Business Plans Need To Respect Readers’ Intelligence and Value Their Time

A reader with a business plan for a wave energy device asks: In all honesty, do you think that my language is ”too slippery” and as such may creates more trouble than it’s worth in trying to convey?

Good question.  I’ve always believed that business plans that go on at length about the problem, while offering vague language on the solution (“we’ll capture a part of the sun’s power,” or what-not) tend to insult the intelligence and knowledge level of the serious reader.  I would assume that the reader knows a) we have a serious environmental challenge vis-à-vis energy and the environment, b) that there exists the potential to harness, cost-effectively, sufficient power in the form of solar, wind, hydro, biomass, geothermal, etc., and c) that this potential is getting more real each day.

At some level, your solution is going to compete against solar PV (currently at $0.056/kWh wholesale), and wind (currently at $0.02).  How do you propose to deal with that?  Even in ideal conditions for you, e.g., ocean platform drilling rigs or locations close to shorelines that are currently on bunker-fuel generators, your solution competes against a myriad of other devices that extract the energy from waves or ocean currents. Coincidentally, I just wrote about one this morning.  If you search the site, you’ll find dozens of others.

A reader with the potential to make an investment in this arena needs to see some level of competitive differentiation based on something: technology, people, connections, existing contracts, etc.  He needs a reason to believe that you’re better and smarter than all these other players.

Hope that helps.