Successful Business Plans: Finding Your "Voice"

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Writing Your Business Plan

That sizzling language. The one line zinger. And, oh, the rhapsody of that prose. Ah, that we could all write a business plan with even one of these qualities!

But we can't. Even I can't, and I've been doing it for many, many years.

So what makes a business plan "sell"? It's the "voice". The "voice" is the tone, the energy, the glue that holds the whole thing together.

I saw a notice recently from a web site looking for writers "with an attitude". What's your attitude? There are few really bad attitudes, and many really great ones. Yours might be:

• as an evangelist in spreading the news about new technology;
• as a joyful gardener ready to spread greenery throughout your county; or
• as a contented dentist aiming to straighten the teeth of the younger generation.

Note the similarity in all of these: they all depend on something else (new tech, greenery, the younger generation). The attitude isn't a "me" attitude. None of them say, "I want this business so I can be rich." Each of them looks outward.

Your attitude, your voice tells the world how you want to run your business. A "me" business plan isn't terrifically interesting to investors, or to anyone else for that matter. Everyone would like to be rich. So what?

The voice that reaches out to define itself by outside success is, without question, the strongest of the bunch.

So ask yourself again: What's my attitude?

When you have a satisfactory response, you will have your successful business plan.