Up and Running Blog

Plan vs. Presentation vs. Parts of Both

by Tim Berry on April 14, 2009

In the rarefied air of the high-tech venture-capital-seeking new venture, these days the presentation–alias slide deck, PowerPoint, keynote or “the pitch”–is indispensable. What’s weird, though, is that some people talk as if the presentation replaces a business plan.

That’s sort of dumb, don’t you think? Doing a presentation without having first done a plan? How can you build a pitch without knowing, among other things, how much money you think you need and what you want to spend it on? Or how many people you need and what they need to be doing? Or how much reachable market you project, or the major milestones?

A plan is not just another sales document. It’s a plan. It’s what determines what’s in the sales document.

And it doesn’t have to be a document. It lives on your computer. The document happens to be one of the various outputs of the plan.

About Tim Berry

Tim Berry

Tim Berry is the founder of Palo Alto Software, a co-founder of Borland International, and a recognized expert in business planning. Tim is the originator of plan-as-you-go business planning. He has an MBA from Stanford and degrees with honors from the University of Oregon and the University of Notre Dame. Today, Tim dedicates most of his time to blogging, teaching, and evangelizing for business planning. His full biography is available on his blog.

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Tom Yoke April 14, 2009 at 3:43 pm

If you liked this article, you’ll love Confessions of an Entrepreneur at hppt://entrepreneurconfessions.blogspot.com

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