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business planning

2012: Plan Your Year -- Now

December 14, 2011 by Dan Kraus with 55 views

11 months gone. 1/2 month left – but only about 10 real working days – and the distractions bring that down to about 5. So… What are you doing now that will make next year different than this year?  It all comes down to business development. How are you going to better develop your business next year? Marketing? Sales? Customer... [read more]

Real Business Planning Thrives on Uncertainty

March 3, 2011 by Tim Berry with 369 views

How do business plans and business planning relate to maps and navigations and getting somewhere? What about the difference between a business plan, business planning process, and extensive planning? Why would you care? Consider this quote: That is not to say entrepreneurs don’t have goals, only that those goals are broad and—like... [read more]

Business Plans are Never Done

March 1, 2010 by Tim Berry with 295 views

If your business plan is finished, your business is finished. I’d like to think that this is obvious, but a lot of people don’t get it. A business plan isn’t supposed to be finished, ever. If it’s useful to your business, then you keep it alive. You review it regularly. You check assumptions and how they’ve changed, You compare plan vs... [read more]

Ten Things to Consider When Reviewing Your Business Plan

January 26, 2010 by Tushar Mathur with 196 views

Once your Business Strategic Planning”>Business Strategic Planning have been completed, it’s time to review your work. Remember, writing your business plan is a significant step in making your small business concept a reality. Therefore, you should review your plan carefully and ask others who you feel can provide sound advice to... [read more]

How to Know When to Give Up

January 26, 2010 by Barry Moltz with 190 views

We have a great tradition in America never to give up. We hear the rallying cry that we should “Never Surrender”, “Never Give Up” and that “Quitters Never Win and Winners Never Quit”. This is just plain nonsense. The winners in this would know when to quit. One of my favorite quote is from that old cowboy, Will Rogers, “If you... [read more]

What Family Business Consultants Do

January 20, 2010 by Tushar Mathur with 175 views

Family business consultants can help families look at things from the outside in. Let’s face it, we all want to take care of our families and we want to take care of our businesses – in part because a well cared for business will take care of us. On the one hand we have today’s issues with the family to consider as well as this or... [read more]

Making New Years Business Resolutions That “Stick”

January 3, 2010 by Skip Reardon with 145 views

Making New Years Resolutions that “Stick”: How Small Businesses Can Overcome the Odds in 2008 There’s an old saying “If nothing changes, nothing changes….” So, with every New Year, business leaders take a hard look and say to themselves, “This year – we’re going to be better, we’re going to change and do things differently…” So, they... [read more]

5 New Year's Resolutions For Prospective New Small Business/Franchise Owners

January 2, 2010 by Joel Libava with 182 views

January is usually a month filled with hope. For some, it's also filled with fantasies of unshackling themselves from their corporate desks, and becoming their own bosses. Although only a small percentage of people actually have the courage to take something on as risky (?) as investing in a business of their own, for the few of them... [read more]

Which Comes First: Plan or Pitch?

December 10, 2009 by Tim Berry with 180 views

It’s not exactly the same as the chicken or the egg, but it has some similarities. I get this a lot lately, so I decided to take it here to my blog. Don’t pitch a business without planning it first. That’s a lot like trying to film a movie without having a screenplay. You have to know what’s going to happen before you start. And I do... [read more]

Develop Your Business, Not Just Your Business Plan

November 18, 2009 by Tim Berry with 205 views

I’m still long-term frustrated with how many people lose the potential steering and management benefits of business planning because they focus on the plan as document instead of the planning as management. With that in mind, I’m doing a webinar tomorrow (Thursday Nov. 19) at 11. am PST on the them in the title of this post. Please... [read more]

5 Entrepreneurship Basics B-Schools Can Teach

November 10, 2009 by Tim Berry with 126 views

I’ve been asked a lot lately about business schools and entrepreneurship, which is why I did this post about one thing wrong in that area, last Friday; and then this one yesterday, on whether business schools can teach entrepreneurship. That’s become a very interesting discussion. I expect to post on it again, if only just to summarize... [read more]

Revising the Root Canal Theory of Business Planning

August 14, 2009 by Tim Berry with 164 views

For years I’ve lived with my own “root canal theory of business planning.” Do the Google search for that phrase and you’ll see that my previous writing about this comes up first. Like root canals, business plans were something people dreaded, but needed. Happily, things have changed. Unlike a root canal, modern-day business... [read more]

True Story: Building Business, Changing Lives, One at a Time

July 16, 2009 by Tim Berry with 112 views

I hope you heard–you could have read it here– of the Palo Alto Software’s Oregon Small Business Boost, earlier this month, where we gave away thousands of units of business plan software to help the Oregon economy and reduce its unemployment problem. The effort depended on more than 85 locations of chambers of commerce and small... [read more]

Perfection Paralysis in the Business Planning Stage

June 8, 2009 by Small Biz Bee with 550 views

Today is the third part of our four part series in response to a reader’s question.  If you missed part 1 or 2, you can catch up here, and here. If you’ve been following along with us thus far you’ve determined that business ownership is the right path for you personally by answering the following questions: Do you enjoy making... [read more]

#6: Here's a thought...

April 11, 2009 by BrianRoger with 99 views

An occasional series in which a review of recent posts on MyVenturePad reveals the following nuggets:Come back in 10 yearsBut another reason this failed is that we were ten years too early. We knew that cheap hardware and connectivity, the emerging era of web based apps, and the value of a one to one relationship with a consumer was a... [read more]

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Interview: Tim Berry on business planning

March 12, 2009 by BrianRoger with 302 views

“Business planning” has been on Tim Berry’s mind most of his working life, from his consulting days in Silicon Valley twenty five years ago, when he began gathering ideas that—a decade later—would result in the first version of what today is “Business Plan Pro.”   That’s the flagship product of Palo Alto Software, which Tim... [read more]

How Do BI Vendor Product Roadmaps Impact Customer CAPEX Budgets for Software Implementations?

March 8, 2009 by Fermin Iduate with 77 views

First off it’s basically a 3 player battleground, Oracle and SAP, with IBM playing catch-up. Microsoft is on the sidelines nervously awaiting their turn to play, but way behind from a “big-business” gaming standpoint. I don't agree with some market opinions that SAP has fallen behind in terms of having an “Integrated” set of solutions.... [read more]

Planning in times of extreme turbulence

September 29, 2008 by Alan Gleeson with 25 views

September has witnessed a period of unprecedented economic turbulence and instability. Of course, this uncertainty is not just affecting us here in the U.K.; in a globalised economy it is affecting people all across the world. Years of consistent economic growth have given way to rising unemployment, increased costs, reduced disposable... [read more]

Easier to Get a New Job than a New Spouse

August 8, 2008 by Tim Berry with 108 views

I got a troubling email the other day, a response from a former student to my post Monday, the one where my wife said we'll risk it together. This was from a man who was one of the most likable students I've ever taught, a hard worker, an achiever who I expect to be running for office some day (and in this case I mean that in a good way... [read more]

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