Bill Payne had a nice post on gust.com late last month titled Using your business plan, in which he lists the different forms or outputs people confuse with a business plan and sets each one into the proper use context. He defines the elevator pitch, video pitch, executive summary, PowerPoint presentation, and business plan as [...]
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I’m in my business plan marathon season again. This happens every April as I read business plans for my angel investment group in Oregon and for business plan competitions held this month by University of Oregon, Rice University, University of Texas, and the University of Notre Dame. I want to make it clear, first, that I [...]
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People are always asking for a list of fundamentals, a checklist they can use to start their own businesses. From your business type to your business model to your physical location, there are so many variables it’s not easy to come up with a list that will work for everybody. The key, regardless of what [...]
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Business planning is about determining your business future. Where do you want your business to go? Where should it be in three years? What are the steps to get there? Wouldn’t it be great if you had someone who could help you through the hard parts of business planning? Maybe give you a guiding hand [...]
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Every year, I spend a lot of time reading and judging business plans for business plan competitions. I have read some great plans and some not-so-great plans, but that is how it always turns out in any business plan competition. I thought it might be useful to talk about the most common deficiencies that have [...]
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What’s the difference between a marketing plan and a business plan? Doesn’t a business plan include a marketing plan? Why would anybody do one without the other? Good questions, and since I get them a lot, I decided to answer them here: A business plan covers the entire business, including overall strategy, financial plans, target [...]
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I’m amazed how often I still get emails asking me to either write a business plan or recommend a business plan writer for somebody who has a great idea and mistakenly thinks having a business plan done for them, by a supposed expert, will sell that idea to investors. Sorry, it just isn’t so. Your [...]
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Having just completed my spring business plan season — three big business plan contests and our angel group investment — I think it’s a good time to poke some holes in several damaging and far-too-common myths about startups.
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I was happy to pick up this quick piece from Jeff Bezos last month on Business Insider. Jeff, founder of Amazon.com, ought to know. In Business Insider’s Instant MBA series, Jeff says Business Plans Are Important and Necessary. He says it’s not about being right and guessing the future correctly. It’s about guiding your business [...]
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I stumbled on this short video from ABC with Susan Solovic talking about the business plan for starting a new business. It’s a few months old now, but it’s also a really good summary of why and how you want to have a business plan for a startup, and what that plan should include. If [...]
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