Business Plan

Pride & Prejudice: (What) Can Nonprofits Learn From the For-Profit World?

Richard Dare | Posted 05.07.2012

Read More: Arts, Nonprofits, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Entrepreneurship, Business Model, Art, Strategy, Brooklyn, Orchestra, New York, Impact, Business Plan, Culture News

Like everyone else in the business world, we nonprofits need money to operate, folks, and lots of it. Let's focus on some steps nonprofits might take to follow their siblings in the for-profit sector toward a brighter financial future.

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Your Innovation Lifejacket: Pull to Inflate

Brian Tolle | Posted 05.21.2012

Read More: Iphone, Innovation in Business, Innovation, Business Plan, Innovation Lifejacket, Potential Customers, Square Account, Business News

The payoff is that there are usually lots of potential customers not using your offering because they see or experience it as too complicated. God bless our engineers but they sure do love to, well, over-engineer things. Let you be the counter-balance to your engineers.

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Conversations Every Entrepreneur Should Have

Patrick FitzGerald | Posted 05.21.2012

Read More: Small Business America, Small Business, Small Business Customer, Startup, Business Plan, Business Owners, Startups, Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship, Small Business News

You have an idea and you're quite sure it'll be successful. It might revolutionize the way people shop, eat, exercise, sleep, watch tv, you name it. What's next? Before you embark on writing that business plan or applying to business school, take some time to talk. To whom? Everyone.

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Crafting The Perfect Elevator Pitch: 5 Things You Need To Know

HuffingtonPost.com | Alicia Ciccone | Posted 03.16.2012

Read More: 5 Things You Need to Know, Business Pitch, Chris O'Leary, Business Plan, Video Pitch, Jay Bailey, Elevator Pitch, Pitch Your Business, Small Business News

When you're an entrepreneur, you have to live your life as if there's a new opportunity around every corner. And though meeting your future investor i...

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Your Start-up Life: Should I Quit My Dead-End Job?

Rana Florida | Posted 05.15.2012

Read More: Bad Bosses, Starting a Restaurant, Starting a Business, Business Plan, Quit Dead-End Job, Quit My Job, Should I Quit Job, Dead-End Job, How to Start Business, How to Start Restaurant, Advice Rana Florida, Business News

I've been stuck in a corporate job my entire adult life. We recently had a management change over and I HATE my new boss. I've been dreaming of opening up my own restaurant for years and cooking is my passion. I have a family with three small children and can't lose the income of a stable job.

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Who Dares Wins -- 2nd Annual Int'l Business Model Competition

Steve Blank | Posted 04.17.2012

Read More: Customer Development, Business Innovation, Business Entrepreneurs, Business Model, Business Entreprenuership, Writing Business Plan, Business Plan, Business News

The idea of a Business Model competition first emerged when I realized that Business Plan writing ought to be taught in English departments -- as they're the best example of creative writing entrepreneurs will ever do.

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Turning Entrepreneurship Into Businesses

Adam Borelli | Posted 04.14.2012

Read More: MIT $100K, Business Plan, Startups, Entrepreneurs, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship, Small Business News

The mission of the new contest, called ACCELERATE, is for teams to build demos of their idea, whether that be a hardware prototype, a beta service, or experimental data for a promising new drug.

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3 Things To Know Before You Start Your Own Business

ForbesWoman | Posted 01.08.2012

Read More: Women Entrepreneurs, Forbes Women, Commitment, Entrepreneurship, Forbes, Starting Your Own Business, Business Plan, Women News

I often get asked what the hardest part of being an entrepreneur is. While there are many challenges that come along with being an entrepreneur, from ...

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Scary Business Plans

Matt Cohen | Posted 12.12.2011

Read More: Marketing, Supply Chain, Halloween, Musicals, Business, Movies, Business Plan, Vertical Integration, Comedy News

Sweeney Todd is a case study in vertical integration. Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett join forces in a common venture. Specifically, he kills some of his customers and then she bakes them into meat pies. After you're done gagging, consider what this does to their supply chain.

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Seeking Private Support, Artist Incorporates

Daniel Grant | Posted 11.06.2011

Read More: Scott Hodes, Limited Liability Corporation, Burning Man Arts Festival, Outdoor Sculpture, Business of Art, Starving Artist, Business Plan, Investors, Arts News

Setting up a limited liability corporation offers artists clear benefits - "No more of this hat in hand, starving artist routine," Coffin said, "we're going in as a business" - and some risks.

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How To Know When To Quit Your Job And Launch A Business

Cynthia McCahon | Posted 08.13.2011

Read More: Debt, Small Business America, Small Business, Startup, Economic Crisis, Business Plan, Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneur, Business News

Should you throw caution to the wind and quit your day job to launch your business?

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Kauffman Foundation: Where The Ideas Are

Lesa Mitchell | Posted 08.06.2011

Read More: Rice University, Small Business, Startup, Kauffman Foundation, Pakistan, Business Plan, Business Incubator, Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship, Small Business America, Business News

The range of ideas submitted to business competitions is amazing. But too many innovations are sitting on the shelf; let's move them into use.

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Can Your Strategy Pass the Infomercial Test?

Deepa Prahalad | Posted 08.03.2011

Read More: Consumers, Strategy, Infomercial, Business Plan, Business News

Infomercials manage to do something that big companies struggle with: they clearly communicate their value proposition and they tell a story on the consumer's terms.

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10 Business Plan Follies That Make Investors Cringe

Marty Zwilling | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Spam, Investor, Negativity, Appendix, Executive Summary, Entrepreneur, Business Plans, Business Plan, Small Business America, Venture Investing, Startups, Venture Capital, Business News

Every entrepreneur likes to think that their document is inspirational. Every serious investor has a stack of these in their in-basket. Here is what investors say the former shouldn't do.

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Ten Secrets To Entrepreneurial Success

Naveen Jain | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Startups, Small Business, Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship, Tech-Startups, Small Business America, Business Plan, Business News

I've been an entrepreneur most of my adult life. Recently, on a long business flight, I began thinking about what it takes to become successful as an entrepreneur -- and how I would even define the meaning of "success" itself.

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Towards A Science Of Entrepreneurship

Steve Blank | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Venture Capital, Brigham Young University, Small Business, Management Science, Business Plan, Startups, Stanford, Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneur, Management, Small Business America, Business News

Utah may be known for many things, but who would have thought that Utah, and particularly Brigham Young University, would be participating in the transformation of entrepreneurship?

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From Trash to Cash - How Two College Students Made a Fortune

Fred Whelan and Gladys Stone | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: College Students, Small Business, Career, College, Starting a Business, Business Plan, Start-Ups, Startup Business Plan, Career Advice, Startups, Careers, Junk, Business, Entrepreneurship, Niche Marketing, Career Change, Business News

Many people are starting their own businesses, despite this difficult economy. Stories like Omar's and Nick's are inspiring to entrepreneurs of any age.

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Your Money Search Begins With a Persuasive Cover Letter

Jerry Chautin | Posted 05.25.2011

Even though the cover letter is rarely thought of as a business-plan document, it begins the process of selling your concept to the loan officer and finance committee.

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Uniquely Crafted Business Plans Are Needed to Raise Capital

Jerry Chautin | Posted 05.25.2011

Now is the time to think about dusting off your old business plan as the economy improves. A business plan is required to obtain a loan or venture capital. It is uniquely designed as a sales tool to get financing.

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Writing A Business Plan: 5 Things You Need To Know

The Huffington Post/AOL Small Business | Charlotte Jensen | Posted 08.09.2011

Read More: 5 Things You Need to Know, Writing a Business Plan, Tim Berry, Starting a Business, Business Plan Pro, Business Plan, Palo Alto Software, Business Plans for Dummies, Home News

About half of new small businesses survive more than five years, according to the Small Business Administration. Or, for the pessimists among us, that...

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Don't Trust SBA or Lender Endorsed Business Plans

Jerry Chautin | Posted 05.25.2011

Falsely promoted business plans and "plug-in-the-number-templates," will not help you get financing. There are no shortcuts to circumvent the lengthily process of doing it the right way.

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Don't Start a Social Enterprise -- Unless You Have To

Scott Ballum | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Small Business, Social Entrepreneurship, Work-Life Balance, Business School, Mba, Business Plan, Business News

Activist entrepreneurship takes a very strong kind of person, many days I wonder if it takes one stronger than me. It takes a visionary who is also a bookkeeper.

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Gearing up for Battle

Karen Robinovitz | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: welcometomeet.com, Huge Lips Skinny Hips, Karen Robinovitz, Business Plan, Lip Plumper, Raising Money, Purplelabnyc, Meet on Crosby Street, Lip Gloss, Purple Lab, Style News

This whole thing - starting a business, becoming a manufacturer, raising money, balancing it with a day job, overseeing back and front end of all operations... it's war, I tell you. WAR!

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The Purple Lab Journey

Karen Robinovitz | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Makeup, Beauty, Karen Robinovitz, Business Plan, Purple Lab, Style News

While I'm far behind in the journey of the making of Purple Lab, Todd and I were presenting our business plan to big wigs to oversee the process and bring in contacts from their own money-savvy circles.

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Dial B for Business Plan

Karen Robinovitz | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Lip Plumper, Purple Lab, Huge Lips Skinny Hpis, Beauty, Karen Robinovitz, Business Plan, Lip Glss, Style News

I thought raising money to support Purple Lab would be easy. I was wrong.

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