Five Tips for Becoming a Better Business Plan Writer

We have numerous articles where we talk about the importance of business plans. With that said, you can rarely find information on writing a business plan or what you can do to improve the ones you’ve already written. Because of that, we’ve decided to put a special focus on how to make you a business plan writer by providing you with some key tips and tricks that can vastly improve your writing.
In the text below, you will find five simple business writing tips that will help make you more efficient and more self-assured when writing your next business plan. Let’s get started.

Must-Know Tips for Becoming a Better Business Plan Writer

There is a lot that you can do to become better at business plan writing. However, there are some essential steps that you need to know and follow at all times. Let’s see what they are.

Always Follow the Business Plan Template

If you’re writing a business plan so that angel investors can read it, then maintaining the proper structure of the business plan should be one of your top priorities. The best private investors receive thousands of business plans and executive summaries on a daily basis. That’s why you shouldn’t rely on the fact that an investor will read every document (and especially yours) from start to finish. If you don’t put the right information in its proper place, an angel investor will not spend time looking for it. Typically, an angel investor will be searching for keywords and specific figures, and if he cannot find them, then your business plan will be put aside and quickly forgotten.

Write Your Plan in a Simple Language

Remember – this is not an English essay. No one is testing you to see how many complex words you know. Put the dictionary aside and focus on writing in a simple manner. After all, this document has to be read by business-minded people who want to get to the key information without a ton of unnecessary reading. Along with that, try to steer clear of long and complex sentences, as well as technical terms and acronyms. These will only make the business plan more difficult to read and will likely put some investors off.

Having said all that, you should still try to sound professional, knowledgeable, and competent. The text should flow well, and it should be easy to read and easy to find important information in it. If you have to use industry-specific terms, then make sure you provide brief explanations, as people don’t like to feel ignorant and also because they avoid investing in companies that they don’t truly understand. Keep in mind that the most vital parts of your business plan are the business strategy and the competitive analysis, so you need to focus on them. They are considered to be the universal building blocks of any company and so are appreciated by investors, especially if they’re well-written.

Don’t Oversell Your Idea

Avoid sharing your business plan with sentences like “the most revolutionary idea you’ve ever heard about.” It’s not a good look – it seems unprofessional, boastful, and will immediately make people think, “Oh, I wonder what kind of pretentious person wrote this sentence.”

When writing any business-related document, you need to follow several “rules.” First, you have to respect the reader and understand that he has experience. The reader is the one who will decide whether your business idea is “revolutionary,” “terrific,” “life-changing,” etc. By presenting your company in a natural, neutral way, you give the reader the opportunity to decide based on the information you’re giving him. Again, this is not an English essay. You don’t need to fill your writing with adjectives.

Keep It Brief

Don’t go into too much detail, and don’t share your life story, inspirations and dreams. Focus on the business. At first, it might be challenging for you to describe your product or service with just 1,000 symbols, but you need to start learning how to do that. You should focus on removing unnecessary phrases and words and just focus on the most vital information you want to provide to the reader. Eventually, you will find this task simple.

Having the ability to be brief and to the point is greatly appreciated by business people, who are always in a hurry and whose attention is always in demand. You should strive for brevity and directness, not only in writing but also in conversations with investors or other entrepreneurs.

Do the Necessary Reading

It’s likely that you’ve heard of the phrase “every great writer should be a great reader first,” and it stands true. It’s quite an impossible task to get incredibly good at business writing without first doing enough reading. When it comes to business literature, the amount of choices of what book to read is almost infinite. It almost seems like someone is coming out with a new business-related book every hour of every day.

Our advice is to make your own list of books you want to get through and then start reading. Not only will this help you expand your knowledge, but it will also ensure that you have a larger “business” vocabulary and are able to use diverse language when writing any business-related document.

The Bottom Line

Hopefully, the tips provided in this article will help you on your journey to writing your latest business plan. But becoming a better business plan writer is a process. You can’t expect it to happen overnight – as with almost any other skill, and you need to put your dedicated focus on it and keep trying. Over time, as you adjust to the format and the needs of the reader, your business plans will become exemplary.

If you need any other helpful advice on marketing, entrepreneurship, sales, and more, then head over to the Camberlion blog, where you will find more articles like this one. Additionally, if you enjoy watching videos and short reels, you can follow us on our social media profiles, where we constantly upload informative content.