Check it out, great series of web seminars by Tim Berry.

I have told you before how great a resource SCORE is, if you did not believe me then, read this article! Everyone has uses for SCORE and it truly is FREE HELP. When is anything ever truly free? SCORE is definitely the premier source you should be using while writing your business plan.

NYTimes.com - Starting a Small Business? A Retired Executive Wants to Help.

Writing your business plan requires research, and as many of you have probably had to do for other writings, you need to document and cite your sources. The business plan appendix is the place for that.

In your appendix you will include any citing and sources. Copies of them if possible. You will also include any relevant business documents. Like..

For a potential start-up business plan or idea plan:

• Market Studies and Reports
• Advertising Materials (direct mail, logos, anything brand related)
• Referenced Sources and Bibliography
• Resumes (Do you have a partner? Include theirs as well)
• Owners Finances
• Glossary of terms used

For an established or recently started business, you want to include everything from above plus:

• Legal Documents (Company Bylaws?)
• Annual Reports
• Board Meeting Minutes
• Business Credit (DUNs, Experian)
• Tax Documents
• Customer Testimonials (1 to 2 pages worth, quality over quantity)
• Distributors or Supplier listing
• Photographs, pictures, maps (storefront?)

There are a few items on the list that are up in the air. A glossary is not needed if you are using lots of technical terms. For common sense business ideas you can skim a lot from the appendix.

Overall I would say your appendix for a start-up should be at least 6-7 pages. Of course, like I said, this all really depends on the type of business and service vs. product.

I would say it is better to go over than be missing something. Maybe some people feel differently, but sometimes you only have one chance so make sure all bases are covered when that chance comes.

I know, I know… not much activity and I’ve been back for about two weeks now. I have been catching up on life and work, and now that I am caught up I had to goto the doctor Friday. I have awful strep and sinus infection. I did manage to finish up one post which I’m about to put out after I write this. So definitely check that out.

I have another in the works I’ll shoot for tomorrow to get going, since I will be spending new years at home! Oh well, I dont need to miss anymore postings so I better get well.

As usual, be sure to subscribe if you like the information you find and wish to get more. As well don’t be hesitant to contact me if you have specific questions either via comment or email if private.

Have a great 2008!

Drew

Alright everyone, I’m sure you have noticed I put in a few good posts before the other day. That’s to keep everyone content for the next week. I’m off to the Bahamas this Sunday, and will not be back for a week.

I’ll make it up by putting in a really good post when I come back!

Other than financials, if there is one piece of a business plan that must be PERFECT… this is it. Your executive summary needs to sell the reader on your concept, idea, product, or service. It also needs to sell them on something just as important, you and your business model!

Write your executive summary last. That way by the time you are ready to write it, you have done all the necessary research about every other aspect and probably know your financials like the back of your hand. This is so key. Your executive summary is going to tell the reader if you are full of it or not.

Basically… If I have a hard time getting through your executive summary, I will never make it to the end. I’ve destined you for doom already. You will find about 95% of the people who will be reading your plan feel the same way.

Now, onto the particulars when writing the executive summary of your business plan:

Keep it short. It is a summary after-all. A lot of information you read out there will say no more than 4 pages. I say no more than 2. Unless you happen to be developing a new rocket shuttle, why all the fluff? Do not waste my time, you can do it in 2. And if you are a service business, it’s probably a small operation in which case it better only be 1 page or you are talking too much. The only way I would say to run over is if you use small graphics and tables for highlights that are placed into the executive summary. Which is GOOD, just don’t over do it.

Stay with the track. You should be talking about these points, in this order.

• Mission Statement and Goals
• When did or will the business start? Who are the founders? Briefly, what they do and why.
• Employees? How many? When?
• Location and any other facilities that will be utilized.
• Product or services offered.
• Relationships. Investors? Bankers?
• Company growth. Where are you taking this? How long til this happens?
• Financial and marketing milestones and highlights. Roll this in with the company growth if possible.
• The future for management.

Remember, keep all this simple. You have already laid out the specifics of ALL of these topics in the pages to follow. Don’t be redundant.

Million Dollar Words. Why you should not use them in your business plan.

I’m going to keep this post short, it needs to be simple and straightforward. As should your wording.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about when I say Million Dollar Words, I mean words that you can barely pronounce much less know what they mean. When writing your business plan try to keep it straight forward. On my first business plan, I used lots of million dollar words like plethora, commensurate, and even… Supercallafrajalistic Expialadociuos. Plethora isn’t that bad.. but a lot works just as well. The result was that there were parts that even I was confused by after reading over it. You don’t want this to happen. That doesn’t mean make it so a child can understand, just keep it simple. It’s perfectly fine to use them occasionally, but when you have an entire sentence of huge million dollar words, that’s not good. Keep in mind if you ever take your plan to a bank or investor, they are typically going to be older in age and pretty conservative. The last thing you want is to insult them by making them feel like they need to ask a ton of “what does this mean?” questions.

In short… Please, no extravagant (hah!) language. KISS!
Also, check out this post from another blog. “Simplify what you say.” It’s a good read.

More from other blogs:

Tech Dirt - Big words make you look dumb?

Bizcovering - Six types of words you should axe in business writing 

I hope everyone likes the new look. It’s just a template from www.wpdesigner.com, but I’ve done a lot of modifications and alterations to get it where I want. Let me know if you think something should change. I am open to suggestions!

I was going to write a post about Online Press Releases, but then I found this video from PRWeb.com. I have used them and in my opinion they are one of the better services. Priced right too, a normal release is 80.00.

Anyway, check out the video. It kinda sums up what a PR release can do and how easy they are to fire off.

I see a lot of business people who think they can sell to everyone. You can’t and you don’t. One way to drive your business and business plan to the bottom of the barrel is to say you sell to everybody. Yes, there are products or services that everyone needs, but you can’t provide or market to everyone. So you need to pick a specific target market to focus your efforts on. Because plainly, you won’t be selling me the same shampoo you’re selling my mother.

Think about the target group that could benefit the most from your business and hit them hard. Get really specific. With my commercial photography company I target Architects and Architecture Firms. It’s a pretty small niche and is not as crowded as say Fashion or Advertising photography.

Once you have narrowed your market down as small as you can get it, see if there are enough in that market to satisfy your business. If there aren’t, move a little broader. Do this until you find a suitable market to point yourself to.

One good resource for looking at markets and educating yourself on that markets habits are demographics and census information. Try the Census Bureau Home Page for more info on the census database. This is a free service and you can get pretty specific in your searches, down to the zipcode and county.

If you do not want to put your own demographics together, there are services you can subscribe to like DemographicsNow. With DemographicsNow you can build your own reports and get very specific. I recommend them because the reports you generate are well put together and the data is not so raw as using the Census Bureau. However, DemographicsNow runs around 1300/year. You commit to a yearly subscription. So I would suggest if you plan on accessing it very casually that this is not a service for you. Work with what the Census Bureau offers. Once you play with it a bit it becomes a lot easier to turn into something presentable!

UPDATE: 

I completely forgot about FreeDemographics.com ran by DemographicsNow.com. I would also suggest signing up there and running all the free reports you can. It still comes out looking better than raw Census Bureau data. Here is a sample report.