Long-term business success depends, above all, on the quality of the team providing the leadership, direction, and vision. In fact, in some cases, investors have funded start-up companies primarily on the basis of the people who will run them.
Assemble background information on yourself and each of your senior team members.
In your business plan, condense each key person’s profile into a description of no longer than one-half page, following these tips:
When describing team members, include everything that’s relevant to the potential success of your business. But keep each biographical description brief, to the point, and less than a half page in length.
If yours is a single-person operation, you don’t have to spend too much time describing yourself in your plan, but do have a resume highlighting your education, experience, and accomplishments ready for when the information is requested by a banker, supplier, or prospective investor.
If you’re running a larger business, feature biographies of up to five top managers in your business plan, including all the big Cs: CEO (Chief Executive Officer), COO (Chief Operating Officer), CFO (Chief Financial Officer), and CTO or CIO (Chief Technology Officer or Chief Information Officer).
Depending on the size of your company, you may also want to include brief descriptions of the members of your Board of Directors, Board of Advisors, or consultants who play a major role in making your business a success.
You should also conduct a web search for the name of each person featured in your business plan to be sure the results lead to positive, credible, current information. Chances are good that prospective customers, investors, and suppliers will look for your company and the more visible people online as part of their research efforts, and you want links to lead to pages that affirm their interest.