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 [...]
About Me
Quick Bio
I'm chairman and founder of Palo Alto Software. Founder of Bplans. Co-founder of Eugene Social. Founder of Free the Numbers. I have more info at timberry.com.
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I also blog at...
Small Business Trends, Amex OPEN, Up and Running, Huffington Post
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Most Popular Blog Posts
- 5 Entrepreneurship Basics B-Schools Don't Teach
- Q&A: How Do I Sell My Idea to A Big Company?
- 10 Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs
- 10 Blogging Tips. My 1,000th Post on This Blog
- Entrepreneurs: You do Know You're Unemployable, Right?
- Where to Focus: Passion or Ability?
- 8 Factors that Make a Good Business Plan
- No, 37signals, Planning Is NOT What You Think
- My Recommendation About Your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn
- 5 Words You Probably Misuse in Business Writing
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Most Recent Blog Posts
- Willamette Angel Conference Invests More than $450K
- Amazing Time-Lapse Videos of Earth Changing
- The Growth is Always Greener in Your Neighbor’s Lawn
- Business Owners: Are Your Ex-Employees Your Enemies?
- Q&A revisited: Really, How Do I Sell My Idea to a Big Company. Part 2.
- Save the Patient. Make Exorbitant Profits. Is This Okay?
- How to Fix the USA: Excellent TED Talk
- Q&A: I Need a Loan to Fill Orders
- Q&A: Keep Your Business Plan Simple and Short
- How To Consolidate All Your Blog Posts From Different Sites to One Site
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My Favorites
- 10 Blogging Tips. My 1,000th Post on This Blog
- 10 Lessons Learned in 22 Years of Bootstrapping
- 10 Tips to Save Your Life From Your Business
- 5 Entrepreneurship Basics Business Schools Don't Teach
- Zen and Business Planning
- Business Plans are Always Wrong
- Plan-as-you-go Business Planning
- Ideas vs. Opportunities
- My Worst-ever Consulting Engagement
- Passion or Ability
- The Fish Bowl Lesson
- Planning vs. Accounting
- 18-Point Twitter Primer
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Disclosures
- I'm employed by Palo Alto Software, but opinions expressed on this blog are mine and mine alone.
- I have a very small financial interest in Rebelmouse.com. More important, a personal interest: my son is founder, one of my daughters is a key employee.
- bigstockphoto.com gives me a free account for stock photos. I use them to illustrate this blog.
- I have an affiliate account with amazon.com. That means I get a percentage of sales from links out of this site to amazon.com.
- I occasionally accept free review copies of books I review on this blog.
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Things I Believe
- The best things in life aren't free, but they aren't for sale either. You have to work for them.
- Business ideas have no value.
- Time is the scarcest resource.
- You can only be one person at a time.
- An authentic original is better than a good copy.
- It's the planning, not just the plan, that makes business planning work.
- Truth reflects off mirrored surfaces and splits into specks, rays, and particles. William Blake wrote "anything possible to be believed is an image of truth" (in Proverbs of Heaven and Hell.)
- Writing skills, even -- unfashionable as this may be -- spelling and grammar, matter.
- Good writing is always easy to read.
- There are problems you can make worse, but not better.
- Successful business planning is nine parts implementation for every one part strategy.
- Angry words are not always biodegradable.
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