Customer Reviews

The New Business Road Test: What entrepreneurs and executives should do before writing a business plan

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Everyone likes their own ideas and everyone believes that their own ideas are fool-proof. There's no way to check and grind your idea/business plan before going to actual VCs. Till now the only way to analyze your idea was by going through the 3Fs (Famliy, Friends and Fools).
Here is where 'The New Business Road Test' comes in as a savior. This book has all the ideas/ procedures/ questions/ & guidelines to review and grill your idea to perfection before plunging into the real venture. There are many books out there to tell you HOW to write a business plan, but none to actually analyze your business plan.
The presentation of the book is quite simple to understand and refer to in future. The 'Seven Domain Analysis' diagram really makes it simple to review any idea/plan and term it as feasible or not-feasible.
I read the book before going into my first venture and it made me look at my business plan in a whole different way. I was not only able to identify the loop holes but also the ways i could improve my business plans. Even today while I am lookin at a new venture, I find myself always going back and refering to this book.
Once Read, this book will make a place in your entrepreneurial life. This is a must-read book for entrepreneurs as well as VC aspirants.

Having launched several major ventures over the past decades, I have learned that careful advance planning and analysis cannot be over-emphasized. Through the years, I have struggled to develop a robust framework to analyze opportunities before investing time and money.

Mullins has beaten me to the task. Full of frameworks and anecdotes, theory and practice. Thorough, logical, insightful, and easy to follow. An excellent roadmap for the novice and expert alike. My three copies are already dog-eared.

As an aspiring entrepreneur you are so convinced that your great idea will work that you want to go straight to the business plan. This book gives you the framework and discipline to force yourself to cut your emotional ties with your idea and pick it apart. If your idea still stands after having gone through the rigorous scrutiny described in the book then you have a very strong foundation for taking your idea to the next stage.
An excellent book that I strongly recommend to anybody who has a great idea for a new business, product or service regardless of whether as an entrepreneur or business executive

I bought this book on the basis of the 16, almost suspiciously short 5 star reviews here. It has a catchy title - which is a good way to scare budding entrepreneurs into buying it. I was worried that there was some hidden flaw in my business plan that was going to bring everything tumbling down. After all, I had already invested several thousand dollars on my germ of an idea. I wanted to read this book just to make sure.

I read the book after I had already finished my first business plan draft and midway through a redraft. The basic idea of the book is that there are 7 domains that, if not in the business's favor, will cause failure. There are checklists at the end of the chapters. They boil down to: market (customers), industry (competitors), and what your business brings to the table - drive, tolerance for risk, ability, connections. Look familiar? A good business plan template will cover all of these topics as a matter of course, so if you go to the trouble of making a business plan I think it is mostly unlikely that you won't cover these points.

After completing the checklists there were only two things that I thought to ask myself that I had not really thought before. I guess that is reasonable. I'm not sure I wouldn't have thought of them with another iteration of the business plan finished. Perhaps it is worth the cost of the book, perhaps not. I have purchased 3 other books on business plans, I suspect that will cover those issues. I now have 13 pages of notes on this book in relation to my business that is not part of a business plan. Wasted effort? Extra conservatism? Not sure. I think it is good to take a somewhat pessimistic view at starting a business, so that all the potential flaws are out in the open at least.

Is there good material here? Sure. One thing I do like is that the book acknowledges that not every business needs investors to succeed, and that you only need to tick the boxes related to investors if you require those investors. Investors require more market research - market research can sometimes tip off competitors, and maybe you don't want to give them any lead time. If you have a good understanding of how the market thinks, then maybe you don't need to do market research to the extent that is often advocated. The example of Phil Knight of Nike would suggest this - a running fanatic who wanted a better shoe and made it himself. Venture capital is also not all-knowing, the whole model is predicated on having a few businesses succeed big and most crash and burn.

Maybe I'm just not that impressed because I have long been a student of business, son of a successful business owner and have read many, many business books with avid interest. I have internalized many of the lessons of all these sources, and whenever I think about a business my mind is always drawn to the potential flaws. Perhaps that is why I'm only starting my business now after having saved up enough that I won't have to dilute equity, and have chosen a business that should pass the tests of this book. For someone who does not have this background, it could save a lot of money I suppose. If you have to learn these lessons from this book perhaps you should consider why you are starting a business. But lack of a clue certainly doesn't stop many people from starting and failing in business, so I guess this book has use to prevent some life savings being blown.

So, that's why I rate it 4 stars. I think the material is good - it does comprehensively deal with most things that could make a business fail. Is it mind-blowingly good enough to be worth 5 perfect stars? I doubt it. However, I'm not going to rate it punitively. It's probably 4.5 stars worth.

If you are like me, when you have a good business idea all you want to do is to get going. Luckily I was persuaded to 'road test' my idea first, and I am very glad that I did. Going through John Mullin's framework has helped me to critically examine many business issues, some of which I hadn't previously thought about. As a result I have modified my plans, and I now feel that I have a better chance of securing funding and ultimately launching a successful venture.

This book is the best of the business books I reviewed for ideas on how to help approach the research and analysis for my business idea. It's more aimed at folks with business ideas that are geared to being large scale enterprises rather than a small individual proprietiorship . This book is the best of the business books I reviewed for ideas on how to help approach the research and analysis for my business idea. It's more aimed at folks with business ideas that are geared to being large scale enterprises rather than a small individual proprietorship. Most of the "How to write a business plan" books are worthless. You can find the same information on the Internet for free - try the SBA website. This provides a nice structure for analysis outside those cookie-cutter books.

I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone considering establishing a venture. The book presents some invaluable tools to aid the entrepreneur in developing and enhancing a business concept. If used properly, the lessons will greatly improve the likely success of any business.

The text is written in a clear, no-nonsense style, without dumbing down the content. (As an MBA student, this was a rare treat). Buy this book.

Seeing as so many entrepreneurs spend too much time polishing their business plan and sinking away in their dreams, this is a great and extremely practical guide to use as a sort of checklist before even deciding to write a plan or not! Absolutely recommend the read whatever the status of your venture idea is !! Clear, logical step by step guide !

Essential reading for any budding Entrepreneur. Written in a very easy to follow fashion with seven clear domains allowing the reader to determine whether a business idea justifies further investigation. A must for anyone considering setting up their own business.

I used this book for my entrepreneurship class during my MBA and found it excellent! It puts structure around the unknown and gives the reader easy to use frameworks to analyze projects and investment decisions. Highly recommend it for everyone who has an interest in entrepreneurship!!!