Hire the Top 3% of Freelance Business Plan Consultants

Every Company Needs an Effective Business Plan to Maximize Its Potential

A comprehensive business plan details a company’s present and expected future status and needs in order to guide strategic decisions and resource requirements. Research has shown that, historically, companies with strategic plans have grown 30% faster than those without them and that companies with plans have been nearly twice as likely to receive funding. That’s because potential investors and investment banks often won’t take your business seriously without a comprehensive business plan.

While business plans are proven to maximize potential at all stages of maturity, many business leaders fail to develop or execute them. They may believe it isn’t worth the investment, or they may be overwhelmed by the number of steps involved and the amount of information required to get started. Other business owners may attempt to develop such plans without external assistance.

However, many company owners do recognize that specialized skills are required to maximize the impact of a strategic plan and to develop a complementary pitch deck for potential investors. These executives typically hire an expert to guide them through the entire strategic planning process. This hiring guide offers insights into how to select and hire a professional who can advise and collaborate with you to deliver the business plan you need.

What Attributes Distinguish Quality Business Plan Consultants From Others?

Above all else, quality consultants have business planning and industry-specific experience. Typically, more experience equals more expertise, but don’t get caught up in thinking about experience only in terms of years. Once a professional consultant has five or more years of experience, other factors, such as the number of plans written and the number of successful funding rounds they’ve been involved in, are more important.

When selecting an advisor, it’s important to find someone who develops complete plans frequently, has a strong track record of success, and has specialized industry experience relevant to your business. For example, the core components of business plans in healthcare and construction may be similar, but industry-specific knowledge adds significant credibility when detailing the organization’s strategic direction, financial plans and models, and resource requirements.

Quality business planners provide clear and concise guidance, and work with you and your management team to develop primary and contingency strategies. The consultant should be able to collaborate effectively during the planning process and illuminate potential shortcomings and pitfalls of an existing or new plan. While they may use a standardized template for creating strategic plans, the consultant should be willing and able to customize the plan to meet your organization’s specific needs.

How Can You Identify the Ideal Business Plan Consultant for Your Business?

The ideal consultant will possess a mix of hard and soft skills across multiple business areas so that they can skillfully craft a successful plan and pitch deck. The best consultants have these complementary skills:

Industry knowledge – The specialist best suited to help your organization will have solid industry knowledge and significant experience working with other companies in your sector. Understanding the industry, its competitive landscape, significant trends, and market segments is critical to developing an effective business and marketing plan.

Market research and analysis – This skill is required to establish accurate estimates of the total market, total addressable market, serviceable market, and obtainable markets. Consultants need to gather and analyze significant amounts of data, interpret the results, and derive target markets and market-share goals for your company.

Financial modeling and forecasting – In addition to validating existing financial plans, the consultant should be able to provide insight into current and alternative pricing strategies for revenue growth, understand whether capital and resource assumptions are valid given industry-average and best-in-class capital efficiencies, and confirm that margin expectations are reasonable given other operating assumptions. In-house financial analysts may be able to help fill this need with guidance from the expert consultant you hire.

Data analysis and visualization – A quality business planner should be able to compile and analyze all the inputs your organization provides and use them to create the components of the plan. This should include a go-to-market strategy that highlights your value proposition, identifies how you’ll reach your target market(s), and convinces investors that your organization has significant growth potential.

Presentation skills and storytelling ability – An underrated but essential value that a specialist can bring is the ability to take all the individual components of the plan and weave them together into a compelling, original story that creates stakeholder buy-in and investor interest.

In addition to the aforementioned important capabilities, the best consultant for your company should demonstrate the following soft skills:

Communication – The consultant should be able to distill complex ideas into accessible concepts to ensure understanding among stakeholders, investors, and employees. They should also be willing and able to ask hard questions and challenge assumptions.

Organization – The expert needs to gather, analyze, and organize extensive data and other inputs from multiple sources. This requires impeccable organization and attention to detail.

Critical and strategic thinking – A quality professional can consider threats, present alternatives, and stress-test the plan to ensure it is sound and considers all possibilities.

An advisor who possesses these complementary soft skills is more likely to be highly effective and deliver a plan that generates a high ROI.

What Criteria Can Hiring Managers Use to Match Business Plan Specialists to Their Specific Industry or Business Needs?

Hiring managers should consider these three critical criteria when matching professionals to their specific industries and needs:

• Industry experience – Each industry has a unique environment, with unique relationships between the hiring company and its customers, suppliers, competitors, etc. Navigating different compliance requirements and barriers to entry requires specific knowledge. While there is no set requirement for years of industry-specific experience, three years is a sufficient minimum threshold.
• Financial acumen – The consultant should be able to build detailed, dynamic financial models that drive the plan. Experience with three-statement modeling is ideal, as the consultant will need to understand how investment and operating plans impact cash flow, the balance sheet, and the income statement. The hiring manager should prioritize credentials such as advanced degrees and certifications pertaining to corporate finance, valuation, and modeling financial projections when evaluating candidates.
• Leadership experience – Hiring managers should look for a consultant with a demonstrated history of leading teams and stakeholders through strategic initiatives. At a minimum, consultants should have reached a managerial level with a focus on strategy and planning. Director- and VP-level experience, along with a track record of successful consulting engagements, becomes more important as the scope and scale of the project at hand increases.

How to Write a Job Description for Your Project

First, define the use case for the business plan and identify the industry in which your company operates. Clearly identifying the sector will help candidates self-select, minimizing the number of irrelevant résumés to review.

Next, specify the experience and any specializations you require. Some technical expertise may be optional: For example, it may not be as important for your consultant to have in-depth financial modeling expertise—as long as that’s a strength of your internal team. On the other hand, your consultant must have extensive knowledge about your industry and market segments.

Your job description should also take into account how far along your organization is in the strategic process. If you have many of the pieces in place and simply need a professional to ensure you have a cohesive and compelling plan to present, you’ll require a different skill set than if you need someone to research, analyze, define, and document the strategic path forward.

What Are the Most Important Business Plan Consultant Interview Questions?

As you prepare to interview your top candidates, you should already have a basic understanding of their experience and skills. During the interviews, it’s important to ask questions that get to the heart of what your organization needs and whether the consultant has the expertise to deliver an effective plan. These questions will help you evaluate and select the best consultant for your situation:

How would you approach this project?

With this question, you’re looking for the consultant to explain how they would use internal and external resources to gather relevant information and craft the story that the business plan will tell as it relates to your specific case. Ideally, the consultant can identify external resources that will provide industry, competitor, and market insights, including potential environmental, regulatory, or legal hurdles and risks.

Can you share your thoughts on the industry’s current state and future outlook?

The consultant you hire should be well versed in your industry, its present state, and the key factors influencing its future. The success of a business strategy hinges on the quality of the market information, data, and insights the expert has access to, and how they will use that information to guide the plan. A qualified professional will be able to discuss total market size, growth rates, key competitors, and significant trends. Their answer should leave you confident that the candidate has the industry experience and knowledge you require.

Can you share specific examples of successful business plans you’ve developed?

The answer to this question should demonstrate how the candidate has applied their expertise in previous engagements or corporate roles. Although the consultant may be able to effectively explain their approach, specific examples will confirm they have the experience and capabilities to deliver what you need. Ask them to define the qualities of a successful engagement to be sure your expectations are aligned.

How do you ensure that a business plan is adaptable and remains relevant?

The last thing you want to do is lead your business down a path that reduces or eliminates agility. The consultant should highlight specific tools, such as scenario and sensitivity analyses, that can be used to develop contingency plans should the primary strategy shift because of changes in the market. The most qualified consultants should be able to identify gaps and trends in the market and suggest potential strategies and technologies to address them.

Additional questions to ask include how the consultant would communicate with you and your internal teams, how they handle disagreements among principals about the strategic direction the organization should pursue, and what, if any, special research and analysis they might perform for this engagement.

A well-rounded consultant will answer your questions in ways that leave you feeling confident in their ability to successfully execute the project and deliver an effective custom plan that maximizes your company’s potential and attracts investors.

How can a hiring manager ensure the confidentiality and security of sensitive information during the hiring process, especially when sharing strategic plans or proprietary data with candidates?

Hiring managers and recruiters can take decisive actions to protect their company’s confidential information during the hiring process. These include:

• Requiring candidates to sign nondisclosure agreements before they receive sensitive materials.
• Conducting thorough background checks to verify candidates’ credibility, trustworthiness, and adherence to data security protocols.
• Using secure document-sharing platforms or virtual data rooms with access controls, encryption, and audit trails.
• Using secure communication channels, such as encrypted email services or secure messaging platforms, when sharing sensitive information.

Why Do Companies Hire Business Plan Experts?

Business plan experts can deliver tremendous value to companies that are developing plans to guide strategic decisions or pursue funding. While founders and employees may have a significant grasp of the company, its strategic direction, and its business goals, they may not have the expertise to craft a compelling plan and pitch deck that attracts investors.

One of the quickest ways to lose the interest of potential investors and partners is by presenting a business plan that comes across as disorganized and fragmented. Advisors with extensive experience dealing with investors solve this problem for their clients. They have the well-rounded business background and skill set to contribute and add value to the entire strategic planning process. They have the capability to propel a business forward by weaving a company’s market data, industry trends, business strategy, business goals, and resource requirements into a compelling story for stakeholders and potential investors.

While many business owners develop plans without external assistance, hiring a business planner can significantly increase the quality and credibility of a strategic plan, its likelihood to maximize business success, and its ability to attract investors.