Business Planning

Save the Patient. Make Exorbitant Profits. Is This Okay?

April 15, 2013

How do you feel about projecting excessive profitability in a health care business plan? Over the weekend I saw the pitch for a brilliant business plan, with great technology, for developing medical electronics that could significantly reduce some kinds of complications in some kinds of surgeries. “The world needs this,” I thought. “I hope these [...]

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Q&A: Keep Your Business Plan Simple and Short

April 1, 2013

I received this question on my ask-me form at timberry.com I have a question about writing a business plan for my [business]. How do I write a business plan reflecting very little start up costs and a loss so far? I have been putting off writing a business plan, but I feel as if I [...]

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Business Plan Yes, Comprehensive and Detailed, Not So Much

March 25, 2013

Funny how sometimes what sounds like good advice isn’t. I was browsing online when I caught the alleged business plan tip shown here (although I added the red circle over it). It says you should write a “comprehensive, detailed business plan.” And I say probably not; only in special circumstances.  Instead, develop a streamlined, flexible, [...]

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The Dribbling Metaphor for Business Planning

January 25, 2013

Think of basketball or soccer. In both of these popular sports, dribbling is what the players do to move the ball in the right direction. It’s not the point of the game, it doesn’t score baskets or goals, but it’s an important skill, right? I think of dribbling as a great analogy for business planning. [...]

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The Real Use of the One-Page Business Plan

November 12, 2012

The question is:  There’s been quite a bit written recently about the value of a 1-page business plan. What are your thoughts on this type of plan vs. a thorough document? And my answer: The only problem is confusing the two as if one replaces the other. The 1-pager is a summary of the plan. [...]

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Free Online Video Business Planning Tutorial

October 12, 2012

My apologies if you’ve seen this elsewhere. It is available on the SBA community site, where it was posted about a year ago. I developed it originally as a donation to the SBA effort, because I believe what the SBA to help real-world entrepreneurs get started and run businesses is valuable. I cooperate with the [...]

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Pop Quiz: Do You Know How to Start a Business Plan?

October 3, 2012

People often ask me how to start a business plan. Sometimes I’ll say it depends on you, your preference, and your style, so some people do a sales forecast first, some do a vision statement. But the right answer is that you start by scheduling your monthly review and revise meeting. That’s by far the [...]

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Understand the Critical Difference Between Ideas and Opportunities

September 24, 2012

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Opportunities are much more important. An opportunity is an idea that’s passed the test of planning. It has potential. You can implement it. An opportunity has some of the following elements: Industry and market potential: look at market structure, industry structure, growth rate, margins, costs, etc. Economics: capital requirements, [...]

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Q & A: Investment: Size Matters

September 18, 2012

Question: Hello. I, along with a partner, have 20+ years combined experience in the carpet cleaning industry. After investing over 10k of our own money, we will still need an additional 30k for start-up of our own business. We are…

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Q & A: Selling Out to a Partner

September 17, 2012

Question: I own a business with my brother for the past 16 years. I decided to buy my partner/brother out of the business. The business has been running a loss for the past couple of years. How do we put…

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