Business Plan How To
 

How To Write a Winning Investment Offer

June 24, 2011 - 2:56 pm

How To Write a Winning Investment PlanNow that your business plan is almost done and you do believe that the sales projections are feasible, it is time to summarize everything for your investors-to-be. Don’t confuse this part of business plan (usually referred to as Investment Offer) with an Executive Summary. Executive Summary is a brief outline up of your whole business concept. It contains key execution milestones, describes your product and team, and presents sales projections. While Investment Offer is a part of a business plan that outlines basic investment needs of your project, sources of capital you plan using and how quickly will you be able to pay back investments. Investment Offer also presents the key principles of how you plan dealing with your investors, how will investors participate in the project and what is the exit policy that you offer to them.
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Business Startup
 

How Business Incubators Help Creating an Entrepreneur’s Market

June 23, 2011 - 1:29 pm

An interview with the team of Arizona Center for Innovation

Arizona Center for InnovationThe path of every entrepreneur is unique. And though most of us face more or less the same challenges (developing the winning product concept, working out efficient business procedures, communicating with customers in the best way possible) the way we deal with these tasks is what makes every business case a separate story. Generally to make it a success we need an expertise in diverse fields of knowledge. And addressing a business incubator might be an optimal way of adding some cutting-edge skills to the start up. I reached out to Arizona Center for Innovation and they have kindly shared their insider’s takes on business incubation process and the best ways of finding investors for start up projects.
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How To Find Investors
 

Exit Strategy for Your Business Plan

June 10, 2011 - 12:56 pm

Exit SignNow that you have thought your business plan out and are itching to get started it is the perfect time to verify your business model against realistic exit strategy. Yes, you should think about the happy end before you start your race. And that is especially true if you plan attracting outside investors to you project. The exit strategy presents the way investors pull out their investment from your business at the end of the day. And it is not the payback period they are interested in: investors are only willing to risk their monies if they do earn profits (and the higher the multiplier is the better). In most cases the small paragraph about exit strategy in your business plan attracts more eyeballs then your sales projections. Moreover, your entire business model depends on how you plan to cash out.

There are 4 major types of business exit strategy:
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Business Plan Financials
 

How To Compute Payback Period

June 7, 2011 - 4:25 pm

lucky catWhile writing a business plan many entrepreneurs get stuck with business plan financials. However making sales projections and modeling your business cash flow is vitally important if you do aim at creating a sustainable business. And one of the fundamental business plan questions is how quickly will your project turn cash flow positive and start bringing you profits. Earlier on Invest Engine Blog we’ve touched upon break even point analysis. So first of all I’ll repeat myself a bit and stress out the difference between break even point and payback period as they are often confused. Break even point (BEP) is the point at which your expenses and your revenues are equal. Payback period (PBP) is when your business becomes profitable (revenues cover ALL expenses, including start up costs)..
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Top Business Books and Articles
 

Best Business Articles of May 2011

May 31, 2011 - 4:22 pm

Best Business ArticlesIt is just the perfect time to shortlist the best business articles that came out this May. Not all of them are exactly the business reading (in the sense that there is one video and one infographic chart on the list). So let’s get straight to the most brilliant business content published out there. And if you cannot get enough, you are very welcome to check out my list of top business articles of April.
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Top Business Books and Articles
 

Seth Godin – Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

May 19, 2011 - 2:08 pm

“Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?” by Seth Godin

There used to be work, and work-life balance. As in work is not part of your life, you do the work, get paid, and then leave the cubicle and live your life. Today, a lot of people would laugh at you if you suggest this. Some work from home. Others don’t depend on the office environment. Others just get bored by following written instructions like a skilled robot. In other words, we are not mechanical turks anymore. This used to be fine. Factories needed mechanical turks who could repeat same actions, get same results, and occasionally go through optimization processes to do more of the same. There’s more intellectual work now than there ever was. And it requires constant changes and outstanding people.

Chances are, following your job description doesn’t do the job, so to say. Seth Godin argues that what the world needs now is linchpins. People who are indispensable in their work. Who do more, or do better, and definitely do better than the rest. They get the best jobs, they get the most freedom. Are you easy to replace at your job? If the answer is yes, and you’d like it to be no, then get this book and read it!
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How To Find Investors
 

4 R’s of Finding Investors for Your Business Project

May 13, 2011 - 11:26 am

Finding InvestorsWhether you are running a startup project or are extending your existing business get investors for your venture is always a challenge. It takes time, confidence, patience and luck to finally present your business plan in from of potential investors. And even then nothing is guaranteed.

Talking to professional VC firms and business consultants who help raising capital for business helped me to clarify the 4 R’s of getting closer to where money lives.
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How To Find Investors
 

Is That Really Safe To Disclose Your Business Idea?

May 12, 2011 - 11:38 am

Port-42Entrepreneurs believe in their business ideas passionately: ideas are the very essence of new business venture, the starting point of the possibly glorious future. Many of those who just wish to become entrepreneurs wait until “some good business idea comes along” (thus excusing themselves for procrastination). But generally the value of business idea is highly overestimated. Try selling blank new business idea and you’ll be surprised with how little people are willing to pay for it. Nevertheless, many entrepreneurs are afraid that either investors or other entrepreneurs will steal their business idea and try securing themselves with various confidentiality agreements (NDA, non-disclosure agreements). But is sharing your business idea that risky?
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Business Plan Financials
 

Break Even Point Analysis for Your Business Plan

May 11, 2011 - 11:24 am

break even pointGaining profits might be the top business priority (and in fact most of us are in business to make monies). But instinctively entrepreneurs concern reaching break even point as the first moment of truth. I say “the first” because there is also the second milestone on the way to business success – becoming cash flow positive. And it is important not to confuse these two and stay focused on your business objectives. So the break even point (BEP) is the point at which your expenses and your revenues are equal. And the payback period (PBP) is when you generate enough revenues to cover all your expenses (including business setup costs). These two points might be quite far away from each other in time. And in fact a business can be break even for years without actually becoming cash flow positive. But let’s find out why you should provide break even analysis in your business plan and how to calculate break even point.
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Personal Finance
 

Managing Your Personal Finances in 5 Easy Steps

May 5, 2011 - 4:35 pm

Debt SolutionsThere are many graduate students who have taken a few finance classes here and there but yet do not have any inkling of personal finance management. Actually, most of us don’t even get an opportunity to take any such class on personal finance that can help us rejuvenate our personal financial state. If you’re drowning in debt and you have not yet sought the help of any debt relief company that offers debt solutions, then you need to buck up. Nothing can hurt your personal finances more than high interest debt. Especially in a country where the national debt level is eventually spiraling out of control, people have to be more aware of their personal finance management skills so that they can contribute to the economy of their nation. Here are some promising tips that will assist you in managing your monies and securing your financial future.
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