What do industry experts say about business plans today?

Photo Credit: http://cce.clark.edu/blog-tags/business-plan

Mark Cuban is an American businessman, philanthropist, and disciplined investor who is also recognized as an expert in reviewing business plans. This entrepreneur comes from the world of business plan development and venture capital investing. Mark Cuban has been engrossed in the art of business dealings since the energetic age of 12, and by his senior year of high school opted out and enrolled full-time at the University of Pittsburgh. Cuban later transferred to Indiana University and graduated from the Kelley School of Business with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. According to entrepreneur and billionaire investor Mark Cuban, the critical and key components that investors are looking for in a business plan include (Blog Maverick, 2013): 

•       Demonstration of part of your business plan that you sell   your product or service for more than what it costs you to produce, fully encumbered
•       Must have a cash flow break even within 60 days
•       Must be profitable within 90 days
•       Everyone must work. The organization is completely flat. There are no employees reporting to managers. There is the founder/owners and everyone else.
•       In a business plan, make sure to specify how much equity the investor will receive or how they will get a return on their investment. 

These components are considered key because they encompass the very basics of a good business plan strategy. Business plans serve as the framework for a company and provide benchmarks to see if they are reaching the specified goals (Forbes, 2013).

Dr. Steven Gedeon is one of the utmost experts on the value of a business plan, as well as business writing and reviewing. Currently, Dr. Gedeon is a professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management in Entrepreneurship & Strategy. According to Dr. Gedeon, the critical and key components that investors are looking for in a business plan include:

•       Understanding what the business is, and whom you are selling to
•       What is the price point for the product and services the company offers
•       One of the most important components is the executive summary and what the qualifications of the management team are, as well as the overall business idea and the financials.

These components are considered key because it is important to know ahead of time to measure the effectiveness and to prevent a business from failing and making avoidable mistakes (Schramm, 2012).  
Dr. Steven A. Gedeon also emphasizes that the key elements to a successful business plan are whether or not it has creditability and if there is a guide to action.