Business Plan or a Business Pitch, What comes first?

This is a bigger question, many of you might be asking before starting a business or rather some of them who have made a bigger mistake of pitching without planning. It’s like whether egg comes first or a chicken, both the plan and pitch are connected to each other with similarities patchable. This question first came in to my mind when I was working with my colleague developing a new business plan, we got stuck somewhere and that was when I realized that plan always comes first before you pitch a business. Businessperson should be aware of what he is going to do before he takes actions first. A lot many people confuse their business ideas and business plans by directly presenting the pitch; it’s a total waste of time and energy resources.

Some might be successful in implementing their business plans without proper planning, they can summarize their plans, giving a brief idea about their business strategies and directly focusing on their target markets without proper study, these are generally the rough plans made by them and shouldn’t be taken into consideration for actual implementation and executing them. However, the rough drafts made with proper study of the markets, proper analysis of demand and supply factors, made with proper reliable data source can be used for a pitch. The rough drafts may contain the total startup costs, the expenses derived, the cash flow, the amount of resources required. Nobody can actually predict the future but with proper studying of the markets ans the available resources, we can focus on our business requirements.

When it comes to business commitments, or agreements, you shouldn’t show your pitch first to the investors or bankers. Study your planned process of business and then target your audience with full confidence. What if your investor starts asking you financial questions related to the pitch, do you want to tell them that you haven’t figured that as yet? Or do you want to answer them with appropriate replies, right at the moment? If you want to present yourself as a successful businessperson, I know, many of you would select the later option. Even if you keep changing your plans later, it doesn’t matter, but you should be having something to speak about your current business plans to the investors.

The best process for carrying on with your business deals and having a pitch is to prepare a plan, which would give you detailed information about the process, the products, how the plans are going to get implemented, the profits, the risk involved, the uncertainties and many other such factors. Summarizing is one of the biggest elements of a successful business plan so plan first well and then show the pitch to your investors, you would be at great benefit.