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I am building my business plan and am getting close to completion (well, for the first iteration, you know how things change!)

Should I be including my resume in my business plan? I have started four companies before (which I still run); however most of them are fairly small, part-time endeavors. I'm imagining I need to significantly alter my resume for a plan looking for funding when compared to say, applying for a job somewhere.

I guess I'm wondering if this is required and if so, what kinds of things should I put on there? I've seen some negative posts about having an MBA (which I have), so should I exclude that from it?

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Who is the business plan for? – Joel Spolsky♦ Apr 15 '11 at 2:42
It's for a biz plan competition actually, I was just picked as a semifinalist. It's not really clear if it should be included or not. It says: Appendices: This is where resumes of all team members belong. May include names and phone numbers of personal and professional references, industry consultants, surveys, relevant journal and magazine articles, background on the competition, trade show dates, supplier information, and license agreements. – Nick Apr 15 '11 at 2:46
As long as it doesn't count toward that page count. If it does -- don't. – Joseph Barisonzi Apr 15 '11 at 15:30

2 Answers

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It's traditional to include a biography, but not necessarily a full resume. This might be the kind of thing you would see on the "About the Management" page of any corporate website: a picture and a narrative description of all the relevant things you have done and possibly your main educational accomplishments.

I don't see any reason to leave off an MBA. It's still an accomplishment, even if you didn't learn a single thing useful to business!

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I am not sure whether you need to include a formal resume in your business plan. But it does not harm, of course. Nevertheless, expressing the fact about WHO is behind the whole undertaking is extremely important. If it's a first round with your investors, be prepared that nobody actually reads your plan document. If they do, then only the first 1-2 chapters. I suggest you to include few clips about yourself into the executive summary and devote a chapter to this topic.

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