Moving Past the Business Plan
What should startup entrepreneurs focus on most strongly if the business plan is no longer as key as it once was? I am asked that question frequently, and in this new interview at “What’s Working in Biz” I provide some answers.
Why the Business Plan Is Outmoded
Small Businesses Tackle Outsourcing
Outsourcing of American jobs is one of the most divisive economic problems to confront the U.S. in recent years. While we tend to associate the issue with major corporations, it is at the small-company level that we see innovative approaches to the issue and begin to appreciate its most important ramifications. I’ve devoted several of my latest Growing Concerns columns at BusinessWeek.com to profiling various of small-company approaches.
An Atlas of Offshore Outsourcing
A New Tide in Offshore Outsourcing
Offshore Outsourcing: Time to Get Creative
U.S. Programmers at Overseas Salaries
Autographing copies of “How to Really Start Your Own Business” following speech about entrepreneurship at Zamorano University in Honduras, October 2003.
More from My BusinessWeek.com column, “Growing Concerns”
The column focuses on challenges confronting smaller companies stemming from economic, social, political, and other current trends. It is published every three weeks. Here are links to recent ones:
Cuba’s Entrepreneurs Come Creeping Back
When Your Business Is a Political Football
A Closer Look at Unfair Imports
“The Hazards of Hiring in Hard Times”
The Boston Globe Takes Notice
The Boston Globe last spring used Burn Your Business Plan! to take a critical view of business plan contest in an article that quoted the book’s research to question whether business plan contests are the best way for entrepreneurs to raise money.
…So Does BusinessWeek.com
In a BusinessWeek.com article, I provided further thoughts about why business plan contests are more sizzle than steak. The head of one of the contests I highlighted responded with a different view.
Do Business Plans Matter?
A research presentation at Babson’s Entrepreneurship Research Conference held in June 2003
I presented research used as the basis of Burn Your Business Plan! at the largest gathering of entrepreneurship researchers–the annual Babson Kauffman Entrepreneurship Research Conference June 5-7 at Babson College in Wellesley, MA. The title of the paper was “Do Business Plans Matter? How Venture Capitalists Evaluate Entrepreneurs for Investment.” My co-author for the paper was Julian Lange, an associate professor of entrepreneurship at Babson. You can view the abstract on the My Works page. For a copy of the full paper, email me at david@davidgumpert.com.
Abstract: “Do Business Plans Matter?”
Burn Your Business Plan!…Real Time
Here’s a first-hand view of the role of the business plan…in my own company. This article was published in January 2003 on EntreWorld, a web resource for entrepreneurs sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and then reprinted by BusinessWeek.com.
Thumbs Up from Entrepreneur
Here’s an excerpt from a review of Burn Your Business Plan! in the March issue of Entrepreneur Magazine: “(Gumpert) says, a traditional business plan provides only moderate value…And writing a plan, he warns, can distract entrepreneurs from sales, production, hiring and other important tasks. In the end, the convroversial thesis convinces…You may not burn your plan after reading Gumpert’s latest, but you’ll see it differently.”
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