You planned to modify the business. You prepared all the necessary documents, wrote a business plan. But nobody was interested in doing business with you. Why? There are some reasons why your business plan can be ignored:
1. You overdid with the academic content
Certainly, any business plan has to contain some researches, but it is not the main part. If you write a lot of pages about the market, the competition, industry analyses, SWOT analyses, detailed financial projections, using strategic jargon as "five-part competitive analysis", "first-mover advantage", and so on, you’ll get an "A" in a business school class for surely. But it doesn't guarantee results in real conditions.
2. Your plan was incomplete
A high-quality strategic business plan must cover three areas.
First of all you have to present a sound strategic basis. It can cover:
- your vision and specific goals for a business;
- description of your target clients, their existing and future needs;
- your positioning statement, or marketing message that will attract new clients;
- existing and future problems that can keep your from achieving your goals.
Secondly, you need to set a priority that will help you to realize your strategic foundation. This can include:
- advertising campaigns;
- ways to attract clients and to strengthen business relationship with current clients;
- ways to improve your capabilities to better serve clients.
Lastly, you should write an action and accountability plan on the basis of all this elements. There are described who does what, and by when, in order to achieve set goals.
No matter which part you miss, your plan without it will be incomplete. And it’ll loss its strength at last.
3. You confused a Strategic Business Plan for Management with a Business Plan for Lenders/Investors
A strategic business plan for management differs from the one for lenders or investors. The first is written with the goal to help you to plan and organize your business activities. Investors or lenders need answers other questions such as:
How big is the chance?
Is the management able to take advantage of the opportunity?
What is the financial deal to investors to make the investment worth the perceived risk?
This kind of business plan has to persuade investors that you can take advantage of an opportunity in a way that everyone involved will a profit.
4. You forgot that only "x" clients or projects per month will be enough.
Nobody expects that you’ll generate one billion dollars within the year. All you need is just a finite number of clients or projects per month to meet your financial goals. It's great to set ambitious goals, but you don't have to get manic. | 
