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Ian T. Fisk is the Executive Director of the William James Foundation, an organization that annually arranges multiple competitions on Socially Responsible Businesses. Ian has seen hundreds, maybe thousands of business plans through the years and has nearly 400 judges that judge business plans, under his wings.

In this article, Ian will share his best tips on how to write a great business plan and also give some general advice to those aspiring to win business plan competitions.

So Ian, how do you recognize a good business plan?

I usually look at three aspects of a business plan to valuate it: Problem, Payment and People

Problem

Showing off a great and innovative product does not mean that it will be successful, which many entrepreneurs often seem to believe. You need to tell me what is the problem that the product solves? Which need does it cater to? This is the core of any business idea. 

Payment

One question that must be answered in the business plan is: Who has the ability and desire to pay for this solution? This must be well motivated, because there might be a lot of people that says that your product or service is a great idea, but few that actually would pay up for it.

People

This is probably the most important part of all, but also the one that is the most difficult to write well, especially for young entrepreneurs. In the business plan I want to hear why you are the right person to carry execute the project. As a young entrepreneur, you seldom have the experience or expertise to motivate this adequately and many young people do not recognize that they probably will need help with different aspects of the business. If you can not tell me why you are the right person to do this, then you must at least tell me that you are the only one doing it.

Have you identified any common mistakes that people often do?

- When I see business plans that do not look like they will succeed, I simply send the entrepreneur a list of questions to answer before they should move their plan forward. If the business plan is weak, then it often shows depending on how you answer those questions.

- Many science based products or services focus way too much on their product and way too little on the business side of the idea. 

What kind of competitions does the William James Foundation arrange?

We work with entrepreneurs who are starting for-profit companies that have a defined social and/or environmental goal. You can be any age, any educational level, anywhere in the world. About half of our entrants are students. We work with funders who have a specific interest (Africa, Sustainable Agriculture, etc. to build specific prize categories around those interests. We offer around $100,000 worth of professional services and cash to the top teams, but our real prize is the feedback. Entrants receive an average of 15 pages of feedback per round that they make it through.

Thank you!

Read more about one of Ian’s competitions in this article in NY Times.

Read more about the William James Foundation and their competitions.