Business Plan Competitions

Last week saw the thrust and parry of dueling keyboards as [a mainstream media consortium] took umbrage with the blogosphere, and bloggers’ frequent quotations from the [mmc]’s posted stories. There were demands for the take-down of various blog pages, and attempts to collect fees-per-word of quotes, as well as rapier-like witty ripostes. You can read about this on the TechCrunch blog, Post 1, and and Post 2.

While this issue seems, on the surface, to be about copyright, fair use, and possibly expansion of new revenue streams, it also deals with attribution and citing of sources. This is not just for journalists. It is just as important to entrepreneurs.

When you write your business plan, especially if you are using the plan to secure funding, you must cite your sources. Your plan will have topics and statistics covering your target market, population demographics, spending habits, market trends, market growth, and the like. The banks or investors or VCs are savvy business people. They know how to double check your assumptions, and will have no qualms about calling your bluff…and quashing your funding if they don’t credit your stats.

If your business is going to provide day care services, you’d better be able to show an increase in young dual-income families in your area. Investors are unlikely to support the construction of high-end mansions in a community that has been losing all of its industry. If you forecast skyrocketing sales, you’d better be able to document how a similar product or service did the same, and why yours will follow suit, and not crash and burn in a saturated market niche.

In other words you can’t pull your projections out of your … that is, out of thin air! Do your research! Develop your forecasts using that information. Document your sources in your plan. Take a look at this blog post by Alan Gleeson, Managing Director of Palo Alto Software Ltd, in the UK. The post quotes several people, businesses and news sources, and includes links and footnotes. Your business plan should do the same, giving the proper attribution to your sources.

As a raconteur I can make it up as I go along. As a business owner you don’t have that luxury.

Steve Lange
Senior Editor
Palo Alto Software

Tags: attribution, business plan, citing sources, document forecasts, quotes, research
Posted on June 25th, 2008 | No Comments »

I found the following story on several Internet sites.

At New York’s Kennedy airport today, an individual, later discovered to be a public school teacher, was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, and a calculator.

The Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security believe the man is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement. He is being charged with carrying weapons of math instruction.

Al-Gebra is a very fearsome cult, indeed. They desire average solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on a tangent in a search of absolute value.

They consist of quite shadowy figures, with names like “x” and “y”, and, although they are frequently referred to as “unknowns”, we know they really belong to a common denominator and are part of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country.

As the great Greek mathematician Isosceles used to say, there are 3 sides to every triangle, and if God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes.

Therefore, I’m extremely grateful that our government has given us a sine that it is intent on protracting us from these math-dogs who are so willing to disintegrate us with calculus disregard.

These statistic scumbags love to inflict plane on every sphere of influence.

Under the circumferences, it’s time we differentiated their root, made our point, and drew the line. These weapons of math instruction have the potential to decimate everything in their math on a scalene never before seen unless we become exponents of a Higher Power and begin to factor-in random facts of vertex.

As our Great Leader would say, “Read my ellipse.”

Here is one principle he knows with certainty, they continue to multiply, their days are numbered and the hypotenuse will tighten around their necks.

Funny, yes? I think so.

Mark Twain said, “The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning-bug.”

The story above is also a cautionary tale about spell checker software, and the almost-right word. Everything in that story is spelled correctly, but many words are very incorrect in the context of Homeland Security. My spell checker just breezed right on by those.

If you make similar mistakes in the business plan you submit, the bank, the investors, the venture competition judges, or your MBA professors will also get a good laugh … and keep right on chuckling as they send your plan to the Out box.

Proofread your plan. Have someone who wasn’t involved in writing the plan read it over. Implement the edit suggestions you receive.

Steve Lange
Palo Alto Software

Tags: , business plan, edit, funding, investment, proof read, spell checker, spelling, venture, words
Posted on June 17th, 2008 | No Comments »

The recent launch of the Zilok website in the U.K. (May 2008) reaffirmed to me that the way we have been consuming for many years in Western Society is changing. The raison d’être for Zilok goes something like this:

“Why own a ladder or a drill when you only need to use it once a year and you can rent one from a neighbour for a very low cost?”

I think of my parents’ generation, and a combination of increased disposable income (relative to their parents), significant marketing and the growth of retail parks meant that most of their generation have garages full of items that rarely see the light of day. However, our world is changing. In recent years there has also been an increase in single-person households, as well as a growth in apartments and flats with less square footage for storage than the houses of our parents. It’s not simply a case of why buy a ladder to use once a year but also a case of if I buy it, where do I store it?

The notion of community has also changed and urban dwellers are more likely to access an online community than knock next door to borrow something.

The Internet has also served to reduce transaction costs across the board. It is now easier to search for a wide range of (long tail and /or obscure) products and services from a PC. The days of driving around calling into different stores are well gone. On the supplier side it has removed the need for providers to have a physical presence in the various markets that they serve, or to carry a lot of stock in these stores.

Finally there is a greater environmental awareness amongst consumers and an increasing amount of purchase decisions now include a weighting for the environmental impact of their purchases. Websites such as The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard seek to promote sustainable production and indeed consumption –again seeking to promote shared ownership, product reuse and seeking to educate people about the impacts of their purchase decisions.

As a result of these changes, there is a raft of emerging offerings that blur the lines between products and services as we have traditionally known them. The message for entrepreneurs is that environmental changes and changes in consumer behaviour create business opportunities. The next ‘big idea’ is more likely to be a simple tweak to an existing product or service rather than a ‘mad professor idea’ concocted in a garden shed! Read More..

Alan Gleeson

Palo Alto Software (U.K.)

Posted on May 30th, 2008 | No Comments »

A few weeks ago we had a conversation with Nate Alder, one of the people behind Klymit Technologies, featured on our blog.

The Money.CNN.com website featured them as one of the winners of the Moot Corp Business Plan Competition back in April.

If you’re interested, you can see the elevator pitches for all the 2008 winners, including Nate giving one for Klymit.

‘Chelle Parmele

Posted on May 27th, 2008 | No Comments »

Launch: Silicon Valley is a product launch platform for cash strapped startups in the information technology, mobility, security, digital media, next generation Internet, life sciences and clean energy fields.

They are currently accepting executive summaries from new companies that are ready for launch, but are not yet well known.

Companies that are interested in presenting their products at Launch: Silicon Valley 2008 should send an Executive Summary of no more than 2 pages to Launchsv@svase.org by latest  May 9, 2008

‘Chelle Parmele
Palo Alto Software

Posted on April 29th, 2008 | No Comments »

This article titled Lolcat site hiring; spelling skillz optional appeared in Yahoo! News today.

“I can haz dream Job? My rezumez! let me showz u thm”
That’s the subject line of a cover letter sent by a job applicant to I Can Has Cheezburger, one of the premier sites for so-called Lolcat pictures.

“I got a stack of résumés that I can’t even go through,” said Ben Huh, founder of the site. “You know how they say, ‘Spell everything correctly because the people reading your résumé will toss it out otherwise?’ Well, we can’t even do that. We won’t knock you out for spelling…. The traditional résumé screening methods don’t apply here.”

This intentional devolution of language makes an old curmudgeon editor such as myself just cringe.

Now, I get a chuckle out of these photos and captions too, but you have to know how to spell correctly in order to get the most humor benefit from the misspelling.

To say that it is acceptable to have just a little misspelling on your résumé, or your business plan, is like Homer Simpson sitting at the nuclear power plant controls saying “Don’t worry. It’s OK. The needle is just a little bit into the red zone. Now, where are those donuts?”

Use your spell checker. Proofread your work, or all of your efforts could blow up.

Steve Lange
Senior Editor
Palo Alto Software

Tags: business plan, misspelling, resume, spell check, spelling
Posted on April 24th, 2008 | No Comments »

We’re happy to introduce you to our newest BIG Blog contributing author: Brian Mackley. Brian is the co-founder of The Technology Advocacy Group, and his team is laser-focused on reducing the time and expense involved in adopting technology. We asked Brian to share his fresh point of view with the readers of The BIG Blog as a regular contributor.

Winston Churchill was quoted “Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.” His concept of planning is wise advice in the 21^st century for any business regarding technology. Planning ahead is not simply a good idea, it is a core characteristic of a growing and successful business.

Technology should always be purchased with an eye to the future. A telecommunications system for a new business should consider scalability and the long term cost associated with expected growth. Any organization that buys just enough internet bandwidth for today will soon pay the price with latency and delay tomorrow.

There are challenges in planning today for the cost of tomorrow’s technology. How do you estimate the cost of technology that may not even be on the market today? What line item expenses in this year’s budget should decrease over the next two years? These are just two questions that you will be forced to answer when you become disciplined about planning.

Geoffrey A. Moore’s book, Crossing the Chasm, explains the technology adoption life cycle model initially created by Joe M. Bohlen and George M. Beal in 1957.

This bell curve model groups technology buyers into groups. The “innovators” and “early adopters”. Next are the “early and late majority,” followed by the final group called “laggards”. It is important to understand where you are in this bell curve. This understanding will greatly assist you in forecasting your technology expenses. If you are always the early adopter, you will pay more for the i-phone than the laggard. Using this model should help you with your plan.

Understanding through planning will save you time, money, and frustration. Often a business owner will order software when they need it, only to be disappointed after realizing the full adoption and integration process can take months. Planning for your technology needs will benefit you financially, and it will assist your business in realizing the benefits of the technology in a more rapid and seamless effort.

Work toward progress not perfection in your efforts to estimate next years technology needs and cost. Remember the quote from George S. Patton “A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”

Brian L. Mackley
Co-Founder
Technology Advocacy Group

Posted on April 14th, 2008 | No Comments »

Tim Berry will be judging at this year’s New Venture Championship in Portland Oregon this weekend. We will be presenting the Best Written Plan for the event. Several of us - Sabrina Parsons, Noah Parsons, Kristen Langham, Jake Weatherly, Cale Bruckner and myself, will be attending the event and listening in on the presentations.

The presentations are open sessions, so anyone in the area is welcome to come. For more information on the schedule you can look on the New Venture Championship website.

This is a yearly event and we’re always very excited to see the companies and presentations. Good luck to all of the presenters!

‘Chelle Parmele

Posted on April 10th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

What would you do to grow your business with $100,000? It’s not just an idle question. Forbes.com is offering that as the grand prize in its Boost Your Business In 2008 business plan contest.

Applications are being accepted now, and through the end of May.

And here’s a challenge for you: the first round is no more than 500 words, which must include (quoting):

• Description Of The Business: Specifically, what product or service is being sold and to what type of customer? What is the estimated size of the addressable market?
• Discussion Of The Business Model: How, specifically, does the company earn a profit? (Examples: retail sales, consulting fees, advertising.)
• Capitalization: How is the business funded? (Examples: loans from family and friends, venture capital, bank loans, cash flow from operations.)
• Differentiators: How is the business different from–or better than–the competition? Why do people want or need this product or service? What is the company’s sustainable competitive advantage? If the business is technology-based, has a relevant patent or license been secured?
• Years Of Relevant Experience: For how long, and in what capacity, have you and your management team been involved in the industry?
• Your Plan For Using The $100,000 Prize Money: This is critical! Briefly but specifically describe how you would invest the largesse to take your business to the next level. (Examples: new equipment, new people, more marketing, etc.)

For more information, visit the Forbes.com website.

– Tim Berry
President
Palo Alto Software

Posted on April 6th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

The 5th Annual Small Business BC business plan competition just concluded. It sounds like the event was a huge success this year with over 170 qualified applicants, great finalists, and a great winning business plan. Meet the winners. Danita Harty, over at fundfindr.tv, wrote a nice post about the event. fundfinder.tv is also featuring a video overview of the event that includes interviews with the judges and participants - I especially like the bit that starts at about 4:36.

Winner: James Shearer from Peragro Media Inc.

– Cale Bruckner

Posted on March 19th, 2008 | 1 Comment »