Business Plan Tip: It's not just an investor pitch.

A lot of people seem to think that the reason they need to write a business plan is to raise money.  Wrong.  You write a business plan to plan how you are going to establish, operate and grow your business.  I can see how this misconception originates:  Before they invest or lend, investors and/or lenders often want to see the business plan to get an idea of how the business operates.  From that fact some people gather that the first step in raising money is to write a business plan.  That's wrong; Raising money is a secondary use of a business plan.