Business Plan Development Expert Tim Berry

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.

https://www.sba.gov/blogs/what-business-plan-type-best-me

http://timberry.com/business-plan-expert/

http://timberry.com/businessplanning/

http://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/richard-bransons-5-rules-investment

SEO vs. PPC and Which is Better?

When business owners want to promote and market their business’s website or product that they are trying to distribute, they get can become a little confused when it comes to choosing to go the rout of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or PPC (Pay Per Click) and the most benefits they can acquire with the budget they have. First, lets explain and differentiate the two.

 Search Engine Optimization is the process of creating awareness or traffic to one’s website from free or organic search results on search engines such as Google or Bing. SEO is not about how big your pockets are, but rather how strategic you are in trying to get your website ranked high. Pay Per Click on the hand ultimately achieves the same goal; the difference is that it is neither organic nor free. You are paying for sustainability or how long an ad or link to your website will stay top ranked to be seen by more people. Every time someone clicks on your ad or link you are charge a small fee, this small fee can add up into a large sum of money depending on how much traffic is generated to that particular website.

This brings me to, which is better, SEO or PPC? This all depends on your budget and time. If you are not a tight budget, PPC is better since you will be generating traffic to your website from day one. The only downfall is that over time that traffic will slow down. For small business’s that are on a tight budget, SEO would be a better choice since it little to no cost to start this process. Although this process can be free you will not see traffic to your website on day one, it will take some time until you actually start seeing traffic and to be higher ranked on search engines, but once you are higher ranked, you will stay there which is beneficial in the long wrong. In the chart below you can see a visual of the difference with time and cost between SEO (Organic) and PPC (Paid).

                                                                      Link to Image

Interview Blog with Shy Boogs

Today February 14^th, 2015 I had the pleasure of “Face Time” interviewing Edward Timmons, a producer, audio engineer, song-writer, artist and founder of a recording studio and independent record label, So Amazin’ Ent. Edward Timmons, known better as Shy Boogs is from Clifton, NJ and just like most people in the entertainment industry; he started from the bottom and worked his way to where he is now. Shy has been working with music all his life but at the age of 19 doors started opening up for him once he did his first major recording session with Ol’ Dirty Bastard (ODB). This led him to later work with other artist such as Chris Brown, DMX, and even receive a gold plaque for his work on Bow Wow and Omarian’s album “Face Off”. Now Shy does much work for ESPN and is also signed as a songwriter to Sony/ATV publishing company.

Shy says in the music industry, you are always negotiating, whether you are selling your music to an artist, publishing company or an entertainment company such as ESPN. There will always be contracts put in place to make sure everyone receives what he or she agreed on. Now older, Shy understands the importance of negotiation and contracts. When shy was much younger in is early 20’s, he did some production work for a label he had good connections with at the time. At the time, Shy did not know much about the legal side of the music industry so he never had contracts put in to place for his work, the outcome of the negotiation was all verbal agreement. Years later in 2008 his production was in the movie called “Slum Dog Millionaire” which went on to win a Grammy and an Oscar for best sound track, which Shy never received credit for his stolen work since a contract was never put into place. This was an example of the opposing team using dirty tricks against someone with a disadvantage.

When Shy was looking for a publishing deal, Sony/ATV and Universal were both interested but Sony/ATV was more appealing to Shy so he went to them first. At first Sony/ATV did not want to give Shy the amount of money he requested so he gave them his BATNA which was signing a deal with Universal. At that point, Sony/ATV were more willing to negotiate a better rate for Shy’s services. In conclusion Sony/ATV and Shy both came to a mutual benefit, a better rate for Shy in return for any production Sony/ATV needed. 

Benefiting from the BP Oil Spill - Kevin Costner

Most people may know Kevin Costner mainly as an actor or even maybe for his singing, production, or directing, but he has accomplished much more than this. Kevin Costner is an entrepreneurial icon and a very successful business investor. Most know Kevin Costner from his leading roles in the films The Big Chill (1983), For Love of the game (1999) and many more. In 1978, Costner graduated from California State University with a degree in business.

In 1993, Costner obtained a licensed patent from the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory for an oil- water separator, and since then he has invested about $20 million in an oil separator produced by Louisiana-based Ocean Therapy Solutions. Costner’s company which now offers these oil-water separators is now called Blue Water Planet Solutions. Costner’s company stated that the way this technology works is “By spinning two fluids of different densities within a rotating container designed and built using this patented technology, the lighter fluid is forced toward the center of the rotor." “This allows dense, viscous oil to be removed from much lighter water.”

In 2010, the BP Oil Spill occurred and for a total of 87 days, over 200 million gallons of oil was driven into the Gulf of Mexico, making it the largest oil spill in the history of the United States. The primary explosion at BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 people and injured 17 others. Many people’s livelihoods suffered because of the BP oil spill, but Costner actually benefited from this disaster because his company played an important role in cleaning up the major oil spill. Because Costner’s company had the proper centrifuge technology to help clean up the Gulf of Mexico, BP signed a $16 million contract with Ocean Therapy Solutions (Blue Water Planet Solutions) for their Equipment and technology.