Posts Tagged ‘Business Plan’
6 Strategies to Build Traction and Validate Your Plan
As an advisor to many new venture founders, I often hear their frustration at being told by investors “I love your idea, but come back when you have more traction.” As a member of an angel investment group, I have to admit this is probably the most common rejection we issue. The intent is to…
Read More10 Business Plan Myths That Hurt Your Business
The need for good business planning is as strong as ever, and the potential benefits are as important as ever. Every business owner ought to have a business plan. But the best strategies for business planning are different than they used to be. And these 10 pervasive business plan myths get in the way, much…
Read MoreBusiness Plan Events and Why They Matter
(Note: I posted this earlier this week on the SBA Industry Word blog. It’s reposted here for your convenience.) What do you think of when you hear the phrase “business plan?” Does that bring to mind a formal document that starts with a summary and includes modules describing your business’s products, market, strategy, team, and essential…
Read More22 Good Reasons to Write a Business Plan
Question: What are some of the main arguments for writing a business plan? Here are 20 good reasons to write a business plan. Please note, however, that a business plan is not necessarily a traditional formal business plan. It ought to be a LEAN BUSINESS PLAN that gets reviewed and revised often. It ought not to be…
Read MoreTake These 3 Funding Myths with a Grain of Salt
Funding your business isn’t difficult, but acting on poor advice makes the process unnecessarily challenging. Your friends and family will support your vision, but there’s no guarantee they understand what it takes to fund a business. To get funded, you need to distinguish the difference between encouragement and business advice. Identifying encouragement vs. advice When…
Read MoreStarting a Business in 2018: Preparation and Pointers
At the close of 2017, countless people will take a look back at the year behind them and begin making resolutions for the year ahead. For some, that means leaving their old job behind and going into business for themselves, and for others it means starting a gig on the side. For others, still, it…
Read MoreThinking of Opening a Restaurant? Map Out Your Vision
Opening a new restaurant is a peculiar mix of exciting and daunting. The industry is not exactly the birthplace of many get-rich-quick success stories: a lot of restaurants fail within the first year of doing business. This usually happens due to lack of planning. Then again, if you manage to overcome the challenges on the…
Read More10 Most Common High Tech Business Plan Fails
I was asked about high-tech business plan fails on Quora recently. So this isn’t about lean plans for all business owners, but just the business plans submitted for angel investment and business plan competitions. I read about 100 of those business plans per year. So here’s my list of high-tech business plan fails: Naive profits. Drives me…
Read More5 Tips for Writing a Business Plan
Writing a business plan is the first step in starting a business after you decide you are going to do it. It is tedious, not really the fun part, but it is one of the most important steps. It can be so tempting to just jump in and do the business plan later, or to…
Read MorePlease Map Your Goal and USE That Map!
It’s time to speak of some sort of business plan. As a professional investor in early stage companies, I have long discounted long, detailed business plans in favor of a concise “executive summary” followed by a believable spreadsheet-based financial forecast projecting three to five years into the future. Yes, everything does change between drafting that…
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