Entrepreneurs who write business plans are twice as likely to grow their businesses, according to a new survey by Palo Alto Software reported by AOL Small Business.

Having a business plan doubled a company's chances of obtaining investment capital -- 36 percent of companies with plans received money, compared to 18 percent without one. Similarly, those that applied for loans with business plans were twice as likely to get them.

Businesses are also more likely to grow overall with a written road map. Sixty-four percent of entrepreneurs who used business plans experienced growth, while only 43 percent grew without plans.

"While I'm not a big fan of surveys, this one is pretty straightforward, and I like the results," Palo Alto founder Tim Berry wrote in a blog post about the results.

Palo Alto Software, a Eugene, Ore.-based firm that makes the popular Business Plan Pro software, enlisted nearly 3,000 of its customers for the survey. The results were verified by the University of Oregon Department of Economics.