Plan As You Go

No, 37Signals, Planning Is NOT What You Think

Rich irony: 37Signals, a great Web app for project management, ought to know better than anybody that real business planning is a process, not a plan. After all, they do the kind of nuts and bolts management that makes that happen. Instead, however, Matt of 37Signals posted the planning fallacy last week: If you believe [...]

3 Steps to the Startup Sweet Spot

(Note: reposted from Planning Startups Stories) Every startup has its own natural level of startup costs. It’s built into the circumstances, like strategy, location, and resources. Call it the natural startup level; or maybe the sweet spot. 1. The Plan For example, Mabel’s Thai restaurant in San Francisco is going to need about $950,000, while [...]

True Story: A Challenge

I was the planning consultant to Apple Computer’s Latin America group from 1982 until 1991 or 1992, the end of the relationship being a bit hard to define as I was called on steadily more by Apple Japan and less by Apple Latin America. The challenge came in the spring of 1985. The annual business [...]

The Art of Execution

I noticed this very plan-as-you-go post by Guy Kawasaki on the American Express Open Forum. What I like about it, particularly, is where Guy says “set goals” and then lists these four desirable qualities of goals: Measurable. If a goal isn’t measurable, its unlikely you’ll achieve it. For a startup, quantifiable goals are things like [...]

Measure Your Business Plan Results

(Note: reposted here with permission from Entrepreneur.com, where it first appeared, as one of my columns in the Business Plan coaching area. Since it’s so closely related to the plan-as-you-go approach, I’m reposting it here. Tim.) Plans are wrong, but nonetheless vital. There’s a paradox for you. It’s a simple statement, one that I hope [...]

Nancy Duarte on Slide:ology

The book is Slide:ology, and this five-minute video on bnet (a Harvard Business School site) is a great summary. If you can’t get the video off of this site, click here for the source video on bnet.

Great Marketing Lists and Resources

Here’s a great resource for you, or a collection of resources, as you think through the marketing, identity, and focus factors that make up the heart of your plan. It’s almost too big, but at least it’s divided into subsections, and it’s a great list. Thanks to Spotlight ID for this list of 250 top [...]

Number One

These things go up and down, but I’m proud to share that — at least as I write this — The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan is the number one ranking for business plan books at Amazon.com.

New Attitude Adjustment Video Summary

I’ve just finished a 12-minute online video (presentation, slides, with me talking) summary of Chapter 2, Attitude Adjustment. Click here for that … it does require Flash Player and Java on your system, and the window has to be about 860 pixels wide to show the whole thing.