Article for my new consulting business

So I just signed up with this website in order to boost my consulting business (and in turn boost my waning confidence). I am an Affiliate, an independent consultant that was I had to apply for and become prequalified. What this website does is pre-qualify consulting projects and helps me close the deal. They get a percentage of each project, but they provide quality leads and help me set up my shop with a brochure, verified credentials and references, a mediator, 2 articles and 1 case study. Pleas read this article and let me know if its any good because I just spent an ASSLOAD of money on this deal. Thanks.

6 Critical Elements in a Successful Business Plan
From my experience and research, these are the elements that I find to be the most important in a successful business plan, Information was complied from various sources such as consultants, professors, businesses, venture capitalists, and private investors.

#6: Thorough and Complete Competitive Analysis
Many business plans stress the importance of how unique their company, product, or service is and in this manner no focus is placed on competitors. However, this can have an adverse, negative affect. If there are few or limited companies in a market space, it can imply that there may not be a large enough customer need to support the company’s products and/or services. According to a partner at a technology company, business plans should include a successful and/or public companies in a competitive space to prove there is a positive sign since it implies that the market size is large. It also gives investors the assurance that if management executes well, the company has ability to be a target for acquisition
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#5: Partnerships and Alliances
Forging partnerships and alliances to improve market penetration and/or operations has become commonplace in the new business world. It can also help brand a new company and add an install base of customers before the actual launch. These partnership agreements should be equitable and explicit in the business plan. They must seem logical and realistic to an investor. For instance, stating that Yahoo is a potential partner, but having nothing substantive to make this claim can be transparent to an investor causing them to lose confidence in the plan.

#4: Previous Success
Valuations of a company and investments are based on a firm’s projected performance. But, one of the best indicators of success is past performance, or a company’ track record. Business plans must show what quantitative milestones or accomplishments a company has achieved. Past success in achieving goals gives investors the assurance that the team will execute in the future. For start-up companies, providing a track record has to be more creative. Including a case-study within the business plan on a similar business venture or similar strategy employed by another business in parallel industry can provide enough insight. Also, the strength of the management team can instill belief in the business plan.

#3: Targeting Your Audience
Investors, like the rest of us, have different tastes and different backgrounds. One investor may love a business concept and/or business plan while the next may hate both. One investor might be more in-tune with marketing while another is strictly focused on operations because of their career backgrounds. It is essential to understand this as business plans are working documents and are under constant revisions.

#2: Providing a True Portrayal of the Market
Defining the market size for a company too broadly provides little to no value for the investor. For example, mentioning the trillion dollar U.S. healthcare or business process outsourcing markets are generally redundant because no company could reap $1 trillion in sales in either market. The company’s market space is a small part of that. Every business is going after a multibillion-dollar market. Be as narrowed down as possible about the possible size of the total market opportunity.” Defining and communicating a credible relevant market size and a plan to capture a significant share within this market is far more powerful and believable to investors.

#1: Accurate, Realistic Financial Projections
Many investors go straight to the financial analysis of the business plan to get the bottomline. It is imperative that the assumptions and projections in this section be realistic. Well-reasoned financial assumptions and projections communicate prime operations and credibility. By utilizing projections on the financial performance of public companies in their marketplace can provide proper evidence to the sustainability of the business. Be prepared to have this section examined in-depth with many questions coming from investors.

All in all, a business plan must include a great idea an, and a sellable opportunity that can be seized. The ROI (Return on Investment) must be something that the investors view as an affordable risk. The presentation of the plan must exude confidence and look sharp so that the audience knows this plan was shown the utmost sincerity and thought. That way the audience will be asking the right questions at the end.