Writing Winning Business Plans. Garrett Sutton

a nylon-and-Velcro surfer wallet company with two partners. Starting out, it was a great ride. We developed new products that quickly generated millions of dollars worth of orders.

      We were millionaires and felt like we had conquered the world. Cash was rolling in and the future looked bright. We were at the top of our game when we went to the Sporting Goods Trade Show in Los Angeles in 1978. We arrived at the show very confident and excited about our prospects. That excitement came to a screeching halt. We were shocked to find that competitor after competitor was flooding the market with our products. I was determined to stop them from ripping off my ideas. The problem was I couldn’t. I had not legally protected my product because I had thought getting a patent was too expensive. My first big business was out of business in less than a year, and we were deeply in debt.

      I had wanted immediate success. Who needs to take the time to gain practical experience? Who needs to work tirelessly for months on end to research and write a winning business plan with a competent team of advisors? Dreams and intense determination were going to be my keys to success. I was beginning to better understand rich dad’s question, “Are you willing to pay the price?”

      You know the old saying, “If I only knew then what I know now.” When rich dad learned of my company’s fate he simply smiled and said, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Then he added, “Failing is part of winning. This means you are one step closer to winning. Keep going.”

      Money Follows Great Entrepreneurs

      Investors like winners, and that means money follows great entrepreneurs. The better track record you have, the easier it will be to raise money for your business. On the other hand, many good business plans don’t attract money – not because of the deal but because of the people controlling the deal.

      There are a lot of people chasing dollars to start a new business or launch a new product. The biggest problem most of them have is that they personally lack experience or they have no team behind them, or they have a team that doesn’t inspire confidence. If the team is weak or lacks experience and a track record, I rarely invest.

      My rich dad taught me that true entrepreneurs love building businesses for the challenge of it. They start new companies because they can’t imagine doing anything else. They know that each new business plan has a price and they are willing to pay it, no matter how large – and they have a track record of success to prove it.

      Start Small and Build

      I recommend that people start small and build, leveraging other people’s training programs and systems to gain the experience, education, team of advisors, and track record of success to move on to “Big Deals” like the ones on our board game CASHFLOW. A great way to start small and build is to pursue opportunities in franchising or network marketing, because these provide great training and proven systems. Starting a part-time business while you are still an employee can help reduce the stress of “needing a paycheck” while you create your business plan.

      I Invest First in People!

      As a sophisticated investor, I know to invest in people. I look for spirited entrepreneurs who are prepared to succeed and are “willing to pay the price.” They’ve done their homework and have a strong track record of success. The better they are at basics, the more money they will make me with less risk. Building a business may be the riskiest road for most people. But if you can survive and keep improving your skills, your potential for wealth is unlimited. If you avoid risk and play it safe, you may limit what you can earn and find yourself in a dead-end job.

      In Writing Winning Business Plans, Rich Dad Advisor Garrett Sutton outlines the specific “how-to” of writing a winning business plan by combining practical advice with “street-smart” rich dad principles. Garrett not only provides a framework to write your plan, he forces you to think differently and encourages you to ask the tough questions that, if answered honestly, can improve the odds for your business. If you are ready to dare to live your dreams, this book is for you.

      Remember that the primary goal of a winning business plan is to have investors lined up to give you money. This book will help you write the plan that investors WANT you to read.

      Thank you.

       Robert Kiyosaki

Chapter One

       Plan to Win

       “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.”– Vince Lombardi

      Congratulations on making the decision to turn your dream into a business plan. It’s an exciting step and you are to be commended. Most people’s fear of failure and inability to take risks are stronger than their desire to live their dreams. That’s fine for them, but it limits their lives.

      Now that you have made the choice to go from an idea to a plan, the goal of this book is to both provide a framework for winning business plans and more importantly, to challenge your thinking. There is a standard format that virtually all business plans adhere to. Rather than simply providing yet another rehash of the standard format, we will combine the basic “how-to’s” with tough questions and street-smart insights into what savvy investors and lenders are really looking for in each section of your plan.

      Successful entrepreneurs naturally embrace the challenge of making their dream a reality. Creating a new business is exciting, challenging and requires all of you to make it successful. By learning to build a successful business those with true entrepreneurial spirit will develop a profession few will ever achieve.

      Remember though that nine out of ten new businesses fail despite plans that communicate great opportunity. In reality, most businesses fail not because of poorly written business plans, they lose because their owners don’t prepare themselves for the real world of business. So before we begin the “how-to” section of this book, it’s critical that you answer two key questions:

      1) How bad do you want to win?

       This is the first question to ask yourself as you begin the journey of turning your dream into a winning business plan. If your inner-drive and motivation to start a business aren’t big enough, the “how-to” of a plan doesn’t matter.

      2) Are you mentally prepared to own your own business?

       Dreams are romantic gestures that provide great inspiration. With a business plan, inspiration meets perspiration. Starting your own business will take everything you have. The common theme in all novice business plans is an underestimation of the time, energy, experience and money necessary to build a winning business.

      Each business plan has a price. Most people want successful businesses but are not willing to first invest the time. They want get rich quick schemes and often start businesses without basic skills. Most people do it “their way” instead of investing in the study of their proposed business and the building of a team of competent advisors.

      Great business plans come from entrepreneurs willing to delay immediate gratification. They take risks and invest the time and energy necessary to gain relevant experience and education. They are not afraid of making mistakes or failing because mistakes and failure equal experience. They start small and build, recognizing experience leads to greater ability. After paying the price, true entrepreneurs gain the knowledge to build a winning plan and winning business.

      Most business plans are written to attract funding to start a business or expand an existing business. Plans are also written to help existing businesses grow, but that aspect of “strategic planning” is different than the focus of this book, which is to provide a framework to convince an investor, and yourself, that your plan possesses the necessary ingredients to become one of the 5% of new businesses that succeed. Savvy investors and lenders know the odds and unless you educate yourself on the realities of winning plans, your plan will likely make its way to the bottom of the waste basket.

      Business is a plan, not a product or procedure. Good plans expect the unexpected,