Business Plan Experts; Part 1

We are lucky there are experts out there in the fields of writing and/or reviewing business plans we can learn from. Before writing your own plan it is good to seek out the experts, and what they expect to see when they receive and review a plan. I have researched the business plan expert Tim Barry. First off his website is spot on. He obviously has either a digital marketing degree, or employs an expert in this field. I am very impressed by his amount of blog posts. Barry is not just an expert in business plan writing, he also judges business plan writing competitions (I was not aware this even existed), and is a member of an angel investment group. The critical and key components he is looking for in a plan are: the problem the business solves, the businesses solution, why a consumer/client should pick your business, management team experience, and growth goals. These points are key because they get down to the nitty gritty quickly on what your business is all about. I like the suggestion on the growth plan. You cannot get people involved or interested in your business if they do not see a place for you in the future. Next I researched Ross Blankenship. He is an expert on Venture Capital, Startups and Angel Investing. He says in his book “Kings over Aces," the four core ingredients to consider before investing in a company are People, Product, Execution, and Timing (financials). Blankenship “wants companies who will maintain their success against their competition because they know how to adjust their product or service to fit the needs of the market. They know how to spend their money responsibly; and they know that even when they reach profitability, there still will not be enough time in the day to get everything done” (Blankenship, 2015, p. 21). The point he makes we at my company Trade Sound Productions live by is to know even when we make money and are profitable there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done. Never stop moving forward.