Many business plans, I say, are hard work to read.  By that I mean, it’s hard work for the investor.  They have to work hard to figure out what is the company really about.

That shouldn’t be the case.

The goal of the first paragraph is to encourage the reader to continue you on to the second paragraph and so forth.  Your introduction is a great opportunity to get your reader excited about your business.

Ask yourself, does your business plan do that?

Most times, I think the answer would be no.  What can you do to spruce it up?  Begin with the pain.  Ask yourself some of the following questions:

1.  What is the pain point that you’re really trying to solve?

2.  What is the unmet need out there in the marketplace?

3.  What does your customer have to go through in order to get done what they need?

4.  What doesn’t happen because your product or service is not available?

5.  How does this affect your customer emotionally?

6.  What type of financial pain does it cause your customer?

Hope you get the point.  Think of things in your customer’s eyes.  Look at it from their shoes.  Ask questions from a number of different angles.  That should give you all the material you need to help create a powerful opening paragraph.

Get your reader excited.  Make them feel the pain that your customers feel, and they’ll be emotionally involved from the start and be excited to read on with the rest of your business plan.