20 Reasons to Write a Business Plan
By Tim Berry
A list of 20 good reasons for business planning in all businesses, not just startups. Strategy, tactics, cash flow, and lots more Read More »
Infographic: 12 Visual Principles For Everyday Design
By Tim Berry
Design is essential and affects so much of our work. But design is also expensive. And the tech world, social media, the web, and business are full of designs we do ourselves. Profile pages, presentations, for example. Turning to designers is a luxury that takes time and money. And I care about quality too, so this... Read More »
10 Most Common High Tech Business Plan Fails
By Tim Berry
I was asked about high-tech business plan fails on Quora recently. So this isn’t about lean plans for all business owners, but just the business plans submitted for angel investment and business plan competitions. I read about 100 of those business plans per year. So here’s my list of high-tech business plan fails: Naive profits. Drives... Read More »
Why Do We Need Financial Forecasts?
By Tim Berry
Business owners and managers do financial forecasting to enhance management. Anticipate essential flows of money to manage them better. Forecasting is a necessary first step towards managing plan vs. actual results, which means course corrections. It’s like steering a business. A Quick Example Consider this simple illustration: You can’t identify changes in flow if you don’t... Read More »
Flies Buzzed. And I Like Short Sentences
By Tim Berry
“Flies buzzed.” The best opening sentence I ever wrote. Also the best lead paragraph I ever wrote. And 42 years ago. I don’t even have the piece. It was lost in the 42-year shuffle. But it started with “Flies buzzed” and went on to describe the third day after a brutal hurricane with flooding that... Read More »
Take Real Steps to Fight Sexism in Tech
By Tim Berry
Harassment in the workplace. Sexism. Genderism. Bigotry and prejudice. Brogramming. Not just everywhere, but also in high tech, which – you’d think – should have been advanced past that backwardness. Silicon Valley too. Blue city, blue industry, in a blue state. If you’ve been off the grid for a while, read this from the New... Read More »
Do You Believe the Legendary Startup Failure Statistics. I Don’t.
By Tim Berry
This recent piece on startup failure statistics caught me eye on Twitter first, and I followed the links to discover Startups: Conventional Wisdom Says 90% Fail. Data Says Otherwise. | Fortune.com. Here’s a direct quote from author Erin Griffith: “I recently found myself carelessly repeating a statistic that I’d heard dozens of times in private conversations... Read More »
Service for Equity Formula
By Tim Berry
Say you are a service provider – consultant, designer, coder – and somebody offers you startup equity in exchange for professional service. I pondered this question after seeing it on Quora. I turned back to decades as a consultant, and decades dealing with startups, to come up with this sure-proof service for equity formula. Try... Read More »
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