If you are in need of a professional business plan, you may be considering whether or not to outsource the work to an established company. There are several factors that will be calculated into this decision that you should fully weigh according to your specific needs. Remember that not all costs are accounting based, for instance, there is the opportunity cost associated with spending your time on other areas of your business. This article considers the cost of writing a business plan from several avenues, depending on which one you proceed down.

The cost of writing a business plan can vary depending upon several unique factors including the market research used, the way that you prepare the writing, and extent of your financial modeling. Many entrepreneurs attempt to complete the entire business plan themselves, which is good to an extent, there may be some areas that are outside their knowledge base. For instance, creating a financial forecast may be outside the normal realm of knowledge unless the entrepreneur has prior experience within the financial services industry. Communicating the business based on the way investors analyze your company is another factor for those that do not have private equity experience.

There are many ways that you may perform your own market research based upon customer discovery, in addition to purchasing analyst reports. In most cases, it will be more beneficial for you to perform your own customer discovery research rather than purchasing an expensive macroeconomic report to tell investors information they already know. The experts at Pro Business Plans are strong advocates for customer discovery and performing interviews at length with as many customers as possible in order to gain an in depth understanding of their needs and requirements. This will help to form a more grounded base for assumptions in the rest of the plan.

The writing section of the business plan can either be done by the entrepreneur or an agency that specializes in business plan writing. There are several advantages and constraints to hiring a business plan writing firm. For instance, some companies may not be able to effectively communicate your vision and passion because they do not have the same degree of interest as the entrepreneur. However, they may also be able to build a more logical explanation of the technology, particularly if the entrepreneur lacks a background in business writing. The cost of hiring an agency to perform the writing aspect can range considerably with rates from $50 – 1,000 + per hour, depending on the qualifications of the team.

If you are in need of support at any phase in the plan development process, it is most likely to be the financial modeling . This will most likely require the expertise of either an accounting or finance professional with fees ranging between $2,000 – 10,000. In most cases, you will not require someone with excessive expertise unless you have substantial operating history and are proposing a valuation. However, it is important that the financials be performed properly and devoid of major errors.