Renewable Energy Business Plans

I come across a great number of business plans each week, each soliciting investment in some aspect of clean technology — usually electric transportation or some form of renewable energy.  And in near every case, I find that a “second set of eyes” should review the text before it goes out to potential angel investors or venture capitalists. Almost without exception, I come across typos and grammatical errors that should be fixed — sometimes dozens of them. See my “25 Tips for Renewable Energy Businesses” for more on this.

I hope I can say this without offending anyone. At the base of it all, I’m really a professional writer by trade (direct mail copy-writing, blogging, research reports, etc.) and I know when I reread my own material I find outright errors — and, maybe more commonly, things that could be presented more clearly and professionally. (By the way, I don’t have these posts proofread, and I have no doubt that there are mistakes that get by; as a reader, I hope you won’t be shy about commenting when you come across errors.)

In addition, of course, business plan authors would be well-advised to request a second opinion on content: market trends analysis, sales and marketing plans, cash-flow analysis, etc.  I can tell instantly that many of the plans I see will never receive funding (or at least should never) due to a core misunderstanding of the marketplace. 

In any case, I’m happy to review any cleantech business plan with no cost or obligation, and provide high-level comment.