Has a Business Plan Saved Your Business life?
By Tim Berry
Many thanks to Lora Kolodny for this question she asked me in a comment to my post here yesterday: But I have to ask — any other cases? Has a business plan ever saved your (company’s) life? (cue song: Last Night a DJ Saved My Life) Yes, many times. With apologies for what might seem... Read More »
Confessions of a Hypocritical Business Planner
By Tim Berry
Irony: I’m a business planner, and I have been for 30 years now; but the biggest decisions of my real life have been remarkably unplanned. I could rewrite my own history backwards to make it all seem like it had been planned, but it wasn’t. Going from hippy to business planner to entrepreneur, I tripped... Read More »
The Luckier I Get, the Harder I Work.
By Tim Berry
The sun was coming out, just peeking through from behind the tall pine trees on the hill above my house, as I drove into the office this morning. I’d woken up before dawn and gotten back on the computer. Does my title to this post seem paradoxical? A twist on the old “the harder I... Read More »
True Story: Building Business, Changing Lives, One at a Time
By Tim Berry
I hope you heard of the Palo Alto Software’s Oregon Small Business Boost, earlier this month, where we gave away thousands of units of business plan software to help the Oregon economy and reduce its unemployment problem. The effort depended on more than 85 locations of chambers of commerce and small business development centers and related... Read More »
Business Boost: How Did it Go?
By Tim Berry
Thanks for asking. Our Oregon Small Business Boost day (business plan software free for Oregonians) yesterday went even better than expected. I like the summary from our local newspaper, which tagged it as “frenzy” on its front page this morning. And you can click here for our summary of it. We distributed 16,200 cards through... Read More »
10 Lessons Learned in 22 Years of Bootstrapping
By Tim Berry
(I posted this yesterday on Small Business Trends. I’m reposting here because this is my main blog, and it belongs here too. Tim ) Last week a group of students interviewed me, as part of a class project, looking for secrets and keys to success. They were asking me because after 22 years of bootstrapping,... Read More »
Business Plans and Prizes and Too Many Winners
By Tim Berry
Most venture contests deal with three elements: the business plan, the pitch presentation, and the question and answer session. Where does the plan itself stand, in the mix? What I’ve gathered from 13 years of judging graduate level business venture contests is the following: The best business plan isn’t always the best venture. The best venture... Read More »
True Story: Good Idea, but Hard to Explain
By Tim Berry
Almost 20 Years ago I developed a software product called Forecaster. You start with an empty chart. Then you assign values to vertical and horizontal. Then you draw a line with your mouse, and Forecaster generates the numbers that correspond to the line. It was built as something you could use in a business plan.... Read More »
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