Writing a business plan
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So how does one go about writing a business plan? How do come up with those 5 years profit WAGS? How do you go about analyzing the market and trends? I'm sure some CPians have written a BP. Did you have help? Were you successful in funding your business? Marc
Marc Clifton wrote:
Were you successful in funding your business?
In my not so humble opinion seeking funding to start a business is the primary point of failure for most business. 90% of the time seeking funding to start a business is just laziness and impatience. A more sane and logical approach is to grow a business patiently over time within your means. When we started our software business we considered all the alternatives and decided that we would not risk more money or time than we could put into it while still working at our regular jobs. This was the smartest decision we ever made. We quite quickly grew the business to the point where more of us could completely quit working at our day jobs and we've never invested more in the business than it could produce in profits. Now it's our full time job and we have zero funds owing to anyone, it's all ours. The reason getting a lot of funding to start up a company often results in failure is because people that do it never get grounded in reality. The start with a boatload of cash, everything is easy, there is no need to be clever or careful or prudent and of course it inevitably goes through a ballistic arc and starts coming down and nothing that has happened before prepares you for dealing with the downside of the arc because you've been operating in an artificial environment for so long. While there's nothing wrong with going through the process of a business plan for your own personal knowledge and to see if it's a good idea in the first place (that's all the reason behind a business plan after all, to show people who have the money that you have a good idea that is worth them taking control of), it's best to spend a lot of effort concieving of every possible way you can grow that business without taking the easy and far more dangerous route of going deeply into debt.
"110%" - it's the new 70%
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So how does one go about writing a business plan? How do come up with those 5 years profit WAGS? How do you go about analyzing the market and trends? I'm sure some CPians have written a BP. Did you have help? Were you successful in funding your business? Marc
Marc Clifton wrote:
So how does one go about writing a business plan?
Very much like a plan for a software. If you need to ask "how do I create a software diagram?" probably you won't be able to build such software without a lot of errors and lost effort. If you're asking about creating a business plan, you probably lack business experience. So, probably creating a BP will be a futile attempt to predict the future. Maybe you should think about it as a check list for you commit less mistakes, but never as a document for proving someone else that your business is profitable enough to invest on. Often enough, you'll find that the business is so good that you can grow it by yourself without any 3rd party money.
Marc Clifton wrote:
How do you go about analyzing the market and trends?
Guessing and numbers. Just like stock quotes, you should find some number that prove your point. As we say here, "paper will accept anything", and you can put anything on a paper that seems reasonable, but often this is not the whole truth.
Marc Clifton wrote:
Did you have help? Were you successful in funding your business?
Yes. A friend of mine from financial market helped me as I didn't know how to write a BP. Now I know that I should have not worried about that, as I funded myself. My own experience: I created a company (Crivo) 7 years ago, and at that time I could not convince any VC to invest in my company. Every single VC fund said that we would not last 2 years. The funny thing is that the reason for that was different in each fund. All of them were wrong. Nowadays, my product is on the biggest Brazilian companies and we have about 40 people. Our income is doubling each year, and we're starting our 2nd branch office. I'm very happy about not having a VC fund as a partner with voting powers.
I see dead pixels
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Marc Clifton wrote:
Were you successful in funding your business?
In my not so humble opinion seeking funding to start a business is the primary point of failure for most business. 90% of the time seeking funding to start a business is just laziness and impatience. A more sane and logical approach is to grow a business patiently over time within your means. When we started our software business we considered all the alternatives and decided that we would not risk more money or time than we could put into it while still working at our regular jobs. This was the smartest decision we ever made. We quite quickly grew the business to the point where more of us could completely quit working at our day jobs and we've never invested more in the business than it could produce in profits. Now it's our full time job and we have zero funds owing to anyone, it's all ours. The reason getting a lot of funding to start up a company often results in failure is because people that do it never get grounded in reality. The start with a boatload of cash, everything is easy, there is no need to be clever or careful or prudent and of course it inevitably goes through a ballistic arc and starts coming down and nothing that has happened before prepares you for dealing with the downside of the arc because you've been operating in an artificial environment for so long. While there's nothing wrong with going through the process of a business plan for your own personal knowledge and to see if it's a good idea in the first place (that's all the reason behind a business plan after all, to show people who have the money that you have a good idea that is worth them taking control of), it's best to spend a lot of effort concieving of every possible way you can grow that business without taking the easy and far more dangerous route of going deeply into debt.
"110%" - it's the new 70%
John Cardinal wrote:
In my not so humble opinion seeking funding to start a business is the primary point of failure for most business.
I completely agree. The problem is, I have to put food on the table while polishing a product so that it's competitive and marketable. Even outsourcing the work is something I can't afford.
John Cardinal wrote:
While there's nothing wrong with going through the process of a business plan for your own personal knowledge and to see if it's a good idea in the first place
That's my main goal.
John Cardinal wrote:
it's best to spend a lot of effort concieving of every possible way you can grow that business without taking the easy and far more dangerous route of going deeply into debt.
110% agreement. :) Marc
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Check with your local branch of the United States Small Business Administration[^]. Specifically, you can look for Score[^], which is a source of free and confidential business advice and is made up of both working and retired executives and business owners who donate their time and expertise as business counselors. I have never used them myself, but I do know several people who have used both services and have been very satisified with the results.
----------------------------- In just two days, tomorrow will be yesterday.
Scott Dorman wrote:
Check with your local branch of
Thanks! I'll pursue those links! Marc
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John Cardinal wrote:
In my not so humble opinion seeking funding to start a business is the primary point of failure for most business.
I completely agree. The problem is, I have to put food on the table while polishing a product so that it's competitive and marketable. Even outsourcing the work is something I can't afford.
John Cardinal wrote:
While there's nothing wrong with going through the process of a business plan for your own personal knowledge and to see if it's a good idea in the first place
That's my main goal.
John Cardinal wrote:
it's best to spend a lot of effort concieving of every possible way you can grow that business without taking the easy and far more dangerous route of going deeply into debt.
110% agreement. :) Marc
May I suggest Marc, that the first thing you should do is create a survival budget. Secondly, establish the extent of monies that you would be required to pay to local and national governments in terms of income tax etc over a wide range of income levels. Decide those aspects of a business which will be direct or indirect expenses and overheads. Use MS excel spreadsheets and create profit and loss forecasting, and, cashflow forecasting in terms of budget and actual figures. The budget is what you anticipate will be. The actual figures won't yet be known, but do dry run exercises using feasible figures. Understand the differences between these forecasts as they will tell you different things on how successful or feasible a business might be. Doing this with MS Excel will get you used to these forecasts as if you understand these two forecasts to a good level, any business bank manager is more likely to view any business plan with a higher regard when you present your ideas to them. And presenting your ideas is compulsory and sometimes frightening task. In terms of the business plan, where you are doing market research etc., consider this an exercise not very different from the exercises you do when doing requirements gathering and risk analysis for a software project. I'll get back to you if you wish with some more info later...
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May I suggest Marc, that the first thing you should do is create a survival budget. Secondly, establish the extent of monies that you would be required to pay to local and national governments in terms of income tax etc over a wide range of income levels. Decide those aspects of a business which will be direct or indirect expenses and overheads. Use MS excel spreadsheets and create profit and loss forecasting, and, cashflow forecasting in terms of budget and actual figures. The budget is what you anticipate will be. The actual figures won't yet be known, but do dry run exercises using feasible figures. Understand the differences between these forecasts as they will tell you different things on how successful or feasible a business might be. Doing this with MS Excel will get you used to these forecasts as if you understand these two forecasts to a good level, any business bank manager is more likely to view any business plan with a higher regard when you present your ideas to them. And presenting your ideas is compulsory and sometimes frightening task. In terms of the business plan, where you are doing market research etc., consider this an exercise not very different from the exercises you do when doing requirements gathering and risk analysis for a software project. I'll get back to you if you wish with some more info later...
Richard A. Abbott wrote:
I'll get back to you if you wish with some more info later...
That's probably good enough for a solid start right now. I'll be writing more about this as I foray into the process. Thanks very much for the feedback! Marc
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So how does one go about writing a business plan? How do come up with those 5 years profit WAGS? How do you go about analyzing the market and trends? I'm sure some CPians have written a BP. Did you have help? Were you successful in funding your business? Marc
Marc Clifton wrote:
'm sure some CPians have written a BP. Did you have help? Were you successful in funding your business?
I've written two but not from the point of view of seeking funding; I was more concerned about not spinning my wheels. I found several plans from existing business and even sat down with the SBA [^] to make sure that I wasn't missing or skipping too many things. For me the key has been to be very clear about the objectives for the business for the 1st year, 2nd Year and, so on.
My Blog A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long
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Richard A. Abbott wrote:
I'll get back to you if you wish with some more info later...
That's probably good enough for a solid start right now. I'll be writing more about this as I foray into the process. Thanks very much for the feedback! Marc
Marc - can I suggest that you look at this book[^]? It is full of practical advice on running an ISV.
Please visit http://www.readytogiveup.com/ and do something special today. Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
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Marc Clifton wrote:
So how does one go about writing a business plan?
Very much like a plan for a software. If you need to ask "how do I create a software diagram?" probably you won't be able to build such software without a lot of errors and lost effort. If you're asking about creating a business plan, you probably lack business experience. So, probably creating a BP will be a futile attempt to predict the future. Maybe you should think about it as a check list for you commit less mistakes, but never as a document for proving someone else that your business is profitable enough to invest on. Often enough, you'll find that the business is so good that you can grow it by yourself without any 3rd party money.
Marc Clifton wrote:
How do you go about analyzing the market and trends?
Guessing and numbers. Just like stock quotes, you should find some number that prove your point. As we say here, "paper will accept anything", and you can put anything on a paper that seems reasonable, but often this is not the whole truth.
Marc Clifton wrote:
Did you have help? Were you successful in funding your business?
Yes. A friend of mine from financial market helped me as I didn't know how to write a BP. Now I know that I should have not worried about that, as I funded myself. My own experience: I created a company (Crivo) 7 years ago, and at that time I could not convince any VC to invest in my company. Every single VC fund said that we would not last 2 years. The funny thing is that the reason for that was different in each fund. All of them were wrong. Nowadays, my product is on the biggest Brazilian companies and we have about 40 people. Our income is doubling each year, and we're starting our 2nd branch office. I'm very happy about not having a VC fund as a partner with voting powers.
I see dead pixels
Daniel Turini wrote:
Our income is doubling each year, and we're starting our 2nd branch office.
Impressive!
Daniel Turini wrote:
I'm very happy about not having a VC fund as a partner with voting powers.
Indeed. :) Marc
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Marc - can I suggest that you look at this book[^]? It is full of practical advice on running an ISV.
Please visit http://www.readytogiveup.com/ and do something special today. Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
Pete O`Hanlon wrote:
can I suggest that you look at this book[^]? It is full of practical advice on running an ISV.
Thanks! I'll check it out. Marc