business plan writer job description

Business Plan Consultant Job Description Template

A business plan consultant provides a financial, marketing, and operational roadmap to align stakeholders and help your business achieve its goals.

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Business plans are the North Star for early-stage businesses, used as a reference point when making major business decisions, collateral when securing a new fundraising round, and as an introduction to the business and its goals when recruiting new key hires.

While business plan templates can be found online, these ready-made guides can drive entrepreneurs and their businesses away from what they actually need to achieve. A top business plan consultant will construct a custom plan that takes into account the specifics of your business, or review and pressure-test an existing plan while taking into account the latest industry trends.

Business Plan Consultant - Job Description and Ad Template

Copy this template, and modify it as your own:

Company Introduction

{{Write a short and catchy paragraph about your company. Provide information about the company’s culture, perks, and benefits. Mention office hours, remote working possibilities, and anything else that makes your company interesting.}}

Job Description

A business plan consultant provides strategic direction by {{creating or methodically pressure-testing and refining}} a company’s business plan, using an understanding of the company’s core operations, competitive advantages, and goals to provide direction on how to structure, run, and grow the business.

The ideal candidate will have some experience in running or advising early stage businesses, combining the analytical abilities of a CFA charterholder with the broad vision of a CEO to provide a roadmap to growth.

Responsibilities

• Develop an understanding of the existing business (including products/services, customers, competitors, the overall market and trends) through careful research and analysis
• Understand how major stakeholders are thinking about near-term growth, generally and in reference to specific growth initiatives, through interviews with these stakeholders
• Build a detailed financial analysis showing all of the assumptions, drivers, and financial statements for the next 3 - 5 years, accounting for a conservative, base, and aggressive case
• Conduct a total addressable market analysis for the business’ core market, assess major industry trends affecting the business, and describe what impact these trends may have on the business
• Review research reports and conduct primary research to hone in on ideal buyer type and assess customer demand for the company’s existing products and services
• Map out direct and indirect competitors, including potential future competitors, for existing and potential revenue channels
• Define a go-to-market strategy, including testing out potential marketing channels (if applicable)
• Review compensation plans and organizational structure to align incentives and ensure the health of the organization in the long-run

Skills and Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, operations, research, statistics, math, economics, or related analytical discipline preferred
• Financial management experience with planning, forecasting, and business analysis; prior experience as an advisor to or executive at an early-stage company a plus
• Advanced Excel proficiency. 3+ years of practical experience of using Excel for building and maintaining financial models
• Proficiency with analytical and presentation tools {{(Excel pivot tables, SQL queries, graphing, PowerPoint)}}
• Experience within {{preferred industry}}
• A natural curiosity and a “big picture” mentality
• Experience conducting market research, including analyzing and synthesizing research reports and conducting primary research
• An understanding of marketing channels and go-to-market strategies
• Excellent spoken and written communication; comfort reaching out to and interviewing the company’s management, employees, and customer base

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Business Plan Consultants: Who They Are and How They Create Value

How to hire business plan consultants.

Business plan consultants have the industry knowledge and expertise to develop a business plan that maximizes your company’s potential and attracts investors. This guide to hiring business plan experts offers insight into best practices, skill requirements, job description tips, and interview questions and answers to help you identify the best candidate for your needs.

Hire a Top Business Plan Consultant Now

Toptal is a marketplace for top business plan consultants and experts. Top companies and startups hire freelance business plan consultants from Toptal for their mission critical projects.

Aleksey N. Krylov, CFA

Aleksey served in CFO roles of public and VC-backed private companies. As an investor, he contributed to 25+ private equity deals that have deployed $500 million. He has advised 50+ clients on raising $1.6 billion in equity in the healthcare, consumer, media, software, energy, and industrial sectors. Aleksey enjoys working with officers of early-stage and mature small-cap firms, and he freelances because it exposes him to a wide range of companies.

Josh Chapman

Josh is an investment banker turned VC who lives in Denver, CO. At Morgan Stanley, he covered the world's top hedge funds and sold over $5 billion in IPOs for companies like Alibaba, LendingClub, GrubHub, and more. He also has experience in M&A, startup fundraising, and as a founder. Currently, Josh is one of the managing partners of Konvoy Ventures, a VC firm focused on esports and video gaming.

Gary Calnan

Gary is a serial entrepreneur with CEO and CFO experience. Before co-founding an aerospace startup in 2017, Gary was the director of finance at a $120 million revenue SaaS company, where he was responsible for the financial management of multiple departments and supported three mergers. Gary leverages his unique blend of finance and entrepreneurial experience across early and growth-stage businesses to add value to Toptal clients.

Marc Howland

Marc is a Harvard Business School graduate with honors, a former investment banker from Goldman Sachs, and private equity investor at The Carlyle Group. He has helped execute more than $70 billion worth of global M&A and financing transactions in the tech, media, telecom, infrastructure and sports facility finance markets. Marc enjoys freelancing to contribute his knowledge and skills to others while working on his own early-stage ventures.

Travis Borden

Travis was part of the founding team at Moelis & Co., a $2.5 billion global investment bank, and has 18 years of experience advising clients on $40+ billion of M&A, capital raising, and restructuring transactions. In 2015, he founded a socially responsible advisory firm, Keene Advisors, named "Best for the World" 2017-2019. Travis joined Toptal to expand his network and share his expertise advising companies from startups to Fortune 500 firms.

Andy Vietor

Andy was recognized twice as an All-Star Analyst by the Wall Street Journal. He has been a strategist, operating executive, financier, and top-ranked industry analyst. As a freelancer, Andy advises a range of companies—from early-stage and middle-market to large caps—delivering customized solutions including effective investor presentations, dynamic financial models, and project finance structuring.

Bertrand Deleuse

Bertrand is a 25-year finance veteran with a true 360 experience, honed as an investment banker, venture advisor, project developer, CFO, and expert witness consultant in international arbitrations. He has advised and partnered on over 100 transactions and investment initiatives totaling over $16 billion. Bertrand is a seasoned problem solver and decision-maker with expert facilitation skills. Bertrand advises on M&A, corporate development, venture growth, project development, and financing.

Olivia Passoni

Olivia has over a decade of advisory experience, specializing in valuation, financial and business planning, M&A, capital raising, and due diligence. She has advised business owners globally on financial planning and strategy optimization during the fundraising and exit process. Olivia also works with investors for portfolio valuation work, the development of fund models, and due diligence. She is a Certified Valuation Analyst and is specialized in early-stage valuations.

Andrew Grigolyunovich, CFA, CFM

Andrew ranked fifth at the 2017 Financial Modeling World Championships. He served as CFO for Latvia’s leading retailer for seven years, navigating the firm through the global financial crisis and executing a turnaround that led to profitability and international expansion. He went on to freelance consulting, growing his client base to 250+ in 17 countries. Andrew joined Toptal to work with clients on FP&A, financial modeling, and M&A.

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Table of Contents

Business writer job responsibilities, business writer job requirements, salary ranges for business writers, composing a solid business writer job ad according to the preferred candidate type, similar roles to business writer, get more business writer job descriptions inspiration, pre-employment testing is difficult—you can make it easy, hire the top 1% fast with workello’s pre-hire assessments, business writer job description template.

[Name of the company] is hiring an experienced, highly motivated Business Writer. Your primary duties will be determining the writing objectives via thorough research and creating business plans and proposals that align with them. Apart from excellent research and writing skills, you will be required to translate the key parameters and metrics into actionable insights that will support us in improving our business and achieving our goals.

You must write in a professional voice without jargon and develop a suitable tone and structure that will comply with the company’s quality standards. 

• Composing financial reports, business proposals, strategic plans, and other types of written business materials
• Collaborating with executives and managers to brainstorm writing topics and objectives
• Analyzing the stock market, current local and world economic trends, and other relevant business aspects to deliver accurate information to readers
• Updating the existing reports according to new research and changing protocol
• Receiving feedback from your seniors and making the necessary revisions
• Coming up with the ideas for page layouts and graphic images that will accompany the text
• Bachelor’s degree/Master degree in an associated field (English, Communications, Creative Writing, Journalism, etc.)
• At least three years of experience in business writing jobs
• Superb research, writing, and editing skills

Another assignment you should take up once you decide to hire a Business Writer is to determine the salary range for your new employee. The cost of hiring a Business Writer depends on their geographic location, industry expertise, previous experience in the role, type of content they’ll be creating, and other similar variables.

Here’s how much Business Writers earn per year in different U.S: cities according to Glassdoor :

Before you post your Business Writer job ad, it’s crucial to check whether it includes all the necessary details. It’s not enough to just copy and paste the template and post a job ad on a dozen different job boards. Incomplete and vague job descriptions will do more harm than good—they’ll attract applicants that aren’t suitable for the position you are offering. Qualified candidates get attracted by captivating descriptions that contain all vital pieces of information.

Here’s how you can write a solid job description and make it as specific as possible:

• Make sure the applicants understand what role you are hiring —Business Writers often get confused with Technical Writers. Technical Writers focus primarily on science, technology, and engineering and create documents like manuals, data sheets, and research papers. Business Writers, on the other hand, focus on reports, white papers, business cases, emails and letters, and bids and tenders. Ensure you specify the types of deliverables you expect a new hire to deliver, to avoid confusion.
• Instructional business writing—memos, guides, manuals
• Informational business writing—financial statements, reports, minutes of meetings
• Persuasive business writing—proposals, press releases, sales emails
• Transactional business writing—forms, letters, invoices, emails
• Write about the work conditions in your company —Besides explaining your values and work ethics, you can provide more information about the benefits you offer as an employer. The perks may include dental/vision/health insurance, paid days off, bonuses, occasional raises, retirement plans, and much more

If a Business Writer isn’t exactly what you’re looking for, check out the job description templates we offer and craft job ads for many similar roles in minutes:

• Legal Writer
• Insurance Writer
• Technical Writer
• Staff Writer
• Financial Writer
• Contract Writer
• Proposal Writer
• Instructional Writer
• Research Writer
• Assessment Writer
• Product Writer
• Catalog Writer
• Multimedia Writer
• Investment Writer
• Policy Writer
• Press Release Writer

Employment websites feature various job ads posted by successful companies that can serve as inspiration for you. If you want to see how lead business promote their companies’ vacancies  and values through their job descriptions, you can find many job description examples on:

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Before hiring a business plan writer.

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What to Prepare When Working With a Business Plan Writer

Posted january 25, 2023 by anthony st. clair.

The right business plan writer can turn your vision into a living roadmap for your business. One that convinces investors, helps you make decisions, and consistently grows. 

However, business plan writers can’t whip up a compelling plan from nothing. If you want to compare a business plan to a chef in the kitchen, your business plan writer can cook up an amazing meal. But they’ll need you to bring the ingredients and help out now and again.

As you get ready to work with a business plan writer, here are some things you’ll want to prepare and be prepared for—based on insights from our real-world, experienced LivePlan business plan writers .

1. A vision for your business

Whether you’re the primary shareholder, sole owner, or a good ole fashioned chief cook and dishwasher—you are ultimately the person who understands your enterprise better than anyone else. As such, your business plan needs to represent your vision for the business.

That’s not just a big-picture strategy either. When we talk about your vision, we’re talking about breaking that down into the real-world components of the business. That encompasses both your internal operations and external factors that you and your business plan need to take into account. 

This sort of info usually comes up during initial conversations and interviews. As you have your back-and-forth with the writer, sharing your own notes, research, or other information gives the writer helpful details so they better know how to help you with your plan.

2. Be willing to shift your focus

Whether you’re planning for a startup or strategizing a new phase of growth or expansion, business owners can easily agonize about the wrong things. “Fortunately, it’s easy to shift your attention to the right parts of your business and your plan,” says LivePlan business writer David Campbell.

“In my experience, the issue is not that clients agonize over specific things that are not a big deal,” he explains. “It is more so that they need to understand the importance of particular sections and spend more time thinking about them.”

David generally sees this with sections that can be crucial to secure buy-in and funding approval from an outside lender or investor. The sections he sees as most important for owners to focus on include the competitor analysis, such as competitive advantages, and showing that the management team has adequate experience.

“These sections tend to get glossed over by clients,” notes David, “though they are essential items to have nailed down to get funding.”

As you make your decision to work with a business plan writer, consider the parts of planning that have been the biggest struggle for you. That can help you focus on how you want to work together and get the most value from a plan writer.

3. Know your current funding situation, and what (if any) you are seeking

No matter what stage your revenue and profits are in, having accurate numbers, reasonable projections, and a comfort level for discussing them is crucial to your business plan working for you.

As you work with your business plan writer, they will have questions about your numbers, such as prior sales, overhead, revenue projections for next year or next quarter, and more. The better you can discuss your business’s current finances, the better your plan writer can help you articulate and show your numbers in the right way. 

Even if you don’t have that sort of financial data yet, you and your plan writer can still collaborate on realistic forecasts, using external benchmarks and public data. And if you are seeking funding, this groundwork helps establish a firm number to ask for that can be backed up by your plan.

4. Awareness of your competitors

Whatever your industry or niche, you have competitors . While it’s crucial to be aware of the strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities of your business—that understanding needs to extend far beyond your own business. 

Your business plan writer will want to talk with you about your competitors. How and where do you compete? Are there situations where you may even collaborate? In our rapidly changing business environment, what emerging technologies or industries are you keeping an eye on as potential disruptors, partners, or both?

“Many clients want to account for the deficiencies of their competitors,” notes David. “Sometimes it is so dramatic that they convince themselves they don’t have any competitors because none stack up to their product or service offerings.”

While it’s understandable that you want to showcase your business’s superiority, a potential investor will want to see that you understand both the positives and the negatives of your competitors. When you and your plan can communicate that you understand what similar businesses are doing well and where they can improve, then you put yourself and your company in a better light. You can come across as informed on your industry, aware of the competitive landscape, and mindful of the future and its impact on your plans and operations.

5. Descriptions of who is involved with your business

Investors, lenders, and partners understand that a business is only as good as the people who run it . They want to know your qualifications and expertise. They may even want to understand how you staff as well as who your management team is.

Your plan writer will want to know this too. Even if they primarily work with you, your plan writer may want to include the details, backgrounds, and accomplishments of your team and its key strategic partners and managers.

This will help communicate why your team is up for the job that your business plan envisions. Plus, if there are other roles you need to create or fill, you can work with your plan writer to show that you are aware of how your business will be scaling headcount accordingly.

6. The time and money you have personally invested 

When you work with a business plan writer, you talk through what you envision, and then the writer expands on it. Discussing business isn’t just about your team, employees, competitors, or suppliers though.

It’s also about you. Business owners and entrepreneurs can be prone to downplaying, or even forgetting to account for, their own sweat equity, time, and commitment to starting or growing the business.

“Talk about the money and time you have already put into the business,” explains David. “Whoever reviews your business plan, wants and needs to know that you have invested in the business.”

The more a potential investor or stakeholder understands, can relate to, and identifies with your commitment, the more that can inspire or persuade them to back your business too.

7. Dust off your big picture

Your business plan will likely have some crucial details, such as financial projections or details about certain plans or operations. Those are important. But your business plan is also an opportunity to dream big. In the ceaseless work of starting, running, or growing a business, it can be easy to lose sight of the big dream that made you want to start your business in the first place.

Your business plan brings you back to that big-picture moment. You can also look at it from a new perspective. Wherever you are now on your business journey, you can examine that big vision through the lens of more experience, knowledge, and direction.

While this work can prepare your business plan writer, it provides another benefit: It re-centers and re-inspires you too.

8. Be involved throughout the plan development process

A common myth of working with a business plan writer is that the business owner entrepreneur doesn’t need to provide any input or make decisions regarding their business models.

Yes, a savvy business plan writer can work with a high degree of independence, so you can take care of your own tasks. However, they’ll still need input from you throughout the business plan writing process, and that’s a good thing.

“It is not a passive process,” says David. “The reality is that it is vital to be as involved in the process as possible. This is important to ensure that the plan represents your vision. Plus, you can avoid being caught flatfooted when a lender or investor asks you a question about the business plan.”

When a client maintains input and involvement in the business planning process, they wind up with a stronger business plan, and they are more prepared to advocate for their vision and enterprise.

“The client must be engaged throughout the process and understand how their plan was built and what is inside it,” says David.

Treat your business plan writer like a partner

The better you prepare, the better your business plan writer can develop the right plan for you to start or evolve your operation. You and your plan writer can work as partners . They help you lay the groundwork for the living document that can guide your business and help you secure the resources you need to make your vision a reality.

“It’s not just submitting a form or doing basic inputs,” says David. “This is more like a consultation so you can get to the best on-paper version of the business.”

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Anthony St. Clair

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