Sunday, February 01, 2009
"Writing a Great Business Plan" by William A Sahlman
"Writing a business Plan is a seminal moment in the life of a new venture. Doing it so entails, committing to paper, a vision of factors that will affect the success or failure of the enterprise.
A business plan can't be a tightly crafted prediction of the future but rather, a depiction of how events might unfold and a road map for change.
Successful entrepreneurs constantly seek right mixture of............
people,
opportunity,
context, and ...
the deal !!
The anticipate what can go wrong, what can go right, and they try to balance risk with reward.
Over the years, I have received many emails from folks trying to craft a business plan. They want feedback ! I explain that, I would need to get to know them and their opportunity much better than, what is possible in an email and that, the written document is NOT as important as the PEOPLE writing it !!
Writing a business plan is not science - it's an art and a craft. Successful ventures have competent people pursuing sensible opportunities, using resources that help, in a favourable context , striking mutually beneficial deals !
Yes ! The context is very challenging today. But challenges creat opportunities. If gaining access to capital is hard, sometimes that means, there will be fewer competitors. This period is almost the antithesis of the Internet Bubble when, almost everyone could raise money and start a company , regardless of how lamebrained the idea !
His book, ' Entrepreneurial Venture' gotten a 5-star rating. Can be read here !
A business plan can't be a tightly crafted prediction of the future but rather, a depiction of how events might unfold and a road map for change.
Successful entrepreneurs constantly seek right mixture of............
people,
opportunity,
context, and ...
the deal !!
The anticipate what can go wrong, what can go right, and they try to balance risk with reward.
Over the years, I have received many emails from folks trying to craft a business plan. They want feedback ! I explain that, I would need to get to know them and their opportunity much better than, what is possible in an email and that, the written document is NOT as important as the PEOPLE writing it !!
Writing a business plan is not science - it's an art and a craft. Successful ventures have competent people pursuing sensible opportunities, using resources that help, in a favourable context , striking mutually beneficial deals !
Yes ! The context is very challenging today. But challenges creat opportunities. If gaining access to capital is hard, sometimes that means, there will be fewer competitors. This period is almost the antithesis of the Internet Bubble when, almost everyone could raise money and start a company , regardless of how lamebrained the idea !
His book, ' Entrepreneurial Venture' gotten a 5-star rating. Can be read here !
