Customer Reviews

Hurdle: the book on Business Planning

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the most pragmatic, easy to understand, and easy to follow book for creating a business plan I have found yet. "Hurdle" is designed for those that want to benefit from what a business plan can offer their business. The chapter "About Business Numbers" is the best I have read to understand the numbers behind a business and how they relate to the business plan. A quick read, a great resource, and a sound business investment. After reading "Hurdle", I wouldn't plan without it.

This was a very easy and clear read. The best book on business planning that I have ever read. It's refreshing to know that you don't need a MBA to read and write a clear business plan. Great examples and figures throughout.

I needed to write a business plan for a service organization. Since it was back in 1988 when I wrote my last one, I bought six books on the subject. One was absolutely useless, two were written by people who had obviously never operated a company, which suggests to be careful when buying books on the subject. One was ok, one reasonably good, and Berry's was the best of all of them, though not perfect. At least it caused me to think like an investor who reads the plan before giving his money to people who he doesn't know from Adam.

This book was pretty good. It is currently in its 5th edition, and acts as a marketing tool for the author's software called Business Plans Pro. In fact, this book comes free with the software if you purchase it. Personally, I am not a fan of business plan software because I think it allows the user to think of a business plan as artwork rather than a research paper assignment. But that's just me.

As business plan books go, this is a good one. It is well outlined, well written, and informative. It includes the following six parts:

1. Fundamentals
2. Tell Your Story
3. Gathering Information
4. Forecasting
5. Financial Analysis
6. Strategy and Tactics

It also includes two sample business plans, a workbook for helping to prepare a business plan, and a glossary of business plan terms. I especially liked the price since I found it as a free download off the Internet last week. 3.2 MB in size, but the price was right.

Anyway, I had a few problems with the book. Business plans are supposed to be handbooks that tell entrepreneurs how to turn their business models on paper into business models functioning in the real world. And a business model is a profit model that is a system that allows the business owner to extract cash from her customers while creating a profit that she can live on. Anybody in business knows that if they don't have customers, then they don't have a business. And anybody who stays in business knows that they have to have a sound marketing plan that finds prospects for their business that can be converted into customers. This book is lacking because it does not cover how to research a marketing plan or to write one. For me, this was a BIG problem.

Funny thing is that at Figure 12-1 in the book there is a sample Marketing Expense Budget. Why did the author include this exhibit without explaining somewhere in the book how to write a marketing plan. Since the author included this exhibit it seems clear to me the author knows a marketing plan is necessary and required. At Chapter 17 there is about a page devoted to "promotion strategies." But this was just too little and too late to keep me happy.

The author also asserts at various places in the book that a business plan is not the most important requirement for starting a business. He says customers are. I strongly disagree. What comes first: the business plan or the customer? I assert the plan does! Without the plan there never will be a customer. But overall, I liked the book, and it's better than just OK. 4 stars!

Hurdle is a fairly comprehensive book on business planning. So far it is the best I have found.

Reading the Hurdle book can help you to make sense of all the details of a business plan. It helps you to think about the different areas of writing a business plan.

If you can read Hurdle in the version with the color charts, like is on the Business Plan Pro CD, it is easier to make sense of the charts. Several of the versions recreate the charts in black and white which makes it difficult to read them.


Before you begin to write a business plan you should read five books. The first one would be Frank Bettger's How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success (Infinite Success Series). This book is a must read for everyone no matter what business they are in. The second book should be From Idea to Success: The Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network Guide for Start-Ups. The third book should be The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting AnythingThe fourth book should be this one. Finally the fifth book should be The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan. Fortunately three of these books are bundled with Business Plan Pro 15th Anniversary Edition.



So far I have been unable to find the perfect business plan book that gives the reader all the details from start to finish. If such a book existed it would be very thick and very expensive. The combination of the books I have listed will get you as close as I can get you.

"The value of a (business) plan is the decisions it influences..."
Stanford Professor Emeritus, James March
Quoted by Tim Berry in Hurdle

"He is obviously a genius. He agrees with me."
Steven J Roy, after a wine tasting...

Hurdle emphasizes creating and implementing a working business plan-something quite different from the sterile, academically-correct document many business plan guides espouse.

Hurdle provides excellent introductory coverage of

* Cash flow planning and its relation to profit planning;
* Goal setting, milestones and accountability; and includes
* A section on capital sources that is as realistic as it is informative. (What are a startup's chances of getting venture funding? Slim to none.)

Hurdle also includes the only presentation of variance analysis I`ve seen in a business plan book.

It has always baffled me why business plan authors/instructors think it is absolutely necessary to know, to at least four significant decimal places, that your company controls a miniscule share of a very large market. Apparently, Berry (A co-founder of Borland International) has felt the same befuddlement.

Hurdle spends few words on how to correctly quantify, e.g. your market share. It says a great deal about how to present what is useful (or practical) to your plan's intended audience. If you follow Berry's guidelines, you won't produce a "plan" that gets shoved into a drawer and remains there,testimony to your prowess with internet searches, word processing, and spreadsheet software and a memorial to your ability to follow meaningless instructions. Instead, you will learn about your business and convey that knowledge to your audience.

Formally, Hurdle consists of seven sections, two sample plans, a workbook, glossary, and index. Each section begins with observations that underscore practical applications for the material that follows:
* Part 1: Fundamentals "As you start the planning process, begin with a general view of the whole project. Review your goals and consider your options."
* Part 2: Tell Your Story "A standard business plan includes company background information,history, and basic descriptions."
* Part 3: Gathering Information "A good plan will include information about your market, your customers, and the business you are in."
* Part 4: Forecasting "Forecasting is more art than science, a combination of good research,logic, simple math, and educated guessing. It's hard to forecast, but it's harder to run a business without forecasting."
* Part 5: Financial Analysis "The financials aren't as hard as you think, particularly if you have the patience to follow the steps. A good plan includes sales, cash flow, profits, and related financials."
* Part 6: Strategy and Tactics "Strategy is focus. You also need tactics to implement the strategy,and tactics require concrete milestones and well defined management accountability."
* Part 7: Following Up "Ultimately, the impact of your plan depends on how you manage and implement it, how it's presented, and to whom."

If you have time to read only three chapters, make sure you read:
* Chapter 3: The Mini-Plan (The only place, other than my own practice, that I have ever encountered this extremely useful shortcut.)
* Chapter 19: Plan for Implementation (How to breathe life into your plan and sustain it.)
* Chapter 20: Print and Publish (The importance of letting other people know what the goals and expectations are.)

Hurdle is also a life raft cum life support system for Palo Alto Software's very affordable business plan software, Business Plan Pro (now in its eleventh incarnation). I have not reviewed the software.Manifesting my preference for doing everything the hard way, I customize my own. To test drive the software go to Palo Alto's website ( http://www.paloalto.com/ ).

While there, review some of their other software and publications. The advertising copy for one publication (Berry's The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan) is a near-perfect synopsis of Hurdle:
... plan for your company's sake, not for planning's sake.
... block all thoughts of overwhelming, traditional, formal, cookie-cutter business plans and embrace an easier, more practical, modern business plan--the plan that evolves with your business and allows you to start building your business now.

PLANNING FOR SUCCESS

Texts, tables and charts that make my CPA's and Attorney's wonder who did my business plan!

Tim Berry has purchased three of my business plans for publishing in his Business Plan Pro software system and this book comes with that plan.

If you buy the software at Staples or Best Buy, you'll find this excellent book inside. It is amazing at helping you develop a concise plan!

I like the book, because it contains necessary metirials for keeping kontrol on the figures

I like the book, because it contains necessary metirials for keeping kontrol on the figures

I like the book, because it contains necessary metirials for keeping kontrol on the figures