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Each session contains a list of required readings from one or more of the three startup books included: The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan, 3Weeks to Startup, and The Art of the Start.  Click on the session reading links below to see the reading list for that session:

Session 1: Course Introduction
Session 2: Concept Kick Start
Session 3: Business Basics
Session 4: Market Analysis
Session 5: Marketing Strategy
Session 6: Basic Financials, Part 1
Session 7: Basic Financials, Part 2
Session 8: Getting Financed
Session 9: Building a Team
Session 10: The Web
Session 11: Cash and Taxes
Session 12: Plans and Pitches

OTHER RESOURCES:

In addition to the required readings, online resources are provided for each session. If an online resource is required for a session, it will be referenced in the Required Reading section. Otherwise, online resources are provided to give additional feedback and background information about the key points of discussion for the session, and are considered “viewing optional.”

Video Overview

This video shows the resources available to students (such as classroom handouts, in-class exercises and reading assignments). If you are interested in becoming an instructor, you will need to apply for instructor access first.

Software and Books

This curriculum requires Business Plan Pro business-planning software and three startup books, The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan, 3 Weeks to Startup, and The Art of the Start. Check with your instructor to see if the software and books are included as part of your course registration, or if you will be required to purchase them separately. You will need the software and books before the first class session.

Course Sessions

Your course materials are divided into 12 sessions, with objectives, required reading and online resources listed by session. Links to the course sessions are provided in the navigation sidebar.

Objectives: Review the objectives to see what will be covered in the session.

Reading: You are expected to complete reading assignments before coming to class; required reading helps prepare you for in-class discussions.

Online Resources: Links to online resources provide additional research and background information which support the content covered during a session. If a video or other online resource is required, it will be included in the required reading section. Otherwise, the online resources are provided as optional supporting content.

Student Handouts: Your instructor will be working with PowerPoint presentations during class. Student handouts of each slide presentation have been saved as .pdf files. You can download the handouts to look ahead to the next class or catch up on sessions you missed.

Student Resources

Assignments: The assignments link in the sidebar gives you the detailed page view of all assignments. Your assignments will be completed using a custom business plan outline, created in Business Plan Pro, which correlates with the plan-as-you-go approach to writing a business plan. Click here for instructions on how to download and save this custom outline file for your assignments.

Online Resources: This sidebar link gives you a detailed page view of all online resources by session.

Readings: This sidebar link gives you a detailed page view of all required reading by session.

Here are a few more links to help you get going:

• Working with the Business Plan Pro custom starting file.
• Information about PDF files.
• Tips and help about business writing by Tim Berry.
  

• The Art of the Start, Chapter 10, The Art of Rainmaking.
• The Art of the Start, Chapter 11, the Art of Being a Mensch.

PDF files are like electronic documents, easily transferable, easy to send as attachments to email, easy to view on the web. The acronym stands for “portable document format” files. The classic way to produce PDF files is by having an Adobe software product called Adobe Acrobat. There are lots of other ways these days. Business Plan Pro automatically produces PDF files as one of the export formats. The Mac produces PDF files as an alternative to printing.

If you’re not familiar with the various tools to create the right kind of files, find out from friends, check Wikipedia on PDF or Google  creating a PDF file. Business Plan Pro exports anything to a PDF format too, so you can create the PDF file automatically.

Macintosh Users

If you’re using a Macintosh, at least if it’s a relatively new Macintosh, there is an automatic facility to print your documents to PDF files. It’s related to the Preview application on Macintosh. Use the Print command on the file menu and you’ll get something like the one shown here, which is taken from the Print dialog that comes up with PowerPoint 2007.

Move your mouse over the PDF button on the lower left, and push to open a drop down menu.

Select “Save to PDF” and use the Finder to set a file name.

That will be the PDF file you can use to send to me as an attachment to your email.

While this isn’t a class in writing, and not even in business writing, it is about starting a business and that, like it or not, includes being able to communicate well. Here are some tips:

Simple is better. Simple writing makes the same impression as a clear and uncluttered room when you enter it.

Bullet points are fine. When a thought is so completely obvious that nobody could ever want more explanation, then you can get away without more explanation. Most bullet points, however, need dressing. Don’t just tick off an entire topic and think you’ve covered it.

The following are common errors in word usage. Think of the feeling you get with fingernails on a chalk board:

• Then and than. Then is sequential, than is comparison. If we have more of this than that, only then can we move forward.
• It and its. It’s annoying when an apostrophe shows up where it’s none of its business.
• Apostrophes.
  • Showing possession: Susan’s book, Bill’s book
  • Showing contraction: don’t, please, didn’t, won’t.
  • Apostrophes don’t have anything to do with plural except for their natural look when it’s the boys’ book, for example. Or the cars’ problems. You have a plural word ending in s, like so many plurals do, and then you add an apostrophe to show possession.
• Common misspellings. Buisiness makes me unhappy. Use spell check to catch these.
• Their, there, they’re. Their problem, they’re going to fix it, but not until after they get there.
• There is, there are. Unless there is just one item, then there are more than one items. Unless there is a set of problems, or a number of problems.

It’s not hard to avoid most of the very common mistakes. If you’re not sure, take a look at this quick Google search for common writing mistakes.

Business Plan Pro 15th Anniversary Edition produces a file format with an extension, .bpdx. This format is used by Business Plan Pro to keep a business plan. Assignments for class will use a customized .bpdx file created especially to work with The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan.  The file can be downloaded from the step 2 link below.

Step-by-step

1. Install Business Plan Pro. Notice the video tutorials, and the extensive help, and the technical support available for free by email or telephone.
2. You can use this link to get the MinimumBusinessPlan.bpdx file. How you actually download depends on which browser you use. For example, in Internet Explorer you right-click the mouse and use the “save target as” option to download a file. Get the file downloaded and saved on your disk.
3. Open this minimum business plan file from within Business Plan Pro.
4. VERY IMPORTANT: use the Save-As command to save the file with a different name. You don’t want to work with the original, because then you can never start over; and you’ll run the risk of having a classmate using the same name.
5. VERY IMPORTANT: Don’t use the tasks view option provided in the software. Instead, use the Outline view to work on your business plan. This starting file has a customized outline directly associated with The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan approach to creating a business plan. All assignments have been written for this custom outline; working in the Outline view will guarantee that you see what is being discussed during the class sessions.
6. VERY IMPORTANT: Use the Plan Setup to make sure you’re set for the standard plan: not the simple, and not the more detailed. If you don’t, then the wrong outline points show up.

Your screen should look something like this, with instructions showing on the upper left, an action window in the lower left (for text or tables), and the outline in the right.

If you have questions about this, you can use the Business Plan Pro help facility — search for bpdx — or call Business Plan Pro Technical Support at 1-800 229-7526 (international callers, use 1-541-683-6162). Phone support is available for registered customers from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.,  Monday through Friday, Pacific Time.

(This discussion was created as an option for use with Session 3: Business Basics.)

Here’s a case for discussion. You be the judge.

Mary comes up with a great idea for an iPhone application. She works on it for three months in her spare time. She creates sketches and designs, trying to figure out how it would work. She looks at other iPhone apps doing related things.

About three months into it, her interest in the project has waned a bit, but she’s still thinking about it. She’s spent 10 to 20 hours on it so far. Her best friend suggests she talk to Ralph about it. She doesn’t know Ralph, but her friend does. They meet for coffee. Ralph is a programmer. He works for a company in town doing Web programming. He’s also an iPhone user and has been thinking about taking a course on programming the iPhone. Ralph is excited, and his excitement rekindles Mary’s excitement. They agree to be partners in a new business based on this iPhone application.

Four months go by. Ralph takes Mary’s idea and starts developing it. It turns out, as he gets into the code, that what Mary imagined isn’t quite possible on an iPhone. Ralph revises the idea radically, makes it practical, and develops a prototype. Mary meets with him three times, they talk, she accepts his changes begrudgingly. At this point Mary’s total hours have gone to 25, but Ralph has worked almost 120 hours on the programming.

At Ralph’s suggestion, he and Mary take the prototype to Terry, who both of them know, but neither of them know well. Terry has been through a failed startup, has a business education, and is looking for a startup to do again, this time the way it should be done. Terry’s skill is mostly marketing, but he knows how to develop a plan and look for funding options. Terry does a business plan and networks with local business development groups, to find investors. They win an opportunity to present to an angel investment group.

Another three months have gone by. Mary has now put in approximately 40 hours, Ralph 250 hours, and Terry 120 hours.

The three of them meet to plan their approach with the investors. Ralph wants to quit his job and work full-time on the new thing, but needs to get paid. Mary doesn’t want to quit her job but wants to stay involved, she’s not quite sure how. Terry wants to lead the new company as soon as he can get financing.

The business plan indicates it’s going to take $250,000 to develop the business for the first year, after which it will need another $750,000 to have enough cash to run on its own.

During this meeting, Mary and Ralph and Terry come to a difficult realization: they’ve never talked about who should own how much of this company, or how much they will offer to investors in exchange for $250K.

Class exercise: solve this problem. Suggestions: depends on style, but …

• you might choose volunteers to represent each of the three characters in the story, and let them do a mock meeting in front of the class;
• or, another alternative, divide the class into three groups, keep the groups separate, and then ask them to report to the class on what they came up with.

All assignments should be completed using Business Plan Pro and saved as a .BPDX file or exported to a .PDF file.

Must Have:

Your business plan must include as a minimum the following components, identified here as either text topic or table. Most of these were separate assignments throughout the course, and should now combine into a single business plan document.

• Summary (could also be called “Executive Summary”). This is a text topic. It should include all of the information detailed in Assignment 1: The Business Opportunity. Business Plan Pro automatically includes the Highlights Chart. You could also use what you did for Assignment 6: Summary Memo and bundle that into the plan. Edit this portion, so it isn’t redundant; you probably used your assignment 1 as a beginning draft for assignment 4.
• Market Analysis. Text topics and at least one table. Should include all of the information detailed in Assignment 2: Market Analysis. Pictures and pie charts and bar charts are welcome.
• Strategy. One of more text topics. Ideally you’ve got something along the lines recommended in the reading, strategy as a combination of identity, market, and strategic focus. There’s an outline example here, and you can click on it to jump to the Heart of the Plan material available online, which you also have in that Heart of the Plan section of The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan book in the readings. In addition, the Heart of the Plan video included in class 11 videos also covers that same material.
• Competitive Edge. This is a text topic. It’s also called Secret Sauce. This would have been discussed in class 5, Marketing Strategy. And you can also, read The Secret Sauce on the Web.
• Startup Plan: This is exactly as in Assignment 3: Startup Plan. That’s at least one text topic and two tables, one for startup costs and another for startup funding. The best way to handle the text topic is to make sure that it includes the most important assumptions and explains how you intend to raise the money required (loans, investors, personal savings, etc.)
• Sales Forecast. Exactly as in Assignment 4: Sales Forecast. That’s sales and cost of sales estimated for the first 12 months and then added up into year 1, and then a larger more general projection for years 2 and 3 of the plan as well. And it includes a text topic that explains your assumptions, and, ideally, a couple of business charts as well.
• Projected Profit & Loss. Exactly as in Assignment 5: Projected Profit & Loss. At least one text topic and a table; business charts would also be nice. If it’s obvious how you make money then you don’t need to elaborate, but for some of the more innovative new technology plans, if how you make money isn’t obvious, then please make sure you talk about the business model.

Nice to have:

You’ve got a lot of resources here on this website, including two complete online books, so you can see that there’s potentially a lot to add. Use outlines recommended in the readings, or some other order. Here are some specific suggestions, in more-or-less order of desirability — but not the order they appear in the plan:

• Cash flow. That requires some interaction between the profit and loss, which you already have, and the balance sheet, which you don’t necessarily have. With Business Plan Pro, it’s almost automatic. There’s a lot of detail available in the appropriate sections of The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan book and Hurdle: The Book on Business Planning ebook found within the software resources.
• Business offering (describing your product or service). This goes well after the summary and before the market analysis.
• Company description: ownership, facilities, and so on. Goes well right after the summary, before the business offering section.
• Business model (as noted in the Projected Profit & Loss point above, only if it isn’t obvious).
• Financial plan: description of funding sources, return on investment for investors, exit strategy.

Remember that business planning requires a lot of flexibility. Every business plan is unique to the business and its specific situation.

These resources provide ideas from other business and marketing experts. They are not required reading for this session.

ARTICLES

Seth Godin: Nine steps to PowerPoint magic

Seth Godin: Really Bad PowerPoint

VIDEOS

The Back to Fundamentals Series

This is from November 2008. The total is 50 minutes. It divides into four parts.

• Part 1: Back to Fundamentals
• Part 2: The Heart of the Plan
• Part 3: Flesh and Bones of the Plan
• Part 4: Dressing and Growing

Nancy Duarte On Slide Presentations
The book is called Slide:ology. This five-minute video is a great summary.

If you can’t get the video off of this site, click here for the source.

Tim Berry: Video Summary of Business Planning

This interview is a pretty good summary of business planning for real-world companies. It was done at a trade show of eBay vendors.