The value of Business Plans

In researching experts in the field of writing and reviewing Business Plans I came across Nicole Williams a bestselling author of “Girl on Top”,  “Your Guide to Turning Dating Rules into Career Success”, she is an expert on writing Business Plans for women who are career-minded and need advice on writing a Business Plan. She advises women on getting started. Nicole is the Connection Director at LinkedIn.

Nicole explains the reason you need a business plan and why it is important to have goals, and your business plan will let investors know what your business is about. She explains why it important to have a solid Executive Summary that lets investors know what the business is, why you created the business, is there a market for it and if there is opportunity for your business. This will capture the investor’s interest.  Another key component is finances and how much you will need to get the business started, and to think about quality not quantity. Nicole points out to embrace rejection and ask question to gauge what need to be changed in the business plan.

I also came across Tim Berry who is business plan expert whose been called the Obi-Wan Kenobe of business planning. Tim is “Founder and Chairman of Palo Alto Software, co-founder of Borland International, founder of bplans.com, and author of books and software, teacher of entrepreneurship, blogger, Stanford MBA, angel investor”. Tim is known as The Father of Business Planning and is the official Business Plan expert at Entrepreneur Magazine.

Tim explains that the key components investors look for in a plan is your business identity (how will you be different), what is your market (what are your customers wants and needs), your strategic focus. These three things are the heart of your business and plan and will keep you focus.

Considering the key components for my business plan I intend to follow Tim Berry’s suggestions about the heart of business and make sure to focus on how I will be different from my competitors, know what my customers want and need, and my strategic focus.