Do economic cycles of boom and bust affect the number of start-ups? Most analysts have linked entrepreneurial activity to economic growth as though it was a given … and conversely, believed that when recession struck, start-up activity slowed substantially. A recent study by the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation concludes that both theories are pure bunk. […]
Business Plan Software
Posted in Business Plan TipsBy David Kaplan - December 9th, 2008 No comments
Investors generally read only a fraction of the many plans that entrepreneurs send them. They tend to take less seriously plans that appear amateurish. One sure sign of an amateur business planner is that the submitted plan appears in one of the familiar formats of business plan software. Format generally does not matter much in […]
Look at Your Venture as an Investor Would
Posted in Business Plan Tips, EntrepreneurshipBy David Kaplan - November 1st, 2008 No comments
When you buy candy, you think of it as something sweet. When you sell candy you think of it as a product. A similar dynamic is at play when entrepreneurs write business plans, except that all too often it works backwards. The seller (entrepreneur) sees the sweet upside and the potential investor views the risk […]