Burn Your Business Plan! : What Investors Really Want from Entrepreneurs

by Gumpert, David E.

ISBN13: 9780970118158

ISBN10: 0970118155

Format: Paperback

Pub. Date: 2003-02-01

Publisher(s): Independent Pub Group

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Summary

What Could Be Wrong with Writing a Business Plan? Plenty, argues business-planning expert David E. Gumpert. In this controversial new book, Gumpert maintains that writing a business plan not only takes too much time -- possibly 100 or more precious hours -- but distracts entrepreneurs from tasks that mean more to potential investors, like preparing a presentation, developing a Web site, obtaining publicity, and making sales. Moreover, investors have become so cynical about written business plans that writing one may hurt your chances to raise money.

Author Biography

David E. Gumpert is author or co-author of seven books on various aspects of business. He is currently president of Gumpert Communications Inc. of Needham, MA

Preface	p. III
Acknowledgments	p. 1
Introduction: Investor Relations for Entrepreneurs	p. 3
Perspectives on Business Planning	p. 9
Raising Money in an Age of High Anxiety: Why Investors Have Business Plan Phobia	p. 11
The Real World	p. 12
The Underlying Issues	p. 14
Corrupted Process	p. 18
Some Examples	p. 20
The Messages	p. 24
Costly Implications	p. 25
Ask the Wrong Question and You'll Get the Wrong Answer--Where We've Gone Wrong in Thinking About Business Plans	p. 27
If it Seems too Good to be True...	p. 29
So Why Do We Keep Doing Business Plans?	p. 30
Why We do It	p. 32
What's the Problem?	p. 34
Is Planning a Useful Exercise? What the Research Shows	p. 37
Some Scary Implications	p. 39
Surprising Research Results	p. 40
What's the Problem?	p. 42
Learning from Celebrities	p. 43
Seven Actions You Should Take Before Preparing a Business Plan	p. 47
Look Inward: What Is Your Startup Karma?	p. 49
For Love or Money?	p. 50
Karma and Your Business	p. 52
Questions to Ask Yourself	p. 53
What Investors Really Want to Know	p. 54
The Entire Package	p. 55
The Presentation: Giving Form to Your Ideas	p. 59
Getting Ready	p. 60
Twelve Questions	p. 62
Recycling Opportunity	p. 68
Compose a Synopsis	p. 69
An Executive Summary	p. 71
A Query Letter	p. 71
Bringing the Two Together	p. 72
An Example	p. 74
Your Synopsis	p. 75
Develop Meaningful and Hard-Hitting Financials	p. 79
The Financial Package	p. 80
Putting It Together	p. 86
Example Financial Documents	p. 89
Build a Web Site That Demonstrates Your Business Model	p. 99
Typical Scenarios	p. 101
What Every Web Site Must Accomplish	p. 104
What You Don't Want from a Web Site	p. 107
Putting It All Together	p. 108
Use Publicity to Attract Investor Attention	p. 109
The Power of Publicity	p. 111
Making Publicity Happen	p. 112
Leverage Your Success	p. 116
How Should You Handle the PR Function Ongoing?	p. 117
Touch the Marketplace	p. 119
Why Demonstrating Demand Is So Important	p. 121
Ten Ways to Demonstrate Demand	p. 121
Turning Investors' Heads	p. 126
Business Planning and the Investment Process	p. 129
What You're Selling and What Investors Are Buying: Capitalize on Investor Psychology	p. 131
Human Nature	p. 134
Investor Secrets	p. 135
The Bottom Line	p. 136
Dilution and the Economics of Investing	p. 137
The Proper Reaction to Investor Interest	p. 138
Teaming Up with AOL for Love and Money: A Case Study	p. 141
The Introductory Pitch	p. 146
The Big Pitch	p. 148
Key Ingredients	p. 153
The Best Investor Relations Approach for You	p. 155
Meeting Investors	p. 156
Impressing Investors	p. 159
Negotiating Effectively	p. 161
And What About That Plan?	p. 163
Summary of Professional Investor Research	p. 165
Research Study of Business Planning	p. 169
What All Business Plans Must Cover	p. 173
Index	p. 175
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