Writing a business plan is usually a time-consuming process, and many business owners and entrepreneurs get quickly put off by it. As a result, we often receive questions from small business owners who wonder how much time they should spend writing their business plans. How long does it take to write a business plan? How much time should I spend on it? What parts should I really focus on? Should I write it myself or have someone else write it for me? So forth and so on.
In this article, we not only answer those questions.
We also give you tips on approaching business plan writing efficiently and effectively. We bust a myth or two since we’re at it. And we put you on tracks to get things started, easy as 1, 2, 3.
Long story short? Writing a business plan takes time, especially when you don’t have a clear framework to follow and tools to use to facilitate the process. And, no, having it written by someone else makes no real sense. Why? Because the point of business plan writing is not to get a damn pdf (Excuse our French). It is to conduct an impactful business planning exercise that’ll give you some perspective on how to get your business to its next level.
Before we dig into the topic, though, please keep three essential points in mind!
First, in this article, we will not explain what a business plan is and why it is important to your business. As we’ve said before, a business plan is a storytelling tool that you should use to show your interlocutors that you have a business AND a strategic plan for that business. If that concept doesn’t sound very clear to you, please follow the link and read the other article before moving on. It’s fundamental.
Second, this article is part of a comprehensive series of blog posts on business plan writing that we’ve made available on Impactified for free. We’re trying to make your life easier with these, so give them a look!
Third, if you wonder how to write your business plan in no time and without breaking the bank, our best-selling Business Plan Builder module was designed for you.
That module includes a complete business plan template, two designer-made decks, a work tool to get you started and tell you what to write (and how), the automated financial tables you’ve been dreaming of, and over two hours of video designed to take you by the hand! So, if writing a business plan is a serious issue for you, you have no excuse!
Now, back to our topic: how long does it take to write a business plan? And is it worth having it written by someone else? Let’s dig.
Why does writing a business plan take time?
Before we elaborate on how long it takes to write a business plan, we first want to clarify ‘why’ business plan writing takes time. There are several factors and variables to take into account here.
Format vs. Substance
One of the critical factors you have to consider here is that people often confuse format and substance.
we know. Let us explain.
For instance, those who think that a business plan is a matter of getting a pdf document written, quick and dirty, to make the bankers happy typically see the exercise as a matter of formatting. Put the information into boxes, format the boxes, and you are done.
However, the essential keyword in the previous paragraph is not “getting a pdf document written”. Instead, it relates to the importance of gathering information. Not generic information, though, the correct information for the right interlocutor.
Said differently, business plan writing is a time-consuming exercise because it involves a very significant amount of work on the information-gathering side of things. In contrast, formatting is very straightforward and doesn’t create any specific issue – especially if you follow the right section structure and have access to a proper template. We’ll get back to that later
Alone vs. By someone else
Another critical factor to consider is ‘who’ writes the document.
On the one hand, working on your business plan yourself will take time and is very likely to slow you down. Depending on how well you know your business and on how deep you have pushed your strategic thinking, the exercise could take between a couple of days and a couple of months.
A couple of days, if your ideas are clear and all you have to do is format your information. A couple of months, if you can’t explain clearly what makes you different. Or what your business model is and what traction you have.
Not to forget the financial projections you have in mind, so forth, and so on. Then, of course, add the work you need to do alongside your writing, and you quickly get a couple of months of work.
On the other hand, having someone to work on your plan will also take time, but for different reasons. Whoever does the writing will need to know your business as precisely as possible before they can come up with anything serious.
Hence they will require you to spend time on data compilation and clarification. Perhaps more importantly, you will have to go through all the work and trust that their research reflects your market and positioning. Of course, you will also lose a fantastic opportunity to develop your thinking on your own business.
Think about time-saving twice.
Timewise, business plan writers will promise to deliver results within a few weeks. Still, of course, they won’t come up with miracles if you have no clue about your own business. More on business plan consultants and writers here by the way.
That being said, one clever exception to that logic could be to delegate the brainstorming and writing exercise to someone close to you.
For instance, someone from your team. Someone who knows the business well enough to develop sharp insights and relevant ideas. In that case, though, you will still need to spend some time on collaboration, clarification, questioning. Needless to say, you will also need to digest and assimilate the plan well enough to defend it when the time comes.
Deep plan vs. Surface scratching
Of course, the time you will need to spend on your business plan writing exercise also depends on how deep you want to go into your thinking.
Please stop smiling. we’m trying to be serious here!
Suppose your goal is to write a one-page business plan, quick and dirty style, without going into the details? You could probably come up with results you’ll like after a couple of days. However, the issue is that nobody cares if you like the result you obtain. What matters is not what YOU think, but what THEY think about your business proposal and whether you give them the type of information THEY want to hear. That’s a very different story.
In contrast, conducting a deep business planning exercise will take you a lot more time. Still, you will develop genuine insights regarding your business and your industry. In addition, you will gain some forecast on your earning potential to help you communicate with stakeholders. And all these will equip you to formulate storytelling your interlocutors will want to listen and remember.
The choice is yours here. But we’re sure you understand what we’d do if we were in your seat right now.
Don’t forget the pitching preparation
One last thing, before we move on to the next point. Another critical factor to consider when assessing how long you’ll need to write your business plan is the preparation time you’ll have to put into the exercise.
Whether you write your plan or whether someone does that for you, you will have no choice but learn to defend it yourself in front of investors if you write an investor proposal for funding purposes. Or in front of a banker if you write a business plan to obtain a loan.
From there, the work thus becomes a matter of working on your pitch. Then a matter of working on your pitch again. Then a question of actually pitching it, pitching it again, and revising that pitch until someone bites. But, again, that takes a lot of time – specifically when someone else wrote the damn thing for you.
Either way, having your document ready is only the beginning, and you have no choice but to think thoughtfully about what to do AFTER creating your business plan.
Four time-consuming variables when writing a business plan
- Focusing on substance vs. just working on formatting
- Writing the business plan yourself vs. paying someone to do it
- Going deep into the topic vs. scratching the surface
- Pitching preparation, pitching, and pitching revision
Four typical time-wasters that systematically ruin a business plan
Now that we’ve explained why the exercise typically takes time, let me explain what entrepreneurs and business owners usually waste their time on. Spoiler alert: the following paragraphs are strategic business killers (or savers, it depends), so don’t just skim through them.
Time waster #1: Figuring out what’s expected from you
First, business owners typically get into their business plan writing exercise fast to get the thing done once and for all. However, they forget to start with the basics by doing this, i.e., understanding what their final reader or interlocutor expects from the pitch and wants to hear.
That’s a business killer because, by building their pitch around what makes sense for themselves, these business owners shoot themselves in the foot.
For instance? If you ask us a million dollars to boost your business because you think that your idea is excellent and you are convinced that it is the next unicorn, then think twice. Your point needs to be a lot better than that, and it’d better be built around something more reasonable than “trust me!” or “I can feel it in my bones”.
Please don’t roll your eyes here; that’s typical.
As investors, we expect some persuasive arguments! First, say, on market research and the traction you have obtained so far. Then, some numbers showing how viable the business is. More numbers and insights as to how you’ll spend our million. And something to show me how you estimate the company’s valuation a few years from now.
Let us provoke you here: we won’t explain why we wrote the previous paragraph like this. If you understand our point, then keep reading. If you don’t, then do yourself a favor and watch our videos on the business plan logic. You have no chance whatsoever if you can’t master that kind of discussion.
The expectations, by the way, are also super important as far as the structure of your business plan is concerned. Business plan writing is a codified exercise, remember? Hence your interlocutors will expect a few points to be treated one by one, in a specific order.
We explain all these points in our Business Plan Builder module, so go for it if you need clarification.
If you’d rather try and find some free information first, our articles on what a business plan outline should look like and how long a business plan should be will give you some food for thought.
Time waster #2: Clarifying what creates a viable opportunity worth betting on
Second time-waster and business plan killer: business owners typically focus on obtaining what they want. However, they usually fail to explain what viable opportunity they create for the partners and why it is worth the investment.
There are a few critical points in what we just said.
One, the point is not to explain what YOU want. It is to explain what you want AND why that makes sense from an investment perspective.
Two, the point is not to say that you are producing the next unicorn.
Seriously, that’s how it looks.
No. The point is It is to show that you are giving investors an opportunity to put money into a viable and promising new venture that mainly needs capital to grow exponentially.
And if you are talking to a banker? Don’t waste your time on the promising side of the business. Instead, show that your finances and sales projections are viable enough to repay the loan asap. Period.
Three, the point is not to convince your interlocutor to give you money. Instead, it is to show them that their money will provide them with access to a successful business that will pay back – money in their pocket – down the road.
Said differently, what matters is not you. It’s them. And writing a business plan without having this clearly in mind will waste your time (and theirs) without the slightest doubt.
Time waster #3: Coming up with numbers that make no sense in the medium and long term
Third-time-waster and business-killer: business owners typically struggle with building and writing their business plan’s financial statements.
The complexity, indeed, is not simply to find a comprehensive template. That’s pretty easy these days. However, that template needs to tell you what needs to be done. It should tell you why things have to be done this or that way. And it has to explain how understanding the logic can help you from a storytelling perspective!
In plain English? Can you tell me, right now, without thinking more than five seconds, how much your business is worth? And no, not now. Five years from now.
Again, this question is fundamental, and you have no choice but to have a clear answer for it. If you can’t give me that answer, or if the logic isn’t clear, you need to clarify quickly.
We have some good news, though: the Impactified Business Plan Builder tool and videos can help! It will provide you with video explanations, and with the automated financial tables you’ll need to get to a result you’ll be able to use – you have no excuse.
Hmm.
Okay. You sound fantastic, so here’s a hint. The money you can raise relates directly to the amount of shareholding you’ll have to give away. And both depend on the valorization of your business, not now but in three to five years. As to how to get those numbers, everything is in the module; give it a try!
Time waster #4: Building some storytelling with real sex-appeal
Fourth time-waster and business killer: storytelling is super, duper, important. And you have to prepare it sharp, sharp, sharp.
We heard a guy once who thought that he would get people in his pocket by being natural. In plain English? He refused pitch training because he had a natural talent and thought people wanted authenticity rather than a fake, prepared pitch.
Well, guess what? That guy was an ass.
Excuse our French (again), but he really was.
He spoke so much that his point wasn’t clear. Worse, his pitching was boring because it was all about him and him again, so people lost interest after a couple of minutes. We won’t tell you the feedback we had on that guy: if the previous paragraph was rude, the next would be indecent.
The lesson here is simple: the point is not you, and it’s not to build a pitch based on boring facts and numbers either. No, the point is to use your business plan as an excuse to develop some strong business planning skills and to build storytelling with so much sex appeal that people will want to hear more and get on board.
The four biggest time waster with business plan writing
- Not knowing what you are expected to provide
- Failing to show that you are creating a viable business opportunity worth investing in
- Coming up with numbers that make no sense
- Going to war when your storytelling sucks (and you have no clue)
Is there a format I can use to save on preparation time?
Still with me? Great.
If you wonder how long it takes to write a business plan, the next question on the list often relates to formatting. And there, the answer is easy: yes, you can use template formats to save a lot (lot, lot) on preparation time. You just have to opt for the proper one, however.
Again, we’ve explained what your business plan outline should look like in another article, so we’re not coming back on this here. Still, there are two routes to consider here as far as short formats are concerned.
Is the one-pager a good idea?
First route: from a pure formatting perspective, business owners often look to write a one-page business plan. In their mind, this is a time-saver because one page is more accessible to write than a complete plan; hence the idea is smart.
Okay. But not okay.
Like it or not, the only way your one-pager can make sense is if it is built as an innovative and highly visual executive summary. However, getting there implies that you have gone through the whole process of business planning. Otherwise, what can you summarize?
That’s not what you wanted to read, but we’re a business coaches, not a candy seller. Oopsie but no sorrrieees!
Using a pitch deck template makes a lot more sense
Second route: relying on a business plan writing framework and using a predefined template will save you tons of time.
Shameless plug here again, but really, as business coaches and entrepreneurs, we know that writing a business plan is complicated when you don’t know where to start. So, we built a package tool:
One is a preparation template. It gives you all the points you need to deal with in the correct order and with a world limit—no way to go crazy with the number of words.
Then, two design-made templates to put your work into a visually appealing shape. One gives you a comprehensive format to give people a clean document with your storytelling, eight pages max. And the other gives you a slides-shaped structure, ideal if you prefer presenting your business plan on a screen.
Of course, we also provide you with a dummy case you can use for educative purposes. And finally, we added a complementary set of videos (two hours, guys!) to ensure that you get all the logic right.
Look, it’s simple. Business plan writing can kill your business because focusing on the wrong things and is a waste of time from A to Z !
We built this tool to make sure that doesn’t happen to you – there isn’t much we can add to that – except perhaps that the rest depends on you.
Wrap up: How long does it take to write a business plan? Depends on your goal…
To wrap things up? Writing your business plan is likely to require two days if your mind and storytelling are crystal clear, up to a couple of months if you have to build things from scratch.
Some do it themselves or with a team. Others just leave this with a consultant, so you have several options. The latter typically makes no sense and won’t make you save on costs for sure, so we would advise against it.
However, going through the exercise is important whether you are a Palo Alto startup or a small business. And doing the exercise yourself or with your team will give you a real opportunity to put some vital business planning into place. Beyond writing a stupid pdf, that’s one of the best ways available to get your business to its next step.
And just in case you wondered – no, we won’t write your business plan for you because that makes no sense (and you can read our opinion about business plan consultants here). However, our Business Plan Builder with its framework, templates, and videos was made to get you started, so give it a look.
Alternatively, a business coach will also guide you through the exercise (you can book a business coach here). And they will also be at best to facilitate dedicated workshops if you want to build your business plan while involving your team. Get in touch!
