How Much Does A Business Plan Cost?
I get asked that question every day. Like any good business consultant, and I am a good consultant 🙂 , I answer that question with the only possible answer: It depends.
The cost of a business plan bears a strong relationship to the amount of work that’s necessary to produce the business plan.
Many business plan writers use business planning software to help them. They basically ask you a load of questions, plug the answers that you give them into the software and voila –there’s your business plan…$1,500 please.
My approach is different. I’ll find out how much you know about your business and what you have written down and explained. I’ll find out about your overall market and its potential; I’ll find out about your capabilities to service that market. We’ll talk about pricing strategy and marketing tactics. We’ll discuss your operational and staffing requirements. And that’s just the beginning of the business plan process.
We’ll go through numerous iterations and we’ll discuss the changes needed. The financial statements, cash flow analyses and balance sheets will make sense. There won’t be a lot of charts and graphs that don’t really explain much.
Your business plan will be realistic and suitable for you, your investors and your banker. You will get a business plan that works for you. Isn’t that why you wanted a business plan in the first place?