Business plan writers: what to hand over and what to write

Key takeaways

A business plan writer can structure, research, model and polish a plan, which saves time and improves presentation. What you must provide yourself is the substance: the strategy, the assumptions behind the numbers and the reasons you will succeed. Lenders and investors test the plan by questioning you, so you must know every figure in it.

• Outsource: structure, market research, financial model and editing.
• Keep: the strategy, assumptions and risks in your own words.
• You must be able to defend every number in it.
• A plan you cannot explain hurts more than a plain one.

Why must the owner write the substance?

Because the plan is a statement of your intentions, and readers judge you as much as the document. A lender will ask why sales grow 30% in year two; an investor will ask what happens if a competitor cuts prices. If the answers came from a writer, it shows. Owning the assumptions also makes the plan useful after funding.

• Which business processes should you never outsource?
• Should you outsource business strategy?

What can a business plan writer do?

Take the hours out of turning your thinking into a clear document.

• Structure the plan for the reader, such as a bank or investor.
• Research market size and competitors.
• Build the financial model from your assumptions.
• Edit for clarity and consistency.
• Check the plan meets a lender's or grant's format.

• Cash flow forecasting: outsource the model, keep the calls
• Investment decisions: why capital allocation stays inside

How do you brief a business plan writer?

Give them your strategy, your customer evidence, last year's figures and the key assumptions: prices, volumes, costs and hires. Ask them to challenge anything weak. Review every section and rewrite the strategy and risk sections in your own voice before it goes out.

• Investor relations: why founders keep the conversation

When is a writer a waste of money?

When you have not yet decided the strategy, because the writer will fill the gap with generic text. Also when the plan is only for internal use, where a plain two-page version you write yourself is more useful than a polished 30-page document.

• Company goals: a process the leadership keeps

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: a polished plan from a writer falls apart in the first lender meeting because the owner cannot explain the growth assumptions. Owners who set the assumptions and use outside help for research and the model go into those meetings prepared.

• See client work
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

Business plan checklist

• Decide the strategy before hiring a writer.
• Write down your key assumptions and evidence.
• Outsource research, the model and editing.
• Rewrite strategy and risk sections yourself.
• Practise defending every number.

• Should you outsource innovation?
• Bank mandates and payment authority: keep the keys

Next step

Write your plan's ten most important assumptions on one page. If you cannot, you are not yet ready for a writer.