Owner: Growthink Business Planning Blog URL:http://www.growthink.com/blog Join Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:46:47 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Business planning blog focused on entrepreneurship, start-ups, venture capital, market research, and the capital raising process. Site statistics:Click here
Entrepreneur Quote of the Week: AOL’s Steve Case 2008-03-07 13:25:46
“I’m not sure I knew what an entrepreneur was when I was
ten, but I knew that starting little businesses and trying to sell greeting
cards or newspapers door-to-door or just vending machine kind of thing is… there’s just something very intriguing to me
about that.”
-Steve
Case, co-founder and former CEO of AOL
According to a 2006
study, approximately 2/3 of entrepreneurs claim it was their “innate drive”
that inspired them to start their own business.
In other words, they were born an entrepreneur.
Of the remaining entrepreneurs surveyed, 21% credited work
experience as their motivation for taking the leap, and 16% said they were
inspired by the success of others around them.
Forty-two percent of these entrepreneurs also said the Read more:Entrepreneur
, Quote
How to Find Investors Online: Follow Their Blogs 2008-03-06 10:08:35
Entrepreneur.com has published an interesting
article reporting that entrepreneurs are connecting with venture
capitalists on VCs’ blogs – and some start-ups are attracting funding through
these new online relationships. For example, Paul Edmondson contacted Will Price of Hummer Winblad via his blog, and this communication
resulted in a $2 million investment in his online publishing company, HubPages.
Here’s another sign of the
importance of blogging in the venture capital world. When looking for a new
analyst, early stage VC and prolific blogger Fred Wilson specifically requested
“no phone calls, no resumes, no emails” – candidates should only provide a link
to their web presence.
Social media is having – and will
continue to have – a significant impact on the shape Read more:Investors
, Blogs
The 6 Untold Reasons Why Businesses Fail 2008-03-06 08:47:25
There have been many articles written on the subject of why
businesses fail, and most of them point to the same reasons, such as:
-Inadequate funding
-Bad location
-Lack of a well thought-out business plan
-Poor execution
-Bad management
-Expanding too quickly
-Insufficient marketing or promotion
-Inability to adapt to a changing marketplace
-Failure to keep overhead costs low
-Underestimating competitors
These reasons are widespread and no doubt cause many
businesses to fail. However, the reason
for a company’s failure is not always something so obvious. Here are 6 lesser-known reasons why a
business might fail.
Why do these reasons remain untold? Simple.
Most of the time, the business owner doesn’t realize that these reasons
are what caused their failure, and Read more:Untold
, Reasons
Angel Outlook for 2008 2008-03-05 12:27:15
The Angel Capital Association last week released the results of its survey regarding prospects for the startup and angel investment marketplace in 2008. Key results from the survey include:
Nearly half of angel groups expect deal flow to improve in both quantity and quality in 2008
A majority of angel investors expect investment activity to either continue at the same level or increase somewhat in 2008 versus 2007, in spite of the prognostications for an overall slowdown of the U.S. economy.
81 percent of organized angel groups planned to invest in between three and nine companies in 2008, with 12 percent of these groups forecasting that they will invest in ten or more companies.
The issues of investment exits through acquisitions or public offerings is more mixed for 2008 – with Read more:Outlook
3/4/08 Recap: What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Eight Year Olds 2008-03-04 19:40:23 Interesting news and perspectives from around the web:
Justin Nowak of YoungGoGetter.com explains the business
lessons he’s learned from his eight year old son:
An
Ability To Forget Bad Things
Determination
Creativity
Loyalty
Seth Godin warns us not to trust our own instincts too
much. Everybody is different when it
comes to persuasion.
PureVC discusses the role of trust and promises in causing
the recent turmoil in the economy: When Things
Have No Worth.
Pequot Ventures, a leading NYC venture capital firm, today announced
that it is spinning off from Pequot Capital, to form FirstMark Capital in June 2008.
read more Read more:Recap
, Entrepreneurs
, Eight
Who's the Tiger Woods of Your Industry? 2008-03-04 11:55:40
Tiger Woods
is arguably the most skilled golfer to ever
live. However, his physical abilities alone
are not what make him great.
Nike -- one of the companies that sponsor Woods -- once sent
Tiger five brand new drivers. The
company asked Tiger to test out the drivers and give his feedback.
After practicing with each of the clubs, Woods told Nike
that he liked “the heaviest one.” The
news came as a shock to Nike. Why? Because all of the clubs weighed exactly the
same.
Or so Nike thought.
After re-examining each of the clubs, Nike employees were surprised to
learn that one of the clubs outweighed the others by just a couple grams -- or
approximately the weight of two dollar bills. (Source: Esquire)
Nike had a team of engineers and the best equipment in the
world. Wh
3/3/08 Recap: Hollywood Teams Up With Silicon Valley 2008-03-03 19:07:32
The NYTimes broke
the news that SiliconValley
has teamed up with Hollywood
to launch a digital
media fund. More specifically, Accel Partners and
Venrock have joined the William Morris Agency -- and AT&T -- to invest in digital media start-up companies in Southern
California. The fund will be
capitalized with tens of millions of dollars and investments may be as small as
$250,000. The focus will be on online
technology including social networking, advertising and mobile games.
We’re thrilled to see Southern
California venture capital investment continue to grow.
Other interesting stories from around the web:
Scott Shane of SmallBusinessTrends.com analyzed how
the presidential candidates would help entrepreneurs. Hillary
would give tax credits to small businesses th Read more:Recap
3/2/08 Recap: Opportunity Costs, "Free" Business Models, Angel Outlook for 2008 -- and More 2008-03-02 13:32:28
This past week saw several interesting blog entries, articles, and reports from the world of entrepreneurship, management, and venture capital.
John Tierney of the NY Times wrote an excellent article on opportunity
costs and decision making, regarding research on the risks associated with
keeping too many options on the table.
An interesting observation from Professor Dan Ariely of MIT: “Closing a
door on an option is experienced as a loss, and people are willing to pay a
price to avoid the emotion of loss.”
Chris Anderson wrote a fascinating article, The
Rise of the “Free” Business
Model. “Once
a marketing gimmick, free has emerged as a full-fledged economy,” he writes,
citing the success of Radiohead and Google as prime recent examples. Read the article Read more:Outlook
, Recap
, Opportunity
, Costs
7 Entrepreneurs Whose Perseverance Will Inspire You 2008-02-29 14:10:29
Everyone knows that perseverance is important. You’ve probably heard the quote “If at first
you don’t succeed, try again” or seen the commercial that talks about falling
down 7 times and standing up 8. The
lesson, of course, is that few people achieve anything great without first
overcoming a few obstacles.
Preaching about the importance of perseverance is easy. Actually experiencing failure and continuing
on undeterred; now that’s tough. But the
7 stories below prove that it can be done.
These famous entrepreneurs exemplified perseverance. Maybe one of them will inspire you to
overcome whatever obstacle is currently standing in your way.
Milton Hershey
Milton Hershey had a long path to the top of the chocolate
industry. Hershey dropped out of school
in the 4th Read more:Entrepreneurs
, Perseverance
, Inspire
The U.S. Hispanic Market: Untapped Opportunity for Los Angeles Business 2008-02-26 16:29:49
The U.S. Hispanic
market, combined with the number of successful small businesses in Los Angeles
, means that regardless of the fluctuations of the stock exchanges, opportunities continue to germinate on our doorstep.
Companies that create products and services for the U.S. Hispanic Consumers will continue to enjoy impressive growth, increasing revenues and expanding markets.
Our optimism on the potential of U.S. Hispanic consumers to be promising partners to enterprises astute enough to provide a range of solutions—from credit cards to Internet connectivity—which embrace the needs and aspirations of U.S. Hispanics, is based on three powerful trends which have transformed 44.3 million U.S. Hispanics from a group long ignored by the majority of American businesses into an empowered a Read more:Opportunity
, Business
, Market
The Secrets to Their Success? 25 Quotes From Famous Entrepreneurs 2008-03-12 10:58:05
There is no simple formula for creating a successful business. Luckily, there is an easy way to improve your chances.
And that’s by listening to the wisdom of those who have done it already.
With that in mind, here are 25 quotes from famous entrepreneurs…
INSPIRATION
1) "If you can dream it, you can do it."
-Walt Disney, founder of The Walt Disney Company
2) "Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming."
-Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Enterprises
3) “Capital isn't that important in business. Experience isn't that important. You can get both of these things. What is important is ideas.”
-Harvey Firestone, founder of Firestone Tire & Rubber Co.
4) “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living som Read more:Secrets
, Success
, Quotes
, Famous
, Entrepreneurs
Feasibility Study Lessons from Bette Milder 2008-03-12 00:10:38
As the nation's leading strategic business plan development firm, we speak
every week to many entrepreneurs and managers of emerging and middle market
businesses seeking our assistance in strategizing, drafting, and packaging
business plans.
Sometimes, the client has
a very clear idea of their business vision, their key value propositions to
their core target customers, an understanding of the competitive landscape in
which they exist, and their mission critical milestones.
More often, however, folks come to Growthink with a great idea, a contagious enthusiasm, and a gut, intuitive "feel" that there is a real
opportunity in the marketplace for their business vision.
At Growthink we naturally share this
enthusiasm, passion and excitement, and are fundamentally eager to di Read more:Study
, Lessons
, Bette
7 Ways To Be More Attractive To Lenders 2008-03-13 13:23:12
It's always said that access to funds is the life blood of any company. Going out and securing outside financing to help grow a business is an important step in the life of an emerging organization. Keep in mind, the process of commercial borrowing is best done in preparation for needing the capital, rather than when the request is made in a dire situation. Here are some necessary tips to keep in mind when preparing to seek a loan.
1. Bookkeeping – Install accounting software so you can produce up to the moment financial reports including Balance Statement and Profit Loss Statement. These reports will give the Lender a snapshot of the current financial condition of the company. It also assures that you know enough about accounting to understand the internal cash flows.
2. Cust Read more:Lenders
Growthink Clients in the News: Click Forensics, DCIP 2008-03-16 16:15:52
Two Growthink clients -- ClickForensics
and DCIP -- have been making headlines lately.
Click Forensics
On Wednesday, Click Forensics announced it had raised $10 Million in Series B funding. Click Forensics had previously raised $5 Million in a Series A round. The round for the Austin company was led by Sierra Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif., and included existing investors Austin Ventures and Shasta Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif.
The funds will be used to expand marketing and development efforts for the Austin, Texas-based click fraud detection company.
Growthink assisted Click Forensics company management with the refinement and packaging of the company business plan and financial projections model.
Read more about the Click Forensics financing here.
DCIP
Last week, several th Read more:Clients
The 25 Most Successful Musician-Entrepreneurs 2008-03-19 13:24:25
Many musicians are happy just creating music and enjoying
the lifestyle that being a famous musician provides. However, a lot of pop, rap & rock stars have
interests beyond music, including a passion for entrepreneurship.
Here is a list of the 25 most impressive musician
entrepreneurs. While it’s tough to
compare people in different fields, here are some of the factors that weighed
heavily for these rankings:
Success.
Diversity. When it comes to musicians, there are
certain ventures that are more popular than others (as evidenced by the
number of clothing lines you’ll see below). Bonus points for anyone willing to try
something unique.
The
artist’s DIY attitude. In other
words: How personally involved are
they in these entrepreneurial Read more:Musician
, Entrepreneurs
Landing Page Optimization, Business Planning and Google's Success 2008-03-18 08:30:30
Over the past few weeks, I've spent a lot of time studying a
field called Landing Page Optimization
. It's a fascinating field that deals
with improving landing pages, which are the pages of your website that visitors
come to either organically or through paid marketing initiatives. The goal of Landing
Page Optimization is to maximize conversions (e.g., sales, newsletter signups,
etc.) of these visitors.
One of the guiding principles of landing page optimization
is that landing pages need to be simple. If there is too much information on
the page, the reader gets confused and either clicks the back button or closes
the browser.
This principle is the same as a guiding principle of
business plan development; mainly that the plan, and particularly the executive
summary, needs to prese Read more:Business
, Google
, Success
The 9 Secrets of Pre-IPO Investing: How To Successfully Invest in Early Stage Companies 2008-03-25 10:50:31
We just released a white paper titled "The 9 Secrets
of Pre-IPO Investing
." It provides tips and advice for those looking to make early stage investments in private companies.
We're releasing the report in the midst of strong "angel" investing activity in the United States. According to the University of New Hampshire's Center for Venture Research, in 2006, there were approximately 234,000 active individual angel investors and approximately 49,500 private companies which received funding from individual investors.
Early
stage angel investment can produce stratospheric returns on investment. Our report cites the famous example of Google's first private investor, Andy Bechtolsheim, who wrote a $100,000 check to Google in 1998 when it was an early stage private compa Read more:Stage
, Companies
Growthink Client in the News: DCIP 2008-03-16 16:15:52
Last week, several theater chains and studios announced they were
nearing an estimated $1.1 billion financing deal to upgrade cinemas to
digital technology. This investment is expected to boost attendance and
save Hollywood billions of dollars in various annual print and delivery
costs.
"We're hopeful that in the second quarter we will get it all arranged,"
said Travis Reid, chief executive of Digital Cinema Implementation
Partners (DCIP).
DCIP is a joint venture between Regal Entertainment Group, Cinemark Holdings Inc and AMC Entertainment Inc.
Growthink assisted in the development of the strategic business plan for the joint venture.
Read more about DCIP and digital cinema technology here and here.
read more Read more:Client
Baseball and the Science of Effective Business Building 2008-04-02 11:17:34
Over the last thirty years, baseball statistician Bill James has revolutionized the way that players, managers and fans think about statistics in baseball. By carefully analyzing statistics, James has dispelled numerous myths and has shifted the Boston Red Sox management’s decision-making process from one based on intuition and “gut” to a rigorously fact-based approach.
What has been the result? After decades of loss and heartbreak, the Red Sox have won two World Series Championships in the past 5 years.
Bill James’ analyses have dispelled many myths and have helped both the Red Sox and much of the industry focus on proven measures of performance. For example, James was a leading force in emphasizing the significance of on-base percentage over a player’s batting average. O Read more:Science
, Business
, Building
20 Reasons Why You Need a Business Plan 2008-04-09 10:24:01
1. To prove that you’re serious about your business. A formal business plan is necessary to show all interested parties -- employees, investors, partners and yourself -- that you are committed to building the business.
2. To establish business milestones. The business plan should clearly lay out the long-term milestones that are most important to the success of your business. To paraphrase Guy Kawasaki, a milestone is something significant enough to come home and tell your spouse about (without boring him or her to death). Would you tell your spouse that you tweaked the company brochure? Probably not. But you'd certainly share the news that you launched your new website or reached $1M in annual revenues.
3. To better understand your competition. Creating the business plan forces you t Read more:Reasons
, Business
, Business Plan
Ideas That Spread, Win 2008-04-09 09:15:35
Seth Godin’s Purple Cow
has a relatively simple premise that new products need to be truly remarkable in
order to succeed. His book is packed with great examples and
insights.
In this video, Godin starts off by
explaining the failure of the sliced bread machine and explaining that ideas
that spread, win. Worth watching:
read more Read more:Spread
How to Write a Business Plan for Raising Venture Capital 2008-04-16 12:14:26
Are you looking to raise venture capital?
You need a good idea – and an excellent business plan.
Business
planning and raising venture capital go hand-in-hand. A business plan is required for attracting venture capital. And the desire to raise capital (whether from an individual “angel” investor or a venture capital firm) is often the key motivator in the business planning process.
But how exactly will your business plan persuade investors to sign a check?
This article provides advice on how to position each section of the business plan for an investor audience. These tips draw on Growthink’s decade of experience consulting to start-ups in the business planning and capital raising process.
Executive Summary
Goal of the executive summary: Stimulate and motivate the Read more:Write
, Raising
, Venture
, Business Plan
13 Costly Feasibility Study Mistakes ...And How To Avoid Them 2008-04-23 16:09:27
To make your new venture succeed -- whether you are creating a new product, constructing a hotel, or developing a community center -- you must convince investors and/or management to fund your initiatives.
Feasibility studies play a critical role in this early planning and fundraising process.
A feasibility study is a detailed investigation and research analysis of a proposed venture or development project. The purpose of a feasibility study is to determine whether it is technically and financially feasible to move forward with a new project.
An effective feasibility study demonstrates the following:
That your ideas are sound
That there is a need for your venture
That your execution plan is practical
To help you navigate through the feasibility study development process, w Read more:Study
, Avoid
Video: How to Write an Executive Summary 2008-04-30 11:51:26
Watch the first installation of our new Business Plan Video series.
This video, "How to Write
an ExecutiveSummary
," provides advice on how to create a compelling executive summary for your business plan.
Watch More Business Plan Videos
Visit Growthink's Business Plan Help Center
read more
New Business Plan Video Section on Growthink.com 2008-04-30 11:44:44
We are proud to announce the launch of the Growthink Business
Plan Video section within our Business Plan Help Center.
These videos walk you through each section of the business plan, providing expert tips and advice on how to construct your business plan to better stimulate, engage, and impress your audience.
Watch our new Business Plan Videos
Visit the Business Plan Help Center
read more Read more:Section
Martin Conroy's Billion Dollar Story 2008-04-30 11:28:46 On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same college. They were very much alike, these two young men. Both had been better than average students, both were personable and both - as young college graduates are - were filled with ambitious dreams for the future.
Recently, these men returned to their college for their 25th reunion.
They were still very much alike. Both were happily married. Both had three children. And both, it turned out, had gone to work for the same Midwestern manufacturing company after graduation, and were still there.
But there was a difference. One of the men was manager of a small department of that company. The other was its president.
What Made The Difference?
Have you ever wondered, as I have, what makes th Read more:Martin
, Dollar
, Billion Dollar
The Importance of Educational Marketing 2008-05-07 10:36:37
There are
many companies that can thrive following the tried and true methods of
traditional marketing initiatives. If you are one of those companies, it makes
sense to place yourself in the most familiar arenas, where potential customers
expect to see you. That is, if your intention is to compete with Coca-Cola for
mindshare, it is probably in your best interest to utilize bold advertisements
in print and television media.
But many other companies are
learning that traditional approaches are no longer sufficient to convey their
message and effectively convert the casual shopper into a paying customer or
even better, a brand evangelist. It used to be that you could distinguish your
company through lowest prices or a sparkling slogan. Now, however, these old
silver bullets will barely l Read more:Educational
, Marketing
We Just Made $94 Billion Dollars... Now What? 2008-05-13 16:38:04
Q: We just made
$94 billion dollars this year. What should we do
next?
A: Create a new
business plan.
It's never too late to update your business plan.
Car manufacturer Nissan (NASDAQ:
NSANY) demonstrated that fact this morning when they announced a new five-year
business plan. With a projected mix of market expansion, cutting-edge
technologies, and growing product lines, Nissa
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