
Rules of scientific citation
All relevant statements and statistical data you provide must always be supported by sources – feel free to use a footnote at the bottom of the page. Alternatively, citations in parentheses are acceptable. However, a large number of citations in parentheses disrupts the reading flow, so we prefer footnotes. For websites, the date of the last access must be included.
Executive Summary
This summary should not exceed one, or at most 1.5, pages – even though the BPW (Business Planning) guidelines allow more. We regularly receive summaries of five, six, or more pages – this results in a point deduction.
Layout / Corporate Identity
A business plan is a company’s „business card.“ Try to make a positive, individual impression with its visual design as well. Think about colors and other graphic elements and incorporate them into the business plan.
Realistic Finances
Unfortunately, financial projections are often completely unrealistic. Revenue figures of several million euros are quickly projected in the second and third year. Please ensure your finances are realistic. Unsure what’s realistic and what isn’t? Then take advantage of our feedback.
Images
Please be sure to use illustrations, especially to explain more complex concepts. The webinars will provide guidance on when to use illustrations.
Break-Even-Point
This is a relevant metric for a business plan. Please determine your break-even point and explicitly state it in your business plan!
Profitability
Please always address profitability as well. Include figures such as return on equity and return on total assets!
Key figures / KPI
Please always include relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) – ideally in every chapter – such as revenue, costs, profit, working hours, etc. Again, you only need to follow the webinars for guidance. They will explain which KPIs are relevant and how to calculate them. We pay particular attention to financial KPIs, as a business plan is typically written to present your business idea to a potential lender (e.g., a bank, a credit institution, an investor, etc.): you want to secure funding for your business. Therefore, it must be clear throughout your business plan that you are prioritizing financial KPIs. No one will give you money if they feel it’s insecure because you’re being lax with your finances. Each chapter of your business plan should therefore focus primarily on costs. If you consistently adhere to this principle, you’ll automatically generate a whole range of important figures for the „Financial Planning“ chapter.
Realism
Think about your company name, a logo (there are helpful websites that, for example, create simple logos for free), and colors. Incorporate the results of your thoughts into the design of your layout (presentation and business plan). Regarding marketing: Do you want to use flyers, posters, or similar materials? Then use one of the many websites, create an example, and include it in your business plan (this will also give you some key financial figures). Do you want to work with influencers? Who would be suitable? Can you find out anything about the expected costs? Do you need premises? Then look for a suitable property on a real estate portal of your choice and include it in your business plan and possibly also in your presentation (side effect: you gain another building block for your financial planning). Always try to create as much realism as possible.
If you’re unsure how to implement one of the points or whether your explanations meet the above requirements, please contact us via the WhatsApp group or email (sandy.bittner@benjamin-michels.de) and we will help you further!!
Marketing
We often receive questions about good resources on marketing. Therefore, we’ve compiled a list of websites and blogs that we recommend on all things marketing: