This book has two distinct aims. In the order of their importance, they are:

1. To assist you in the proper preparation of your company's business/financial plan; and

2. To substantially increase the odds in your favor of securing the financing that you must eventually have to successfully operate your business.

Having been an entrepreneur for more than 40 years myself, I have experienced the agony of rejection from financial institutions and investors many, many times! Likewise, I have watched countless numbers of businesses, both large and small, flounder and sink into the depths of despair and failure for these same reasons ... financial turn-down and rejection! Time and time again, I have watched business owners and executives in their desperate efforts to raise capital. Sometimes it was to start a new business or to expand it. But most often, it was a futile attempt to try to save their sinking businesses from total failure and obliteration for the lack of adequate operating capital!

There are few things in this world more frustrating than this! It was my own frustrations over this seemingly impossible situation that motivated me to become a business and financial consultant ... and, ultimately, to write this manual. I knew that there was money "out there" and that it was being made available to someone! Why not to me or my business? There had to be a reason and I was determined to find out why!

Consequently, during my more that 40 years in this business, I have discovered the primary reason why most businesses fail. The reason? LACK OF ADEQUATE BUSINESS PLANNING (and, consequently, the lack of a definitive business plan) that, in turn, severely restricts the availability of adequate operating capital! It's as simple as that!

Just What Is a Business Plan, Anyway?

Understandably, there is a great deal of confusion about "business plans." The reason, of course, is that there are various types of "plans" concerning a business and they are all loosely referred to as "business plans."

Over the years, in reviewing vast numbers of so-called "business plans" (many of them written by the entrepreneur, but many of them written by so-called "professionals" ... attorneys or accountants), this confusion and/or lack of understanding has been most obvious ... and quite universal. For example, I have seen "business plans" scratched out in long-hand on loose-leaf paper. Some have not been written out at all ... just a jumble of notes. I have seen very neatly-done, printed and bound "business plans"; beautiful in appearance, but without organization or lacking some vital information an investor may require. Most often, they are poorly written, with poor sentence and paragraph structure, misspelled words, and bad punctuation.

The examples and numbers of poorly prepared, poorly thought-out, so-called "business plans" are endless. And yet, the primary purpose (and most often the ONLY real purpose) behind the creation of these so-called "business plans" has been to raise money ... either to start a new business or as a last-ditch effort to save a floundering business!

Believe me when I tell you, BANKERS and INVESTORS WON'T BUY IT!

Now, let's stop right here for a minute and find out what, exactly, are we talking about in a business plan, anyway? Are we talking about a "plan" to go into business or maybe just a preliminary "idea" that we refer to as a "Business Plan"? Are we talking about a "plan" or "idea" for the physical structuring, or "setting-up", of a potential business? Or are we talking about a business and financial plan ... an actual "blue print" or "road-map" of the proposed, new, or existing business ... that will show where it's been ... where it is ... and, where it's going?

The latter is the business plan we are concerned with here. A business and financial "road-map" that will be used, and understood, by the entrepreneur, the management, the board of directors, the stockholders, the bankers, the venture capitalists, and anyone else that may be privileged to review its contents.

Also, in the following pages, you will learn not only how and where to raise the money you need, but you will be introduced to new tools and technologies now available for your use in successfully managing your business in today's complex and competitive climate.

But first, let's be sure you have a basic understanding of the capital markets, okay?