Business Plan
When to Ditch the Coffee Shop for Co-Working
Workplace expert and entrepreneur Liz Elam on knowing when to say when to working out of your local café in favor of more professional accommodations.
3 Tips for Newbie Entrepreneurs on Starting a Business
Workplace expert and entrepreneur Liz Elam offers some advice about starting a business with little experience.
3 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Naming Your Business
Here's a look at three entrepreneurs who have changed company names and the lessons they learned.
Reverse-Engineering Your Business Plan: Success Starts With the End
Focusing on your ultimate goals can help you devise a plan to reach them.
Why Your Business Plan is Probably Incomplete
In creating a business plan, many entrepreneurs forget to bring along their roadmaps for how they'll accomplish goals. Here are a few can't miss sights.
6 Key Elements of a Good Business Plan
Venture capitalist, author and professor Peter S. Cohan answer readers’ top questions about entrepreneurship.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Business-Plan Competitions
For startups seeking critical seed money, business-plan competitions can be both a blessing and a curse.
How to Craft a Business Plan That’ll Turn Investors’ Heads
A business plan is the minimum requirement you need before asking anyone for money to build your business. Here is what it should include.
Funding Your Startup Might be Easier than You Think
The issue of raising funds for a new business is a worry that's notorious for giving entrepreneurs sleepless nights. Often, an entrepreneur will have terrific ideas, plans, and projects, but they lack the funds to go anywhere with their ideas. …
Make Sure Your Great Idea Includes a Business Model
For survival, the objective of every business should be to bring in revenues which exceed their costs. Even non-profits have to do this to cover overhead costs, unless they rely totally on donations. Yet I continue to see business plans, …
Your Executive Summary Needs to Grab Investors
Modern investors love to first read a two-page summary of your business plan, formatted like a glossy marketing collateral sheet, with text well laid out in columns and sidebars, and a couple of relevant graphics. This one had better grab …
Finding Investors — 5 Steps for Success
So you have this fantastic startup idea, and you're committed to making it work, but you don't have the funds it will take to get it off the ground. The simple solution is to find investors. It's simple, but not …
3 Reasons Business Plans are Obsolete
According to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool there are approximately 1.83 million searches each month for "Business Plan." Â This data would suggest that there are probably more entrepreneurs writing business plans now than ever before, which means it has never …
Predicting the Unpredictable: How Businesses Can Prevent Fires Instead of Just Fighting Them
You can't predict change – or can you? Change is the one constant in life. You've heard it over and over. But when change is the constant, how can you be prepared for it? The current model for many entrepreneurs …
It's 2011… On Your Mark, Get Ready — GO!
Go? Go where? Well, that's what many businesses are trying to figure out. Where is 'there?' What does that look like for your business brand? And how do we get there from here? Some of us are still reeling from …
Leading Edge Becomes Bleeding Edge with Feature Creep
This insidious disease kills more good startups than any other, especially high-tech ones, and yet most founders (who may be the cause) never even see it happening. "Feature creep" (or scope creep) refers to the penchant to add just one …
The Case for Not Having a Clear or Planned Vision
Many companies that are successful today are successful because they didn't have a plan. They just went with an idea, took it as far as they needed it to go, and then ended up on the front page of business …
Reinvent The Wheel? No – Make Lots of Money by Following a Tried-and-True Business Model
There are two distinct ways to go about founding a business – running with your latest "big idea," or following a tried-and-true business model. While there is certainly nothing wrong with the person who has a vision and makes it …
How To Start A Plumbing Business
If you're thinking of launching your own plumbing business, you should first decide on what kind of plumbing business you want to run: service-oriented or product-oriented. You can either go it alone or hire on others to work with you. …
Three Ways Short Term Thinking Will Destroy Your Business
It's easy to think that running a successful company is too difficult and that it's too big for just one person. Even if you have more employees than yourself, some days, your company can be daunting, especially when things are …
The Young Entrepreneur Mega InfoGraphic
Most people know that each of us processes information in different ways. Some people are auditory learners, for instance, while most are more visual. Well, if you're someone who likes your information visual, have we got a treat for you! …
How to Write a Business Plan
One of the most daunting tasks for most small business owners is creating a business plan. Sitting down, staring at a blank page or computer screen is never easy, and even less so when you are creating a document that …
How To Choose A Payroll Company
A great place to start researching possible payroll agencies is the Better Business Bureau. Before settling on an agency, you will want to do several things: check its efficiency and accuracy history, read feedback from past and present customers and …
Understanding the Dreaded Investor Due Diligence
After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your business case, your million dollar product idea, and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. This is …
How Excessive Planning Can Ruin a Business
It is no secret that success in business is rarely left to chance. Luck plays a part, but sound decision making is always the card that makes any serious business prosper in the long run. Carefully laid plans are typically …
