Most of the time when you are writing the marketing plan, it is usually something that needs to stand on its own and in other cases it might need to be incorporated into another document like a business plan. So before we dive into the executive summary, it is important to understand that there are ...

Since the Business Plan series came to a close I thought of the next logical step in what you have to do in your business to support the business plan and its operations. This next step is the marketing plan. The Art of Marketing Doing marketing planning which is captured in the marketing plan, is a...

In the last business plan post we did our best to explain the Income Statement in Plain English. Hopefully we didn’t sound like a “quant-jock� and cleared away the haze and confusion that can sometimes come with financial statements. So this is why someone like myself who has started a few bus...

The cash flow statement reports the cash generated and used during the time interval specified in its heading. The period of time that the statement covers is chosen by the company. For example, the heading may state “For the Three Months Ended December 31, 2007″ or “The Fiscal Year Ended Sept...

The previous 12 parts of the business plan focused on the written sections and as we reach the back of the plan the critically important financial statement section comes into view. However, the view doesn’t look so clear because to many it looks like a dense cloud of numbers and characters that o...

What is marketing without sales? In Part 10 we talked about the marketing plan which lays all the ground work so that sales can close and the business may grow. But sales is the place were people must execute. Many say sales is marketing with actually asking for the close. I disagree and while they ...

There is a well known investing slogan, “Fund an A-Grade team with a B-Grade idea over a B-Grade Team with an A-Grade idea�. Did you get that tongue twister? I am not talking pedigree or a minimum number of years of experience but it is the results that make the team. You want people that can ex...

Many times with a business plan it is good to have a 1-2 page section on the basics of the company. I call this the “Company Overview� and this format is good in some cases to answer what your company does and the problems it is fixing. The “Company Overview� section is also a great place to...

Last week I had the opportunity to ride the train up with Shashi to New York City to attend the 4th annual Small Business Summit in New York. It was my first time to this event and it was a good one with a broad base of businesses represented. The organizers are Ramon Ray, who some of you know from ...

This week, Shashi Bellamkonda, the Social Media Swami here at Network Solutions is speaking at the Affiliate Summit Conference West 2009. Affiliate Summit West 2009 is taking place January 11-13, 2009 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. When you take a look at this amazing agenda, you ...