Pay someone to Write My Business Plan
Starting a business is thrilling yet daunting. As an aspiring founder, you brainstorm ideas daily but face endless questions. What takes priority—securing funding or perfecting prototypes? Do you promote offerings alone or assemble a team? In navigating the unknown, creating a business plan appears to be another intimidating hurdle.
Rather than tackle an extensive strategic plan alone amidst startup chaos, the majority of entrepreneurs invest in experienced business plan writers. But is outsourcing this critical task worth the expense early on?
In this article, we’ll explore the pros and cons of hiring a professional to craft your startup’s business plan. As fellow entrepreneurs, we aim to empower you with an honest assessment so you can determine if it’s a smart move to prioritize business expert planning assistance over attempting to produce complex projections, funding frameworks, and operational blueprints alone. Arm yourself with these insights to make a well-informed strategic choice that fits your unique venture’s needs and budget.
The goal is to provide a human perspective on the decision-making process facing early-stage startup founders as they evaluate investing in a professional writer versus tackling business plans alone.
II. Pros of Paying Someone to Write Your Business Plan
A. Expertise and Experience: A professional business plan writer has years of real-world experience creating plans for a wide range of companies across various industries. They have drafted hundreds of plans for startups and helped entrepreneurs successfully get funding. This expertise ensures they understand what elements need to be emphasized, what investors and lenders look for, how to best position the opportunity, and the appropriate level of detail to include. Their insight and know-how led to a more targeted and strategic document. Since they stay on top of trends in multiple sectors, a pro writer can help craft an innovative plan that stands out with fresh concepts. Tap into their extensive background to create winning plans.
B. Time and Efficiency: Developing a comprehensive business plan requires an immense time commitment an entrepreneur may not have if they are also developing the product or service itself, networking, trying to get traction with initial customers, handling the legal and administrative tasks of a new company, and managing a million other startup details. Handing the lengthy documentation process to an expert writer frees up valuable time that can be redirected to advancing these crucial business-building activities during the critical launch window. Additionally, experienced business plan writers have streamlined their development process to produce polished, customized business plans much faster than new entrepreneurs can on their own.
C. Objectivity: An outside writer provides an unbiased perspective, removed from the day-to-day enthusiasm and vision of the actual business owner or founder. This allows them to take an objective, constructive view and assess weaknesses or competitive threats the business owner might have not realized. External writers minimize personal biases, clouding an accurate portrayal of the business landscape or projections. Their neutrality enables a balanced plan.
III. Cons of Paying Someone to Write Your Business Plan
A. Cost: Experienced professional business plan writers can be quite expensive, often charging anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000+, depending on the complexity of the business model and plan. Many early-stage startups bootstrapping their ventures have very limited funding to allocate. Spending thousands right out of the gate on an outsourced document may not be the most prudent use of scarce cash when there are other essential startup costs to cover first. Every dollar counts when self-funding a business, so the expense of a writer could significantly strain budgets for hard-to-fund entrepreneurs unless they get access to capital via loans or investors.
B. Lack of in-depth understanding: While skilled business plan writers conduct background research and interviews to understand the business, they still lack the innate grasp of company operations, competitive differentiators, customer personas, and vision for growth that the actual founders have from conceiving and advancing the idea themselves over years. This depth of knowledge gained from hands-on experience over time working directly on the opportunity simply cannot be conveyed quickly in a few conversations with a writer new to the concept. As a result, outsourced plans risk feeling generic, glossing over certain operational subtleties, or venturing too far from the core nature of the actual business model since the external writer has an insufficient understanding of the entrepreneurial journey behind the scenes.
C. Reduced Learning Opportunity: Crafting one’s comprehensive business plan requires deep reflection into every facet of the envisioned company – from detailing business processes and go-to-market strategies to nailing down expense forecasts and identifying funding requirements and allocation plans. The exercise of structuring and aligning all these interlinked elements provides founders an invaluable learning experience enabling them to thoroughly grasp their model before launch. Outsourcing this writing denies entrepreneurs that organic business analysis experience, hindering their knowledge of key aspects that ensure smooth operations and facilitate data-driven decisions going forward.
IV. Factors to Consider Before Making a Decision
A. Budget – Take an honest look at your current financial situation and the existing cash designated for the business. Gauge whether you have adequate funding to afford a professional writer based on the typical fees charged. Research options to discover consultants offering business plans within your determined price range, rather than the most expensive. Some freelancers provide packages for early-stage startups at lower rates. If hiring a writer fits reasonably within your budget, it may be wise to allocate those funds, given the other tangible benefits. However, if affording an outside writer requires stretching finances too thin or diverting dollars best saved for essential operating expenses, opt to draft an in-house plan.
B. Expertise: Conduct an objective self-assessment to determine whether you possess sufficient writing aptitude, business acumen, and financial modeling skills to produce a well-structured, persuasive business plan on your own. If crafting long-format written marketing content is already part of your professional background, you may have the capability. If the necessary financial components, like expense forecasts or complex deal structures, are areas you handle with existing competency, that also bodes well for authoring an effective plan solo. However, if writing or financial modeling are weaknesses, the expertise gained from hiring a seasoned business plan professional likely outweighs any deficiencies you must overcome learning the process alone.
C. Time Constraints: Compare the reality of your daily schedule and responsibilities to the intense time commitment required to produce a polished 75-100+ page plan. Factor in the short runway: most early-stage startups have to convey their vision effectively to potential investors before funding runs out. If you cannot feasibly carve out sufficient hours for research and writing amidst your current workload, hiring support makes sense despite the higher costs. If timing is less pressing, subject matter immersion and long-term learning gained through writing may merit doing it yourself. Assess priorities in the context of your needs.
V. Alternatives to Hiring a Professional
A. Business Plan Software: Rather than hiring a consultant, various business plan software platforms exist to guide entrepreneurs through structured plan development more affordably. Options like LivePlan, Optimation, or Tarkenton prompt you to enter customized information step-by-step while generating applicable financial projections. Some benefits over costly writers include built-in formula automation, context-specific examples, storage accessibility, and instructional support. The interactive do-it-yourself format aims to simplify creation for entrepreneurs lacking writing or financial modeling expertise. However, the software still requires a significant time investment. The result may also seem template-driven instead of feeling fully tailored to your venture’s uniqueness. But for under $200, using technology platforms helps trim creation costs substantially over professional fees that often reach thousands.
B. Templates and Guides If opting to self-write your plan without software assistance either, utilize free business plan templates publicly available online to kickstart the foundational structuring process. Outline key sections in proper order and develop relevant headings to populate. Additionally, various educational e-books, college resources, and government websites like SBA.gov offer downloadable guides walking through business plan development best practices step-by-step. While still demanding effort and research on your part, at least templates and guides serve as an instructive starting point to ease confusion over composition. With patience and self-motivation, it is entirely possible to produce a thorough strategic plan on your own following reputable DIY resources.
VI. Case Studies and Real-Life Experiences
Sarah, founder of GlowHub (e-commerce organic skincare company):
Sarah had extensive previous experience writing marketing plans and financial models in her career. With a shoestring $50K startup budget, she opted to write her skincare company’s business plan completely herself over two months using an online template for initial structuring. While requiring long nights of research and writing, producing her plan solo enabled Sarah to intimately understand her operational expenses, identify reasonable assumptions for short-term projections, outline pragmatic marketing strategies based on competitive forces, and thoroughly convey her environmental sustainability vision. Investors praised the level of detail and passion throughout her plan. Raising her seed round through crowdfunding and grant pitching was achievable without excessive external writing costs.
Mark, founder of Pinnacle Analytics (AI and big data consulting):
With a highly technical predictive analytics solution targeting enterprise B2B clients, Mark lacked sufficient industry background to convey competitive differentiation and his services’ value proposition. Additionally, crafting multi-year financial models seemed daunting without a finance degree. After vetting several options, Mark hired Optimation’s machine learning algorithm tools and support team. For $600, Optimation’s software guided Mark through crafting a polished 75-page plan with tailored industry analysis, client targeting specifics, automated visual forecasts, and clear explanations of his advanced methodology. Mark said the learning and objectivity gained far outweighed the reasonable expense, enabling him to pivot his positioning to resonate better with his beachhead target market of retailers.
Erica, founder of Senior Care Network (On-demand home senior care services):
After attempting to write a plan herself, Erica felt overwhelmed by the details required to fully showcase her regional Southern California senior care market opportunity and multi-pronged growth roadmap spanning operations, caregiver recruiting/retention programs, partnerships, and marketing initiatives over five years. Unsure investing sufficient additional effort solo was feasible amidst also needing to launch and manage daily startup activities, she hired a professional writer familiar with healthcare services. For $3,500, expert insights into trends, structuring, competitive research, financial benchmarks, and content development resulted in an impressive plan that gave investors confidence in her ambitious $15M funding request.
VII. Conclusion
In evaluating whether or not to pay someone to craft your startup’s business plan, assess the multifaceted tradeoffs through both a cost-benefit and learning opportunity lens specific to your capabilities and circumstances.
If sufficient funding exists to afford an expert writer costing upwards of $1,000+, the experience and unbiased perspective gained may justify the price, particularly if you lack sufficient writing aptitude, financial modeling proficiency, available time amidst other duties, or strategic positioning wisdom to produce a polished plan alone. Their nuanced insights can lead to an exceptional final proposal. Be selective in writer vetting.
However, for resource-constrained solopreneurs self-funding their dream on nights and weekends outside a full-time job, investing thousands out the gate could severely limit the capital necessary for product development, testing, and initial inventory. If so, utilize free templates and software tools to maintain tighter budgets while still working towards an effective plan. Commit extra hours immersing yourself in educational resources. Recognize that sacrifices in-depth, formatting, or financial technicalities may exist depending on your skill gaps. But a bootstrapped plan conveying your vision and commitment offers benefits over debt.
Ultimately assessing priorities around costs, timing, bandwidth, learning appetite and existing skill levels in writing, operations, and finance will guide the ideal path specific to your unique entrepreneurial journey and constraints. Choose what makes sense today while still moving determinedly toward your long-term business goals. With perseverance and resilience, founders can make tremendous progress on plans in various forms.