Experts Views on the Value of Business Plans

The Experts

Two experts caught my attention when discussing views on business plans. The first is Dr. Steven Gedeon. Dr. Gedeon is a highly-regarded entrepreneurship educator and expert who is credited with founding and leading over a dozen private, public, venture capital, and non-profit organizations. He is a much decorated individual with tons of experience with businesses. He does his part by giving back knowledge to the area by publishing books, articles, and blogs. You can see more about Dr. Gedeon here.

Next is Dr. Carl Schramm. Dr. Schramm has founded or co-founded seven companies and served for major companies in crucial roles such as EVP or Fortis. He is the author of several books about business as well as healthcare costs. He has advised major corporations on a national scale about innovation, expanding entrepreneurial activity, and economical growth. He also contributes to the Wall Street Journal and Forbes magazine respectively.

Critical and Key Components

Dr. Gedeon states that critical and key components he looks for in a plan are what is the business doing, and whom is it tailored towards? This can be as simple as selling shoes. Are you selling shoes in general? If so, this may not be something Dr. Gedeon would be interested in. Now if you are selling shoes that are tailored towards runners or even runners with special needs such as runners with heel spurs, turf toe, or anything then it may be more interesting.

This heads to another area he is interested in such as how your business is different from the competitors; which in our example is shoes for those with disabilities or ailments. Lastly, he and any investor is interested in the overall executive summary and the qualifications of the management team. Is John Smith running it with no experience, or is Shawn Myers running it with 20 years experience tailoring shoes towards those with foot ailments? Venture capitalists will also be looking at the overall financials of the business; this section of the plan shows thought and consideration was put into the business.

Dr. Schramm seems to be more concerned about the overall management of the business itself. Carl is quoted in many articles such as this one stating, "Rarely it never makes sense to write a business plan." Now he doesn't mean that business plans are useless, but it is never the case that a formal path in a business plan is the plan a business takes to success. Think about that home improvement project you started over summer. Insert peg A into peg B. Simple right? But myself and other men in the country, usually A never gets into B and C usually gets snapped in half trying to force it into A. This is a direct quote from the Steinvox article. Carl stated that he looks for primary characteristics of the Entrepreneur starting the business, not the business plan. The characteristics include:

1. They are an outsider, they ask the hard questions, and press leaders on the “why” around status quo.
2. They think in terms of disruption, and are often thought to be disruptive by the change-averse.
3. They see things differently, considering untraditional forces that others didn’t see.
4. They are often competent in a completely different field than the field they are working in.
5. They are very widely read, and know lots of facts and information that makes thinking richer.
6. They have worked in multiple places in the world.
7. They have worked in a startup.
8. They have worked in a job they didn’t like.
9. They have worked in multiple industries.

These key areas for each individual tell a different story. For Dr. Gedeon, it tells him the path of the business, where it is going, what market is it in, and who is running it with what money. Dr. Schramm's characteristics and key elements really say who is doing it, what makes them qualified to do it, and what is their resume of successful completions. His characteristics also show the test of a person's grit, integrity, and much more especially their thought patterns.

What's in it for me?

The suggestions I took from each person has actually been resonating with me through my tenure at Full Sail. I have made myself into a well rounded person who strives to get myself involved in local business startups such as my new business Just Crab Cakes. Along with this, I have realized the focus on business plans surrounds the executive summary and financials respectively. What do you do, why do you do it, and why is it better than the others? Those are my key questions to any business that approaches me for help. Those three questions give me a quick summary of what a business is doing, why it's doing what it's doing, and how it will fair in a tough market. Combining both Dr. Schramm and Dr. Gedeon into one business plan is really what I am aiming for. The business plan is a great way to say what you are looking to do and how, but a business plan in my eyes is only as good as the person who wrote it.