Show me the...evidence!

When it comes to writing a business plan, many businesses focus on speed. By rushing to complete their plans, businesses often forget to gather critical evidence to support their plans. Investors never read business plans that lack evidence or consider the claims in them worthless.

Gather evidence to build your case, support your claims, and persuade investors. When writing a business plan, use these 10 critical pieces of evidence to win the trust of potential investors and their backing quickly:

1. Articles about your industry, competitors, products, trends, and so on. When unsolicited, articles about your company or products help build credibility, provide unbiased viewpoints, and often include third-party research.

2. Market studies. Use market studies to support market trends, size, and growth rates. When prepared by an independent party, these studies add credibility to market related claims.

3. Product or business literature. In-house product or business literature shows you are in the game. More important, it can help investors better understand your product or service and the key point of differentiation you are competing on.

4. Customer interviews, surveys, testimonials. All these are effective forms of third-party endorsements in which someone offers independent testimony, comments, or opinions about you, your product, or your service. For these to be persuasive, include with them the persons full name and an identifier, like a city or organization.

5. Contracts for leases, royalties, commissions, supply agreements, subcontractor agreements and the like. To prove that these arrangements exist is to tie them to contracts or agreements. An important arrangement with a specific supplier supported by a contract or agreement gives it real value to an investor.

6. Product cost and maintenance details. Claims like low cost producer are meaningless without facts and figures. Support all your claims. No matter what you claim, there is almost always someone who has tracked or analyzed the important statistic that backs it up.

7. Important technical drawings, patents, trademarks, franchises, copyrights, licenses, and so on. If you claim you have these, back them up. Dont say you hold a patent if it is Patent Pending. If you hold a patent, give the patent number and type.

8. Financial statements, financial projections, tax returns, and similar financial reports. Show investors what you did financially. Where you spent and produced your money and where you plan to make it. This information is key to supporting the value you place on your business.

9. Corporate books and records, information about your officers or directors. These can include charters, bylaws, minutes of meetings, shareholder list and other stock records, qualifications and registrations. All these items support your claims about share ownership, dividends and incorporation.

10. Details of outstanding debt, equity securities, and so forth.Investors will want to know about the dividend rates, par values, principal amounts, interest rates, terms, and collateral about your outstanding or proposed debentures or equity securities. Use the agreements to prove important details.

Whether you want to draw in new business investors or excite current ones, write a business plan with compelling pieces of evidence that are persuasive and support your case.

Michael Elia

Mike Elia is the founder and President of Elia & Partners LLC. He is also the author of "Business Plan Secrets Revealed", a unique manual that empowers entrepreneurs and business owners to present their business ideas in ways that captivate investors and convince them to invest money in their venture.

As a successful Chief Financial Officer for companies owned by major equity sponsors like Citibank Venture Capital Group, DLJ Merchant Banking Group, and Jordan Industries, Mike has first hand experience with venture capitalists and leverage buyout specialists. He has written and presented business plans for 17 successful merger and acquisition transactions worth $967 million and arranged for $760 million in financing from 1997 to 2003.

His more than twenty years of experience covers operating, marketing, and financing businesses from start-ups to billion dollar conglomerates spanning over 10 countries in industries such as: electronics and telecommunications components, automotive components, specialty publishing, consumer products, home textiles, and professional services.

Mike believes the key to obtaining financing begins with building a case for your business venture that truthfully separates you from your competition and leads investors to conclude that you are the obvious investment choice. He outlines exactly how to do this in his manual "Business Plan Secrets Revealed".

Mike is a Certified Public Accountant and has a Masters in Business Administration from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.