Bankable Business Plans [Hardcover]

Edward Rogoff (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bankable Business Plans | Publication Date: October 23, 2003

Bankable Business Plans reveals the secret of creating a compelling and successful business plan for anyone who ever dreamed of starting or expanding an enterprise. This invaluable book guides readers through a comprehensive, step-by-step process to produce a professional-quality business plan that will attract the financial backing entrepreneurs need. Bankable Business Plans is the only book on the market that demonstrates how to make each business plan uniquely suited to every endeavor. It is also the only book which explains how to employ the guidelines that banks, venture capital firms and the Small Business Administration use to grant loans and other financial support to businesses. By describing how to apply the relatively unknown, but easily available Risk Management Association data to each business concept, author Edward Rogoff provides a virtual answer key to anyone seeking financial support for a business idea. Rogoff’s years of experience in both founding and improving startup and established companies, as well as teaching entrepreneurship to college graduate and undergraduate students, enables him to delineate the elements that make a business plan attractive to investors and lenders. Bankable Business Plans is essential for anyone interested in opening a business, expanding an existing enterprise, or simply testing the financial reality of a dream.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I knew Ed before I started Amazon.com. I believe his experiences with his own successful ventures and as a professor of entrepreneurship make him an excellent person to guide you from initial idea through the creation of an effective plan that will serve the needs of your customers and investors. A strong business plan will not only help you locate the early funds you need, but will also clarify your thinking and serve as a starting blueprint for future growth in what is always a changing world."

"Here’s the book entrepreneurs have been waiting for. Bankable Business Plans is a no-nonsense approach to putting in writing what lenders and investors demand to see. Rogoff takes you to the next level by showing how style counts along with content. Rogoff’s Bankable Business Plans tells entrepreneurs exactly how to pull together what they need before they see the people with the money. Follow Rogoff’s advice and you’ll be glad you did."

About the Author

Edward Rogoff founded and served as CEO of two media companies which owned and operated 23 radio stations throughout the United States. From 1998 to 2002 he was the Director of the Lawrence N. Field Center for Entrepreneurship and Small Business, one of the largest entrepreneurship centers in the United States, where he helped hundreds of entrepreneurs create business plans and developed corporate support and managed diverse funding sources for the Center. Rogoff designed the entrepreneurship curriculum at Baruch College where he continues to teach both graduate and undergraduate students as a professor in the Zicklin School of Business at the City University of New York. He received his B.A., M.B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University, where he wrote his dissertation under Nobel Laureate William Vickery. He continues to work extensively as a business consultant for firms specializing in technology, communications, urban transportation, private education, and venture capital.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Texere; 1 edition (October 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587991632
• ISBN-13: 978-1587991639
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,286,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You can bank on this book, April 13, 2004

By 

hl2360 (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bankable Business Plans (Hardcover)

This book is terrific because it directly addresses the issue that probably undermines more business plans than any other: unrealistic assumptions. After 20 years as a banker and financial advisor to growth companies, both large and small, I believe that professional equity investors judge entrepreneurs by their ideas, their ability, and the reasonableness of their assumptions. Aggressive business plan assumptions raise significant doubts in the minds of investors, who don't just want 25% IRRs but want 25% IRRs that are achievable. Rogoff wisely advises entrepreneurs to ground their plans in reality, using solid industry data and benchmarking techniques. He teaches you to think like an investor or banker before writing your plan. Very solid advice. A must-read before going to market with your plan.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Financial projections in a business plan are important - they should be meticulous!, August 30, 2006

By 

Jeff Lippincott "JLIPPIN" (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bankable Business Plans (Hardcover)

Chapter 10 in this book opened my eyes to a publication produced each year by the Risk Management Association (RMA). It's called the "Annual Statement Studies - Financial Ratio Benchmarks" and is a compilation of information supplied by member banking institutions that get their information from small business loan applicants. The author of Bankable BPs says a sound business plan must favorably compare to the information in the RMA publication, or it probably will not help the loan applicant get her funds.

I recommend after reading Bankable BPs that anyone creating a business plan will do themselves a favor by examining the RMA publication to use as a guide for creating meticulous financial projections included in their business plan. Don't write the business plan first, and then compare it to the RMA publication figures. Instead start with the figures and then write the business plan.

Another similar (but not as good) publication you might want to look at is called "Financial Studies of Small Business" written by Financial Research Associates.

Besides the impressive information contained in Chapter 10 of Bankable BPs, I thought the book was a great read on the subject of putting together a business plan. The author is an associate professor at one of the CUNY schools in New York. I would have liked the book better if he had not emphasized that a business plan was a tool to help raise capital. But he does point out that a business plan is an important tool for running a small business, too.

The author listed 10 action steps necessary to create a business plan:

1. Define the business
2. Figure out initial needs
3. Outline how the business expects to make money (business model)
4. Perform market research (study industry, competitors, and potential customers)
5. Write a marketing plan
6. Describe sales effort as it relates to marketing
7. Systematize operations & team building
8. Decide on capital requirements
9. Put together pro forma financials
10. Write the business plan in an acceptable format

I'm pretty sure the author felt the action steps were meant to be done in the above order. I tend to agree with the list of action steps, but not the particular order. I think #8 and #2 should be sequenced just after #9. I find it hard to believe it is possible to decide on capital resources BEFORE you have figured out the pro forma financials. And, without knowing the capital resources needed, it seems to me it is hard to determine what the initial needs of the business will be.

All in all, this was a very informative books and I am sure it will be a very helpful book to anyone who has to put together a business plan. 5 stars!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary, March 9, 2004

By 

Martin Snow (Los Angeles, Ca.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bankable Business Plans (Hardcover)

Bankable Business Plans by Edward Rogoff is the Bible of how to start and grow your own business. As a small business owner with little time and even less formal business education,I needed a resource that would tell me exactly what I needed to know without needing an MBA to understand it.Bankable Business Plans is so clear, concise and informative it almost feels like having your own business advisor.This book isn't just for entrepreneurs, but for anyone who wants to take their career to the next level. It teaches you how to think like a business professional.