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Tim Berry

early bplans

True Story: How Bplans.com Started in 1995

by Tim Berry on February 2, 2012

January of 1995. Few people knew of the Internet, Mozilla, and the world-wide web. The so-called “Internet” had existed for years, but seemed to the rest of us (anybody outside of a few spook havens and ivory towers) like a nerdy background utility for emails.  And I started bplans.com.

I hope you’ve noticed big changes at bplans.com lately: more information, more tutorials, and better organized, making what you’re looking for easier to find. And especially a new membership group. I hope it shows because we’ve put a lot of effort into it.

As part of the recent boom, the team asked me for stories of the so-called old days. When, how, and why did bplans.com get started. So here we go. Let’s call this a collection of loosely related stories:

  1. A friend came by my office and showed me Mozilla, the first web browser, and the world-wide web. It knocked my socks off. I’d been active in Compuserve and its competition, but here was the whole new world. I was hooked.
  2. I immediately registered a few obvious domain names. Businessplan.com had already been registered, but bplans.com was, so I registered it.
  3. I did the earliest bplans.com sites myself, in my spare time, while running a company growing about 50% per year. In 1997 we hired an NYU undergrad to create a better bplans.com site, focusing on business planning and especially publishing sample plans. He worked for us remotely from New York. He’s now in his middle 30s, has become known for his success as CTO of Huffington Post and as of this month as founder of rebelmouse.com. He created a beautiful site very quickly. Within a couple of months it was getting national awards. And yes, that’s my son Paul.

From the beginning, bplans.com was always intended to be a resource site, offering free information. We did the software selling and support business at paloalto.com and gave people free content at bplans.com.  I’m not saying it was all generous and altruistic, because from the beginning – and still today – the smart people browsing at bplans figured it was dumb to not spend $99 (or less) on the software behind it. But I am saying it was all free, and we’ve kept it that way.

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5 Quick and Easy Info Sources About Angel Investment

by Tim Berry on January 25, 2012

If you’re looking for angel investors, then I have a resource list for you. This is a tiny fraction of good resources, more a “start-here” list than a good list.

  1. Start with gust.com’s knowledge section. Gust.com (pronounced like a gust of wind) is a platform for angel investment, grouping together several hundred angel investor groups and thousands of angel investors. The knowledge section there includes a great collection of useful short videos from experts, and a blog (on which I’m proud to say I post often). And gust.com is free, by the way, at least free for you and me. Some investors — but a small minority of them — pay.
  2. Look at the angel investment category on my Planning Startups Stories blog. I’ve been posting there since 2007, and perhaps more relevant to this list, since I joined an angel investment group in 2009.
  3. Look at Angel List, and then do a web search for blog posts and articles about Angel List.
  4. Get into quora’s section on angel investors. Great questions, great answers.
  5. And of course, look here too, on bplans.com. Don’t assume last is least.

And keep this in mind, as you’re looking: angel investment works for a small percentage of good companies that are not just interesting businesses, but also interesting businesses to outside investors. Read up on what angel investors invest in, then take a good look at your business, and ask yourself whether it fits that mold. Be honest with yourself when you answer.

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My 10 Most-Read Posts of 2011

by Tim Berry on January 10, 2012

While I’m happy to post here once a week, I’m posting much more frequently over at my main blog, Planning Startups Stories, which is also hosted on bplans.com. As of the end of 2011 I thought it might be useful to post here about my most read posts over there.  These are the most-read posts on that blog for 2011. They are in order of traffic, page views, which isn’t the same as quality, but still, what better measure is there? . Links into certain pages affect these results. So here are the 10 favorite posts, based on page views:

  1. 8 factors that make a good business plan. A 2009 post that’s withstood the test of time; I still like it.
  2. 10 traits of successful entrepreneurs. This is another 2009 post. On this one I have mixed feelings, to be honest; I think entrepreneurs are all different, and have few traits in common. I’d be happy to hear what you think.
  3. Read this before getting an MBA degree. Behind the scenes, one of my daughters was thinking about it, and I wrote this for her. I wanted her to do it, she decided not to; so much for my persuasiveness.
  4. 3 stories your business strategy depends on. I like this as a good strategy summary for the rest of us. Not academic at all.
  5. Read this before hiring a coach or consultant. My skepticism shows up on this one. Watch out for shark-filled waters.
  6. 5 Non-traditional ways to get startup money. This is a good list and a good reminder that it isn’t all about angel investors or venture capital.
  7. My recommendation about your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Which begins with the reminder that it’s publishing, not private.
  8. 10 lessons learned in 22 years of bootstrapping. This is my personal favorite for this list. I just reposted it here two days ago.
  9. Business planning isn’t about pages. This one is a bit of a rant.
  10. Angels vs. VCs on business pitches. Too often we lump these categories together, as if they all want the same thing. They don’t.

My readership on that blog and this one has grown again this year, and I thank you for that. Page views and readers make that worth it to me. Thank you. And may you have a happy, healthy, safe, and personally profitable new year.

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plan vs. actual

New Year’s Reflections: Business Plans Are Always Wrong

by Tim Berry on December 29, 2011

I wrote a post with this title more than four years ago. Today, a good day for reflection and looking back as we welcome a new year, I want to revisit the basic truth in the title of this post, and point out what that really means.

Out of Bounds

from istockphoto.com

Why are plans always wrong? Because they predict the future, and we’re human. We humans suck at predicting the future.

Paradox: nonetheless, planning is vital. Planning means starting with the plan and then tracking, reviewing progress, watching plan vs. actual results, correcting the course without losing sight of the long-term destination.

Planning is a process, like walking or steering, that involves constant corrections.

  • The plan sets a marker. Without it we can’t track how we were wrong, in what direction, and when, and with what assumptions.
  • Use this marker to manage the constant conflict between short-term problems and long-term goals. You don’t just implement a plan, no matter what. You work that plan. Use it to maintain your vision of progress towards the horizon, while dealing with the everyday problems, putting out fires.
  • So the plan may be wrong, but the planning process is vital.

    plan vs. actual

    from istockphoto.com

The truth is that forecasting is hard. Nobody likes forecasting. But one thing harder than forecasting is trying to run a business without a forecast.

A business plan is normally full of holes, but you fill them, after the fact, with the management that follows. That’s what turns planning into management.

Good planning is nine parts implementation for every one part strategy.

 

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Here’s Why Good Business Planning Takes Hours, not Months

by Tim Berry on December 21, 2011

Marine Institute Ireland, Strategic_Planning_S...

Image via Wikipedia

One of the biggest barriers to better business planning is the horribly mistaken and disappointedly common myth that develop a business plan takes months. That’s just wrong. And harmful, too, because it pushes away people who could use planning, but don’t because it takes too much effort. They think.

In the real world, where good managers include planning process in management, and use it to steer their companies, good business planning takes hours, not months. Here’s why:

  1. Planning is about results, not documents.
  2. The plan is what’s going to happen, and when, by whom, and how much; not a document. Form follows function.
  3. A good annual SWOT meeting (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) takes an hour or so.
  4. Thinking about strategy is always and often. Writing it down in bullet points takes a few minutes a month.
  5. Maintaining milestones, responsibilities, assignments, deadlines, metrics, and who does what is part of every manager’s job, is management, not plan development. It’s not separate work. It takes a serious commitment of not just time but also effort, honesty, communication … but putting it into the plan takes regular minutes, committed often, in hours (at most), not months.
  6. Keeping your financial projections up to date with actual results, and adjusting them regularly, isn’t a matter of months, just hours.

Think of it like physical fitness, which is a good analogy, because good planning process is management fitness: physical fitness takes minutes, regularly, over a long time. Hours, not months.

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Book review cover shot

Book Review: Unlocking Your Entrepreneurial Potential

by Tim Berry on December 13, 2011

Are you looking to build your own business? Go out on your own? Sadly, we tend to overemphasize the high-end process of developing a plan and then getting investment, while the vast majority of real businesses are self funded.

I saw a Wells Fargo study that concluded the average cost of a startup is $10,000. People don’t always realize that even angel investment, and much less venture capital, are options for a very small minority of real startups.

What I like best about Tim McEneny’s new book Unlocking Your Entrepreneurial Potential is in it’s subtitle:

Marketing, money, and management strategies for the self-funded entrepreneur.

The emphasis there is mine: “for the self-funded entrepreneur.” That’s a very important distinction to make. While book after book details how to develop a startup using the plan and pitch and get investment motif – which is rare – relatively few focus on self funding, alias, bootstrapping, which is the way most of us do it.

Tim covers all the bases, from the mind set at the beginning, through preparation, planning, launch, reaching break-even, and profitability, even, at the end, selling the company.

My favorite detail is a collection of what Tim calls “takeaways,” more than 50 of them, short and sweet and well positioned. They are highlights, set aside graphically, adding interest and summarizing. For example:

  • Take-away #12: Always have a Plan B in your hip pocket. The assumptions in a business plan will prove to be wrong.
  • Take-away #22: You can’t take back your words (or e-mails). Reacting emotionally simply isn’t worth it.
  • Take-away #37: Simply stated, get the money in the door fast and part with it slowly. Maximize cash flow whenever possible.
  • Take-away $46: Obsolete your own product or service before someone else does.

Good work. A good book.

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tim head shot

VC Money: If You Don’t Need it, Don’t Accept it

by Tim Berry on December 7, 2011

I like this excellent 3-minute video by Paul Kedrosky, venture capitalist, thinker, and Kauffman fellow. Here’s a summary:

In “Money Game,” Kedrosky breaks down the various methods that entrepreneurs use to raise capital for new ventures, as well as the benefits–and hazards–tied to each. While entrepreneurs’ greatest source of capital is personal savings, Kedrosky says in the video, the second most common type of new business financing is credit cards. He goes on to explain that, despite getting most of the attention, venture capital money is not a common source of funding for startups—and perhaps more importantly, if you don’t need VC money, not to take it.

If for any reason you don’t see the video here, you can click here for the original posted on the Kauffman foundation site at entrepreneurship.org

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tim head shot

Bplans … But You’re Asking the Wrong Question…

by Tim Berry on November 30, 2011

They keep coming … a steady flow …

  • How do I write a business plan this?
  • …or that?
  • …or the next thing.
  • How do I do a business plan for [type of business]?

We’ve introduced a new question-and-answer feature here at bplans.com. I love the underlying idea: ask what you know, browse the questions, answer what you can when you know the answer. It’s not limited to so-called experts like it used to be; any member can offer an answer, and members vote answers up or down.

But I can’t resist taking this space here to answer all those repeated questions asking how to write a business plan for some specific type of business:

Although every business plan is unique, the development process is about the same for most. Regardless of the content of the plan, the steps you take to develop one, the topics you cover, the outlines, projections, and components of a plan, are similar across all industries and all plans. There’s no set starting or ending point, and no specific sequence either. The end result of a good plan is a series of related components: strategy, milestones, projections, responsibilities, and so forth. It doesn’t really matter what order you go; you start anywhere, and get started. And you’re circle back often, working through the different pieces, as you discover that what you decide for one element affects some of the others. it’s the content that’s unique, not the process.

And there’s also a lot of questions related to finding “the” business plan for a specific type of business. This is usually about sample plans, because many people take the existence of hundreds of sample business plans as an indication that there is “a” business plan for each type of business. Here too, the underlying truth is that every business plan is unique. And sample plans are just for use as examples, to show people what a finished plan looks like; they are not to be re-used as “the” plan for some other business.

Here’s my answer for all of those “where do I find ‘the‘ plan” questions:

I understand what you’re after. You want to do as well as you can, to end up with the best possible business plan. And it’s natural to ask to find a business plan for this business or that business. But the truth is that no two pizza restaurants are alike. No two dry cleaners, or butchers, or bakers, or candlestick makers are alike. What their business plans have in common is likely to be what kind of information is included, and how is it presented. A real business plan from one doesn’t serve the other as anything more than a good example and food for thought. Even if you found an exact match for your business, it would still have a different time and place, resources, owner objectives and preferences, strategy, customer, and resources. You’d still want to develop your own plan. The example would be useful, but as only that: an example. So don’t worry that much about matching the sample plan to your business. Use the sample plan browser, find something in the same general area, get an idea of what was included, and think about why. Then do your own plan.

I hope that helps.

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Visual Marketing is a Visual Book Full of Useful Tips and Ideas

by Tim Berry on November 16, 2011

Visual MarketingI’ve been traveling and was delighted to discover Visual Marketing on my desk waiting for me when I returned to my office. It’s a new book full of tips and suggestions, by Anita Campbell and David Langton.

This book matches the visual marketing theme with a great visual physical presence. Page after page, tip after tip, it opens up to the image taking most of the left page and the related content on the right page. In the example here, talking about trade show displays, you can see the illustration on the right spread. Although you don’t see it in the picture, the left side has “How it Works” and additional tips.

Anita is the small business guru who started and runs the Small Business Trends blog, probably the best and best known small business blog in the business (disclosure: I post on that blog and Anita is a friend). She’s a true small business expert. And turns up as the number one small business expert worldwide according to this Klout.com listing. David Langton is a well known and successful designer, co-founder of the New York design firm Langton Cherubino Group.

This is a must-have book for anybody who owns a business, is thinking about owning one, or deals with marketing or graphics for business. It’s full of practical tips and ideas you can use. Here are some more examples:

(Images: from SmallBizTrends.com, my iPhone, tabulacreative.com)

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Big Mistake: Not Reviewing Business Plan Assumptions

by Tim Berry on November 9, 2011

FoundationsOne of the best principles of business planning is that it’s built on assumptions, and assumptions change. So one of the best ways to watch your plan is to list your assumptions where you can see them, and review them regularly.

Not understanding assumptions is one of the most common mistakes in business planning.

Your plan is necessarily full of sensitive assumptions. Early sales, growth rates, costs, traffic, conversions, pay-per-click costs, clicks, leads, closes, personnel, assembly output, productivity, important hires.

We’re not talking theory here, but planning in the real world, out in the front lines. I knew two partners who planned a fast foods business based on one location, then actually started in a very different location. Their plan had to change substantially.

  • Is your sales forecast based on current conditions in today’s market? How might that change?
  • What if your product release is late; do your sales and cost assumptions change?
    Were you going to resell goods made in China? Does that plan change after widespread news of problems with products manufactured in China?
  • What if that one co-founder who was going to leave her job on startup decided not to?

Part of the planning process ought to be making assumptions clear and up front, where you won’t forget them. Planning means reviewing assumptions too, regularly, and noting when they’ve changed.

And when do you change your plan? When your assumptions have changed, your plan should change with them.

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