Business Plan Experts

Let’s take a look at creating a business plan.  Sounds fun, right?  Okay probably not fun, but helpful.  In order to get an understanding of what investors are looking for in a business plan I took some time to research a couple investors.  Two in particular Jeff Davison a general partner of Inflection Point Ventures, and David J Freschman a Managing Principal of Innovation Ventures.  Jeff has been an early-stage investor since 1984, and also earned a Master’s degree in architecture and planning.  David on the other hand has been a CEO of Delaware Innovation Fund since it was established in 1995, and achieve an MBA degree through the Loyola College of Maryland graduating with honors.  So why does this matter?  Well, the point is not so much who they are but what they do and what it takes to achieve that career.  Investing is a risky business, which is why you have to be smart to be an investor.  Clearly both of these investors are book smart and have experience in the industry, which is good for any of you who want to start a business but need to find a quality investor.  More importantly though what do investors want?

After a bit more research I was able to come across an interesting article from the New York Times.  This article titled “Five Things Prospective Investors Are Looking for in Your Business Plan.” According to this article an investor wants to see that you have experience in the industry, they want to know that your product is unique and needed, it’s important that your product reaches your target audience and stays constant, they also want to see that you did your research, and they need to know they are getting a realistic return on investment.  These are all key because it would be bad business not to have these things understood before investing money into it.  To go blindly into a project thinking something is a great idea without thoroughly looking at it can cause you to lose not only money but respect.  Investing isn’t about being the nice guy it’s about being financially responsible and making profit. 

Personally I’ll take all these suggestions and incorporate them into my business plan.  I want to create a business that can last, because of that I will take what advice I can get and work with it.  There will always be questions and most of the time answers won’t come easily, but in order to be successful you have to be willing to make needed changes even when it’s a change you don’t want to make. Below is a link to a Youtube video you may also find helpful.

https://youtu.be/O_L0BqPWBLo

Digital Marketing: Your Ticket to Successful Marketing

Okay, so you may or may not of heard of digital marketing.  If you haven't, get with the times.  Unless of course you're planning to live off the grid, which considering that you're reading this I doubt that's what you want to do.  We live in a world now where everything is becoming internet based.  You want to succeed, and for those who have a business you want your business to succeed.  Well, digital marketing is the new trend and there is a good reason why.  As you can read at SAS.com, digital marketing allows consumers to have access to information at any time and any place.  This means if you use digital marketing correctly consumers will have a greater chance identifying your business.  When you're using digital marketing whether its an ad on Facebook, or an ad on a YouTube video people are being shown your business so often it will stick in their memory even if they don't realize it.
To better make the point lets go over a comparison between traditional marketing and digital marketing. Take a look at the chart below, which was found at https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fe/42/ed/fe42ed60c6edb8bd156d3664426545f3.jpg

This chart should give you a better idea of how much more profitable it is now to use digital marketing as opposed to traditional marketing.    In an article about "Digital marketing Strategies" it's is point out that "traditional marketing has dropped 160%."  This is because more businesses are finding it more profitable to use digital marketing.  Clearly digital marketing has many advantages that eliminate the flaws of traditional marketing.  Although,  to be fair traditional marketing still has purpose movie posters, TV ads, radio ads, and billboards still catch the attention of possible consumers.  So let's not just kill traditional marketing off just yet, but as more and more people are becoming more tied to the internet and social networking there is a clear advantage for marketing digitally.

http://digital-marketing-strategy.weebly.com/digital-marketing.html

http://www.sas.com/en_sg/insights/marketing/digital-marketing.html

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