A business plan is the guideline you need to prepare to convince funders to back your business dreams. If you can’t write an effective business plan, then you won’t get any funding. It’s that simple. Fortunately for you, there are different tactics you can use to improve your business plan to where it will look attractive and authoritative to your potential funders. One of the best tools you can use is the addition of business charts in your plan. Here’s how to use these charts to help your business plan.
What Kinds of Charts Should You Use?
In terms of overall appearance, the use of 3-dimensional bar charts will definitely spruce up your plan and make it look more polished. This is because 3-dimensional bar charts are just very slick to look at! However, if you want to go for more of a practical and functional business plan appearance, you can go with the 2-dimensional bar charts. The 2-dimensional bar charts are easier to read. So it’s your choice whether you want to go with appearance or practicality.
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Don’t Forget the Tasks and Milestones
Tasks and milestones are an important part of your business plan, which means you’ll want to highlight them effectively and smartly. You should represent your milestones and tasks as nothing more than horizontal bars that feature labels on the left and the dates along the bottom or top. In business speak, this is what’s known as a Grantt chart. Only the big milestones and tasks must be presented since excessive details make these charts difficult to read.
What About the Source Numbers?
Every time you use a chart, you have to worry about the source numbers so that your readers can understand where your numbers are coming from. These source numbers must be near the charts in a summary table, so that your readers can refer to them speedily and also identify them in your charts. It’s horrible etiquette to let your readers struggle to find these source numbers since it’s a waste of time for them.
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This is how you must use business charts in your business plan. This way, they’re used efficiently and smartly, impressing your readers and helping them sort out your plan’s information very effectively. Remember to keep a good mix of 3- and 2-dimensional bar charts, while also displaying your tasks and milestones clearly. Finally, your source numbers must always be close to the chart for easy reference.
Peter