business plans quotes... "A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured then quietly strangled" Sir Barnett Cocks

Resources & Research Guide

Great technical ideas are often a good start, but successful business plans include sections on marketing and financials based on additional research. There are many resources available to help write business plans and to research strategies, industry trends, customer needs and potential competitors.

In order to be sure your product or service targets the needs of your customers you will need to be familiar with how these people behave. In order to construct convincing sales and revenue forecasts you must understand competing firms.

When conducting market research, remember to take time to talk with actual potential customers. Many times the fastest way to get the information you need is simply to ask the people who know. You can contact potential customers, suppliers, and competitors directly through interviews or surveys; this is often the most useful, efficient, and credible method. To identify contacts, use the Yellow Pages or the relevant industry directories (available at many libraries).

The resources below may help to get you started:

• Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore
• Inside the Tornado, Geoffrey Moore
• Marketing High Technology: An Insider's View, Bill Davidow
• Relationship Marketing: Successful Strategies for the Age of the Customer, Regis McKenna
• Business Plans for Dummies, Paul Tiffany and Steven Peterson
• Only the Paranoid Survive, Andy Grove
• Hypercompetitive Rivalries, Richard D'Aveni and Robert Gunther
• The Prize, Daniel Yergia
• Start-Up: A Silicon Valley Adventure, Jerry Kaplan
• Pratt's Guide to Venture Capital Sources, Ted Weissberg, ed.
• The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson
• The Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton M. Christensen
• Enterprise and Venture Capital, Chris Golis

Online Resources

• Bplans.com http://www.bplans.com
  Find, view, download and edit sample business plans.
• Center for Business Planning (U.S.) http://www.businessplans.org
  FA collection of resources for planning your business, documenting your plan and evaluating your strategy.
• BizPlanit http://www.bizplanit.com/vplan.html
  For each section in a standard business plan, this page lists Basic Tips and Common Mistakes to Avoid.
• Business Research In Information & Technology http://www.brint.com/
  Provides a searchable knowledge map of management and information technology issues. Some of it is free and it has some great links.
• Advertising Age http://www.adage.com/
  Provides advertising data for specific companies and other advertising related data.
• Gartner Group, Inc. http://www.gartnerweb.com/
  Provides independent research and analysis of significant IT industry developments and trends. Abstracts of reports are free.
• Forrester Research, Inc. http://www.forrester.com/
  Provides independent research and analysis of significant IT industry developments and trends. Abstracts of reports are free.
• International Data Corp http://www.idcresearch.com
  Provides independent research and analysis of significant IT industry developments and trends. Abstracts of reports are free.
• Red Herring http://www.redherring.com
  Provides news, reports, interviews and insight into startups and VC.
• Venture Capital Resource Library http://www.vfinance.com
  Directory of venture capital.
• PricewaterhouseCoopers Quarterly - Survey of Venture Capital http://www.pw.com/vc/
  Listing of venture capital firms and investments.
• AllBusiness.com http://www.allbusiness.com/
  Solutions for Growing Businesses.
• Entrepreneurs and small biz resource http://www.enterweb.org/
• Venture Capital Organisations
  • American NVCA http://www.nvca.org/
  • British VCA http://www.bvca.co.uk/
  • Australian VCA http://www.avcal.com.au/
• Yahoo Small Business http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com
  Daily featured articles, analysing real life situations, or tips and tricks.
• Office.com http://www.office.com
  Regular articles and advice on a wide range of subjects appropriate to startups and established businesses.

Books

• Rob Adams, A Good Hard Kick in the Ass: Basic training for entrepreneurs, (Crown Business, 2002)
• ISBN 0-609-60950-5
• John Bessant, High-Involvement Innovation: Building and sustaining competitive advantage through continuous change, (John Wiley & Sons, 2003)
• ISBN 0-470-84707-7
• Thomas L Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, (Harper Collins, 2000)
• ISBN 0-00-655-139-4
• John Legge & Kevin Hindle, Entrepreneurship: How innovators create the future, (Australian Dept of Industry, Science and Tourism, 1997)
• ISBN 0-7329-3940-2
• Jakki Mohr, Marketing of High-Technology Products and Innovations, (Prentice Hall, 2001)
• ISBN 0-13-013606-9
• Richard Razgaitis, Early-Stage Technologies: Valuation and pricing, (John Wiley & Sons, 1999)
• ISBN 0-471-32856-1
• Kevin G Rivette and David Kline, Rembrandts in the Attic: Unlocking the hidden value of patents, (Harvard Business School Press, 2000)
• ISBN 0-87584-899-0
• Everett M Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, 4th ed (Free Press, 1995)
  • ISBN 0-02-926671-8
• Peter Switzer, 350 ways to grow your small business, (Harper Collins, 2002)
  • ISBN 0-7322-7214-9
• Jeffrey A Timmons and Stephen Spinelli, New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century, 6th ed. (McGraw-Hill, 2003)
• ISBN 0-07-249840-4
• David B Yoffie and Mary Kwak, Judo Strategy: Turning your competitors’ strength to your advantage, (Harvard Business School Press, 2001)
• ISBN 1-57851-253-0