Business Planning – A Good Business Development Strategy is Crucial for Success

September 17, 2009 · Posted in Business Planning, Developing Fashion, Online Marketing · Comments Off 

The Triumph of Couture.jpg
Creative Commons License photo credit: Tammy Manet

As part of my consulting practice, I read and review business plans written both for venture capitalists and for grant applications. The weakest part of every business plan is always how will the company get from today to “the dream” five years out.

Usually, there is a pretty good description of what will happen in the next six months and a decent description of what will happen in five years, but there is nothing in between.

Technical entrepreneurs have a good handle on what product development they need to do to get the product into a usable form. They understand the costs and the time involved. However, once the product is developed, they seem to be at a loss as to what to do next.

The lack of a business development executive early in the process often leads to the product being developed in a vacuum. There is a bit of a chicken and egg problem here: start-ups don’t feel like they can afford a business development person until they sell product and they can’t figure out how to sell a product without business development.

Also, I’ve noted that a number of engineer or scientist CEOs tend to discount the role of business development, as if the science behind the product is really what sells the product. This is just not true – if it was true, universities would be a lot richer. Read more

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