Transcendent Music Presents: What We Learned From Experts to Improve Our Business Plans

Transcendent Music Presents: What We Learned From Experts to Improve Our Business Plans

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.

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.