Business Plans That Win $$$: Lessons from the MIT Enterprise Forum (Paperback)

by Stanley R. Rich (Author) "The business plan is the ticket of admission to the investment process..." (more)
Key Phrases: informal investors, executive selling, lifestyle entrepreneur, Enterprise Forum, Small Business Administration, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
If you're thinking of starting your own business -- or if you have a new idea that you want to convince your company to sell, build, or promote -- this book will provide you with all the information you need. Based on the expert approaches of the MIT Enterprise Forum, a nationwide clinic providing assistance to emerging growth companies, Business Plans That Win $$$ shows you how to write a business plan that sells you and your ideas. Enterprise Forum cofounder Stanley Rich and Inc. magazine editor David Gumpert use examples real business plans to answer the entrepreneur's most pressing questions about how to effectively present any product or service to potential investors to win their attention and financial support.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (February 18, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060913916
• ISBN-13: 978-0060913915
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #52,994 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Concise and Timeless Guide To Effective Business Plans!, December 27, 2001

By	John Harman (Chagrin Falls, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

With this book as a reference, several years ago my MBA team was able to take our B-plan to 2nd place in a national scholastic B-plan contest. I have referred to it annually since then to guide my on-going planning. I also use it as a playbook for developing new business plans. It helps focus your planning efforts on the key questions that investors want answered in a plan.

Each chapter addresses an aspect of the planning process and gives anecdotal examples of plans that were presented to the MIT forum. The summaries at the end of each chapter help expedite the annual review.

I cut my teeth on Mancuso's various B-plan guides almost two decades ago and this book, by far, gets you where you want to go in the most direct manner. If you only want one book on B-planning, this is it.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a timeless book on business plans..., May 17, 2000

By A Customer

This book was recommended to me by an executive with 30 years of experience and 8-digit net worth as the "bible" for starting a business. I have used this book twice during the past 6 years to assemble successful business plans. The lessons in the book are not industry specific or date specific, but rather the wisdom that applies to any business. Some of the insights in the book were later worth a lot of money to my companies. My compliments to the author for not just putting together templates or example plans, but rather teaching the entreprenuer how to think.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for the aspiring entrepreneur, January 28, 1999

By A Customer

This book tells you, the aspiring entrepreneur, exactly what potential investors in your company are thinking and why. Furthermore, it tells you in clear , simple and direct prose exactly how you should be thinking in order to get their investment. The first chapter sends home the message that the business plan is your admission ticket to an audience which is not only rich, but also very secretive, selective, and more often than not, extremely conservative. Rich and Gumpert clearly tell you, the budding mogul, that you don't get something for nothing, and that you had better have something outstanding and tangible to put forward in order to woo the moneymen. They walk you through what investors look for and look out for, the best way to package your business plan, all the sections the financial spin doctors pay very close attention to, and finally, how to make the best possible oral pitch. Rich and Gumpert also do a very good job of sending the reader the message that the aspiring entrepreneur should have a solid idea of his/her own goals as well as his hopes for his/her company. However, the most important thing this dynamic duo imparts to the enterprising entrepreneur is the knowledge of the type of company(ies) which ultimately receive venture capital funding, and what the entrepreneur should be thinking and doing to become one of those chosen few companies. Even though the book was first printed a decade and a half ago, all of the information contained in it is not only accurate, but also very applicable to any start-up. Let no one fool you on this point: whenever you go hat in hand asking for someone to put up a pretty penny to back something new, unproven, untested, and unconventional that stands a good chance of going bust, expect them to be very wary and very, very conservative. Though some may see this book as outdated, I see this book as having a timeless quality. This is no fair-weather text; this book is a mainstay business reference which should be displayed prominently on one's bookshelf and referred to throughout every stage of the start-up process to maintain a good perspective and a sharp focus. My only regret is that no one gave me this book while I was a student at MIT. It would have saved me a lot of time and headaches.