LAGOS JOBS

Think about relevance and about the customer's reality. While you might have the ambition for hand car-wash world domination, take the first step first, then the second. Show how the customer has a need or desire for your product. Don't assume the investor will know. Spell it out.

Explain how you will fulfil that need with your products and services. Cover how the customer will find you, or how you will get your message across to them. Discuss the frequency of that need. Some sales people call this the itch cycle. Every so often you've just got to scratch it.

1. For example, everyone who has a car has a need to have it serviced at least once a year. Everyone who likes ketchup will want some more when it runs out.
2. Factor these buy cycles into your research. Keep your eye on the Executive Summary.
3. The first thing your potential funding audience needs to be reading is your executive summary. There is a saying in the film industry that no great script is written, only rewritten, and in a way that's how you need to treat your executive summary. It's the most essential part of your plan because it acts like a shop window to the plan inside, and it needs to draw the potential investor in.

Why use 5 words when you can use 3? Why be vague when you can be direct? It's got to punch above its weight class and have impact, so don't be afraid of rewriting it until you know it off by heart.

Start with a paragraph about each important part of the overall plan, and avoid repetition. In the very first paragraphs, spell out what it is that your business does, who does it, and why it does it, and how it makes money doing it, along with the funding requirements and repayment / exit plan.

The more exact you can be, the better.

To Finish first, first you've got to Finish.