you will need to have an exceptional business plan if you wish to raise financing for your great new business idea. Investors and lenders are much more concerned about risk than they were a year ago. Your business plan must not only clearly explain what your great new business is all about but it must realistically spell out the risks, your ability to pay back and what experience your management has to overcome obstacles and stay the course. Today’s Toronto Globe and Mail states “Banks are much pickier about who gets a loan and they are charging more” (The Return of Credit, the Return of Risk – by Boyd Erman : Toronto Globe and Mail ,Report on Business Sept.12, 2009 www.reportonbusiness.com).

This means that your numbers must stand up to greater scrutiny. They must be realistic and achievable. There must be no holes of logic in your arguments. There must be no mystery in how your numbers add up to success!

As well, your business plan will have to read well, be enthusiastic, show confidence in your ideas and emit a sense of “I am going to make this happen”.

Can you do this on your own? It takes the skill of a mature financial expert combined with the viewpoint of an experienced manager in business financing who is a master story teller. Not a likely combination!

Help is out there and needed more than ever before. Check out www.businessplanscanada.com. Their website is second to none and does a great job of explaining exactly how they get the job done, what professional resources they have and what you can expect from them. Contact info and quote requests are easily found. It might be the smartest early move you make with YOUR GREAT NEW BUSINESS IDEA.