Who is Growthink?

 

Growthink is the world’s leading business plan development firm.  Since 1999, we have helped more than 1,600 clients – including entrepreneurs, small businesses, middle-market companies, Fortune 500 corporations and non-profit organizations – develop world-class business plans.  As evidence of the quality of our work, Growthink clients have raised more than $1 billion in growth capital. 

 

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Why should I hire a consultant to develop my business plan?

 

Growthink’s business plan consultants provide expertise, experience, and efficiency.

Expertise: Our team has expertise in every aspect of business planning, including market research, marketing strategy, strategic planning, communications strategy, and financial modeling. 

Experience: Our business plan consultants have worked with more than 1,600 clients in every major industry. 

Efficiency: By hiring a professional business plan writer to develop your business plan, you can remain focused on the critical day-to-day actions and responsibilities of your company.

 

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What makes Growthink stand out from other business planning companies?

 

Track Record:  Simply put, we have more experience and success than any other business plan firm. We have a 10-year track record of successfully assisting clients with their business planning and capital raising needs.  Since 1999, we have worked with more than 1,600 clients, in more than 500 niches, who have raised more than $1 billion in growth capital.

Quality:  We stand by the quality of our work – and so do Growthink clients like Atari, Deutsche Bank, Hooters, NEC, McKesson, Paramount, Porsche, and The Salvation Army.  At the same time, the majority of our clients are at earlier stages in their development and growth.  We pride ourselves on the fact that we are able to provide the same quality of work to all of our clients.

Consultative Approach: When developing business plans with our clients, we do not simply document your business idea.  We question, challenge, and vet your idea, to make sure that you, your partners, and your investors are pursuing a feasible opportunity.  Each and every Growthink business plan is 100% customized based on your specific needs and objectives. 

Investor Perspective:  Our investor perspective distinguishes Growthink from other business plan firms.  We regularly speak and meet with investors of all types, including banks, angel investors, venture capital firms, and private equity firms.  Growthink is also a broker-dealer investment bank, registered in all 50 states.  Our investment banking practice provides us with a unique view into the ever-changing needs and appetites of investors, and we leverage this knowledge in each of our business planning engagements.  Specifically, we have a unique ability to position our clients’ business plans to meet the precise needs of their intended audiences.

Full-Service: While business planning is our core practice, we are a full-service consulting firm.  We provide a full spectrum of strategic, marketing, and financial services designed to assist businesses throughout all stages of development.

 

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How much do you charge for a business plan?

 

We do not have pre-set pricing tiers for our consulting work.  Each and every Growthink business plan is 100% customized based on your specific needs and objectives. 

The pricing of our business plan engagements depends on the following factors:

• Complexity of your business and financial model
Amount of market research needed (and primary vs. secondary)
• Sophistication of your intended audience

 

We do not simply document your business plan like other firms in our industry; rather, we provide in-depth strategic consulting. We take the time to carefully analyze the key factors that will ultimately determine the success of your business and/or your capital raising efforts, such as:

• Your target market, its size, and key industry trends
• Your direct and indirect competition and your competitive advantage
• Your market penetration strategy
• Your cost and revenue assumptions and projections, customer adoption rates, the length of your sales cycle, etc.

 

We invest an intense amount of time and energy into every single business planning engagement to make sure that each of our clients is prepared to succeed.   Our project fees - with few exceptions - begin at $7,500. We have also completed complex engagements for larger clients for more than $100,000.

To prepare you for success, an outside advisor must take the time necessary to evaluate your opportunity and develop an effective strategic business plan. While there are companies offering to develop business plans at a lower price, we advise potential clients to be aware of the hidden costs associated with such services.  Lower-priced business plans are significantly less likely to help you achieve your operational milestones or raise capital from investors.  Such seemingly inexpensive options typically result in significant wasted time, money, and effort.

 

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What is Growthink's business planning process?

 

Our business planning process consists of seven distinct phases, designed to maximize quality and client satisfaction.

1. Management Interviews: We collect and document your "verbal" growth plan, including your vision, accomplishments to date, challenges and opportunities, key objectives, and growth strategies. We also identify and refine key research questions, and work to define and communicate an effective "story" for the plan.
2. Strategic Market Research: Next, we size the relevant marketplace, analyze your competitors, profile customer groups, and assess your business opportunity. We also conduct "benchmarking research," which involves identifying other companies that have succeeded and/or failed with similar businesses and/or initiatives.
3. "Checkpoint" Document: We deliver a "checkpoint" document to confirm that we are in agreement with you regarding the strategic direction of your business plan, as well as the plan's focus, tone and language.
4. Additional Research and Strategy Work: After incorporating feedback, we begin additional research regarding your business strategy and communication strategy -- including how best to articulate your opportunity to existing and potential stakeholders and investors.
5. Draft Plan: We provide a draft of the deliverables, which typically include an Executive Summary, historical and projected Financials, and a Complete Business Plan (company analysis; customer and market analyses; industry and competitive analyses; marketing, operations, and development plans; management team; appendices).
6. Review and Revise: We review the draft plan with you and and discuss the focus, wording, and flow of the document. We incorporate any necessary revisions and refinements in order to prepare the revised business plan.
7. Package and Finalize: We finalize a clean, professional document, with graphical enhancements, that is copy-edited, formatted, and ready to be presented to stakeholders and investors.

 

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How long does it take?

 

As a result of our in-depth consultative business planning process, Growthink consultants typically invest 4 to 6 weeks to fully develop and finalize your business plan.  If you need to develop your business plan on a more accelerated timeline, please contact us and we will do our best to accommodate your needs. 

 

 

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