ENTREPRENEURS AND OWNERS OF BUSINESSES AT ALL stages of growth know that effective business planning is critical to a company's long-term success and its ability to raise capital. As a result, much has been written by bankers, accountants, consultants and academicians on the preparation of a business plan. Yet it seems that the more information there is, the more confused people get about what a business plan should include. There's no one "right answer." A business plan should tell a compelling story, make an argument and conservatively predict the future, and companies have different stories to tell, different arguments to make and different futures to predict.

Business ...