Business Opportunities - Beware Of Predatory Business Consultants

With hoards of sub-par writers inundating the Internet, it is no mystery that companies are having a tough time getting funding for new business opportunities. It use to be that when a company was ready for serious expansion, they would call a consultant who would help them bring all the pieces together in a strategic fashion. Thereafter, this consultant would take their extended industry knowledge, in combination with the unique concepts of the client's business, and they would put a business plan together.

This business plan would include everything that the venture capital firms, angel investors, private investors and institutional lenders would need in order to make a quick, no nonsense decision about whether to fund the company and how much equity they would get in return.

Today, with the influx of predatory consultants explicitly looking for startup businesses to exploit, businesses are often too destitute to move forward with a legitimate consultant once they have fallen victim to a predatory consultant. Often times the business is left with a generalized template of a business plan, which does not fit their unique business.

If you want a real business plan, get a hold of a consultant who is completely submerged in the venture capital industry, and has experience with submitting businesses into the capital machine. A legitimate consultant will first engage in a dialog with you so that they are able to assist in any corporate structuring or turnaround issues which need attention, prior to developing a business plan.

After the company's structure is complete with executives, solid management, strategic partners, an advisory board, and  board of directors, one thing remains prior to the business plan. You must decide how you will raise capital. Are you seeking debt investment, equity investment, or both? How much equity are you willing to give away for the amount of cash you are seeking? How many shares does your corporation currently have, etc.? You will most likely need to put together a private placement, or consider taking your company public on the Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB). Once all of this has been completed, it is then time to create your business plan.

Try not to become an expert overnight in business planning. Now that you have found a legitimate consultant, you need to take advantage of this. As your business consultant will tell you, the table of contents of the plan should at minimum read like this: Executive Summary with Objectives, Keys to Success and Strategic Advantages; Market, Market: Growth and Development Analysis with Industry Analysis and Location Based Services; Current company position with Company overview and vision, key successes to date, technical achievements and commercial position, include info about your technology platform. Talk about your management team, product and services offering, competition, market entry/ Five Forces Analysis, barriers to market entry, comparable business model, target market needs, target market characteristics, market demand drivers, PEST analysis, SWOT analysis, marketing implementation and strategy overview and tactical components, process development map, financial model and projections.

Just keep in mind that business opportunities are easy to come by. However, a very small percentage of them will be profitable. Therefore, you have to follow a process before business plan is written. You first need to identify the concepts to be covered in the business plan so that you get the attention you need from investors and the money you deserve from any business opportunity which you choose to pursue.

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