Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Bad Plans

I've posted some examples of plans that would not meet pre-screen criteria.
Check them out at http://chinookchallenge.com/seminar.php (scroll to the bottom of the page).

Sample Plan A
There are so many things wrong with this submission. Basically, before the screener reads your plan, they'll see your plan. Even though the competition structure is somewhat rigid, you can still present a polished, great-first-impression business plan.
This plan does not make a great first impression.
Here are a couple of things this participant missed:
- no Non-Disclosure Agreement or Plan Submission Checklist
- Participant Registration is not original signed copy
- no info page or table of contents
- section headings not aligned/formatting doesn't match
- section numbering mismatched
- font is not inconsistent and not all Arial
- font is not all 11pt
- more than one plan section on each page
- NO CONTACT INFO! <-- this is a personal pet peeve. Please make sure you have contact info on your business plan somewhere. Date everything too, please!

Sample Plan B
- Non-Disclosure Agreement only signed by one team member
- no table of contents
- At first it appears that the plan is more than 20 pages. Upon closer examination, the overage are actually appendices. Please help the pre-screeners out and make sure you have your table of contents in your submission and don't miss crucial information.

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