Meet the Blog’s Host
Rolfe Larson provides consulting and training in areas such as strategic planning, market research, feasibility analysis, business planning, marketing, and implementation strategies.[Read more ...]
business plan
Business Plan in A Weekend?
There’s been a fair amount of interest lately in how to write your business plan quickly, say in a weekend. The most well-known is called Startup Weekend, which promises to turn strangers into teams with a completed business plan in an intensive 54-hour weekend marathon. Is this a good idea? There’s also a new book, [...]
Gotta Have A Social Media Strategy
Social media has not been around that long; Facebook is barely seven years old, for example. But in today’s business and social environment, for many companies that sell directly to the public, having a social media strategy is no longer an option. You gotta have one.
Value Chain Your Way To Profitability
Ultimately, success in business depends on finding your competitive advantage, which is to say that which makes you superior to your competitors and is perceived as valuable by your customers. One approach for figuring that out is through value chain analysis, as developed by Michael Porter. The value chain is a sequence of activities that [...]
Porter’s Five Competitive Forces (Part 2)
My previous blog identified the five competitive forces developed by Harvard professor Michael Porter, which should be addressed in every business plan. This blog profiles each of these forces.
Are you an Innovator, an Entrepreneur, or a Manager?
Not everyone who starts a small business is an entrepreneur, nor should they be. Figuring out whether you’re an innovator, an entrepreneur or a manager can save you headaches down the road.
Pricing Strategies (Part 2)
Last week’s blog described the information you need to develop a pricing strategy. Today we’ll talk about several kinds of pricing strategies that are commonly utilized.
Pricing Strategies (Part 1)
Figuring out how to price your products or services is often very challenging, especially for a new venture. Yet you need a pricing strategy for your business plan, to determine your break-even point and profitability, and of course to launch your business. Here are some tips on how to make that decision:
Interns help write your business plan
Creating a business plan takes a lot of time. But you can get help. Consultants can be valuable, but to save money, find out if there’s a qualified college intern who could carry some of the load. Many college courses require students to participate in internships. With the right intern and a carefully structured project, [...]
Implementation: Turning Your Business Plan Into A Business
You’ve gone through the steps. Your business plan is reasonably thorough. So there’s not much to worry about, right? Wrong. If it’s good, it will get you started. But it’s only a plan. The rest you’ll have to figure out as you go. Reality has an annoying way of interfering with plans.
Do “Just Enough” Business Planning
There’s nothing magical about business planning. At its core, it involves thinking through who your target customers are, how your proposed venture will profitably address their needs better than the competition, how you will communicate with these customers, and where you plan to get the funds to start it all up.
