The idea of a grasp doc whose blanks executives can merely fill in—a lot in the best way lawyers use pattern wills or actual property agreements—is appealing but unrealistic. After the chief abstract include a well-designed table of contents. List every of the business plan’s sections and mark the pages for each part.

Investors know that there’s no assure a new firm will get any business, regardless of market size. Even if the company makes such claims based mostly on reality—as borne out, for example, by proof of customer curiosity—they’ll shortly crumble if the corporate does not rigorously collect and …