Transcendent Music Presents: What We Learned From Experts to
Improve Our Business Plans
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| http://www.growthink.com/team/dave-lavinsky |
In the previously posted blog, we
took a look at the profiles and entrepreneurial theories of two experts in
business plan development and business startups. The two experts were Dave Lavinsky and Tim Berry.
Dave Lavinsky’s philosophy is based
on a very fundamental rule: give customers
what they really want. After reading about
him and his business plan theory, I started to question how I could improve my own
business plan. The act of giving the
customer what they really want requires you to first know what the customer really wants. It is hard for me as a startup to accurately
gauge what the customer really wants. I
have found this to be one of the great risks of starting a business. I believe that you can have an idea about
what you think your customers want but never really know with absolute
certainty. Due to this reality, I have accepted
Lavinsky’s theory partially. Most
startups do not have the capital to conduct the market research or financial forecasting
that may be required to more accurately determine what your customers want
prior to launching your business. This
may be the reason why many startups fail in the early stages of their
life. However, I also am of the thought
that customers do not always know exactly what they want prior to it being
presented to them. It takes a balance of
both what the customers want and what you envision that the customers will want. My argument is supported by the likes of Mark Cuban, Steve Jobs and Henry
Ford. It was Ford who said, “If I had asked people what
they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” The suggestions of Dave Lavinsky did not
contribute to a particular part of my business plan but it impacted the plan in
its entirety. Lavinsky indirectly led me
to have more confidence in my business idea. As soon as my doors open, ensuring customer
satisfaction will be a top priority of my business.
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| http://www.richardduffy.com/right-time-for-business-planning-guest-post-from-tim-berry |
The second expert we profiled was Tim
Berry. Berry is a CEO and another
prominent expert in business planning and business plan development. My research on Tim Berry taught me the real
reason for a business plan, as he sees it.
Berry’s philosophy say that the role of business plan is not to sway
investors but to actually plan in detail how your business will operate
successfully. In practice, this may not
change much of the content of your business plan, but it will help you focus on
planning how you will operate after the business becomes a reality. This theory helps put in perspective why you
are composing your business plan. Tim
Berry’s business planning philosophy is something that I implemented in the way
I completed my financial statements. It
also enabled me to keep my operations section simple. Though it may be appealing to speak of elaborate
operating systems and business methods in the operations section, for my
personal benefit and business planning the simplicity of the operations section
reflects the simplicity of how we plan to do business. By taking Tim Berry’s advice I was able to
make composing my business plan personal, therefore making it make sense for
me. By implementing Berry’s philosophy,
my business plan will be able to act as a guideline for any employee of my
business to be able to read and understand fully what we do and how we do
it.
There are two sections of a
business plan that I think investors are particular interested in. These sections are the financials and the
management section. Every investor wants
to know how the company is going to make money.
From there they are interested in how much money the business is capable
of generating and how much of that will be allocated to pay back investors. Investors want to know if they will receive a
return on their investment, and if so, when and how much. The management section is important to
investors because these are the individuals who will be steering the company
either to success or to failure. These
individuals need to display competence and have a vision for the direction of
the company. Investors want to know that
their investment is being managed by personnel capable of getting them their
return.
