There is no shortage of ways to get your business plan written for you by everything from fly by night super cheap outfits found online to extremely high priced consulting groups who also promise to put you in touch with high caliber investors and escort you around to all the big money outfits. These options all have one thing in common which is that they deprive you of the critical aspect of business plan writing that most new entrepreneurs don’t understand – the business plan writing process is not about the writing but about the planning and that is what you miss out on if you have someone else write your plan.
A lot of people who hire these services do so because they have an idea but they feel they aren’t good writers or that by having it done “professionally” they will have a better chance of being able to raise money than if they were to write it themselves.
The problem with this thinking is that the key elements of the business that the plan is supposed to determine: what edge the company has over the competition, who the customers are and how they will be reached are now going to be left in the hands of the consultant to determine. Since the plan writers have no stake in the business and are only getting paid for the writing they are not going to necessarily take the time to determine the right answer to this or even worry about the feasibility of the answers they provide.
A much better approach is to use a good program to write your own business plan so you can also be integrally involved in planning the actual business and then get help in reviewing and editing your plan so the writing also comes out right. This is the best of both worlds and also turns out to be the best value option in terms of money and time spent on creating a business plan.