Companies started by entrepreneurs who had used formal business plans to attract investment were on the whole as profitable in their first year as were companies started by entrepreneurs who had not produced such plans.

In surveys of entrepreneurs who have attempted without success to raise sufficient capital, more than half of the respondents indicate that they have produced a formal business plan.

Among the entrepreneurs surveyed, those who did not produce formal business plans sought and received a much larger proportion of their capital from investors with whom they had a long-standing business relationship.

The entrepreneurs surveyed who did not produce a formal business plan spent nearly as much time doing preparatory research and planning as the entrepreneurs who produced plans.

The entrepreneurs who produced business plans generally reported later that the process of writing the plan had increased their confidence that their company would succeed.