What are the experts saying about writing and developing a successful business plan? In this post, I will introduce you to two experts in the field of writing and reviewing business plans. You will have their background as well as links to their pages to learn more about them.
The first expert is Tim Berry. Tim Berry is known as a successful business plan writer and reviewer. He is the founder of Palo Alto Software, bplans.com and the co-founder of Borland International. He has an MBA from Stanford and has written numerous books and software for starting business plans. Guy Kawasaki uses him as a business plan expert (www.timberry.com). The Huffington Post (2014) found that from 1982 to 1994, he consulted for Apple Computer's business planning. He also teaches business planning at the University of Oregon.
The second expert is Jim Blasingame. Jim Blasingame is the creator and host of The Small Business Advocate Show, which is a radio talk show for small businesses. He is also the founder of Small Business Network, Inc. He has written books for starting small businesses and Google ranked him number one for the small business experts in the world. He is known for his keynote speeches on how to start and compete in the business marketplace (Small Business Network, 2014).
So what do the experts say are critical and key components in a business plan? Guy Kawasaki (2007) found that strategy should be one's focus. You have to find out what you are doing better than everyone else. What makes you different. The business plan should have three qualities: 1. set priorities, 2. specifics, and 3. cash flow (Kawasaki, 2007). These items are key to any business plan because you have to know your goals, how much it is going to cost to achieve these goals, whose responsible for these goals, and you have to plan for a growth spurt within your company which will generate cash flow.
1. It must have real intellectual property
2. A product line, rather than just a single product.
3. Cost reduction
4. A team with connections
5. A brand and a customer base
6. Strong focus and differentiation
An investor needs to know that your product or service is worth their time and money. You are basically selling it to them so that they will invest in you. It has to be beneficial to both parties. If you cannot sell your product to an investor, then you cannot sell it to anyone else. This is where the importance of having you elevator pitch ready comes in. All of the elements and components listed are key to having a successful business plan that someone will want to hear and invest in!
Reference not included in links above:
Kawasaki, G. (2007). How to write a business plan: Ten questions with Tim Berry. Retrieved from http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/07/how-to-write-a-.html
