E-books in your life

E-Books are making a big impact in the way we read, write and use books. There is nothing holding back an expert with years of experience on a particular field to write about all the ins and outs, trade secrets, strengths and weaknesses of the industry.

Consider Colm Dillon, the author of “Unique Real Estate Development Method!” (http://business.marc8.com/ebook-info.php/name/unique_real_estate_development_method/toc_id/6-0-2-8/). He has 30 years and $1.2 Billion worth of professional real estate development experience. Dillon wrote his book purely from experience and practical usage. His eBook is now selling in 63 countries and directly available on the Internet.

Documenting the Exit Strategy in Your Business Plan

All investors greatly desire and are motivated by a clear picture of a company’s exit strategy, or the timing and method through which they can “cash in” on their investment. This picture best comes into focus when the key valuation and liquidity drivers of the company are clearly delineated. An excellent method to accomplish this is through descriptions of comparable firms that have had successful liquidity events, either through acquisition, merger, of initial public offerings (IPOs).

It is helpful to show other companies in your market, or similar companies in other markets, who have successfully exited, and how and why these companies were successful. For instance, were they successful since they acquired a large customer base? Or were they successful since they accomplished fast growth or high profit margins? It is also important to tie their success to their exit price. Was the exit price based on earnings or the number of customers the firm had at the time? The business plan should tie these metrics (e.g., exit price of $X per customer) to the business to determine its future price.

Documenting Partnerships in Your Business Plan

Forging partnerships to improve market penetration has become commonplace, particularly for “new economy” businesses. And, most companies proudly mention their many partnerships in their business plans.

The fact is that, regardless of whom the partnership is with, partnerships by themselves are meaningless. What are meaningful are the terms of the partnership. For instance, while it sounds great to have a partnership with a Fortune 500 company, the details of the partnership are what investors find important. For instance, investors will look poorly upon a partnership in which the Fortune 500 company earns 90% commissions on customers it refers. On the other hand, investors would look favorably upon a more equitable partnership.

Developing Realistic Financial Assumptions in Your Business Plan

Many investors skip straight to the financial section of the business plan. It is critical that the assumptions and projections in this section be realistic. Plans that show penetration, operating margin and revenues per employee figures that are poorly reasoned, internally inconsistent or simply unrealistic greatly damage the credibility of the entire business plan. In contrast, sober, well-reasoned financial assumptions and projections communicate operational maturity and credibility.

For instance, if the company is categorized as a networking infrastructure firm, and the business plan projects 80% operating margins, investors will raise a red flag. This is because investors can readily access the operating margins of publicly-traded networking infrastructure firms and find that none have operating margins this high.

Developing a Business Plan = Developing a Succesful Business.

Whether you are starting up a new business or you already have an established company, the importance of a business plan may be over looked. Yes, they can take some time to draw up but just think of your business plan as a map of a country. Without the details and information on this map, trying to navigate yourself around a country will usually end up leaving you lost. Probably travelling the same routes over and over again, taking you 2-3 times longer to find your way(if you do every find your way).

A detailed business plan could mean your success in business. Consider this. How can you take your company in the right direction, developing the methods you need to succeed if you do not know what you are trying to accomplish. It would be like building a house with no plans and trying to put the roof on first. Yes, you may be successful in building the roof but your house will be missing some essential pieces. You may not miss these pieces at first, but down the line(especially when the winter comes) you are going to be wishing you built those walls too!

Describing Intellectual Property in Your Business Plan

Most companies that are worthy of raising venture capital have proprietary Intellectual Property (IP). In fact, the quality of the IP and the management team are often the two most important aspects of a venture capitalist’s investment decision. The challenge that many ventures face, however, is that most investors will not sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), and NDAs are critical to maintaining the proprietary nature of the IP. This article details the appropriate strategy for addressing proprietary IP in your business plan in order to attract investor attention while retaining the confidentiality of your inventions.

Business Planning for College Students and First-Time Entrepreneurs

More and more students, both in undergraduate and graduate institutions, are deciding to launch their own ventures upon graduation rather than taking the traditional route of working for another firm. Likewise, more and more individuals are leaving their jobs to fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams.

While these ventures may ultimately be very successful (e.g., Google and Microsoft were both launched by students), they face certain challenges in their business plans and capital raising processes. The foremost challenge is overcoming the lack of experience of the management team. A classis chicken-and-egg problem presents itself – the management team has no past company successes to point to, and can’t prove itself unless given the opportunity to launch the business. While this problem is nearly always the case for graduating students, it also presents itself to many entrepreneurs, particularly those who are launching their first ventures.

Business Plans- What Consultants Don’t tell You!

Do you have a Business Plan? Congratulations, but you are in a small minority. And if you have a plan, is it integral to your business, and instrumental to its growth? If the answer to this question is yes, then you need to read no further. However, most business owners who actually go to the trouble to write a business plan have left it languishing on their bottom shelf, gathering dust! This is the dirty little secret of business consultants.

Most business consultants are only interested in selling their time or their ‘Business Plan in a Box’ but know that for a business plan to be useful, it has to be part of a Business Management System. But this is a much harder proposition for the consultant to sell, particularly to small business owners who are just looking for a quick fix. So most consultants just sell a quick fix solution- a business plan that they know will, within months, end up on the bottom shelf. Once owners have prepared their “fill in the blanks” plan, they expect it to transform their business overnight just by its mere existence. And because this does not happen, they never look at it again.

Before the Business Plan

Purveyors of conventional wisdom would have you believe that the very first thing you ought to do when setting up a new business is to create a business plan.

It doesn’t matter whether you are selling odds and ends on eBay from your living room or something larger and more complex,

Business plans are excellent and necessary. Far too few of us self-employed and freelance people use them.

Becoming Wise – Wild & Free: Writing A Successful Business Plan – Part 3 – The Feasibility

I am amazed at how many resources there are and how much information is available today on writing a business plan. There is software, documents, templates, outlines and a lot of experts that can help you. Most experts and resources will tell you exactly how to write a business plan and maybe even provide a template that only needs minor changes to fit your needs. All the emphasis is put on “writing” a solid business plan.

I agree that you need a good business plan but I don’t believe that you need to spend hours, days or even months writing your story so that people can read all about what you are going to do. In the first place, most of the people that are going to read your plan are bankers or investors that are not so much interested in your story as they are in whether you will succeed. Secondly, you may spend a lot of time writing this great and wonderful story only to find at the end that you cannot make it work.