Writing A Business Plan

Posted: Monday, July 11, 2011 by Morris in Labels:
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For this post, I will be delving into the area of writing a business plan. I am currently pursuing the task of starting up Fuzhen, inc, my company which majors on Christian Entertainment. Before getting into the details on what I came across, I will say that I believe having a business plan is a step in the right direction for aspiring entrepreneurs. Not just because the plan is a key component when pitching to investors, but more so an asset that will help get your thoughts down on paper.

Two experts that I found were Dr. Jay Ebben and Guy Kawasaki. The two have achieved much in their careers, and are currently still active in influencing people’s lives. Dr. Jay Ebben is a professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. Dr Ebben has his MBA and Ph.D in Entrepreneurship with specializations in Small Business/New Venture strategies.

Guy Kawasaki is a man from Honolulu, Hawaii with a MBA from UCLA. He used to hold the position of chief evangelist at Apple, and has written about 10 business savvy books.

The Experts Thoughts on Business Plan Writing:

Key Points from Dr. Ebben
1. Telling Your Story When Writing Your Business Plan
a. Develop Your Story
i. includes Narrative and Economic Pieces

b. One Big Mistake
i. People lack on the Economic Piece of the Story
c. Have a Closing to your business plan

Key Points from Guy
The Zen of Business Plans
a. Write for the right reasons
b. Make it a Solo Effort
c. Pitch, then plan
d. Put in the Right Stuff
e. Focus on the Executive Summary
f. Keep It Clean
g. Provide a one-page financial projection plus key metrics
h. Catalyze fantasy
i. Write deliberate, act emergent

After reading the points in depth mentioned by Guy and Dr. Ebben I find that passion or the narrative piece (as Dr. E describes) are important but they have to be paired with a strong economic piece or include thorough financial projections. If investors don’t see how money will be made, the idea may be a good one but not worth someone’s hard earned capital. The economic piece is key for investors but should be key to you as well. If your company is not showing projections on at least breaking even, why waste your time.

I am going to read more on the thoughts of Dr. Ebben and Guy, I want to be sure I get my business plan right.

Plan Writing (The RIGHT Way),

~Morris

1 comments:

  1. Octavia Schofield says:
    August 8, 2011 at 9:46 AM

    This post is very informative. I'd like to know more about your company that you want to start. It sounds interesting.


    --Octavia

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