Appearances Inside Your Funding Plan

The inside of the funding (business) plan should be clean and neatly typed. Printing on a laser or ink-jet printer is preferred.

Appearances Of The Cover Of Your Funding Plan

The cover must be neat but not extravagant. We recommend either a clear acetate cover over a simple title page or a card-stock title cover.

Binding

Comb binding is the most common. It is preferable to Velo-binding because the document can lay flat. Whatever binding is used, the convenience of the reader must be kept in mind.

Macros Disabled

If you try to do something in a spreadsheet and get a message that macros have been disabled, most likely macros have been disabled automatically. To solve this, you need to adjust your security level. If the security level is set to 'High' and you open a workbook that contains unsigned macros, the macros are disabled and you cannot run them. You can enable macros that are not digitally signed if you change the security level to 'Medium', close the workbook, and then reopen the workbook. If you want Microsoft Excel to automatically disable unsigned macros in the future, remember to change the security level back to 'High.'

To change the macro security level, click on 'Tools' in the main menu and then 'Macro' in the pop-up window. You should see something like this:

Click on 'Security ...'. You should see the following box in which you can change your macro security level:

You might have chosen to disable macros when you opened the workbook. If the security level is set to 'Medium' or 'High' and you chose to disable macros because you don't trust their source, you cannot run the macros. To run the macros, close and then reopen the workbook, and then click 'Enable Macros' in the box:

Margins

The margin along the binding edge should not be less than 1 inch. The outside margin should be 3/4 inch or 1 inch. The top and bottom margins should be 1 inch to 1/2 inch including page headers and/or footers.

Paper Used

Standard white 20-pound paper is preferred. Colored or other special papers are unnecessary and give the investor the impression that there is an attempt to impress with appearance rather than content. They also show unwise use of limited resources.

Text Justification

Text is easier to read if it is left justified rather than full (left and right) justified. Trying to square the text on both ends often introduces blanks between words that makes reading more difficult. Regardless, a jagged alignment on the right helps the reader.