Are you looking to create a business plan?

These two “experts” in the field, Guy Kawasaki and Sean Christiansen, can help you understand a little more on how to do so.

Guy Kawasaki who is best know for leaving Apple Computer and co-founding Garage Technology Ventures as well as Alltop.com, an ”online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web. Garage provides matchmaking services for angle investors and entrepreneurs. Before leaving Apple he was the chief evangelist of Apple. Kawasaki has a B.A. from Stanford University, M.B.A from UCLA, and also holds an Honorary Doctorate from Babson College. He has authored such books as Enchantment, Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way.

I came across an article where Kawasaki spoke with Tim Berry on “How to write a Business Plan”, out of the questions asked “What are the most important qualities of a plan” stuck out to me the most. And Kawasaki said this in short.
     1) Strategy is what needs to be focused on, and the question you need to ask yourself is “what can you do better than anyone else? What are your core competence”
     2) Break down the specifics: What is going to happen, when, how much is it going to cost, and who is responsible for it.
     3) Cash flow: You want to have growth spurts in your company, which is another way of saying more sales and potentially more profits, however he also stressed that unplanned growth with out proper planning can be detrimental to your company.

Sean Christiansen is currently the Chief Technology Officer at the UCF Venture Lab where he provides coaching and mentoring to central Florida startup companies. With ten years of experience working in high technology industries as well as multiple degrees in engineering, Dr. Christiansen specializes in supporting early-stage high technology companies with particular emphasis supporting those seeking seed-stage financing. Dr. Christiansen graduated with honors from the University of Notre Dame and earned a Bachelor's of Science in Chemical Engineering in 1996. In 2001, Dr. Christiansen received a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

When it comes to early stage investing Christiansen is the man to go to. When asked about key components of a business plan he breaks it down into three: Barriers to entry, The market, and the Management team. Barriers to Entry, this explains a company’s product or service and also lets you r investors know how you plan to “prevent your competitors from taking away customers” Christensen explains that barriers to entry are equally as important as the core competencies of the company. This is a way to look at the “Strengths of the company and its expertise within its own market. The market is possibly the trickiest factor due to there not always being a market for your particular type of business. Markets are very hard for an investor to predict especially when it comes to the type of product being pitched. And lastly, remember to look at the management team. So many companies have failed even with the proper business plan because of the management team making mistakes. The past experience of the company’s members have to be reviewed to see if the had an previous failures, how aware they are of their mistakes, and to see if the company was given equity investments in the past and if sufficient exit opportunities for investors have been established.

Sources:

http://www.guykawasaki.com/about/

http://www.venturelab.ucf.edu/Team/team_SChristiansen.html

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/07/how-to-write-a-.html#axzz1Rmb29caR

http://bpexpertviews.blogspot.com/2011/03/bp-development-expert-views.html