Entrepreneurs and small business owners often come to us with the following question: can you recommend a professional business plan consultant near me? question – and our answer is always the same: nope!
There are a few reasons why we say ‘no’ to that question, really.
For starters, we are business coaches and, as such, our job is to make business owners just like you work on building a business with a plan. Which is really different from getting a business plan company to write something for you out of thin air. More on that later.
Second, we strongly believe that business plans are not something you write for the sake of having a pdf document. Business plans are important for your business because they give you an opportunity to put a genuine business planning process into place, which involves a lot of strategic thinking no one should be doing for you from the outside.
Think about it this way: would you let anyone decide your personal life orientations for, let’s say, the next three to five years?
Exactly. So why would you ask anyone from the outside of your organization to decide what’s best for your organization?
In this article, I’ll share some thoughts on business plan consultants in general.
First, I’ll look at the “what to expect if I hire a business plan consultant near me?” Question.
Then I’ll explain why hiring someone outside your company can be an issue – and I’ll give you some exceptional situations in which don’t it can be relevant.
And I’ll finish with some alternative ways to get the business plan support you seem to be looking for.
Ready to dig in? Awesome.
Speaking of getting you some business plan support…
By the way. Before I get into the topic, let me put this article into context.
We receive calls for help regularly so we have built a series of articles and resources on how to write a business plan people will want to read. These resources include thematic articles written to answer typical questions asked by entrepreneurs and small business owners just like you, as well as a free business plan template you’ll be able to download anytime you want, AND a business plan mini-course also available for free.
We make about eighty percent of our content available for free so you should be able to get a lot done simply based on our insights (oh yeah!).
Still, if you want to get started immediately and to get your own business plan written in no time, our self-coaching modules and tools for entrepreneurs and small business owners also include a dedicated Business Plan Builder which will provide you with writing tools, automated tables, designer-made templates and two hours of tutorial videos that will get you started in no time, for under a hundred dollars.
I’m stopping the sales pitch here, you’ll find more information in the video right below if you want to find out more – let’s get back to our topic.
I’m looking for a business plan consultant near me: what should I expect?
The first time I had to work on a business plan, the exercise felt overwhelming. I had no clue about what to do, I didn’t know the expectations and I didn’t know where to start. So, I asked around and got told to look for a business plan consultant near me, somewhere.
The problem with that approach is that it made no sense, for several reasons.
One, I hadn’t realized that my biggest challenge was not to write a formal business plan. It was to have a business in the first place, with sales and clients. And then to have a plan in my head as to what to do next to develop that business.
Said differently, the experts I contacted told me I needed some basic plan in the first place. It’s a vicious circle!
Two, hiring a business plan writing company is prohibitive (in the United States or Europe by the way). The cost of having your business plan written can be very high – somewhere between five and ten thousand dollars – because the exercise takes time, and time is money!
Of course, that might have helped me to get things started (more on that later) but I couldn’t afford that at all.
Third, that business was my first business and the people I talked to didn’t make me feel confident that I’d be able to turn their business plan into something real and tangible. After all, whatever plan they’d write would be theirs, not mine, right?
Fact: Nobody gives a damn about your business plan…
Truth be told, the reality is that focusing on writing a business plan just for the sake of having a nice pdf document made no sense and was an absolute loss of time. Period.
Why?
Because nobody gives a damn about just a business plan. Nope!
What your interlocutors want is simple: they want to see that you have a business, with a plan to get it to its next level. And then, their job is to help you do that.
If you don’t have a business in the first place, or at least people committed to signing as soon as you can deliver, then why would anyone listen?
I know!
So – to wrap up – don’t lose your money on professional business plans and expert business plan writers unless your business is already well advanced (more on that later).
If you want to use the business plan writing exercise to brainstorm about what comes next, then great, do it yourself using tools like our Business Plan Builder that won’t cost you anything. But don’t make the mistake of investing more than a hundred dollars into it!
Okay, but what’s the deal like regardless?
From a packaging perspective, an external expert would typically provide you with a few things – on top of a custom business plan document of course.
At the core of the deliverables, an important one would be thorough market research and market analysis that you’d be able to use to position yourself against the competition.
That implies a segment analysis telling you what’s the likely demand for your product or service. That also implies a customer analysis telling you who your target customer is and what type of issue they have (let alone the average basket they are willing to spend on solutions just like yours).
Another important element business plan consultants would provide is a target you’d be able to reach within three to five years, together with (hopefully) a strategy to get there. That would include a marketing strategy you would need to implement to make the target sales, as well as a reliable hiring strategy (with the associated costs, of course.
Obviously, they would also provide you with reliable financial projections reflecting all of the above. Ideally, they would also brief you on how to defend these financial tables with investors and bankers, but that’s another story and we’ll talk about it next.
Business plans require some context…
The few things I just listed are the core of the business plan you should get as part of any package, but…
But… the role of a business plan is to help you come up with storytelling people want to hear. Sooo… whoever you hire should also provide you with some strong contextual suggestions – which creates a lot of work and makes the bill go up.
For instance, what makes your business unique and original enough for people to buy in? Or, what awesome vision are you promoting, and what kind of mission are you (and your team) on?
Fast-forward: what’s your value proposition, what’s your core brand DNA, so forth and so on – your business plan needs to tell people a story they’ll love.
So… long story short, getting a hand from an expert might make sense when it comes to building your income statement and cash flow statement, your balance sheet, and writing your financial plan more generally. Or if you need someone to check if your executive summary makes sense at the end of your business planning process.
But do you really think someone from the outside should decide what vision statement and mission statement should direct your company?
Do you think they should be deciding who your ideal customer is and what your target market should be for your product or service?
Do you think they are at best to pitch your business idea?
Hell no!
What’s the cost of business plan consultants?
Of course, the cost of any business consulting firm you’ll come across will depend on a few factors.
One would be their experience and their ability to convince you that they are worth the price they ask.
Another factor, probably more tangible and easy to grasp, would be the amount of work needed to do the work and deliver.
Back to what we said a moment ago, part of the price would relate to the core elements of your plan while the rest would be a matter of storytelling and pitching.
Obviously, the more you’d ask the longer it would take and the more you’d have to pay for a full business plan…
In the end, the risk is therefore to pay little to save on costs and get little, or pay a lot more and see how someone else could build your business story in your stead.
Time-wise, what’s the interest?
The time perspective is also to be considered here because the idea that hiring someone external is going to save you time isn’t necessarily justified.
Why?
Think about it…
That expert will typically be a third party, right? So, from the start of the process, you will have to spend a lot of time explaining your business and the market segment you occupy, the value you create, your business model, and all the rest. They’ll need to know who you are and how you work – let alone what drives you and motivates you to get a lot of work done – that will take them (and you!) a lot of time.
Business plan consultants near me: what to expect?
- A reliable analysis of your market segment
- A nicely written document
- But… more or less content and design depending on the means you can afford to allocate.
The big issue with hiring a business plan consultant.
Now, of course, you’ve read the introduction of this article and you know what we think: asking an external business plan company to get your work done is a funny idea because letting someone else decide on your business orientation is never going to empower you in any way. Think about it this way…
A business plan consultant will write you “a” business plan. Period.
First and as we’ve already mentioned a few times, a business plan consultant is a third party to your business, which means their job is not to write your business plan but a business plan.
Yes, their output should theoretically make sense in the end, but would their suggestions make sense to your business and to your future interlocutors?
If they are not experts in your field, will their assumptions make sense?
If they don’t have any stake in the game apart from their fee, what guarantees that their suggestions are sharp and implementable?
Again, as I’ve said before, nobody gives a damn about ‘just’ a quality business plan, remember? Well, business plan consultants will hand you “a” business plan, but it probably won’t be yours that much. So, would that count as more than ‘just’ a business plan?
A business plan consultant won’t give you a chance to work ON your business.
Second, relying on a business plan consultant to get your output written means that you are losing on a major opportunity to explore and build your business strategically.
Look, it’s very simple!
In our experience as business coaches, what makes the difference between a business that stagnates and a business that thrives is the entrepreneur’s ability to work ON the business rather than just INTO their business.
The nuance might sound insignificant but it is absolutely essential.
Like it or not, but most business owners – including you – spend most of their time on the operational side of the business, which is usually too much detail and technics-oriented. That pushes them to focus on emergencies and to-do lists rather than on the important and strategic thinking side of the business, which means they can think ahead.
In contrast, spending time working ON your business is important because it gives you a great excuse to stand on the table and look at whatever isn’t urgent but still strategic and has to be done if the business is to go forward over the next three to five years.
That strategic part is beyond vital and working on a plan for your business is one of the most efficient ways to do that. Yet, if you give that part of the work away to someone from the outside, what opportunities to think big do you keep?
They are not YOU.
This point will sound logical because it flows from the previous one: business plan consultants are not you, and as such they won’t be able to convey your gut feelings and very personal motivations into their plan.
Read Also: 5 Vital Questions to Ask When Hiring Business Plans Writers Near Me
That point is very important because, as a general rule, investors are more interested in who you are (as the entrepreneur, but also as a founding team) than in what you do.
Yes, of course, what you do has to be convincing and all that. Still, just a good project without a leader and a strong dose of personal stamina won’t make anyone sign.
Said differently? Whoever gets your work done for you will need to spend a lot of time understanding your personal context and motivation if they are to produce anything exciting – which gets us back to the previous point on preparation time and production costs on their side and investment needs on yours.
4 reasons why you don’t need a business plan consultant:
- They will write “a” business plan, not “your” business plan
- Nobody cares about ‘just’ a business plan
- You’ll miss an amazing chance to work ON your business and think strategically
- They are not you, why should they determine your next steps?
2 cases in which using external support could be relevant.
Now, having said all this, there are some situations in which the support of an external expert could be relevant: if you already have a strong basis that needs to be refined and sharpened, or if your business needs to scale up significantly and requires the support of financial experts to get to its next level.
To confirm some choices.
The first situation in which external business plan consultants could be relevant to your business is if you need to confirm some choices or possibilities you have already identified.
In that case, the specialized third party would typically be a financial specialist (an accountant for instance) capable of analyzing your financial model whilst assessing the viability of your business hypotheses. For instance, if you are looking to write a business plan for a bank loan, or if you are working on a business proposal for investors, then your accountant would be a must-go-to person to make sure that your financial modeling is, indeed, working the way you think it should be working.
Your external adviser could also be marketing and PR specialists responsible for defining go-to-market strategies, and you’d similarly be using their experience to validate your strategy from an operation and funding perspective.
This means, however, that an important part of the preparation and research work (financial needs, financial projections, valuation and shareholding variation estimates, marketing strategy, communication strategy) has already been done on your side and that you have already considered your main options.
Their role, in turn, would mostly be a matter of testing, confirming or revising your suggestions to make sure everything makes sense.
To scale up an existing (and already robust) business strategy.
In a related manner, another reason why an external business plan consulting might be relevant is where your business is already up and running, with a strong team in place, and that you are looking to raise a significant amount of capital for your series A – that’s a few million or more.
In that case, your business plan will need to be robust – especially as far as the valuation and equity-sharing parts are concerned – because it will be a key pillar on which investors will rely when they do their due diligence and turn your business upside down. Using business plan services at a later stage could therefore make sense.
Otherwise… be your own boss!
Apart from these two situations, there aren’t many reasons why you should be using external support. These cost a lot and will not empower you, which means you are likely to be in trouble when a potential investor, banker, or partner will try to grill you.
To be honest, there isn’t much complexity around the business plan-writing exercise.
We wrote an article for those looking for help writing a business plan from the start, and there is a typical business plan outline that you absolutely need to follow, and the financial tables can be handled pretty easily as well provided that you have the right tools.
If you want to try and do all this by yourself, feel free to download our free business plan template and sign up for our free mini-course – they’ll give you the structure you need.
And of course, as I’ve said before, the Impactified Business Plan Builder module will also get you started for under a hundred dollars, with two hours of tutorial videos by a business coach (me!), automated financial tables, writing tools and two designer-made templates you’ll be able to adapt as. Much as you want. There’s everything you need in there, the rest is up to you!
When to use business plan consultants?
- To confirm your ideas and choice
- To prepare a large fundraising operation
- Otherwise, do it yourself!
Alternative ways to get your business plan done.
Now, the question, of course, is how can you get support with writing a business plan when you’re not sure where to start and you’re feeling lonely with that process. Obviously, the idea of hiring someone is to get support, so what alternatives could you rely on?
Well, there are three ideas you could use to make a difference very easily: your team, a business coach, and the right tools in self-coaching mode!
Your team could be a major support.
First of all, if you are looking for some support that’s efficient because it comes from the inside, then your best asset is probably your team. They know the business better than anyone (perhaps even better than you, in fact). They know the market, the clients, and the competing companies you have to fight against. And they should be passionate about what they do. So I’d definitely recommend that you involve them in the process?
Depending on the size and structure of your company, you might for instance have a CFO, someone responsible for your marketing strategy, and someone in charge of customer satisfaction. If that’s the case, they might contribute to your business plan by working on the company’s go-to-market strategy, on what makes you unique, and on the cost of growth development.
If your team is too small for that, then perhaps a fellow entrepreneur or your accountant would be happy to brainstorm with you and give you feedback on the business planning work you’ve done.
Business coaches.
Another idea could be to collaborate with a business coach, who would be at best to provoke you and make you think deeply about how you want to transform your business.
While the consulting business is usually about taking a file, coming up with a report, and moving on to the next file, a business coach is there to make you work on your business on a long-term basis, like a shadow number two available to help you brainstorm anytime you need them.
A business coach would never write your business plan for you, that is to say, but they would challenge you along the way to make sure you are writing a business plan that makes sense for your target reader. They would take you by the hand and ask you the questions you’d need to ask yourself if you wanted to be taken seriously by your interlocutors. And they’d keep challenging you to make your business and your final document sharper and sharper.
Clearly, the main difference between strategic planning consultants and business coaches is that the former does your planning for you while the latter gives you the guidance to take power and go through the process comfortably.
If that’s something you’re interested in, have a look at our booking platform and get in touch with a business coach!
Self-coaching tools
Last but not least, there is a lot you can do by yourself through self-coaching modules and tools.
I’ve told you about the Impactified Business plan Builder previously – it’s a business plan quick builder and you shouldn’t skip it because, below a hundred dollars, it will pay for itself in a couple of hours.
It’s built around over 2 hours of explanatory videos and comes with everything you’ll need to:
- Figure out what you need to figure out – powerful, uh?
- Understand the business plan code!
- Write a top business plan – with just the right amount of words and pages!
- Build your financial estimates – with automated tables!
- Create a visually appealing pitch deck people will want to read thanks to our designer-made templates!
If you want to stop wasting your time, this is THE most simple business plan template, and you can’t afford to miss it!
