Are you contemplating using a business plan software vs handwriting a business plan yourself? If YES, here is an in-depth comparison on the best of the two. There are three ways to write your business plan;
- Writing it yourself-: If you have the skills and expertise, you can write your business plan yourself.
- Using a business plan writing software-: You may also buy software that helps to make the process faster and easier.
- Hiring a consultant-: The third option is to hire an expert who would conduct all the market research involved and .
But if you are starting your business on a budget, hiring a consultant might not be the best option because it would cost you more money. So, if you are starting your business on a budget, there are only two options you can choose; writing it yourself or using business plan writing software. Before you decide on the best method to choose from the two available options, here are some important factors to consider-:
5 Factors to Help You Decide How Best to Write a Business Plan
What do you need the business plan for?
The first thing is to consider what you want to use the business plan for. If you need it as a personal business blueprint, you really don’t need to buy software because you can easily write it yourself. But if you are going to be presenting it to investors or financial institutions for loans, then you need a professionally written business plan and business plan writing software could help to make your business plan look professional.
Your level of expertise and skills
If you have a Business Management degree or an accounting degree, you may be able to write your business plan easily but if you are not experienced in the art of writing business plans, you would need to use software to guide you.
- Time-: Writing your business plan yourself is more time consuming than using software.
- Research-: If you would need to have some research done, software cannot do that for you.
- Budget-: You would also need to consider your budget before you settle for an option.
The next question to ask is which option is best; would it be better to write a business plan yourself or use software? Here are some advantages and disadvantages of using either method to help you decide-:
9 Benefits of Writing your Business Plan With Software
Guidance
Business plan writing software usually comes with a step by step guidance so that it becomes easy even for a novice.
Automatic outline
One problem that people face with writing their business plan is the problem of not knowing what should be and what should not be in their business plan. Business plan software would come with an automatic outline so that all you have to do is input your data without worrying about the outline to use.
Financial statements
Writing the financial part of a business plan might seem challenging to inexperienced people but software makes it easier and less technical.
Graphs, Charts and Tables
If you have to include charts and tables in your business plan, you can do so easily with software.
Time saving
If you are working on a limited time schedule, business plan software helps to save time as it becomes faster to write your business plan.
Performance measurement tools
Business plan writing Software comes with automatic performance measurement indicators.
Cheaper
Using software is relatively cheaper than hiring a consultant.
Diverse formats
There are several business plan writing formats that you can choose from so that you can use your business plan writing software to write business plans for any type of business.
Auto-correct options
You would also have access to auto-correct options to avoid spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.
However, there are some disadvantages of using software to write your business plan which includes-:
7 Disadvantage of Using Business Plan Writing Software
- A business plan writing software cannot input some special ideas and insights into your business plan.
- It might cost you more eventually especially when you need to have a consultant look at your business plan.
- Some business plan software developers offer no technical support or training.
- Several people’s business plans might look alike and this might piss investors off.
- Sometimes, you would have to spend extra money to learn how to use the software.
- Less flexibility.
- A business plan writing software might lack some important country specific information.
- You might have trouble defending a business plan written using software.
As for writing a business plan yourself, here are the benefits-:
5 Benefits of Handwriting your Business Plan Yourself
- Nobody knows your business better than you; software cannot understand your business visions and goals. This makes you the best person to write your business plan.
- As you write your business plan yourself, you may be able to learn new things and gain a broader understanding of your market.
- You would also become better experienced in the art of business plan writing when you write your business plan yourself, so you won’t have to keep spending money on hiring consultants or buying software.
- You know what you put in your business plan so you can defend it anywhere at any point in time.
- You would also be able to save up the money you would have spent on hiring a consultant or buying software.
Nevertheless, there are still some pitfalls involved with writing your business plan yourself; some of which include-:
5 Disadvantages of Handwriting a Business Plan Yourself
- There might be some computation errors in the financial projections.
- There might also be some grammatical errors and spelling mistakes which would have been corrected automatically if you had used business plan writing software.
- Another disadvantage of writing your business plan yourself is that it is time consuming and you may not have all of that time to spare drawing graphs and making financial projections.
- The business world is constantly evolving and there are new trends every day. While software developers may be able to easily incorporate these new trends into their software, you on the other hand might not be able to keep up with learning new trends every day. If you earned your degree in 1995, of course you cannot expect to use the knowledge and skills you learnt then to write a business plan in 2014 because a lot of things are different now. But with software, you are constantly up to date and able to keep up with new trends.
Also, you might not be able to measure your performance like a professional and this might make you to lose valuable investors.