Learning From The Experts

One of the best ways of learning is by learn from your mistakes as well as from those within the industry and field you wish to be in. This is very essential when you are in the initial stage of creating a business plan and trying to secure funding from different types of investors. Doing research and getting key points from the experts will surely make creating a business plan much easier.

When doing my own research on business plan experts, I found a few key points that will not only assist with writing a business plan but will help become a successful business owner. One piece of advice that I have learned and every business owner that is starting out should know, you should never give away ownership when you are starting out. According to Tim Berry, Don’t save starting costs by giving the business away. A lot of time people give away percentages and when the business starts to do well they have forgotten that their business partners own a percent of the business and has not done any work to deserve the pay. Don’t Give Away Ownership As If It Were Just Credit. Please, is an blog post that is a must read.

From this blog I have made sure that if I have a business partner within my owner business the only way they would be able to get a percentage of the business is if they were going to put in the same amount of blood, sweat and tears as I would.

What I believe to be the most important section in a business plan to investors would be the marketing plan and sales strategy. An investor needs to know how people will know about your company and product(s), by having a solid marketing plan will show them just how you plan on doing so. The sales strategy will let investors know what a companies long-term goals are and what competitive advantage it will have over the existing companies in their industry.  

Business Plan Experts

Tim Berry

Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and bplans.com as well as co-founder of Borland International. Berry received his MBA from Stanford. Married for 42 years and a father of five. Tim stated, “I believe in business planning but I don’t think a business plan is a document (Timberry.com, 2012).” Aside from being a founder, co-founder and chairman Berry is also an author, speaker, and blogger.

With a MBA degree from Stanford, Berry also graduated with honors from the University of Oregon with an MA in Journalism, and received a BA in Literature from the University of Norte Dame.

Berry has published books that help small business owners create business plans as well as help them with business startups. He has written books with titles such as The Plan-as-you-go Business Plan, Business Plan Pro, 3 Weeks to Startup, Sales and Market Forecasting for Entrepreneurs, and Hurdle: the Book on Business Planning. Tim has been very vital, as a business plan expert, Jim Blasingame, one of the most well-known small business radio talk show hosts, has referred to him as “The Father of Business Planning.”

Tim does not believe in writing business plans for business owners but instead he provides free business plan advice and coaching, through his blog. This blog has over 200 posts that contain all types of articles, videos, presentations, and even a couple of books.

 

Ellen Rohr

Ellen Rohr is the president of Bare Bones Business. Rohr teaches business basics as well as a columnist for PHC News and a writer for many business journals and trade magazines. With a college degree in Business Administration, Rohr started out running a family plumbing business which she also let belly up.

In 1995 Rohr started Bare Bones Biz, a venture capital and consulting company. Over the next 17 years she made many contributions to numerous of company, Office Depot and American Express Open Forum just to name a couple.

Rohr has a seminar entitled, "Business Planning made EASY: A simple strategy for a powerful business plan that will DRIVE you in the direction of your GOALS."

In this seminar she makes six points that you should follow when creating your business plan.

·      Setting Sight.  What do you want your business to BE?  How will you know when you have “made it?”

·      Building the Team.  Who does what?  Why, how and when?

·      Making Money.  Learn the bare bones basics for building a budget, keeping score and bringing in the bucks.

·      Getting it Sold.  How to create a sales-focused culture…without insulting your soul.

·      Getting it Done.  Developing sure-fire systems for doing things the first time, every time.

·      Making Sure.  Are you on the right track?  How do you get back on track?  It’s all about asking and answering the right questions.   

For more of Rohr’s business planning insight you can visit her website How To Grow A Small Business...Into Freedom!