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I hit a double but tried to run for third. Getting to second base was actually your “Executive Summary” rather than the business plan. The Executive Summary is something worth spending at least this post on.
Why is the executive summary important?

Probably right up there is that this is one part of your business plan that people are actually going to read. Therefore you are going to want to make sure that it is well written, clear and concise. If your executive summary is more than one page it is probably too long. Second, this sets the tone for the rest of your business plan which essentially adds an extra level of detail to what was written in the executive summary.  Finally it shows that you have your elevator pitch down.

What should I include in my Executive Summary?
Here is what I would suggest:

• Mission, Vision and Values
  Introduction
  The business concept
  The Market
  Customer Strategy
  Management
  The Financing Requirement – Partnership Request

In my opinion all of the GREAT businesses have a MVV. If you don’t have an MVV you don’t know where you are going and will have a hollow soulless culture. If this sounds harsh, well it should, you absolutely need to know your purpose and long term goals. The MVV is the cornerstone of your business that says why you are in business, where you are going and what is important to you.

The introduction is your elevator pitch. You need to say what you do in a paragraph or three or four sentences. If you can’t do this then you really do not understand your business and probably no one else will either.

The business concept is how you make money, your business model at a high level.

The market is who you intend to sell to. Explain as much about the stakeholders and ecosystem as you can.

Customer Strategy is how you will win your customers and your channels to market.

Management is you and your key team members.

And finally the call to action this is how much money you are looking for. Explain how you will use it.

Tips for the executive summary

• It is OK to send a softcopy of the executive summary to a prospective investor or partner
  Keep it Simple Simon
  No more than 3 or 4 sentence per major heading
  Be clear about what you are looking for; funding, partnership, …

There is no silver bullet or one size fits all when it comes to the Executive Summary and you may need to customize it a bit. Consider this a starting point rather than the end game.

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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Wow! What an awesome weekend.

I had the opportunity to ski Norquay, Sunshine and Lake Louise all excellent spots. I liked Lake Louise best but they were all great. Banff is a very cool little town nestled in the Rocky Mountains with lots of great skiing within a 45 minute drive.

What really struck me was the number of Australians working in Banff and at the ski resorts. I think Australia has invaded and captured much of Banff and the ski resorts I visited. The Aussies are great people that love to party. When we were at Sunshine on Saturday it was Australia Day and the resort was overrun by a horde of wild partying Aussies.  There was this one guy we say walking around in his briefs and a ski jacket going up one of the lifts. When we asked him about his attire he explained that his buddies were going to pay him $20 to ski from the top of the hill to the bottom in his underwear, however, he was allowed to wear his jacket up the lift (an uncovered chair lift). Never saw him on the way down but at about -20C we figured by the time he got back down he would more likely resemble a smurf.

We had finger foods and beer on Thursday night at the Magpie and Stumps. Magpie and Stumps was named after a bar in the UK where criminals and their lawyers would hang out. The food was good and the live entertainment was an Aussie singer from Queensland who we had the opportunity to chat with. Then went back to the Fox Hotel which is where we stayed for the weekend. The Fox Hotel is a great value and they actually upgraded our rooms to suites.

Friday morning we hung out in the Fox Hotel grotu which was a hot tub (more like a pool) open to the outside and very cave like. In the afternoon we went to Norquay for an afternoon skiing. The conditions were reasonably good and the afternoon was enjoyable.

On Sunday we were off to Lake Louise. This is also known as the resort of ten peaks. There is tons of skiing for skiers of all abilities.

If you are thinking of going west to Ski Banff is a great spot.

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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You can learn a lot by reviewing the statistics for you website. I found this very cool link in my webstats:

http://therarestwords.com/klondikeconsulting.com

I tried to find more information on the project but there is very limited detail. TheRarestWords.com is some new kind of BOT that searches out rarely used words on the Internet. I think what it means is that a number of the words I use on my website are the rarest found on the Internet. Kind of cool and I think generally speaking a good thing for longtail marketing or is it?

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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I am off to Banff tomorrow for a weekend of skiing. Very excited, have a highliter and a few books for the plane trip:

the power of kindness, Piero Ferruci
My Start-up life, Ben Casnocha
The myths of innovation, Scott Berkun
Failing Forward, John C. Maxwell

More than half done “the power of kindness” and hope to be able to enjoy one or two of the others. Taking the red eye back Sunday night arriving in Ottawa Monday morning in time to attend democamp.

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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Where: 575 Bank Street (the ClockTower Restaurant - Downstairs)

When: 28-Jan-2008, from 6:30pm to 9:00pm

Why: Cool Technology Demos, Great People and a chance to mingle with many in the Ottawa startup and technology community.

www.ottawacamps.org click on the democamp7 link and sign up on the wiki.

Hope you can make it.

Cheers,

Ian Graham

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I have had some tough lessons learned with respect to protecting yourself and your business plan that I wanted to share.  Peter Kemball gave me some advice about a year our two ago.

“About 15% of all people are truly altruistic and work in everyone’s best interests, 70% of people are normal and will work in their best interests or the groups and finally the last 15% of people are maybe not so honest.”

It is that last 15% and a chunk of the 70% that you have to worry about. In other words roughly 50% of the people you show your business plan to may want to take leverage your idea without necessarily involving you.

Be sure you protect yourself. If this sounds a bit paranoid well maybe it is, however, I have been burned a few times by being very open and honest when presenting my business plan. Share your idea but be sure to maintain the integrity and intellectual property of your idea. Don’t give away the secret sauce too early. Remember, you are only on second base, not on your way to home base.

Should I use and NDA?
I will start by saying I am not a big fan of NDA’s. If someone is going to steal your idea it is unlikely they are going to respect an NDA anyway. Secondly many if not most people particularly investors won’t sign one. Your call on this point and probably something you will want to chat with a lawyer about. I have never asked anyone for an NDA, but then again I have been burned a few times. Would an NDA have helped and protected me maybe, maybe not.

When I distribute my business plan now I ask for an email acknowledgement that: the business plan is only intended for the person to whom it is given and not to be distributed, the plan is NOT to be electronically reproduced in any fashion (scan, fax, photocopy or other) and the plan will be returned to me after the meeting.

If I am not going to use an NDA how do I protect myself?

• Never give out an electronic copy of your business plan, HARDCOPY ONLY.
• Stamp or print your business plan with “NOT TO BE ELECTRONICALLY REPRODUCED”
• Use blue paper, it is harder to electronically reproduce.
• Have a unique identifier for each business plan you hand out. This can be in the form of an identifying number in the header and/or footer of the document. Use some kind of code that identifies the person to whom you gave the plan, the date and the version. This way if the document is scanned or reproduced you can identify which copy was reproduced, if it manages to find its way back to you.
• If at the end of your meeting the potential partner or investor is not interested, ask for the plan back.
• After you have finished your meeting and reflect on if you would want this person to have a copy of your business plan. If the answer is NO ask for it back.

In my opinion a significant consideration before you start to shop your business plan and idea is how you protect yourself and your idea.

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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The OBJ had an article today about OCRI wanting everyone to scream from the rafters that tech is back. National Capital Scan recently had a post regarding the bummerization of high tech in Ottawa. I thought an interesting counter point of view might be on the nummerization of economic development in Ottawa.

What is this nummerization you speak of? Well let’s say it starts when your head is buried so deeply in the sand (or perhaps elsewhere) that you ignore vital warning signs. You can think of it as hearing what people are saying but not bothering to listen or being highly dismissive and critical of those raising the alarm. You become a cheerleader and promoter rather than builder and economic developer. You dismiss important issues and economic fundamentals and focus on messaging and damage control. You measure success by inputs, head count and budget rather than outputs and results. While “be happy don’t worry” might make a great song it is not the tune you want your economic development agency singing during challenging times.

To awaken from nummerization is a bit like a recovering alcoholic. The first step is to admit that the problem exists and formulate a solution. The current wisdom is that tech is on the rebound (I tend to agree with that) and everything is great to say otherwise means you are a bummer. This is the same sort of messaging that permeated the entire period from 2001 to 2004, which I have heard referred to as the nuclear winter for tech in Ottawa. Tech may be on a rebound, however, why are Ottawa tech icons such as Terry Mathews saying unless something is done Ottawa won’t have a tech sector in five years. I wrote a post on this breaking news back in April (The elephant in the room). Denny Doyle often speaks of Ottawa becoming a branch plant town, just look at a number of the recent acquisitions including Cognos. These are warning signs that some change is necessary and you have OCRI saying everything is great lets look ahead. On the other you have; lowest VC funding levels in history (I wrote about this in my first post of 2007 and 2008), mergers and acquisitions turning company HQ into branch plants at an alarming rate and experienced executives plus grass roots raising the red flag. In response OCRI puts a favourable spin on each of these. What is needed is surgery not spin doctoring.

In my opinion it all starts with accountability. Who is OCRI accountable to? No financial statements have ever been produced for members to review, at least none I could find. The board of directors is 28 members, far too large to govern effectively. OCRI has received $1.6M from the City of Ottawa and program allocations from MRIO for OCRP and BMEP programs, what have the funds been used for? OCRI measures success by inputs rather than results, just take a look at the list of accomplishments on their web site. The amount of money you spend doesn’t necessarily equate to results or return, again I quote Tech Guru Denny Doyle.

Frankly I think we can and should be achieving far better results for or $16M in economic development dollars. I am not saying that things are bad, in fact in the past two years there has been a definite upward trend, however, I am saying we should and must do better.

Being happy and shouting from the rafters,
Ian Graham

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Congratulations you got to first base, now what?  … Next step is to get them a copy of your business plan, I would recommend without the financials.  Financials often contain elements of the “secret sauce” and give away your business model. Do you really want to give away your business model the second time you meet with someone?

Getting to second base will be a series of another five posts

Protecting yourself and your plan
Distributing your business plan
Business Plan Contents
Business Plan meeting prep
Presenting your business plan

The perspective in this series of posts is a little different than most presenting your business plan type articles which focus on the investor. The perspective of this series is from that of the entrepreneur and what you should do to be successful and at the same time protect yourself and your idea.

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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This is the first in a series of posts dedicated to the book “the power of kindness” by Piero Ferrucci. The book was original written in Italian and translated to English. The “thesis of the book is that true kindness is a strong, genuine, warm way of being.”

The power of kindness tag line is “the unexpected benefits of leading a compassionate life.”

The book discusses and examines the case for kindness and breaks kindness down into its component parts.  The idea is that kindness is made up of a number of essential components which include:

Warmth,
Trust,
Patience,
Loyalty,
Gratitude,
And many others.

Kindness is a collaboration of all of its component parts and without even one of these qualities it is less convincing. The author postulates that kindness is the most efficient and economic attitude because it saves much energy when compared to “suspicion, worry, resentment,” and other negative emotions. Kindness in fact requires less effort than those attitudes that fritter away useless energy building unnecessary defences. 

My posts will take the perspective of applying Mr. Ferrucci’s work to the culture and development of knowledge based start-ups. The quote below is taken directly from “the power of kindness” with respect to the philosophy in a corporate setting.

“And what about business and commerce? Here again we reach the same conclusion. Firms that exploit their workers, degrade the environment, deceive the consumer, and create a waste culture, will perhaps gain in the short term, but in the long run they compete less favourably than those that, in their own interests, do not take advantage of employees, respect the environment, and place themselves at the service of their clients.”

The essence of TheCodeFactory culture will be significantly influenced by Mr. Ferrucci’s work.

Cheers and have a great weekend,
Ian Graham

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yes that’s right DemoCampOttawa7 will be held on January 28th at the ClockTower restaurant 575 Bank Street just south of the Queensway from 6:30pm (networking), 7pm (event start) to about 9pm then more networking. We have a solid line up of 6 demos and it promises to be a fun evening. The event is open to anyone that wants to participate.

 Here is the line up:

‘Protecode Demo’

Distributed Musical Instruments.

‘The Traveler IQ Challenge‘

JohnnyVoIP‘

Internet Business Logic  

iotum - iotum’s conference calling application for Facebook.

Hope to see you there.

Cheers,

Ian Graham

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