Avoid Planning Paralysis with the One-Page Business Plan

What’s the first thing most everyone says you need to do if you’re going to start a business? Write a business plan. But what if you’ve never written a business plan? Or what if you have, and the plan for your last business idea took you three months to write – and you haven’t even looked at it since you wrote it?

Depending on what you read, you might think you need to come up with 30-50 pages of meticulously thought-out, detailed material, including comprehensive financial projections, market studies, contingency plans, and more. So it’s no surprise that the very idea of having to write a formal business plan has kept some would-be entrepreneurs from taking the leap into business ownership altogether.

Of course you do have a lot of options for help if you buy into the conventional wisdom that a formal business plan is an absolute necessity. For starters, there are several hundred books on the subject, ranging from the “For Dummies” version for about fifteen bucks, to Bankable Business Plans for Entrepreneurial Ventures for $95.00 ($52.78 a pound!). Or you can download some slick software, like Palo Alto Software’s Business Plan Pro for $100-$200. If you want to go all out, you also have the option of hiring a firm like Portland Oregon’s MasterPlans to create a plan for you, for an average of $1,500-$4,000.

Let’s be clear: if you’re in need of start up financing, you will need a more formal business plan, and it might even be worth shelling out hundreds or even thousands of dollars and spending plenty of time to create one. Even then though, some bankers will tell you less is more, at least initially. When it’s time for your proposed loan to go to committee – or whoever the decision makers are – they want to see everything. But when you first present the idea to your financier, they’ll probably just want enough to help them decide whether it’s worth taking it to the next step.

If you don’t need major financing to get your business going, even if you might need it down the road, and if you’re dreading the idea of creating a formal business plan, take heart. A study undertaken a few years ago by Babson College has some good news for you. The study, entitled Pre-startup Formal Business Plans and Post-startup Performance, looked at 116 businesses started over an eighteen year period, from 1985 to 2003. Here’s what they found:

The analysis revealed that there was no difference between the performance of new businesses launched with or without written business plans. The findings suggest that unless a would-be entrepreneur needs to raise substantial startup capital from institutional investors or business angels, there is no compelling reason to write a detailed business plan before opening a new business.

Does that mean planning is unimportant? No, it does not. It means you can actually start planning to run your business… planning to do business, rather than planning to plan to do business. It has been said that a goal with out a plan is just a wish. We definitely advocate putting together a written plan. But for most businesses, that can be as little as a single page.

Welcome to the world of the one-page business plan! We believe your plan should have the following elements, all of which should be able to fit on one page:

Vision – Your vision talks about what you’re building. Whether it’s to dominate your market or simply be the best at what you do, this one to three sentence statement tells your company’s future.

Mission – While your vision tells the end result of your efforts, your mission statement talks about why your company exists. It talks, in a general sense, about how you will accomplish your vision.

Objectives – This section can simply be a list of bullet points stating your business goals. These items might be, “Generate $X in revenue this year,” or “Hire two employees by the third quarter.” Don’t worry about specifics in this section; just list end results.

Strategies – Your strategies tell how you’ll meet your objectives. Without going into great detail, list bullet points, such as, “Build a strategic alliance with Chamber of Commerce and other service organizations to increase local visibility,” or “Maximize gross profit by utilizing co-op advertising with select vendors.”

Action Plans – You’ll still use bullet points here and won’t be overly descriptive, but these list items will have dates tied to them and offer more specifics than your strategies. Examples are, “Move to Greenway Business Park office – May 1,” and “Negotiate bulk rate pricing with XYZ Supply beginning March 15^th.”

This one-page plan, like any good business plan, is a fluid document and will change as your business changes. If you do go for financing at some point, this plan will provide a starting outline for a more formal plan. And even then you don’t have to fret too much. (Check out GrowThink’s innovative Ultimate Business Plan Template software for an easy-to-use, effective way to create a professional business plan to take to any financial backer.)

Unlike the kind of plan you put together for financial institutions, the one page business plan is light, practical, and easy to refer to. You might even consider keeping it posted on the wall above your desk to remind you where you’re headed and how you’re going to get there!

When the Bank Says No, Where Do You Go?

Not long ago, if you had a need for financing and your business finances were in good shape, it seemed banks would line up to get the funds in your hands. Those days are all but gone now. Small-business lending has declined sharply in recent months, with Bank of America, the largest US small-business lender, cutting their lending in this sector by 6.2 percent during the seven-month period ended in November. Overall, US banks reduced their lending during the same period by $12.5 billion.

What this means for some small business owners can be a scenario that would keep anyone up at night. Imagine having to turn down an order from Costco or Wal-Mart because you don’t have the funds to produce the products they’re requesting. Even if on a smaller scale, it is disturbing to say the least to turn away any business due to lack of working capital for production. The good news is that, for many businesses in this position, there is a solution. A growing sector of the financial industry is saying yes to small businesses where banks are saying no.

What is Purchase Order Financing?

Companies such as Hartsko Financial provide financing to companies that have a purchase order from a creditworthy customer. The PO financer is more concerned with the financial strength of your customer than they are with that of you or your company. They will request a Letter of Credit (LC) from your customer and issue an LC on your behalf to the producer of your products, whether domestic or international. In this way, your finances aren’t as much in play, because they are facilitating the transaction at both ends. Basically, if you can prove you’ll get paid, they will send a letter of credit to your supplier. When you complete the order, the customer pays them, and they send the proceeds to you, less a percentage for their efforts.

The Price Tag

PO financing doesn’t come cheap. At Hartsko and other established firms, like Dallas-based King Trade Capital, Expect to pay as much as 3.5 percent for the first 30 days, and 1.25 percent for every 10 days thereafter. The quick math points to an annualized percentage north of 40 percent, which is obviously significant. So be sure your ducks are in a row and the order process is short enough to be able to pay the PO financer back quickly. If it’s going to take more than 60-90 days, this might not be the solution for you.

While pricey, this sector of the financial industry has grown significantly over the past year, largely because, for many small businesses, it’s the only solution that will allow them to fulfill large orders, expand into new markets, or start up in the first place. If you think it’s a good solution for you, do your research, solicit feedback from others who have tried it, and let us know how it goes.

Effective Viral Marketing For Your Business

In marketing, we all dream about achieving viral success and receiving an exponential amount of “buzz” for our individual campaigns. From time to time we hear about creative successes, such as the Moonfruit “win a MacBook” campaign on Twitter. What does it take to go viral and is it even something you can plan for, or does it just happen?

Fundamentally you need to be able to create a passion, a reaction or a significant feeling in your target audience to act as a catalyst. This means that you have to create anger, laughter, concern, surprise, need or a combination of these to ensure that your couple of seconds of product fame will turn into a focus of attention. Remember that it has to be all about arousing emotions.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make, however, is to start off by coming up with a weird and wacky idea and by focusing too much on the bizarre or the extreme. It is important to focus on emotions, but not fundamentally good for long-term image to shock, scare, repel or repulse potential clients! It is true to say that “shocking” almost always means viral exposure, as in the “guy who miraculously avoided being squashed by the out-of-control bus” video, but you want to be able to portray your business in an always powerful and positive light.

Remember that viral campaigns need not be restricted to one medium. Indeed as we know, social marketing is most effective when several different platforms are interconnected. While you may be focusing on social marketing to get your ball rolling, don’t be afraid to plan press release campaigns or other off-line initiatives to enhance and to back up.

If you believe that you have come up with a neat angle for your product, service or brand, don’t be ready to rush it out to the waiting world. Ask yourself the question – are you really ready for a viral explosion. You must prepare as if this campaign will really take off. The very objective is to make sure that you get a lasting benefit from what will effectively be a shorter term spike. As such, will you be able to capture the contact details for everyone who visits your primary website or social media sites as a consequence of this buzz? Moonfruit estimated that their US traffic (they are a UK based company) increased over 1000% as a result of their viral campaign success.

How do you plan to “go viral?”

Matthew Toren

2009 TRAFFIC New York Domain Auction Results

Here are the RickLatona.com live auction results from the TRAFFIC show in New York with an impressive total of $1,295,000 in sales with Rio.com, as expected leading the list of sales at $450,000.

As you can see, there were some that were extremely good deals!

Here is the complete, unofficial list of the domains that sold:

Rio.com $450,000
Whiskey.com $185,000
SchoolLoans.com $137,500
iAuction.com $50,000
Boy.com $45,000
Porn.co.za $45,000
Megan.com $42,500
900.com $40,000
Kasino.com $35,000
Hookahs.com $26,000
PapuaNewGuinea.com $25,000
PopStars.com $21,000
PinkDiamond.com $18,000
Hackensack.com $17,500

Z6.com, Z6.net &
Z6.org $15,000

ChildPsychologists.com $11,500
247Live.com $10,000
Schizophrenic.com $10,000
UTN.com $10,000
Stimulant.com $9,000
QDC.com $7,000
ChargingStations.com $6,000
Bulldoze.com $5,000
TheBronx.net $5,000
UZS.com $5,000
DumbAsses.com $3,500
SandyBeaches.com $2,600
FiletMignons.com $2,500
minister.net $2,500
Nudged.com $2,500
OutOfState.com $2,500
ExecutiveSalesJobs.com $2,100
Altercation.com $2,000
AntiDepressants.net $2,000
Collapsed.com $2,000
Cultivating.com $2,000
DrugMoney.com $2,000
Frustrate.com $2,000
Halp.com $2,000
Odes.com $2,000
SaddamHussein.com $2,000
SenseOfHumor.com $2,000
Ciders.com $1,750
AntiWrinkleLotion.com $1,500
Infringing.com $1,500

Skidders.com &
Skidders.net $1,500

Pears.net $1,300
Carts.net $1,100
DryMartinis.com $1,100
WrinkleLotion.com $1,100
Dabbled.com $1,000

Ignoring.com $1,000

Overridden.com $1,000

Overtaking.com $900
Aunt.net $800
Figuratively.com $750
Disappointments.com $700
Satisfier.com $700
UsedSmartPhones.com $650
BackInjuryAttorneys.com $600
HairStudios.com $600
Laggard.com $600
LasikSurgeons.net $600
PreownedExoticCars.com $600
Clemson.net $500
Decorators.us $500
CommercialBonds.com $400
HeavyweightBoxer.com $400
StockInvestments.net $360
AortaSurgery.com $300
BusinessNetbooks.com $300
CommemorativePlate.com $300
DearbornHeights.net $300
NeckInjuryAttorneys.com $300
ProductCycles.com $300
WeddingProverbs.com $300

List courtesy of TheDomains.com

Do any of you buy/sell domains? What have been some of your latest domain purchases or sales?

The YES Movie Review

As someone who has both lived the life of a young entrepreneur and strives to encourage the world’s youth to forge their own entrepreneurial path—not only to success, but also to the point of making a profound difference in the world around them—I found The YES Movie to be an important tool for upcoming generations. I really enjoyed the movie from start to finish. I feel it already has and will continue to empower thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs, as well as even motivate the more seasoned entrepreneurs.

Louis Lautman’s Young Entrepreneur Society and The YES Movie project resonate with me and my experiences. My brother and I created YoungEntrepreneur.com to foster the burgeoning ideas of young entrepreneurs, and recently published Kidpreneurs, a book on entrepreneurship written specifically for children. My brother and I have been starting up, buying, improving, and selling businesses since childhood, and this movie sheds light on some of the common misconceptions about life and success that I have discovered along the way, but which many people discover too late or never discover at all. Hard work is key to getting places in life, but it needs to be directed toward a goal and by creativity and perseverance. Lautman’s film does more than address these issues—it demonstrates time and again through a number of prime examples how life can be more than a seemingly mandatory round of education followed by a paltry 9-to-5 and a threadbare, late-life retirement. It also reflects upon one of America’s prominent and too-oft-forgotten foundations: capitalism. Capitalism in the purest form, and where money is not the sole source of or measure for profit. That entrepreneurship takes a blend of personal and professional effort and way of of life is evident in the lives of the featured brilliant young successes.

In the spirit of other projects it aligns itself with, such as The Secret and What the Bleep, it is a thought-provoking yet entertaining look at the world of business, which is far from the boring or, particularly in present times, greedy machine it is sometimes called. Furthermore, the film focuses on “rebel” entrepreneurs on the front lines of a variety of industries, from retailers and advertisers to authors and designers. Men and women pursuing advancements in a number of exciting fields spill their secrets to success, show that the possibilities are endless, and prove that the youth can be far from ignorant and should be taken seriously.

Ambition is a key ingredient to the advancement of society and is present in each and every person. Suppressed for too long, it can begin to fade. It shouldn’t. The YES Movie showcases the ways in which ambition can be channeled into positive, creative works while making real, hardworking young minds millions along the way. The more than thirty actual young millionaire entrepreneurs Lautman assembled along his cross-country trip divulge unprecedented and priceless details on their ventures, and will inspire others to follow in their footsteps—or, rather, to start making some footprints of their own.

More Recent Posts »