business plan
Why Startups Need To Make Their Business Plan Simple
By Martin at November 27, 2013 | 8:17 am | 0 Comment
If you want people to invest in your idea, then my best advice is first write a business plan, and keep it simple. Don't confuse your business plan with a doctoral thesis or the back of a napkin. Keep the wording and formatting straightforward, and keep the plan short. For minimum content, see my article “These 10 Key Elements Make a Business Plan more...
How To Avoid Writing A Business Plan First
By Martin at November 16, 2013 | 8:51 am | 0 Comment
How To Avoid Writing A Business Plan First If you are one of the new age of entrepreneurs who hates the thought of doing a business plan as a first step in starting your new venture you will love this message. More and more professionals agree that a better strategy is to explore and fine tune your assumptions before declaring a specific plan with financial more...
Business Plan Tips For Entrepreneurs
By Martin at August 20, 2013 | 8:12 am | 0 Comment
Too many entrepreneurs still believe the urban myth that you can sketch your idea on a napkin, and investors will throw money at you. Every investor I know is frustrated with the poor quality of the business plans they get. This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section more...
Does Every Entrepreneur Need A Business Plan?
By Martin at June 15, 2013 | 8:52 am | 0 Comment
On a regular basis, I am approached by entrepreneurs who assert that business plans are a waste of time. They cite sources like a recent BusinessWeek story, “Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans” and this NY Times article. From my perspective as a professional investor and long-time advisor to entrepreneurs, much of this urban legend advice is just more...
Smart Tips For Making A Business Plan For Your Startup
By Martin at October 19, 2012 | 8:44 am | 0 Comment
If you want people to invest in your idea, then my best advice is first write a business plan, and keep it simple. Don't confuse your business plan with a doctoral thesis or the back of a napkin. Keep the wording and formatting straightforward, and keep the plan short. The overriding principle is that your business plan must be easy to read. This means writing at the more...
Ten Slides You Need During Investor Presentation
By Martin at August 28, 2012 | 10:23 am | 0 Comment
As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! A perfect round number is ten slides, with the right content, that can be covered in ten minutes. Even if you have an hour booked, the advice is the same. I’ve more...
Smart Tips To Make A Good Product Plan For Your Startup
By admin at August 21, 2012 | 8:23 am | 0 Comment
Smart Tips To Make A Good Product Plan For Your Startup Why is it that most of the business plans I see are really product plans? I define a product plan as a detailed description of your product or service, with a bit of business thrown in at the end. A business plan is a detailed description of your business, with a bit of product description thrown in near the more...
Tips To Build A Successful Business Plan
By Martin at August 14, 2012 | 8:31 am | 0 Comment
Tips To Build A Successful Business Plan People ask me if they really need ANY business plan, unless they are looking for an outside investor. In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Things that make it investment-grade for outside investors will also benefit you, since more...
How To: Make Perfect Executive Summary For Your Startups
By Martin at April 10, 2012 | 10:56 am | 0 Comment
Modern investors love to first read a two-page summary of your business plan, formatted like a glossy marketing collateral sheet, with text well laid out in columns and sidebars, and a couple of relevant graphics. This one had better grab their attention, or they won’t look further. You may have already found several articles, web pages, or books about writing the more...
10 Key Mistakes To Avoid While Sending A Business Plan To Investor
By Martin at April 3, 2012 | 8:12 am | 0 Comment
10 Key Mistakes To Avoid While Sending A Business Plan To Investor After struggling to create your business plan for months, every entrepreneur likes to think that their document is inspirational and will reach someone who is smart enough to see the brilliance of the idea, intuitive enough to recognize their business acumen, and enthusiastic enough to offer the more...
Working on a Business Plan? Then Follow These Business Writing Basics
By Martin at January 30, 2012 | 10:38 am | 0 Comment
In the world of business, you only get one chance for a great first impression. The stakes are high – you are asking an investor for money, a customer for an order, or another executive for a partnership. Badly written letters, long rambling or emotional emails, or an obvious lack of spell checking will brand you as a poor business risk before the message is even more...
Make A Good Business Plan For Your Start Up Ideas Via Plancruncher
By Vineet at October 11, 2011 | 12:08 pm | 0 Comment
Most of the new wannabe entrepreneurs lack good business plan making skills that's why they fail to get investors for their startup projects. So,what's the solution? Well,how about using some sites that could help you to make a good business plan? How? Through Plancruncher. What it does? Plan Cruncher creates a standard one-page summary of a more...
Tips for your startup funding
By Martin at June 18, 2011 | 10:49 am | 0 Comment
Every investor expects to see some business traction, both before and after a funding event. If you have been working 20 hours a day, and spent your last dollar, but have no results to show, investors will be sympathetic, but will probably tell you that your dream doesn’t have wheels. Traction means forward progress. I hear a lot of entrepreneurs contemplating their more...
Tips for “startup presentations” to investors
By Martin at June 11, 2011 | 1:33 pm | 0 Comment
As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! A perfect round number is ten slides, with the right content, that can be covered in ten minutes. Even if you have an hour booked, the advice is the same. I’ve more...
Product Plan Vs Business Plan
By Martin at May 30, 2011 | 10:28 am | 0 Comment
Why is it that most of the business plans I see are really product plans? I define a product plan as a detailed description of your product or service, with a bit of business thrown in at the end. A business plan is a detailed description of your business, with a bit of product description thrown in near the front. Don’t get me wrong. It’s definitely positive to more...
Attract Investors By Smart Summary Of Your Business Plan
By Martin at February 4, 2011 | 11:22 am | 0 Comment
Modern investors love to first read a two-page summary of your business plan, formatted like a glossy marketing collateral sheet, with text well laid out in columns and sidebars, and a couple of relevant graphics. This one had better grab their attention, or they won’t look further. You may have already found several articles, web pages, or books about writing the more...
Teamup2gether–Connect Smart Entrepreneurs With Savvy Investors
By Vineet at February 9, 2010 | 9:44 pm | 0 Comment
What Company Is Offering: Teamup2gether is the new website that will help smart entrepreneurs in touch with savvy investors. It provides a simple to use service to help start ups and growing businesses to find seed funds, angel investors or second stage capital for expansion. Teamup2gether is offering a Free Business Plan Evaluation Service to Entrepreneurs as a way of more...
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