An investment banker or financial intermediary can draw up a business plan as part of a firm's overall fundraising efforts. However, as explained by Jill Andresky Fraser, "His strategy will cost you—you may pay an hourly fee as well as a contingency percentage based on the amount raised or even an equity stake. However, a
well-chosen intermediary will have contacts you lack, and may even help you reformulate your business plan entirely."15 For someone not able to afford such fees, two good sources of assistance are the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). Both organizations have programs to introduce business owners to volunteer experts who will advise them.
Securing help in business plan preparation does not relieve the entrepreneur of responsibility for being the primary planner; her or his basic ideas are essential to producing a plan that is realistic and believable. Furthermore, the plan will eventually have to be interpreted and defended to outsiders. To effectively present it, the entrepreneur must be completely familiar with the plan.
Now that this chapter has made you more aware of the importance and fundamentals of the business plan, the chapters that follow will examine more closely each of the plan's components.