I just finished answering one of the Ask the Expert questions I do for bplans.com. Here is the question: “I have [details omitted] that cut consumer’s [omitted] bills by up to 25%. But trying to sell them one-on-one is slow…
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From the category archives:
Planning Fundamentals
It’s not for nothing that I always say a business plan has to be your plan and nobody else’s. It can’t be your consultant’s plan. You must know it backwards and forwards and inside out, or it won’t work. I…
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Close your eyes. Step away from the daily routine. Answer these questions. Why does anybody buy what you’re selling? What do they get out of it? Do you fill a need? Do you offer identifiable benefits? Some 30 years ago…
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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…
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Business planning is full of paradox. Here are some interesting examples. Business plans are always wrong, but nonetheless vital. Wrong because they’re predicting the future and we’re human, we’re fallible, so we don’t get it right. Vital because we need…
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Seth Godin includes venture competitions to his Pundits are (nearly) always wrong post yesterday. I say take that a step further: business plans are always wrong. I have to say I like how well this ties into his post on…
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You don’t have to be an accountant or an MBA to do a business plan, but you will be better off with a basic understanding of some essential financial terms. Otherwise, you’re doomed to either having somebody else develop and…
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Back in the 1970s when I was a foreign correspondent living in Mexico City, I dealt frequently with an American diplomat who provided information about Mexico’s increasing oil exports, which were a big story back then. We had lunch about…
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The picture here represents the legendary Stargate, a science fictional gateway between two dimensions. There was a 1994 film starring James Spader and Kurt Russell. I often use it to illustrate the difference between planning and accounting. Planning begins today…
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