Customer Reviews

Rich Dad's Advisors®: The ABC's of Writing Winning Business Plans: How to Prepare a Business Plan That Others Will Want to Read -- and Invest In

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a must-read book for anyone thinking about starting or expanding a business. Rather than simply another book about writing a business plan, Sutton makes the case early and often about why such a plan is needed - and it isn't always to raise money.

Sutton introduces the reader to Robert Kayosaki's Cashflow Quadrant. He points out that those in the E (employee) and S (self-employed) quadrants really focus on operating solo - and as a result have slim chances for building a business. Why? Because they are creating jobs for themselves for which there is no exit strategy. Those in the B (business) and I (investor) quadrants are team players and are always looking at how they remove themselves from the business situation - if and when they want to.

Sutton makes use of practical examples that help the reader understand the various aspects of writing the business plan - and why each part is critical. He emphasizes that it's okay - and perhaps preferable to get help on various parts of the plan - for example engineers can write and entire plan of 30-300 pages, but may find it difficult to boil it down to an effective one-page summary.

The book provides simple common-sense questions to answer that might be difficult for the would-be business plan writer to come up with alone. Questions like: Is the purpose of my business to make money and serve people - or to serve people and make money? The answer to this question is critical - and in the book he explains why.

He also provides simple, but powerful advice on the traditional SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). He points out that many people struggle with this because they don't want to appear too full of themselves - or because they think that pointing out weaknesses dooms their chances for success and or funding. He powerfully points out that strengths should be common and compelling - that is the strength should exist in most all business of this type - but that you execute better than anyone else. He also helps the reader understand that weakness should be common rather than catastrophic.

Armchair Interviews says: A must read for business owners.

I did, so I bought five books. I will review them from worst to best.

"Finding an Angel Investor In a Day," by The Planning Shop (2007), told me nothing I didn't know, and I didn't know anything about business plans or angel investors. The title is ludicrous and the advice is obvious, e.g., "Your business plan should be concise, compelling, and irresistible to investors." 1 star.

"The ABC's of Writing Winning Business Plans," by Garrett Sutton (2005), walks you through writing business plans for a lawn mowing business and buying a pizza restaurant. If your business is more complicated, this is not the book for you. 1 star.

"The Ernst & Young Business Plan Guide," by Brian Ford, Jay Boorstein, and Patrick Pruitt (2007), is a good book but hardly inspiring or insightful. If you follow this book your business plan will be competent but won't grab investors. 3 stars.

"Angel Financing for Entrepreneurs," by Susan Preston (2007). This book doesn't explain how to write a business plan, but it explains how to make a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation to investors -- a presentation that will grab investors. For example, one question is "How is your product or technology scalable?" I also learned some of the financials that angel investors look for, such as what IRR is expected. This book helped and inspired me to write an excellent presentation, that became the basis for my business plan. 5 stars.

"Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur," by Dermot Berkery (2008). This is a textbook for a business school course about venture capital. This book is full of insights. Every few pages new ideas would compel me to go to my computer and add stuff or rewrite my business plan, for example, Berkery emphasizes the need for clear milestones. Preston mentioned milestones but didn't make it clear why they are so important. The financials that were briefly presented in Preston's book are thoroughly presented in Berkery's book, for example, what gross margin investors look for (80% or more) and why they need such extremely profitable products or services. Plus you learn the jargon or key phrases of venture capitalists, e.g., "a large but well signaled market," the importance of "market power" and an effective "route to customers." I feel that my business plan now speaks to investors in their language, with the numbers they are looking for. 5 stars.

This book lights a fire under your butt! The author does a great job laying out the steps. Although the lack of skillful editing bothered me a bit in the beginning, it does deliver. After only a few days of reading, I was able to get get very clear and focused on how to present my ideas. In a month, I had my first chunk of real money to work with.

Found that this book covered all the bases of writting a great business plan. As some one who has taken a couple of business courses, this was one of the best sources of information on writting a business plan.

A must for any one in business or starting a business.

A great book for someone who is clueless about business and does not know where to start. The book has good examples and makes sense. However it is aimed at small businesses and people with hardly any business experience. If that's you, then get it, otherwise skip the read!

This is an excellent book that would keep a lot of small business doors open. It is an easy read with very practical tips for writing your own business plan that will serve as a guide for your day to day operations and a help for important decision making. I suggest this book strongly!

I've been writing a business plan for my start up real estate investment company and I've been struggling because it's different from a typical business plan. I'd been trying to follow a generic template, but it really wasn't highlighting the areas that I needed for our company's particular plan. This book was VERY helpful because it not only explained everything very clearly, but it also provided examples through stories and scenarios. The main part of the plan that I struggled with was the financial section and this book REALLY helped me with that. It is a resource book that I can continue to refer back to over time as I revise this plan and write plans for my other companies. I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone who is writing a business plan for any type of company.

never received the book or the refund! company gave me the run around....its been about 9 months and im still waiting!

This book has really added dimensions to my life and how I see my journey of investments.

This is a great book. It helps you organize your thoughts thoroughly, and make a great business plan skeleton which you can fill out and add to/subtract from, based on your own individual needs and that of your business.

I'm the type of person who always has new ideas on how to build a new business or market an existing one, and this book provided a lot of valuable insight into organizing my thoughts so that we could proceed the right way when starting up our new venture.

You most likely have heard the saying, "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

I totally believe in that saying; it's true. That being said, you should read this book, so you can create an effective plan, even if you already know how to make a business plan. The insights that this book offer are worth the measly price of the book! And you can write it off your taxes! Handle it.