How to Write a Business Plan: An Expert Guide From Richard Maize
- Richard Maize
- Jun 30
- 14 min read
A business plan isn't just a document outlining your goals. It’s a sales pitch. It’s the first real test of whether your idea has the potential to become a profitable business or if it’s just a passion project. As an investor who has reviewed thousands of plans, I can tell you that the right approach makes all the difference.
Think Like an Investor Before You Write a Word
Before you write a single word, you have to make a crucial mental shift. Stop thinking like a founder, and start thinking like the person who might write you a check.
Seasoned investors like myself don’t just read for information. We’re looking for a partner. We’re looking for professionalism, strategic depth, and, above all, a clear path to a return on our investment (ROI). Your business plan is our first glimpse into whether you can deliver.
Pressure-Test Your Core Idea
An investor’s primary job is to manage risk. We need to see overwhelming evidence that your venture is a scalable, high-growth opportunity, not a hobby.
That means you have to pressure-test your idea before you even start. Ask yourself the same hard questions I would:
What real problem are you solving? Is it a minor annoyance or a major pain point for a large, well-defined market?
Why is your solution truly better? Is it just a small improvement, or is it a 10x leap that makes switching a no-brainer for customers?
What’s your unfair advantage? Do you have proprietary tech, an exclusive contract, or a team whose experience is impossible to replicate?
Answering these questions forces you to ground your vision in reality. My own approach, as Richard Maize, has always been to balance ambitious goals with pragmatic, step-by-step execution. Your plan needs to show that same discipline—a big vision, but also a credible, phased approach to getting there.
"An investor-ready business plan isn't a description of your idea. It’s a compelling argument, backed by data, that proves your business is a sound financial investment with a clear path to profitability." - Richard Maize
Frame Your Vision With Data
To convince an investor, your passion needs to be backed by hard numbers. Vague claims like "we're targeting a large market" are immediate red flags for me.
You have to quantify the opportunity. Define your Total Addressable Market (TAM), Serviceable Available Market (SAM), and Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM). Show the math.
This level of analytical rigor proves you’ve done your homework. It’s the same detail I look for when acquiring a company. You can get more insights by understanding what to look for when seeking to acquire a new company from an investor’s point of view.
This mindset is what separates a plan that gets funded from one that gets ignored. Every section that follows must be built on this foundation of data-driven confidence.
Craft an Executive Summary That Commands Attention
Most business plans fail in the first two pages. Before an investor ever gets to your market analysis or financial projections, they’ve already made a decision based on your executive summary alone.
Think of it less as a summary and more as a high-stakes pitch. Research shows that venture capitalists spend less than four minutes on a business plan, and most of that time is right here. This is your one shot to prove your plan is worth their time. Get it wrong, and you’ve lost them.
Tell the Whole Story, Fast
You have about two pages to get an investor hooked. The goal is to answer every major question they have before they even have to ask it.
This isn't the place for a dry list of facts. You need to weave a compelling narrative that connects the dots for them. A summary that works will immediately cover:
The Problem: What massive, expensive pain point are you solving?
Your Solution: How, specifically, does your business fix it better than anyone else?
The Opportunity: How big is this market? Put a number on it.
Your Edge: What’s your unfair advantage? Why can't a competitor easily replicate what you're doing?
The Team: Who is on your bench, and why is their experience the key to making this work?
The Ask & The Return: What are your key financial projections, and how much funding do you need to get there?
This isn’t just a checklist. It’s a logical argument that builds a case for your business from the very first sentence.
The Richard Maize Approach to a Powerful Opening
As an investor, I can spot potential—and red flags—in the first few paragraphs. To capture the attention of people like me, your summary needs to scream opportunity and competence. It’s about projecting confidence, backed by a solid understanding of your numbers and market.
"Your executive summary has to be so compelling that an investor feels like they'd be missing a huge opportunity by not reading the rest. It must create an immediate sense of both urgency and credibility." - Richard Maize
For instance, if I, Richard Maize, saw a plan for a real estate tech venture, I’d want the opening to hit hard. Start with the glaring inefficiencies in commercial property management (the problem). Then, immediately introduce your AI-driven platform that solves it (the solution). Follow that up by mentioning the $3 trillion commercial real estate market (the opportunity).
Right away, you’ve framed your company as a serious player in a massive, lucrative field. That’s an introduction that earns a closer look.
Here’s a tip from my experience: write the executive summary last. After you’ve wrestled with every detail of your market analysis, operations, and financials, you’ll know exactly which points are the most powerful. It’s the final, vital polish on a document designed to fund your future.
Build a Market Analysis That Proves Your Opportunity
A great idea isn’t enough. I’ve seen countless brilliant concepts fail because they lacked one thing: a real market willing to pay. The market analysis section of your business plan is where you stop talking about your passion and start proving your opportunity with cold, hard data.
This is where you build an undeniable case that your venture isn't just a hopeful gamble, but a calculated move into a profitable space.
For example, navigating the Los Angeles real estate market taught me, Richard Maize, that having a great property is only half the battle. You have to prove it serves a specific, unmet need in a well-defined neighborhood. An investor needs to see that same level of detail. They want proof you understand the competitive landscape and have a clear, achievable path to capturing your piece of it.
Define Your Customer with Precision
One of the fastest ways to lose credibility with an investor is to say your product is "for everyone." That tells me you haven't done the real work. A strong business plan gets incredibly specific about its primary customer.
Go beyond basic demographics. Create a detailed picture of this person. What are their daily frustrations? What influences their buying habits and what motivates them? For instance, a real estate investor shouldn't just target "renters." They should target "young professionals aged 25-35 earning over $75,000 annually who prioritize walkability and modern amenities."
That level of detail shows you know exactly who you’re selling to and, more importantly, how to reach them.
"An investor isn't funding a product; they're funding a solution to a specific customer's problem. If you can't define that customer in sharp detail, you haven't validated your market." - Richard Maize
Size the Prize: TAM, SAM, and SOM
Once you know who you're targeting, you have to quantify the opportunity. This is where you translate your vision into the numbers every investor is looking for.
You’ll use three key metrics to show the scale of your market:
Total Addressable Market (TAM): This is the entire global demand for a product or service. It’s the big-picture potential.
Serviceable Available Market (SAM): This is the slice of the TAM you can realistically serve with your business model and geographic reach.
Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM): This is the portion of your SAM you can realistically capture in the first few years. This is your starting line.
Your SOM is what makes your plan believable. From my perspective as an investor, a plan to capture 1% of a massive, well-defined market is far more credible than a vague claim to capture 20% of an undefined one. Your projections must be grounded in reality and directly supported by your marketing and sales strategy.
This is about connecting a clear problem to a viable solution, which in turn defines your market.
As you can see, a clear path from problem to solution is what unlocks a specific, and therefore fundable, market.
Dissect Your Competition and Find Your Edge
Ignoring your competition is a fatal mistake. Acknowledging them shows you’re a realist, and it forces you to build a genuine strategy to win.
Create a simple competitive matrix. Chart your main rivals against your own business, comparing factors like:
Pricing models
Key features
Target customers
Brand reputation and market share
The goal here isn't just to list names. It's to pinpoint their weaknesses and clearly define your unique advantage. What makes you different? Is it your technology, a superior service model, or a brand story that connects on a deeper level? For a more detailed guide on this, you can explore this real estate market analysis template, which puts these principles into practice.
Your market analysis needs to tell a convincing story backed by solid numbers. Use charts and graphs to make your data easy to digest—show the market growth, your TAM/SAM/SOM breakdown, and where you fit in the competitive landscape. This is how you transform a concept into a tangible, fundable opportunity.
Showcase Your Operations Plan and Management Team
You’ve shown there’s a market for your idea. Great. Now comes the question that separates the dreamers from the doers: can you actually deliver?
This is where your plan shifts from the what to the how and, more importantly, the who. As an investor, I know that a solid plan is one thing, but execution is everything. We ultimately bet on people, not just ideas.
This section proves you have the day-to-day processes mapped out and the right team to handle the inevitable challenges that come with growth.
Detailing Your Day-to-Day Operations
Think of your operations plan as the engine of your business. It’s the blueprint that turns your vision into concrete, daily actions. An investor needs to see that you’ve thought through every single step of delivering your product or service.
Get specific. If you’re in real estate, this is where you outline everything from property acquisition and renovation timelines to your tenant management systems. For a service-based business, walk them through your client onboarding, your service delivery workflow, and your quality control measures.
This is your chance to show an obsession with efficiency. Mention any specific software, proprietary processes, or technology you plan to use. Showing how you’ll keep costs low and quality high as you scale demonstrates foresight and a real command of the practical side of your venture.
Building Your A-Team
I’ll say it plainly: I never put money into a plan without scrutinizing the people behind it. The management team section is arguably the most crucial part of your entire business plan. A great team can salvage a mediocre idea, but a weak team will sink even the most brilliant one.
This isn't the place for a simple list of names and titles. You’re building a case for why your team is uniquely qualified to win. Each key person’s bio should be a miniature sales pitch that hammers home:
Relevant Experience: Connect their past roles and wins directly to the challenges your business will face.
Track Record of Success: Show quantifiable achievements. Did they grow a prior company's revenue by 300%? Did they manage a multimillion-dollar budget?
Domain Expertise: Why are they the perfect fit for this specific industry and this market?
I’ve always built my own ventures by assembling diverse teams of experts whose skills complement one another. Your business plan needs to show that same strategic approach. Prove you have all your bases covered—from operations and finance to marketing and sales.
"Investors look for 'founder-market fit.' They want to see that your team’s background gives you an unfair advantage in the industry you’re trying to disrupt. Your biographies must prove this fit beyond a doubt." - Richard Maize
Crafting a Compelling Team Narrative
Don't just paste résumés and call it a day. Tell a story about why this specific group of people is destined to succeed together. Explain how their individual strengths create a cohesive, unstoppable unit.
An organizational chart is a great tool here. It visually represents your company’s structure and shows clear lines of reporting, proving you’ve thought about organized growth and decision-making from day one.
For each key player, write a concise, powerful bio of two or three paragraphs. Focus on their accomplishments, not just their past job descriptions. Frame their successes in a way that directly supports the future goals outlined in your plan. This is how you demonstrate that you have the grit, experience, and leadership needed to turn a piece of paper into a thriving, profitable enterprise.
Create Financial Projections That Inspire Confidence
After you’ve laid out your market, operations, and team, it's time to speak the language every investor understands: numbers. Your financial projections are where the idea meets reality. This is where you prove that your business isn’t just a good story, but a viable, profitable venture.
Too many entrepreneurs treat this section as an afterthought. They sketch out unrealistic “hockey stick” growth curves that aren’t tied to anything real. I see this every day, and it's the fastest way to lose credibility.
A strong financial section must be defensible. Every number, from your revenue forecast to your expense budget, has to be anchored in the assumptions you’ve already established. This shows a level of financial discipline that’s essential for managing any successful enterprise, a core principle in my own, Richard Maize’s, investment philosophy.
The Three Core Financial Statements
Your projections should look ahead three to five years and include three fundamental documents. Think of them as different lenses for viewing your company’s financial health.
Income Statement (Profit & Loss): This shows your revenue, your costs, and your bottom-line profitability over a certain period. It answers the most basic question: are you making money?
Cash Flow Statement: For a startup, this might be the single most important document. It tracks the actual cash moving in and out of the business. A company that’s profitable on paper can still go bankrupt if it runs out of cash.
Balance Sheet: This is a snapshot of your company’s financial position at a single point in time. It lists what you own (assets), what you owe (liabilities), and what’s left over (equity).
These three statements have to work together. An investor will look for consistency across all of them to make sure your financial story holds water.
Build Your Numbers on a Foundation of Assumptions
Your forecasts are only as good as the assumptions behind them. You can't just pull numbers out of thin air. You need a dedicated "Assumptions" page that explains the why behind your figures.
For instance, a revenue projection shouldn't be a random goal. It needs to be a formula built from your marketing and operational plans.
Example Revenue Assumption: “Our forecast is based on hitting a 2% conversion rate from our $5,000 monthly marketing spend, which we project will generate 1,000 leads. At an average sale price of $250, that translates to $5,000 in initial monthly revenue, which will scale as our marketing budget grows in Year 2.”
This approach connects your spending directly to your results, making your numbers far more believable. This is the kind of sound, almost boring, financial logic that works. In fact, you can read more about why good financial advice is often boring but highly effective.
"The goal of financial projections isn't to predict the future with perfect accuracy. It's to demonstrate that you have a deep, logical understanding of the key drivers of your business and a clear path to profitability." - Richard Maize
To give investors a clear view, it helps to summarize the most important metrics in a simple table.
Key Financial Metrics to Include in Your Projections
This table breaks down some of the essential metrics investors scan for first. They provide a quick-look summary of your business's financial health and potential.
Metric | What It Shows | Investor Tip |
|---|---|---|
Gross Margin | Your profitability on each sale before overhead. | A high and stable gross margin shows a strong, defensible business model. |
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) | How much you spend to acquire a new customer. | Investors want to see this decrease over time as your brand grows. |
Lifetime Value (LTV) | The total revenue you expect from a single customer. | A high LTV to CAC ratio (e.g., 3:1 or better) is a powerful indicator of a scalable business. |
Monthly Burn Rate | How much cash you spend each month before you are profitable. | This number determines how much capital you need and for how long. |
Break-Even Point | The moment your revenue equals your expenses. | Investors look for a clear, achievable timeline to break-even. |
Having these figures clearly defined and ready shows you're thinking like a seasoned operator, not just a founder with an idea.
Present Your Numbers Professionally
How your financials look matters almost as much as what they say. A clean, easy-to-read format shows professionalism and respect for an investor’s time.
Use charts and graphs to visualize key trends like revenue growth and gross margin. This makes the highlights of your plan jump off the page. This optimistic but grounded approach is what separates serious entrepreneurs from dreamers. A recent J.P. Morgan outlook found that 73% of midsize businesses expect revenue to increase, with 42% of North American firms adopting shorter, more agile planning cycles to adapt.
Finally, be prepared to defend every single number. A smart investor will poke holes in your assumptions and test your logic. Having well-reasoned financials shows you’ve done your homework and are ready to be a responsible steward of their capital. That’s what inspires confidence.
Answering an Investor's Toughest Questions
After all the research and writing, you might think the hard part is over. But the business plan document is just the start of the conversation. The real test begins when an investor like me starts asking the pointed questions that dig deeper than the pages you’ve written.
I've seen thousands of plans over the years. We develop a sense for weaknesses, untested assumptions, and a lack of preparation. Being ready for that grilling is what separates a funded entrepreneur from a frustrated one. These are the questions you're guaranteed to face, and how to answer them with confidence.
How Long Should My Business Plan Actually Be?
Entrepreneurs stress over this, but the answer is simple. Aim for a lean and focused 20-30 pages, plus appendices for your detailed financials or legal documents.
Investors value powerful information, not volume. My time, like any investor's, is my most limited resource. A plan that respects that by getting straight to the point already has an advantage. Your one-to-two-page executive summary has to be compelling enough to earn the right for the rest of the document to be read.
"A lean, powerful plan is always more effective than a lengthy, unfocused one. Brevity isn’t a shortcut; it’s a sign of discipline and a deep understanding of what truly matters." - Richard Maize
A 100-page document doesn't impress me. It usually signals the founder hasn't done the hard work of distilling their vision into a clear, focused strategy.
What Is the Biggest Mistake in Financial Projections?
This one is easy. The single most damaging mistake is presenting a "hockey stick" growth curve that isn't backed by concrete, defensible assumptions. It's the fastest way to lose credibility.
Numbers that seem to appear out of thin air signal naivety at best, and dishonesty at worst. Your revenue forecast has to be directly and logically tied to your operational and marketing inputs.
You have to show your work. An investor needs to see the formula:
Marketing Spend: How much capital are you deploying each month to get leads?
Conversion Rate: What percentage of those leads do you realistically expect to become customers?
Sales Cycle: How long does it actually take to close a deal?
Customer Value: What is the average initial purchase and lifetime value of a customer?
A projection built on this kind of bottom-up logic—"We will spend X to acquire Y customers, which results in Z revenue"—builds far more trust than a top-down guess. It shows you have a firm grasp on the levers that actually drive your business.
Should I Write About Competitors in My Plan?
Absolutely. In fact, failing to address your competition is one of the most glaring red flags you can raise. Ignoring them doesn’t make you look unique; it makes you look unprepared.
Every single business has competition, whether it's direct or indirect. Acknowledging this reality makes your plan stronger. It shows you're a strategic thinker who understands the environment you’re walking into. The key is to frame the competitive landscape honestly and then use it to highlight your specific advantage.
A simple competitive matrix is a great way to do this. Compare your business to others on key factors:
Pricing
Core Features
Target Audience
Brand Position
This forces you to go beyond vague claims of being "better" and clearly define your unique value proposition. This is how you prove you have an intelligent strategy to win market share.
How Important Is the Funding Request Section?
The "ask" is critical. A vague funding request is an immediate deal-breaker for me, and for most investors. It suggests you haven't thought through your capital needs with enough rigor. You have to state exactly how much you're seeking.
More importantly, you need to provide an itemized breakdown of how you will spend every dollar. This is your use of funds statement.
Tie this budget directly to the milestones in your operational plan. For example:
$150,000 for Product Development: To finalize beta testing and launch V1.
$100,000 for Key Hires: To bring on a lead engineer and a sales director.
$50,000 for Initial Marketing: To fund the first six months of our go-to-market plan.
This level of detail shows you are a thoughtful and responsible steward of capital—a trait every investor prioritizes. It proves you aren’t just asking for money; you’re requesting specific fuel to execute a well-defined plan.
At Richard Maize, the focus is on turning well-researched plans into tangible success stories. Discover more insights on real estate, entrepreneurship, and strategic investment by visiting https://richardmaize.com.
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