How Investors Look at Startup Forecasts
By Tim Berry
Investors look at startup forecasts for concepts, not accuracy. When investors look at your projections, they are looking not for just the numbers, but essential insight into the knowledge, experience, and goals of the founders. Important: you need to forecast to manage your business. Hard as it is to forecast, it’s much harder to run... Read More »
Where Can I Sell My Business Ideas?
By Tim Berry
I get it. What a nice dream … just sell the business idea, and let somebody else take the risk, find the money, and do the work. Except that the work, the risk, and the money is what gives the business idea value. So nowhere. The answer to your question about where is: nowhere. Business... Read More »
Some Posts on Managing During a Crisis
By Tim Berry
I've been posting on the main bplans blog during the pandemic crisis. Here are six recent posts. Several focus on the economic crisis. Read More »
Do those summaries, sure. Use those frameworks. But don’t think they replace business planning.
By Tim Berry
There is some bad advice floating around in the startup world. Useful as the Lean Canvas is, and despite some well-intentioned suggestions of summaries, those are not business plans. They don’t deal with the drivers and components of cash flow. They don’t set milestones, metrics, and tracking. You can’t run a business with them. And... Read More »
Know Your Industry: Average Margins
By Tim Berry
Know your industry. In a recent post here, I wrote that the most common stumbling point I see in multiple business plans is absurdly unrealistic profitability. Specifically … Most of the business plans I see project profits too high, or profits too early. In the real world, startups choose growth or profits, not both. The... Read More »
10 Tips on How to Protect a Software Idea
By Tim Berry
How to protect a software idea? I recently answered a related Quora question on this one. I took parts of this post from a previous post on how to protect an idea while building a business, but this one focuses more on software, specifically. That’s where I’ve spent most of my career, and still my... Read More »
Listing Resources for Women Entrepreneurs
By Tim Berry
My thanks to digital.com for this useful list of resources for women entrepreneurs and women business owners. The list includes sources for grants, loans, and investments; plus business and business plan competitions; and training and additional resources. Read More »
Infographic: 7 “Crazy” Startup Ideas That Worked
By Tim Berry
I believe many people put way too much stock in the startup idea. Doing the business, doing the work, getting things done, and execution are all more important. Obviously a bad idea can make a business unsuccessful, but a good idea is no guarantee. And very few successful businesses are based on being the first... Read More »
