Many 1st time entrepreneurs remind me of filmmakers and screenwriters. For the latter there is a plethora of software that budding creatives buy who think they will become the next Spielberg overnight. While the software is amazing from a technical aspect, no amount of software can every get into a person’s creative vision and mind and magically manifest the next big blockbuster. For every person in Hollywood that writes a megahit using the software, there are close to a few million users and aspiring writers and filmmakers that need to grasp a basic understanding of story structure, dialogue, characters, and a powerful team behind them to turn a script into a movie.
Entrepreneurs are also a similar breed when needing a business plan to raise capital. While a lot of the commercial available software is also amazing, an entrepreneur really needs to know how to paint a story and find a balance between realistic goals, financial, projections, and wording the context of a plan that will encourage investors to write a check.
Many entrepreneurs believe that by downloading templates and blindly emailing a fill in the blank business plan to every investor on angel list will get them funded. They need to realize that most sophisticated investors are entrepreneurs themselves so whatever business plan they review needs to be on their own wavelength.
Also, just thinking you have a great idea is not enough. A lot of my clients contact me to say all they have a idea, they need a few million, and think they will become the next Facebook or Tesla.
The reality is that solo flyers can be successful with small digital publishing or dropship ideas that don’t need a big team, but entrepreneurs really need to figure out how to assemble a good team of co-founders, advisors, and consultants to really have a high propensity of success for a potential Unicorn company. Something business plan software will never provide.
Further, there also needs to be a clear idea of how much of the company an entrepreneur wants to give up and the best kind of security to issue. There are also numerous Federal and State securities laws that need to be complied with when raising money.
In summary, business plan software should be a great addition to an startup’s arsenal if they have previous experience getting funded. But just like a lawyer should not represent himself in court, an entrepreneur should really engage a professional business plan consultant to give him a more seasoned roadmap to get funded.