Small businesses should not be submitting simple growth rates for loans or investments.
Rather, it should be a detailed approach on a business from the bottom up. My approach guides the business owner to review the beginning figures (validating either historic data or field researching start-up data), sales model, HR model, OpEx model, annual additional asset purchases, AR/AP frequency, and more.
Only when the business owner works through the details before being in front of a banker or investor does the confidence exudes at time of delivering the pitch/proposal to obtain additional business funds.