After reviewing many experts online, I wanted to find one
expert who is well known and one expert that I have not heard about myself but
that was still a recognized expert. I found a business plan expert named Tim
Berry. Berry has written a couple books on business planning such as “The
Plan-as-you-go Business Plan”, “Business
Plan Pro”. Berry has also co wrote “3 weeks to Startup”. Berry also has an MBA
degree from Stanford, an MA degree in journalism with honors from the
university of Oregon, and a BA in Literature from the University of Notre Dame.
Berry is also a successful entrepreneur who is the founder and chairman of Palo
Alto Software, bplans.com and cofounder of Borland international. When Berry first built Palo Alto Software, he
had no employees, it was just him but the company grew to 40 employees, started
making multimillion dollar sales. Berry had no outside investment and 70%
market share, and most importantly, he had no debt. Berry is also an investor
member of the Willamette Angel Conference.
A key component in business planning that Berry states is to
“Think Lean”, Investors do not want very long business plans, they want to read
something that is straight to the point and not a waste of their time.
Investors want to know right off the bat what your business does or makes, your
target market, and your business’s identity. Berry also states that a great
strategy is nothing without tactics and what your main focus or goals are, such
key points to your marketing strategy, and breakdowns of the
financials/realistic projections of the business such as profit, loss, cash
flow, and balance sheet. This is key because investors want to know right from
the beginning if an investment is going to turn in to a profit and how quickly
it will take to see that profit.
Richard Branson has empire that consists of over 400
companies, 55 thousand employees and a total revenue of $25 billion. One
important component to investing and that could also apply to business panning that
Branson states is “Does your company offer a smart, simple solution that
improves customers’ lives?”
All of these suggestions will be helpful in my plan, the
goal of this business plan is to convince an investor to invest into my
business. The best way to do that is to give them what they want.
