{"id":14994,"date":"2017-10-23T16:59:39","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T05:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/?p=14994"},"modified":"2025-04-16T16:43:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T05:43:13","slug":"improve-your-business-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/business\/improve-your-business-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Improve Your Business Plan Using Visualization"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

For the past 20 years, I\u2019ve been helping entrepreneurs and business owners write business plans. In doing so, I\u2019ve learned that the perfect business plan<\/a> must be both functional and easy to read.<\/p>\n

With regards to functional, a business plan should provide a clear roadmap of how you\u2019re going to grow your company. And with regards to \u201ceasy to read,\u201d your plan can\u2019t include pages and pages of text sure to make readers cringe. Creately online roadmap maker<\/a> allows you to build comprehensive roadmaps. You can also use business plan software like\u00a0Upmetrics\u00a0to simplify the process and organize your full plan with clarity and structure.<\/p>\n

Rather, you want people to enjoy reading your plan, so they take the action you desire such as funding your business.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, when adding Creately to your business plan, you can make your plan both more functional and easier to read.<\/p>\n

To confirm this, I used my core business plan template<\/a> and brainstormed the best places to add Creately diagrams to improve your business plan. Below are five areas I found where Creately can provide significant value.<\/p>\n

Company Overview<\/h3>\n

In the Company Overview section of your business plan, you want to detail what your company has already accomplished to date. This is because past accomplishments are a great indicator of future success.<\/p>\n

A Creately chart, like the one below, is a great way to show these accomplishments.<\/p>\n

\"Improve<\/p>\n

Industry Analysis<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s very important for readers to understand the size of your marketplace.<\/p>\n

And oftentimes your business may compete in more than one market. Using a Venn Diagram Maker<\/a> within Creately is a great way to quickly explain to readers the markets you\u2019re targeting and their sizes.<\/p>\n

\"Industry<\/p>\n

A great visualization technique to illustrate your company’s position within the industry is a SWOT analysis.<\/p>\n

A SWOT analysis illustrates the strengths and weaknesses that exist within the internal environment of the company and opportunities and threats that exist within the external environment of the organization.<\/p>\n

It can help you effectively present the current position and the circumstances of your company within the industry to the reader. Creately has many professionally designed SWOT analysis templates<\/a> so you can get started instantly.<\/p>\n

\"SWOT<\/p>\n

Key Operational Processes<\/h3>\n

Your business plan should detail the key day-to-day processes that your company performs to generate sales and profits.<\/p>\n

Having a Creately flowchart, like the one below, allows you to easily document your processes and show them to others.<\/p>\n

\"Key<\/p>\n

Risk Mitigating Milestones<\/h3>\n

A \u201crisk mitigating milestone\u201d is a milestone that, once completed, reduces the risk your venture will fail. As such, investors and lenders need to understand your milestones and how they relate to one another.<\/p>\n

The Creately Gantt chart maker<\/a> below allows the reader to quickly and easily see your company\u2019s milestones. You can even add in times when additional funding might be required.<\/p>\n

\"Risk<\/p>\n

Management Team<\/h3>\n

Great ideas are a dime a dozen. Great management teams are not.<\/p>\n

The fact is that the quality of your management team is crucial to your company\u2019s success. In your business plan, you should detail who is on your team and your reporting structure.<\/p>\n

Also, if you need to hire a key person to improve your team, you should include the title and responsibilities of that person in your plan.<\/p>\n

A great way to show your management team in your plan is via a Creately Organization Chart software<\/a>\u00a0as shown below:<\/p>\n

\"Improve<\/p>\n

In summary, making your business plan both functional and easy to read will dramatically improve its success, and Creately<\/a> is a great tool to achieve this most easily.<\/p>\n

Author Bio<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Dave Lavinsky is a serial entrepreneur and the president and founder of Growthink<\/a>, which since 1999, has helped hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs create business plans. \u00a0Dave is also the founder of BusinessPlanTemplate.com<\/a> which provides templates for specific niches ranging from restaurants to internet businesses.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past 20 years, I\u2019ve been helping entrepreneurs and business owners write business plans. In doing so, I\u2019ve learned that the perfect business plan must be both functional and easy to read. With regards to functional, a business plan… Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":15005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[869],"tags":[832,679,681,887,886],"class_list":["post-14994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-business-plan","tag-creately","tag-diagrams","tag-great-business-plan","tag-write-business-plan"],"yoast_head":"\n5 Little-Known Visual Techniques to Improve Your Business Plan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A great business plan is functional and easy to read. Here's how to improve your business plan - functionality & readability - with visualization.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/business\/improve-your-business-plan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Little-Known Visual Techniques to Improve Your Business Plan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A great business plan is functional and easy to read. Here's how to improve your business plan - functionality & readability - with visualization.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/business\/improve-your-business-plan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Creately Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/creately\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-23T05:59:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-16T05:43:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Writing-a-Great-Business-Plan-with-Creately.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"680\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest Author\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest Author\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/business\/improve-your-business-plan\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/business\/improve-your-business-plan\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Guest Author\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/441ac8b520a66f2dc4e83b22d058caba\"},\"headline\":\"How to Improve Your Business Plan Using Visualization\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-23T05:59:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-16T05:43:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/business\/improve-your-business-plan\/\"},\"wordCount\":652,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/business\/improve-your-business-plan\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Writing-a-Great-Business-Plan-with-Creately.png\",\"keywords\":[\"business plan\",\"Creately\",\"diagrams\",\"great business plan\",\"write business plan\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/business\/improve-your-business-plan\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/business\/improve-your-business-plan\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/business\/improve-your-business-plan\/\",\"name\":\"5 Little-Known Visual Techniques to Improve Your Business Plan\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/business\/improve-your-business-plan\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/business\/improve-your-business-plan\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Writing-a-Great-Business-Plan-with-Creately.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-23T05:59:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-16T05:43:13+00:00\",\"description\":\"A great business plan is functional and easy to read. 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