What Is In It?

• The dehydrated business plan can be as short as five pages, where a full business plan can run to 40 pages or more. The dehydrated plan will introduce the business concept, outline why there is a competitive opportunity and show how the business plans to take advantage of that opportunity. It will include an outline of the marketing and financial plans for the company and a detailed description of the team involved in putting the company together.
  
  

Why Write One?

• A detailed business plan for a start-up company could take as many as 300 hours of work. If you are not doing this full time, it could be at least three months before it is ready. That represents time lost for your business idea and your market. If you need to get up and running quickly to take advantage of a competitive situation, the dehydrated business plan can be useful in focusing your ideas and kick-starting your company into action.
  
  

Why It Is Not Enough?

• Once the dehydrated plan is complete and you are on the way with your business idea, it is almost always essential to go on to write the full plan. It is usually impossible to get serious capital funding without a detailed business plan, and it is just plain good business practice to have a detailed road map of where you are going with your enterprise.
  
  

After the Fact

• Some companies and entrepreneurs write a dehydrated business plan after they have completed their full-length plan. In this case it acts like an expanded executive summary. It is a digestible way to introduce the company to possible new investors who might potentially want become involved, but who do not yet have the level of interest to read the full-length plan.