When researching who to write about in the leadership portfolio assignment I came across some interesting and brilliant authors along the way that were worth of investigation but we could not pick all of them, so we picked Mr. Garret Sutton, Esq. for the book “The ABC’s of writing winning business plans” and the team of authors of Mr. Brian R. Ford, Mr. Jay Bornstein and Mr. Patrick T. Pruitt authors of the book “The Ernst & Young Business Plan Guide”.
On one hand we have the renowned lawyer Garrett Sutton an author, speaker and a member of an elite group of "Rich Dad's Advisors” that are hand selected by author Robert Kiyosaki, with over twenty-five years experience assisting and advising individuals in the selection of the appropriate corporate structures of limit liability in business, protect their assets and advance their personal and financial goals through real estate investments and other means of wealth creation. Sutton attended Colorado College and the University of California at Berkeley where he received a B.S. in Business Administration in 1975. In 1978, he graduated with a J.D. from University of California's Hastings College of Law in San Francisco. As a member of the "Rich Dad's Advisors" Mr. Sutton speaks to investors and entrepreneurs on a variety of topics including asset protection, liability limitation, wealth creation, as well as various business and real estate issues. Sutton had written several books; among them there is “The ABC’s of Writing Winning Business Plans”, “How to Buy and/or Sell a Business” and “Start a Business Toolbox” among others. His books provide an accessible source of information for building your own success.
In the “The ABC’s of Writing Winning Business Plans” Garrett Sutton suggests that the three essentials every business plan must have are:
- It must be a true and complete description of your business.
- It must use simple and understandable in language.
- It must be summarized and directly to the point.
It is important to point out that according to Mr. Sutton the success of a business relays on the entrepreneurial spirit of the person and not his age or gender. I completely agree with him. He states that to him the personal traits a business plan presenter needs to be a successful entrepreneur are:
- Vision: the ability to find opportunities others cannot see.
- Courage: the ability to act despite tremendous doubt.
- Creativity: the ability to think outside the box
- Ability to withstand criticism: understand that there is not one successful person who has not been criticized.
- Ability to delay gratification: understand that even if its very difficult to deny yourself the short term immediate self gratification you need to do it in favor of a greater long – term reward.
On the other hand we have the Ernst & Young team of Mr. Brian R. Ford, Mr. Jay Bornstein and Mr. Patrick T. Pruitt authors of the book “The Ernst & Young Business Plan Guide”. All three of them are partners in the Philadelphia offices of Ernst & Young and have worked with entrepreneurs from the “idea” stage to beyond going public. In the case of Brian R. Ford we have an individual with an extensive professional experience, especially when it comes to the casino gaming industry where he is considered one of the leaders. He has also worked in industries from manufacturing, to retail to distribution with even some Fortune 25 clients. Mr. Ford was one of the original authors of “The Ernst & Young Business Plan Guide”. On the other hand we have Jay Bornstein, with a 20 plus year experience as a tax advisor for business from the start up stage to the going public one. He joined the authors of “The Ernst & Young Business Plan Guide” in 1993 for the second edition. And finally we have Patrick T. Pruitt as the newest member of the team of authors. Mr. Pruitt has extensive experience in all stages of the business cycle having worked with companies on finding financing alternatives from obtaining early-round angel financing to getting private-equity financing to find a way to enter into the public-capital markets.
According to the Ernst & Young team, a business plan can be used for either of the next three things and if done correctly, with some modifications, it could even be used for all three.
- Set the goals and objectives for the company’s performances.
- Provide a basis for evaluating and controlling the company’s performance.
- Communicate a company’s message to middle managers, outside directors, lenders and potential investors.
One thing that is stated very clearly in this book and is that future businessman and businesswomen like us need to be very clear about every part of our business plans creation. They tell us that for an entrepreneur the use of a business plan is important, if anything, for setting the direction of the company over the next several years because for this you need to have a plan that should be the step by step action course to take during this period. This is an extremely important piece of advice since for many entrepreneurs the pressures of the day-to-day management of the company leave them with little time for planning. This becomes a very unfortunate scenario for a new business owner because without a plan of action an owner run the risks of proceeding blindly during a rapidly changing business environment. Of course, a business plan is not a guarantee that there will be no problems, but at least you have a plan and you can anticipate a crisis situation and del with it up front to cause the less damage possible to the company.
With both books the main similarity I find is the fact that they are asking the reader to be as specific and thorough as possible. One because the investor will get the exact idea of the kind of business that you are tying to offer him/her and more important than that because its what you will come back to, to make sure all the goals you stated in it get accomplished along the way. This is something that in our Business Development class was mentioned more than once as one of the key things to take into consideration when writing a business plan. That’s why I plan to take this piece of advice and be as specific with every part of it as possible. How can I be specific in my business plan? Well, I will start by finding a niche in the market with the need for my product of service, then be specific in the way I’m going to create, sell and distribute this. And finally, in our investors interest, I can be specific letting them know what are they gaining from their investment and how am I going to repay them. This could take some time to really put together the right way but it will benefit me more in the long run if I can avoid crucial mistakes that could cost me my company.
References:
•Ernst & Young Outline for a Business Plan (PDF)
www.concept2venture.org/EYplan.pdf
•Ford, B. R., Bornstein, J. M., & Pruitt, P. T. (2007). The Ernst & Young Business Plan Guide. Hoboken, NJ: John Wailey & Sons, Inc.
•Sutton, G. (2005). The ABC’s of writing winning business plans. New York, NY: Time Warner Book Group.
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