Business Plans That Win $$$: Lessons from the MIT Enterprise Forum

by Stanley R. Rich

Book Overview

If you're thinking of starting your own business -- or if you have a new idea that you want to convince your company to sell, build, or promote -- this book will provide you with all the information... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060913916
• ISBN13: 9780060913915
• Release Date: March 1987
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Business Plan Wisdom Well Worth Your Time

This book is aimed at those entrepreneurs who are seeking a substantial equity investment for their fledgling going concerns. The focus is the view from the perspective of the professional investor, the venture capital firm officials; the people who say yes or no about fairly large sums of money. These professionals are most responsive to management teams, teams which have a decent quantity of the right experience and which include members who cover the management and necessary technical disciplines well. Business plans, however, are needed and should be used in many other business situations including sole proprietor startups as well as established companies aiming to launch special projects, new products or other ventures. The good news about this book is that It is easy to read It has sound wisdom to impart to virtually all who are considering the preparation of a business plan It steers the reader away from "forms" (fill in the blanks formats & software) as well as sample plans. On this last point the authors write: "Sophisticated investors disagree strongly with such "cookie-cutter" approaches to writing business plans simply because the financiers believe that each business is unique, with its own special marketing, sales, production, and other issues." If the book convinces the reader of this key point it will have performed a great service. From my perspective the content covers all of the important issues that make up the business planning process. The advice is very sound if you can make appropriate adjustments for your particular business situation. Conveniently each chapter is neatly and briefly summarized with the key points to be retained by the reader. Virtually all entrepreneurs need to sell their business concept. It may be to family and friends, to key customers or suppliers, to potential partners, private investors or key employee prospects and to one or more lenders. All potential entrepreneurs should read the final chapter titled "And Now It's Show Biz". This chapter tells how to cap off an efficient and effective business plan with an equally effective oral presentation. For the book's primary audience this post-plan interview procedure is critical in securing venture capital funding. The advice contained in this last chapter, however, can be applied by any entrepreneur talking to any important audience (with appropriate adjustments). This chapter is, as the saying goes, "worth the price of admission." Highly recommended as the "one book" if you should limit your reading to just one.

A Concise and Timeless Guide To Effective Business Plans!

With this book as a reference, several years ago my MBA team was able to take our B-plan to 2nd place in a national scholastic B-plan contest. I have referred to it annually since then to guide my on-going planning. I also use it as a playbook for developing new business plans. It helps focus your planning efforts on the key questions that investors want answered in a plan.Each chapter addresses an aspect of the planning process and gives anecdotal examples of plans that were presented to the MIT forum. The summaries at the end of each chapter help expedite the annual review.I cut my teeth on Mancuso's various B-plan guides almost two decades ago and this book, by far, gets you where you want to go in the most direct manner. If you only want one book on B-planning, this is it.

This is a timeless book on business plans...

This book was recommended to me by an executive with 30 years of experience and 8-digit net worth as the "bible" for starting a business. I have used this book twice during the past 6 years to assemble successful business plans. The lessons in the book are not industry specific or date specific, but rather the wisdom that applies to any business. Some of the insights in the book were later worth a lot of money to my companies. My compliments to the author for not just putting together templates or example plans, but rather teaching the entreprenuer how to think.

Outstanding business advice

I bought this book several years ago and I still refer to it whenever putting together a business plan. The book tells you what a business plan needs to convince investors to invest. In the course of doing that you will also learn whether your business is worth it for YOUR investment of time and money.After working through all the issues in this book, you will have thought about all the issues that are essential to your business's success.

Required reading for the aspiring entrepreneur

This book tells you, the aspiring entrepreneur, exactly what potential investors in your company are thinking and why. Furthermore, it tells you in clear , simple and direct prose exactly how you should be thinking in order to get their investment. The first chapter sends home the message that the business plan is your admission ticket to an audience which is not only rich, but also very secretive, selective, and more often than not, extremely conservative. Rich and Gumpert clearly tell you, the budding mogul, that you don't get something for nothing, and that you had better have something outstanding and tangible to put forward in order to woo the moneymen. They walk you through what investors look for and look out for, the best way to package your business plan, all the sections the financial spin doctors pay very close attention to, and finally, how to make the best possible oral pitch. Rich and Gumpert also do a very good job of sending the reader the message that the aspiring entrepreneur should have a solid idea of his/her own goals as well as his hopes for his/her company. However, the most important thing this dynamic duo imparts to the enterprising entrepreneur is the knowledge of the type of company(ies) which ultimately receive venture capital funding, and what the entrepreneur should be thinking and doing to become one of those chosen few companies. Even though the book was first printed a decade and a half ago, all of the information contained in it is not only accurate, but also very applicable to any start-up. Let no one fool you on this point: whenever you go hat in hand asking for someone to put up a pretty penny to back something new, unproven, untested, and unconventional that stands a good chance of going bust, expect them to be very wary and very, very conservative. Though some may see this book as outdated, I see this book as having a timeless quality. This is no fair-weather text; this book is a mainstay business reference which should be displayed prominently on one's bookshelf and referred to throughout every stage of the start-up process to maintain a good perspective and a sharp focus. My only regret is that no one gave me this book while I was a student at MIT. It would have saved me a lot of time and headaches.