“To Investors, Start Ups Without Business Plans Are Expensive Hobbies.” He goes on to say that you can’t just “sketch your million-dollar idea on the back of a napkin” and expect investors to open their wallets. Finally, he counsels that: “Most good ones I see are in the range of 25 pages.” However, my perspective is different. I believe what Zwilling telling us is this: Get a cogent plan together before you try to drum-up financing for your start-up. But there is no reason this plan has to be 25 pages or longer. It only has to prove that you know how to react to customer demand – both now and in the future. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to use CBM’s one-page Business Planning Framework to help you quickly validate your customer demand. You should run some initial tests to prove or disprove your assumptions, then change your strategies and tactics so that you are fulfilling what customers actually need – and most importantly – what they will pay for. Showing investors this type of flexibility before they give you money—proving to them that you can test, fail, re-test and then scale – goes a long way to making them invest . Following are my top three ways that this plan – when it focuses on customer demand — will pique investor interest when others fail: Numbers Tell the Story Look at the CBM template and identify where you need to inject the power of numbers. What’s awesome about the iterative business plan model you are working with is that you will have sales numbers that show you have already reacted to suboptimal numbers and adjusted mid-flight – to make these numbers grow. Any smart investor will react positively to this type of professional business planning and execution. Customer First If you will notice, the majority of the steps in the CBM model have to do with customer or marketplace. That doesn’t mean that the other elements aren’t important — it just means that you are forced to continually think about the single, most powerful engine that will drive your business’s success – customer demand. As you begin to adjust the other “tiles” in this plan — make sure you keep in mind the ramifications on the customer-centric tiles from the changes you’ve made. Fear of Failure? There is no such thing as failure when using this type of business planning process. If something goes wrong, you can stay flexible, learn, change — and try other options until you succeed. If you have a phone-book-sized business plan, it might be difficult to even identify where you went wrong. This one-pager focuses your activities much faster — and allows you to see where the customer – not some dusty old plan — is mandating that you change. Think of it this way – the business plan built from the iterative and flexible process will be a working, living document that shows investors you’re already ”in the fray” and working to make your...

1. Three Imperatives to Excite Investors
About Your Startup
Patty Tomsky
CEO, Harmony Communications

2. Martin Zwilling
“To Investors, Start Ups Without Business Plans Are
Expensive Hobbies.”
“You can’t sketch your million-dollar idea on the back
of a napkin…and expect investors to open their wallets”
“Most good ones I see are in the range of 25 pages.”
- A few key quotes in a recent article from
Martin Zwilling on Entrepreneur.com
(January 23, 2015)

3. Importance of Planning
My perspective is different.
I believe that Zwilling is advising us to get a cogent plan together
before trying to drum-up financing for a start-up.
However, there is no reason this plan has to be 25 pages or longer.
It only has to prove that you know how to react to customer
demand – both now and in the future.

4. Business Planning Framework
One of the best ways
to accomplish this is
to use CBM’s one-
page Business
Planning Framework
to help you quickly
validate your
customer demand.

5. What to do
You should run some initial tests to prove or disprove your
assumptions, then change your strategies and tactics so that you
are fulfilling what customers actually need – and most
importantly – what they will pay for.
Showing investors this type of flexibility before they give you
money—proving to them that you can test, fail, re-test and then
scale – goes a long way to making them invest

6. Making Adjustments
Look at the CBM template and identify where you need to inject
the power of numbers.
What’s awesome about the iterative business plan model you
are working with is that you will have sales numbers that show
you have already reacted to sub-optimal numbers and adjusted
mid-flight – to make these numbers grow.
Any smart investor will react positively to this type of
professional business planning and execution.

7. Customer Demand
If you will notice, the majority of the steps in the CBM model
have to do with customer or marketplace.
That doesn’t mean that the other elements aren’t important —
it just means that you are forced to continually think about the
single, most powerful engine that will drive your business’s
success – customer demand.
As you begin to adjust the other “tiles” in this plan — make sure
you keep in mind the ramifications on the customer-centric tiles
from the changes you’ve made.

8. Fear of Failure
There is no such thing as failure when using this type of business
planning process. If something goes wrong, you can stay flexible,
learn, change — and try other options until you succeed.
If you have a phone-book-sized business plan, it might be
difficult to even identify where you went wrong. This one-pager
focuses your activities much faster — and allows you to see
where the customer – not some dusty old plan — is mandating
that you change.

9. Fear of Failure
Think of it this way – the business plan built from the iterative
and flexible process will be a working, living document that
shows investors you’re already ”in the fray” and working to make
your business work.
You haven’t spent six-months researching
what your customer needs — you’ve used
this iterative plan to actually find out.

10. Competitive Advantage
You are also armed and
dangerous to your competitors
because you have experience
with meeting (or not meeting)
customer needs in the markets
you serve and are acting based
on facts, rather than
assumptions.
This approach is worth a lot —
to investors and to your business.

11. Additional Resources
To learn more, read through our SWOT analysis
blog posts and visit our
SWOT resources page for additional tips!
Advanced SWOT Analysis
PRO Tool!!
Download the

12. Center for Business Modeling
Who We Are
The Center for Business Modeling was
founded by a team of seasoned
business professionals whose
experience encompasses all aspects of
business creation, operations and
finance.
What We Do
The Center for Business Modeling
(CBM) has the tools, resources and
expertise to help your business plan,
set goals and stay healthy. Our
solutions allow you to save time while
you model your business and create
plans.