Before you begin, talk with investors and entrepreneurs. Even those who would not back you financially could have valuable ideas, according to Dyan Machan of Smart Money. And talk with prospective customers to see if your idea needs fine tuning.

• Present your plan to a carefully selected audience. Focus on one industry or one problem.
• Keep it interesting. Start with a well-designed first page and don’t let your listeners get bored.
• Be realistic. Oversized income projections will make you less believable. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
• Recognize your competition. Take into account forces that will compete with your product or service.
• Avoid repeating the same idea or fact in different forms. Use colorful language and imagery to describe your venture.
• Discuss your ideas and goals in simple, specific terms that almost anyone would understand. In INC., California business consultant Akira Hirai recommends avoiding a lot of jargon.
• Make certain that every fact about your industry, the market and competitors is accurate. Be sure any chart in your plan is consistent with other material.
• Before presenting the business plan, have an experienced person check it for any mistake or inconsistency.
• Create a plan that expresses your idea and your personality. It should be one that states your case, that you are comfortable with, and that you can discuss.

In his new book, Just Listen, he provides techniques for getting through to others at every level. He says the key to better communication is, first, to make the other person “feel felt.” When they believe they are understood, they will become more open to what you have to say.

Goulston says nearly every breakthrough that people have with one another is preceded by not merely talking to each other but beginning to truly listen and hear what the other has to say. It is only at that point that they realize they may have misunderstood each other when they were speaking before.

He tells of an insurance company whose franchisees were told they should begin to sell financial instruments through a new program. Yet, every explanation of the program was met with, “Yes, but.”

The franchisees argued that selling financially “risky” products would turn everything they did for their customers upside down. “Previously, they had only sold auto, home, property and casualty policies.

The only thing that eliminated their anxiety was listening. When they were trained to listen without an agenda and ask only questions about what was going on, things changed.

An interesting thing happens when people admit they are scared. At that moment, says Goulston, not only do they physically relax, they can actually become realigned with each other.