Air Net Planning The Game Plan - The Difference Between Small Business Success and Failure

It is an American dream to own a business. But sadly, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, only 1 in 5 businesses is still in business 5 years after it opens.
A business needs a great business plan, but it doesn't give management enough information to have a successful, profitable business. You dramatically increase your chance of success with a game plan. According to a PriceWaterhouseCoopers survey, over half of the fastest growing firms not only have business plans, but also have separate game plans to keep them focused on what must be done day to day.
A business plan gets you in the game. A game plan keeps you in the game. To use the sports analogy, it's easy to see how you are going to win the game in from the locker room. Most businesses don't have a working plan that takes into account what actually happens on the field once play starts.
A business plan is a sales brochure and a game plan is an instruction manual. You send a business plan to potential investors and others to excite them about the business. A business plan is about strategy. You create a business plan at a management meeting. A game plan is about tactics and is created by and for the people on the front lines. A game plan talks openly about the good, the bad, and the ugly in the business and is used by people in the business to make decisions every day. It talks about what to do in a crisis.
Here's an example of what I mean:
The CEO takes a look at his balance sheet and decides that his company has too much of its cash tied up in inventory, so he gets his managers together and creates a new corporate objective for the year - to reduce inventory by 25%. If they do that they will all be entitled to a bonus. The managers aren't stupid - they know the only way to reduce inventory is to sell what they can and not replace it. So they put on a special promotion for their hottest selling items, they reduce the inventory of those to almost nothing, and they get their bonus. But what has really happened here. The CEO's company is now left with the inventory of the items that weren't selling, and they don't have adequate inventory of their best selling items. The CEO didn't really lead, the employees cared more about their bonuses than doing what was right for the company, and there wasn't a plan of action that was tied into a meaningful company objective.
A game plan focuses on these things: creating big goals that matter, giving individual employees responsibility to carry out their portion of those goals, creating a budget and a reward system that supports the goals, and tools to allow employees to measure their own progress.
Steps in the Game Plan Process
The game plan requires a series of steps, beginning with the CEO getting in touch with his or her desires for the business. Then, the management team must delve into what is real for the business today - understanding the business model (how the company makes money), having a handle on what is happening in the market, and finally, knowing what is happening in the company culture. With all this background work done, the actual creation of the game plan begins. At best, it is a facilitated process of discussions matching what is real today with what is possible tomorrow, in the long run and in the short run.
A game plan only looks out a year at most, but within the context of a much longer period of time. The company might decide where they want to be in five years - the game plan is just the next series of steps toward that longer-term goal. There is no point in setting objectives for which there aren't adequate resources, so objectives and budget are discussed in tandem. Another challenge of the game planning process is to define success for each objective and decide how it will be measured.
This is a time for healthy argument as sales wants more resources to increase revenue, product development wants more of the objectives to be toward R&D for the company's future, and the operations manager wants more staff to improve quality. This is also the time for managers to consider the implications for all the decisions. And it is the time for the CEO to create a connection between the objectives and each of the managers so that there is personal commitment to the success of the company. If managers are not committed, they will never be able to expect commitment from other employees.
Turning Objectives Into Actions
When the company objectives and budget are ironed out, about half the work is done. A second series of steps takes the objectives set at a corporate level, and creates specific action items for each employee that support the department and then company objectives. Just as the CEO and the managers hashed out the process of give and take between what is today and where they would like to be tomorrow, each manager must go through the same process with the departments' employees. Each employee must have a series of actions, but most importantly, each employee should know where they stand at any time they wish to check.
For instance, if the objectives for a customer service employee are to keep call length to an average of 2 minutes, have sales of an average of $50 per customer who calls, and to return all calls within 24 hours, then you want that employee to be able to find the measurements for those objectives as often as he or she wishes. The goal is for the employee to have access to just as much information about his or her performance as the manager. An employee who can assess his or her own progress real-time will correct performance deficiencies without a manager's insistence.
The Plan Isn't a Secret
The final piece is constant communication about the plan and the company's progress to the employees. The game plan is not only communicated initially, it must be kept alive throughout the year with meetings focused on measuring progress toward the goals. Successes should be celebrated frequently.
In my own company, we used something we called a Game Plan Circle to illustrate our plan each year. It was a six-foot circle with our vision in the middle that radiated out to cover company objectives, department and individual objectives. It served as a visual we could refer to in meetings to keep us on track.
The Bottom Line
Don't let your business become another failure statistic. A business plan is a great first step in starting or fundamentally changing a business. The next step is a game plan - a translation of that business plan to each employee's actions every day.

Air Net Planning Business Plan Financial Projections: Stop Worrying About Being Right...

Business plan financial projections seem daunting because
they are so uncertain. This very uncertainty, however, is
what makes preparing them easy because you can't possibly be
right. You can't predict the future. None of us can. All you
can be is competent in the way you prepare your business plan
projections.
Before you finalize your business plan this year, consider
these six caveats to preparing your business plan financial
projections:
1. Don't offer pull-out-of-the-air, "conservative"
guesstimates about getting some percentage of the overall
market demand or year-over-year growth.
It is a mistake to assume that business investors will
appreciate your being conservative with your business plan
financial projections in the early years of your business.
Don't think for a Wall Street minute that presenting
"conservative" business plan financial projections indicates
"realism" to prospective business investors. Business investors
invest for one reason: to earn a return on their money. How
long the money is invested influences the amount of the return
earned. Let's say a business investor wants to triple an
investment. Well, if that investment triples in 3 years, the
return is 44%. If it triples in five years, the return is
25%. Adding just two years to the investment period nearly
halves the return! Now do you see why time is so important
to a business investor? Here are a few other examples: let's
say a business investor wants to:
Make 5 times an investment in 3 years = 71% return
Make 5 times an investment in 5 years = 38% return
Make 7 times an investment in 3 years = 91% return
Make 7 times an investment in 5 years = 48% return
Make 10 times an investment in 3 years = 115% return
Make 10 times an investment in 5 years = 59% return
So, while you may find it attractive to figure out how to
make "just a living" until the business venture proves
itself, you now understand why business investors want sales
and earnings to grow absolutely as fast as possible, without
being deceived, in your business plan financial projections.
On the whole, business investors are risk averse only to the
extent that they don't want to lose their money or tie it up
in a low return investment. Typically when you make the claim
that your business plan financial projections are "conservative",
it usually just means that you have no idea how and why you'll
achieve a certain level of sales within a certain time frame.
Interesting, these kinds of estimates, provided that you've
done some good thinking about market segments and overall
demand, often turn out to be too low. Remember, it's just as
bad to underestimate your sales, as it is to overestimate
them.
2. Avoid calculating costs as a straight percentage of
revenues.
Sure it's easier to do things this way, especially with
Excel and other business plan financial projection software.
Costs are real, however. You need to know what they are very
specifically. If you've done your homework in developing
your business plan, then you should already have this information,
or at least the basis of it. Just estimate and calculate your
costs on a product-by-product basis.
With these warnings in mind, use the following steps to
develop your business plan financial projections:
Think about what percentage of the overall market share your
competitors already own. Assume that they will continue
their present trends in growth. (Note: some competitors may
already be trending down and losing market share.) Temper
your market share estimates with some discussion of how your
entry into the market will affect these trends. Then,
estimate the percent of total, potential demand that remains
available to you.
Now, based on the limitations of your operations plans,
calculate how much of this remaining available demand you
can achieve. This is a very simple calculation. Start with
your overall productive unit capacity and factor it by the
expected yield of sellable product, then multiply these unit
sales by their respective selling prices and voila, you have
the revenue numbers for your business plan financial projections.
Let's take an example.
Your research indicates that 2 out of every 10 females age
23 to 55 will under go some type of non-invasive cosmetic
treatment in your area. Your research also shows that this
number is expected to grow 20% each year over the next 5
years. There are 40,000 females in your target market. You
identified four competitors in your target market. These
four competitors currently handle on average 6 procedures a
day. You plan to start a non-invasive cosmetic treatment
center that uses the most advanced technology and is thus
capable of performing an average of 7 procedures a day.
Using this data you calculate the following statistics
about your market and market potential:
Total market 40,000 females x 20% = 8,000 procedures per
year
4 competitors x 6 procedures x 250 days = 6,000 procedures
per year
Available procedures: 8,000 less 6,000 = 2,000 per year
Your productive capacity: 7 procedures a day x 250 days =
1,750 or 21.875% of the total market. The average selling
price for a procedure is $400. Thus, the revenue for the first
year in your business plan financial projection would be 1,750
procedures times $400 or $700,000.
Now, let's say you're were projecting 2,200 procedures per
year. This would mean that you would have to alter your
operating plan to be able to perform 2,200 procedures. You
would also have to demonstrate how you would capture an
additional 200 procedures from your competitors.
Granted this is an over simplified example, but it should
give you a feel for how this process works.
Regarding price, in most cases you should have a clear idea
of how to price your product or service. There are usually
other, similar products or services out on the market.
Unless your competitive advantage is a cost reduction and/or
unless price is a critical basis of competition, just
estimate the value of your improvement and add it on to the
average price currently offered in the marketplace. In order
to make this estimate, you'll have to be talking to
potential users. Find out what they pay now. Find out how
they feel about the current price. Ask them if they'd be
willing to pay more and how much more. If you ask enough
people, you'll get a general idea.
3. Never determine price on the basis of a margin you think
is attractive.
The market will pay you only for the value you deliver,
which is determined by the consumer paying the final price.
It's easy to make the mistake of thinking that a 20%, 40% or
even a 60% margin is great. Never considering that if the
product or service you're offering provides a real
advantage. If you do this, you may be grossly
underestimating the price you can get in the marketplace and
underestimating your business plan financial projections.
Consumers don't think in terms of margins. They could care
less about what you ought, "reasonably", to get for your
product. That's why you must find out the most that they'll
pay. This is the value of your product or service. Come up
with some reasonable basis for determining this real value.
Keep in mind the obvious: If the consumer's value on the
final product or service is less than your cost plus a
reasonable profit to keep your business growing, you're in
trouble. Your business model will not be sustainable and your
business plan financial projections useless.
Now calculate the costs of manufacturing and distributing
your product. These costs flow directly from your revenues
estimates and operations plan. How much will it cost to
purchase what equipment and materials, hire what personnel,
engage in what selling efforts, pay what accountants and
lawyers, rent what kind of space and so forth, to achieve
the revenues you're showing in your business plan financial
projections. You must be very specific. Project your costs
over time. Keep them tied to the units you need to sell to
achieve the revenues in your business plan financial
projections.
Obviously, costs and revenues work hand in hand.
4. Keep your fixed cost low.
Keep in mind that none of these revenues and the cost
estimates are going to be perfectly accurate, which means
the amount of profit or cash available to pay "fixed" cost
isn't going to be accurate either. As a result, you can lose
your shirt trying to pay for equipment, a receptionist, or
other activities that don't contribute to the sole objective
of making sales. Wherever possible, rent space, rent time on
equipment, answer your own phones, etc. To the extent that
you keep costs variable in your business plan financial
projections, you can cut back when sales are slower than
expected. It's the worst situation to have a big,
well-furnished office with an expensive secretary who
needs the job, when the money isn't coming in. High fixed
costs in your business plan financial projections also send
the wrong message to investors that you know more about the
"form" of doing business than about actually making money.
Now pull all your numbers together to prepare the financial
statements that summarize your business plan financial
projections. You need three basic statements: cash flow
analysis, income statements, and balance sheets. All of
these come directly from the above calculations. Your cash
flow analysis indicates when and what amounts of capital
infusion you'll need to start and sustain your business plan.
Make your income and balance sheet projections on the
assumption that you'll get the capital. For the first year
or two of your business plan financial projections, present
each of these statements on at least a quarterly basis.
Monthly is best. I suggest doing a 24- or 36-month projection
depending on your growth plans and changes in the industry that
you foresee. Follow these monthly or quarterly projections with
annual projections till you cover a span of 5 years.
Finally, run through some "what-if" scenarios or sensitivity
analysis. Though you business plan financial projections should
be based on your best, and best-supported estimates of costs
and revenues, you know you can't be 100% right. That's why it's
important to identify those elements or assumptions of your
business plan financial projections that you feel are most
uncertain. Write out the nature of the uncertainty and the range
you think the estimates will fluctuate up or down. Then change
the estimates accordingly and re-run all your statements.
Pay close attention to how your business plan financial
projections, especially cash flows, change when you change
each assumption. This will help you determine how much
"cushion" you have available and, if business isn't going
according to plan, at what point cash will become an issue.
5. Do not simply assume that costs and revenues may be
"off", up or down, by some percentage.
Again, I know that Excel makes it easy to do this. For all
the same reasoning as above, stay focused on the assumptions
and details that make up your business plan financial projections.
It's the details you need to examine for their sensitivity and
their impact on the bottom line. You only need to alter those
specific items that you're most uncertain about. If it's revenues
that you're worried about, is it the price, the volume, or
both that concerns you most? How big a swing in the estimate
are you worried about, in what direction and why? If it's
your cost projections that are keeping you awake at night,
which cost elements and why? Things like rents and labor
costs can be determined fairly accurately. But maybe you're
unsure about materials or labor availability or how
efficiently you can produce your products or provide your
services. Maybe you'll have to pay extra to ensure their
availability. This kind of thinking forms the basis for running
"what-if" or sensitivity analysis on your business plan financial
projections.
6.Do not include every possible business
plan financial projection scenario in your business plan.
Both you and your investors need to know what aspects of the
business plan financial projections are most uncertain,
represent the most risk, in what direction, why, and how
they affect the bottom line. Having hundreds of alternative
scenarios to sort through is like a man with two watches
showing two different times... he never knows what time it is.
Lots of alternative business plan financial projections also
indicate that you're not too sure about anything. This is an
impossible way to communicate with business investors, manage
your business, or make important decisions. It's much more
effective to identify the risky areas of your plan, tell why
and how they impact the bottom line and what actions you
plan to take if they occur. This helps you and your business
investors stay focused on the high impact areas and to think
clearly about whether other factors should be considered as
well. It also lends more credibility to your talents and
increases the likelihood of your plan's success.
Finish this discussion with a summary of the critical
aspects of your plan and related contingency plans. If
you've followed all these steps, then you can figure out
what you'll do if your actual performance turns out to be
different than your business plan financial projections.
Remember, you're purpose is to demonstrate to business investors
that you're competent; worrying about protecting their investment

Air Net Planning Pave the Way to a Successful Strategic Plan

Many very successful business owners may never have had a formal strategic plan. Some think, "Why do we need to do strategic planning? We're doing great just like we are."
It's not unusual for a small business owner to have the following questions:
o Why do I need to have a strategic plan? Can't I just tell everyone what our goals will be?
o How do I get started?
o Can I facilitate the planning sessions, or do I need to hire a professional facilitator?
o Will this be like other plans which, after spending time and money, just sat on a shelf?
If you've determined that you are indeed ready to begin a strategic planning process there are several steps to pave the way and ensure the plan gets executed.
Step One: Get Ready
We recommend using a professional facilitator for the initial part of the planning. The role of the facilitator will be to:
o Lead the group in an objective/neutral way.
o Make sure ideas and decisions are not lost.
o Make sure the desired outcomes are kept in front of the group.
o Be more objective and therefore handle difficult situations.
o Challenge assumptions.
o Encourage equal participation.
After you've decided you're going to create a plan, you'll need to think about who to include in the group. Everyone who will be affected by the decisions or the information should be represented.
o Whose input do you need?
o Who is needed to make a decision?
o Who must buy into the plan?
Those in management positions often think they know what's going on with the business, but the people in the ranks are the ones that really know. They can offer honest feedback on what's working, what's not working or what's missing. The more input you have, the stronger your decisions will be.
If you involve everyone affected by the plan, you'll build a company understanding and commitment to see it through. Everyone will feel a sense of ownership in carrying it out.
Step Two: Plan the Meeting
What you do before a meeting and how you follow up after a meeting are equally important to what happens during the meeting. When planning the meeting, clarify your desired outcomes. "What do we want to accomplish?" For example, at the first meeting you might determine company values, brand promise and vision. At the second meeting you might set goals, determine key numbers and develop your action plan. We recommend using a facilitator for these two meetings.
Let everyone know what to expect. Be clear with the group about how the meeting will run and about the decision-making process. The best way to create commitment and participation is to be clear about why you're meeting. This is important because nothing hurts morale more than a misunderstanding about why people are there, and what their role will be in the meetings and in the decision making.
Get the appropriate people involved early in planning the meeting. This will reduce their resistance. You'll be less likely to hear comments like, "We're too busy. Why do we need a plan? Aren't we doing okay as we are?" If you get the right people involved early, commitment will be higher which will lead to the plan being effective.
Step Three: Conduct the Meeting
Spend some time at the beginning of the sessions with what is called "inclusion" or "group building". If you spend time getting everyone on the same page, it will be time well spent. This is crucial, so don't cut it too short.
Pay attention to the content and the process of the meeting. The content is the agenda and decisions to be made. The process is how the discussion happens and how decisions are made. Be assured, paying attention to process increases the likelihood that the tasks get done and will go a long way toward making the meeting more effective and productive.
Listen to everyone. Make sure everyone has a chance to speak - the more involved everyone is, the more accountable they will be to the decisions made in the strategic planning session. When people are involved in making decisions they are much more likely to carry them out. This builds a sense of ownership - they are more invested in the outcome
Step Four: Don't Let it Sit on a Shelf
Don't just write up the plan, pat yourself on the back and put it away. Write it up and then make sure everyone gets a copy. Develop a system for reviewing and tracking the plan.. Whatever system you choose, make it consistent. Have weekly, monthly and quarterly meetings. Verne Harnish, in his book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits talks about developing a "rhythm" that will help keep everyone focused and consistent on knowing how they fit in to the company goals and plans. They will be performing at a higher level. There will be better alignment around the strategic decisions made in the planning session.
Communication will be more effective. Regular meetings give the opportunity to ask important questions such as, "Are we doing the right thing?" If not, then you have the opportunity to stop and re-think the decisions. Regular meetings give the opportunity to make the best decisions you can as you progress, and manage the plan as a team. By keeping your plan dynamic, you can relate it to the issues that come up on a daily basis. You can use your judgment and intuition to strategize about new issues in relation to the plan. It helps you keep the priorities clear.
The plan needs to be solid yet flexible enough that when new insights and ideas emerge you can be open to them. You want to have the freedom to keep your meetings creative.
Step Five: Celebrate!
Whatever you do, don't forget this step. Although your strategic plan doesn't have to be perfect, you and your team deserve to celebrate your hard work and accomplishments.

Air Net Planning Serious About Writing A Business Plan... Start A Business Plan Library

Tap these treasures of ideas. The best money you can spend
is money invested in your business plan education. Don't
shortchange yourself when it comes to investing in your
dream. Start gathering samples of business plans and collect
business plan books and get a business plan library started,
it can change your future. Here's what your library needs to
show: that you're a serious student of business strategy and
planning, finance and economics, selling, and writing.
Sample Business Plans
Start by gathering sample business plans. Look at the annual
reports and S-1s, S-4s, 10ks, or 10Qs filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of companies in
your industry. See how they present their case, explain
their business, and discuss their industry and competition.
What exactly are these forms and how do you get them? Good
question.
These are forms that public companies must file with the SEC
in order to register their securities or to maintain the registration
of previously registered securities with the SEC. You can find
these forms by going to http://www.sec.gov, clicking on the Edgar
database, and searching for a public company in your industry.
The key is to find the most helpful filings. These are the ones
labeled S-1, S-4, 10K, and 10Q. They usually contain
descriptions of the business, its products, industry, competitors
and strategies. Sections that should sound familiar to you if you
are planning to write a business plan.
Go to these sections and read how the company presents their
business and its products. Look at how they describe the industry
and their competitors. I encourage you to read as many filings in
your industry as possible. See what the "big guys" are saying, the
issues, challenges, and trends they see in the industry and how
they're attacking them.
Be careful though about mimicking what they write. Many of these
documents are written in legalese despite the SEC's protestations
and push for plain English. Just remember, you're doing this
exercise to see how other companies have built their case to
business investors.
Another approach is to gather and read professionally
written business plans of companies in your industry and use
them as guides to prepare your plan. Try to avoid generic
business plan templates. They're too general and often not
worth the investment. Either way. Start filling your
business plan library with business plans and registration
statements. Keep them close by and refer to them often as
you write your business plan.
Strategy
Now, here's a good book to start your business plan library
with. It's called: Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter.
In this landmark book, Competitive Strategy, Porter shows
you how to identify the forces that drive competition in
your industry. Learn what moves your competitors are likely
to make within it. Competitive Strategy provides a framework
for evaluating the competitive alternatives you must
consider and for thinking about how to change the rules of
the marketplace in your favor. Competitive Strategy is the
bible venture capitalist, investment bankers, and business
development executives use when analyzing an industry or
business venture. I use this book as the centerpiece of my
business plan library. So I'm just asking you to take a look
at Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter. If it suits you
fine, if it doesn't suit you, keep looking till you find
something that helps you understand strategy.
Opening your mind to strategic alternatives is a creative
process. You can never have too many books on strategy in
your business plan library. Read as much as you can to learn
why some companies can sell their products more cheaply than
others. Why others provide the best products...products that
are just far superior to their competition. And, why some
companies just always seem to provide unmatched service.
Fill your business plan library with business books that
inspire, challenge and answer these questions. Read. Read.
Read. And, study too. Find out how some companies are
reinventing competition in their markets and obtaining
funding while others are seemingly oblivious to the changing
world around them.
Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema set out to find answers to
these types of questions in their book The Discipline of
Market Leaders. Although the authors won't appreciate this
comment, I found the underlying fundamentals in The
Discipline of Market Leaders to closely parallel those laid
out by Porter in Competitive Strategy. Perhaps that's why I
like it so much. The difference, however, is that they
present their material in a less academic, more engaging
way. And, they provide excellent case studies that are sure
to generate many aha's! The Discipline of Market Leaders
will make you think about what it is your company or new
venture does better than anyone else; what unique value do
you provide to your customers? How will you continually
increase that value? If you can't easily answer these
questions about your business, The Discipline of Market
Leaders is required reading and a must for your business
plan library. The business owners and entrepreneurs that can
answer these questions are not only raising the value bar in
their industries, they're raising capital for their
businesses!
Finance and Economics
Be sure to keep your business plan library well balanced...
Let me give you a sense of that balance. First is finance
and economics. We all have got to have a sense of how to
make money...the universal laws of business success, no
matter whether you are selling fruit from a stand or running
a Fortune 500 company. Finance and economics are the basic
building blocks of business. Your business plan library
needs a few books on the numbers. When you understand the
basics of finance and economics its possible to bringing the
most complex business down to the fundamentals. You become
empowered to focus on the basics and make money from your
venture.
Here's a good book to help you in this area: What the CEO
Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. What the CEO Wants You to
Know captures the basics of finance and economics and
explains in clear, simple language how to do what great
business owners and entrepreneurs do instinctively and
persistently. Charan explains the basic building blocks of
business and how to use them to figure out how your company
can, does, or will make money and operate as a total
business. Learn how to use these building blocks to cut
through the clutter of day-to-day business and the
complexity of the real world. What the CEO Wants You to Know
by Ram Charan. This little book is only a 137 pages: but I'm
telling you, it's so well written you'll be as intrigued as
I was. What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. Get it
for your business plan library.
Writing
Next is writing. You have to be able to get your thoughts
down on paper. Businessese, academese, legalese - all appear
too often in business plans. Often preventing a
knowledgeable writer with good intensions to fail at getting
the message across to an intelligent, interested reader. For
some reason, when people write business plans they are
compelled to write "commence" and "prior to" instead of
"begin" and "before." If you want to write an effective
business plan, your business plan library must have books on
how to be an effective writer.
Start with Edward Baily; he wrote a surprisingly
straightforward book called The Plain English Approach to
Business Writing. This book, The Plain English Approach to
Business Writing, is about writing as you would talk, which
not only makes your writing easier to read, it's also makes
it easier to write. In a brief, entertaining 124 pages Baily
clearly lays out the dos and don'ts of plan English,
illustrating them with examples drawn from business
documents, technical manuals, trade publications, and the
works of writers like Russell Baker and John D. MacDonald.
The Plain English Approach to Business Writing offers
practical advice on clarity, precision, organization,
layout, and many other topics. Best of all, you can read it
an hour...and use it for the rest of your life.
But writing well is only a part of writing. A good business
plan must be persuasive. Listen carefully to what I just
said: persuasive. Not misleading or untruthful, but
persuasive.
Here's a book you need to look at Persuading on Paper. How's
that for a title? Persuading on Paper by Marcia Yudkin.
Yudkin is a writing consultant who coaches small-business
owners and professionals on improving their marketing
materials. In a witty and vivid style, Persuading on Paper
shows you how to use the written word to convert strangers
to prospects to paying customers (or in our case,
investors). What I like about this book is that Yudkin takes
you step-by-step through the process of creating marketing
materials that sell. Don't underestimate the power of
marketing copy in your business plan. You'll be surprised
how her methods and strategies can help create a more
powerful business plan. Persuading on Paper is a must-have
for anyone who wants to attract more clients, customers, or
investors.
Raising Capital
Next is an understanding of the process of obtaining
capital. No business plan library would be complete without
a book on the process of raising capital. Without capital
your venture is destined for failure. You need to learn how
to select the right venture capital firm, make
presentations, and negotiate your deal.
Try this book: The Venture Capital Handbook by David
Gladstone. As an executive officer at Allied Capital
Corporation, a large publicly-owned, venture capital firm in
the United States, David has reviewed many proposals for
venture capital financing. The Venture Capital Handbook
takes you through the entire process from presentation
through negotiations, commitment letters, legal closings,
due diligence, the exit by the venture capital company, to
when the entrepreneur is left to own it all. As a result,
The Venture Capital Handbook provides anyone who wants to
spend the time and money with an insight into what venture
capitalists really want. Prepare for the process of raising
venture capital with The Venture Capital Handbook.
Selling
Finally, study the art of selling. Like it or not, when you
are trying to start a business venture or raise money for
your business you have to sell investors on why they should
invest with you. It's like a rite of passage. But fast
talking salesmanship won't raise the money you need for your
business. You need an approach that respects the power of
the investor...one that builds a relationship with investors.
So, fill your business plan library with books on selling
and presenting.
Here's a book to try: Socratic Selling by Kevin Daley with
Emmett Wolfe. Socratic Selling as the title implies, uses
the Socratic Method: "A method of teaching or discussion, as
used by Socrates, in which one asks a series of easily
answered questions which inevitably lead the answerer to a
logical conclusion" (Webster's Unabridged). Dalely's
concise, easy-to-follow chapters explain how to open a sales
dialogue and go right to the heart of the matter. Socratic
Selling is a fun and informative 162 pages for those of us
who believe selling means talking with, not at, investors.
Study these techniques; they can make you more effective
with potential investors.
If you are serious about writing your business plan...show it.
Start a business plan library that shows you are a serious
student of business plans. Fill it with business plans,
public filings and annual reports of businesses in your
industry. Stay away from those generic business plan
templates. They are too general. And, Read, read, read and
study too about strategy, finance, economics, writing, selling,
and how to raise capital. Spend the money. Buy the books. The
reward can be great...a funded business plan.

A Song about Bacon

bacon bacon bacon a song about bacon bayyyyy aye con!

Dog Wagons East

There are only two things that concern me, but I forgot what they were. With that in mind ... lets move on because there is plenty with a CAPITOL P to cover here in this post. I have used Facebook so much that it seems more of a WALL update, but it is not that. Bloggers blog, or post. Did you ever notice that many blogs do not blog at all? I did. Why does this carry a vital importance? It doesn't! Especially when we need to talk about Arnold's love child. That's a misnomer I think, because love was probably not the reasoning behind the bastard baby. I was just informed that bastard baby is a very derogatory term, and a wee bit offensive, so I will be deleting that from this "post". An official "sorry" from Hollydale. (( Whoooooops ))
On to our next bullet point, we focus on the Twins. Yes, baseball is looking very sad this year and I take blame. When there is blame to be taken, I will be there. I hit a few home runs as a kid in little league you know.
In weather news, it seems that meteorologists just cannot saying Omega Block. Seems we have an omega block this week in the USA. I bet Omega Man is behind all this jet stream manipulation! That, or maybe that high bird corn is destroying the universe. Someone needs to send out the
bat signal before we all end up over at Myspace. I would rather use an etch-a-sketch to communicate than Myspace. BARF
In kitchen news, I got a new fridge last week. It holds a lot of crap! So much crap that I cannot remember what all I bought and put in it. I usually just open it up, look inside, and say, "Boy Ohhh is that a lot of crap". So far I really like it, even if I don't know what to make for dinner.
My dog is wild crazy K9 happy as the trail is open for business. He runs and runs and runs ... and I slowly walk along behind. I was thinking about getting a wagon and a hot dog to hang from a stick. That way the dog could chase the hot dog and I could simply ride along in comfort. I could even blog and post while rolling along the winding hills all through the woods.

Nap Hair and a Gorilla in me Garden