Plan Your Work, Then Work Your Plan

By Rolfe Larson on August 20, 2010

Every business should do at least SOME business planning before starting or expanding operations. Whether that’s the two page version with targets, the five page variant with some analysis (more on that next week), or the 37 page detailed masterpiece, every business needs to do some of this. There are two basic steps to business […]

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Case Against Business Planning

By Rolfe Larson on July 16, 2010

One of the hallmarks of good business planning is being open to disconfirming information. Now let’s apply that principle to the decision on whether to do business planning itself. We think it’s a good idea, but maybe we’re wrong.  Maybe it’s OK to do what most business owners do all the time: just wing it, […]

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Make a Business Plan and Reduce Chances of Incurring Debt

By Rolfe Larson on July 7, 2010

Guest post from Ryan of Debt Consolidation Care Community It is imperative to make an effective business plan when you start a business. A good business plan helps to reduce your chances of incurring business debt. Lots of people don’t give much thought about creating a good business plan and make costly mistakes. They incur […]

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Business Planning Doesn’t End with Your Plan: Part 2 of 2

By Rolfe Larson on June 24, 2010

Rolfe Larson is on vacation. This blog was written by guest writer Jan Cohen. Regardless of how thorough your business plan is, the start-up period always brings surprises.  This is the second of a two part series on lessons learned, based on experiences working with many business ventures. 3. The product or service won’t be […]

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Business Planning Doesn’t End With Your Plan: Part 1 of 2

By Rolfe Larson on June 22, 2010

Rolfe Larson is on vacation. This blog was written by guest writer Jan Cohen. When you start a new business, whether for profit venture or social enterprise within a nonprofit, you’ve spent a lot of time and effort on the business planning process. And now you are ready to “execute”.  The start-up period always has […]

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Sample Business Plans

By Rolfe Larson on June 11, 2010

People are always asking us for examples of business plans, which is a bit ironic, in that every credible plan I’ve ever seen has “Confidential” stamped all over it. That said, there are samples out there, which is fine as long as you don’t assume you should do it the way they did it. Here […]

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Ten "Best" Business Planning Web Sites

By Rolfe Larson on June 4, 2010

Sometimes the best things in life are free.  So if your preference is to find out what’s available on the web before investing in a business planning book (see previous blog entry for a list of books), here’s a quick list of ten “best” business planning web sites. My next blog will indicate where you […]

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"Best" Business Planning Books

By Rolfe Larson on May 29, 2010

Finding a good business plan book can be overwhelming.  Type “business planning guide” into Amazon and you’ll get almost 5000 citations. Your local bookstore or library is more selective, but it’s still hard to sort through them. And, truth be told, there’s no one book for everybody. So, for that reason, we’ve listed the “best” […]

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Be Nimble, Be Quick; Be Disruptive, Too

By Rolfe Larson on May 22, 2010

In a world with dynamic markets and fickle customers, it’s best to build into your plan strategies to respond quickly to new opportunities and threats. Long gone are the days when you could just create a valuable product, price it to attract customers while making a profit, and then just keep doing the same thing […]

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Business Plan Software Recommendations

By Rolfe Larson on May 17, 2010

Writing a business plan takes time. Using software can help organize your work and save you some time, especially if you haven’t written one before. Here’s a quick summary of what, from my experience, are the three best choices: Business Plan Pro by Palo Alto Software claims it’s the best selling business planning software for […]

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