Startup Guides > 5 Essential Business Plan Topics When Raising Venture Capital

Wondering whether or not to write a business plan? Do you really need one? Well, unless you have a spectacular track record as an entrepreneur or an exceptionally great new business idea, you cannot raise money to fund your startup without a business plan.

Furthermore, the business plans that result in successful outcomes usually contain insights into the customers who will buy your company's products. Make sure you do a great job at conveying your understanding of the customer.

Here's how. First, you have to figure out the group of customers that you want to sell to. Then, you have to develop an interview guide, which is a list of questions: why current products don't meet their needs, what an ideal product would look like, how they decide among competing vendors, and where they perceive an unmet need...