Tim Berry
Tim Berry is co-founder of Have Presence, founder and Chairman of Palo Alto Software, founder of bplans.com, and a co-founder of Borland International. He is author of books and software including LivePlan and Business Plan Pro, The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan, and Lean Business Planning, published by Motivational Press in 2015. He has a Stanford MBA degree and degrees with honors from the University of Oregon and the University of Notre Dame. He taught starting a business at the University of Oregon for 11 years.
Latest
How Do I Make a Good Pitch Deck for Investors?
Don’t confuse the two: A pitch to be read must be very different from a pitch that supports a live presentation with you talking. Different media, different styles.
When Should a Small Business Focus on Growth over Profits?
Profits are today, and growth is tomorrow. You need today assured by cash flow, but don’t sacrifice more today than you have to when you pay for it with tomorrow. Find the right level.
Quick Quiz: What Do Investors Cite as the Common Cause of Failures?
What do venture capitalists and angel investors cite as the common cause of the failures in their portfolios? That’s a great question, which somebody posed in Quora. And as I write this post, it has several really interesting answers.
Startups and Business Owners: The “Have to Do” Factor is Infinite
Do you use what you “have to do” for your business as the constant recurring excuse for missing things that matter to people they love—soccer games, recitals, appointments, and so on?
No One Is Going to Pay You for Your Ideas
Untested ideas are like unwritten novels. All unwritten novels are brilliant—on the minds of would-be authors who didn’t write them.
When So-Called Experts Say Don’t Do a Business Plan…
Don’t do a long static formal business plan. Do a lean, just-big-enough business plan. Deal with it as a constantly-renewing latest version, with a shelf life of a few weeks at most.
Spot Quiz: What Percent of Small Business Owners Manage Cash Flow?
I’ll tell you what taught me to watch cash flow, always, and very carefully: the lack of it. It wasn’t two years at business school; it was a growth spurt (sales doubled) that sucked up all the cash and left me looking for a second and third mortgage to keep the business going. That’s something you don’t forget.
New Research on How to Motivate Your Employees
How to motivate employees? According to new research, messages from on high need to be more abstract and less details. And messages from immediate supervisors need to be more concrete. Here’s the summary.
3 Things Never to Tell an Entrepreneur About Her/His Spouse
I just read 7 Things Never to Tell Your Spouse About Business Finances, posted by Barry Molz on Amex OPEN forum. I like it. I like Barry, too, I’ve been on his podcast and I like his work. But his tone here makes me uncomfortable.
Reality Check on Crowdfunding
I’m seeing more and more marketing showing up about so-called crowd funding these days. Sorry, but no. Not yet. Reports of crowdfunding in the U.S. are, as of today, just wishful thinking.