Who Are Your Audiences?
As you're developing your business plan, a crucial issue you need to keep in
mind is who will read it and what they will expect to learn from it. One way to
categorize the people who will make up your audience is to divide them into two
groups.
- Internal audience: those people, such as
yourself and your key employees, who will be a part of your business. You
are a very special member of this audience, since you will be using the plan
on an ongoing basis. Be sure that the plan employs a format and structure
that you are comfortable working with.
- External audience:
those people outside your business venture who will want to see some or all
of the documents that make up the plan before they decide that they want to
invest in, contract with, or otherwise have a relationship with your
business. This includes such people as your banker, venture capitalists,
credit rating firms, vendors, and others.