John Bradley Jackson is a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, Marketing, and Strategy at California State University, Fullerton. He also teaches Negotiation and Conflict Management at California State University, Long Beach.
Known affectionately as "Professor JJ" by his students, Jackson brings
practical marketing knowledge to the classroom from both Silicon Valley
and Wall Street.
Jackson's career began in high technology
sales in the semiconductor industry at Signetics Inc., but he soon
moved to high technology market research with Dataquest Incorporated.
At Dataquest, he served as Vice President for nearly ten years and held
a variety of roles in sales, marketing, and research. Later, he joined
Bowne and Company, the world's largest financial printer, and served as
Senior Vice President responsible for sales, marketing, and operations.
Jackson also was Sales Director at Forrester Research Inc., an
Information Technology advisory firm.
As
an entrepreneur, Jackson founded The BirdDog Group, a marketing and
sales consulting firm that specializes in helping small businesses with
marketing and sales strategy.
In February 2007 Jackson wrote
the book "First, Best, or Different: What Every Entrepreneur Needs to
Know About Niche Marketing;" the book demystified the sometimes overly
complex art of niche marketing and has received rave reviews for its
easy-to-read style and common sense approach. Jackson's next book will
explore how to manage conflict and negotiation in your business life.
Jackson
is very active in the Los Angeles philanthropic community having served
on numerous boards including The Los Angeles Sports Council, The
Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games, The Los Angeles
Triathlon, and Junior Achievement of Southern California.
His
resume also includes angel investor, public speaker, coach, blogger,
and horseman. Jackson lives in Yorba Linda, California with his wife
and three children.
Table of Contents
September 24th, 2008
Business
plans are like a compass—they point the way for the company and explain
the business to the investor. Yet, business plans can tell the wrong
story and may even kill the deal with the investor.
Here are some examples of business plan blunders to avoid:
• Lousy Writing: Nothing kills a plan more quickly than poor grammar, incorrect punctuation, and spelling errors. Enough said.
• Target Market Poorly Defined– A product that fits everyone is a
prescription for disaster. Don’t go there. Be very specific in your
definition of your customer.
• Incomplete Plan: Missing key elements or an incomplete plan tells
the reader that the plan is half baked or not well thought out.
• Too Technical: An obsession with technical details often is done
at the expense of the business model. The investor wants to know how
the business will make money.
• Blue Sky Sales Projections: Although it is true that plans should
be optimistic, a hockey stick growth curve needs to be backed up with
strong assumptions and facts.
• Risk Unaddressed: Not addressing risk in the plan is a major
flaw—bankers and investors want to know what the downside risk is in
the plan.
• Ignoring the Competitive Environment: Ignoring or dismissing the
competitive environment is a common blunder by business plan writers.
Who is the competition and what do they do right and wrong?
• NDAs Required. Don’t obsess about confidentiality since most
investors won’t sign a Non-disclosure Agreement anyway. You need to
tell your story to as many people as possible.
• First to Market Claims: There are not many rewards for being first
in a market; in fact, the opposite is generally true. Being first is
very expensive and investors know this.
• Business-Speak: Say what you mean and leave the big words for the
lawyers. Be deliberate and concise. Avoid business clichés such as
“think out of the box”.
• Plan Too Long: The one inch thick business plan does not get read. Keep it below 50 pages.
• Business Plan Services: Don’t even consider the use of cheap
business plan services which outsource to India or other exotic places.
Very tacky.
• Business Plan Pre-made Templates: These templates are the pre-made
plans you edit to fit your business. They are pure garbage. This is the
domain of the lazy entrepreneur.
• Business Plan Software: I am not sure why but most business plan
software programs are bug ridden. Be sure to double check the
financials.
• Hidden Profits: Investors want to know how the business will make
money and what the return on investment will be. Address it.
• Unclear Valuation and Exit Strategy: What is the cost of ownership
and how will the investor get their money out? This must be spelled out
clearly or there is no deal.
If you avoid these pitfalls, your plan will be better than 95% of the others out there.
John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
John Bradley Jackson
phone: 714-777-2033
email: johnbradleyjackson@gmail.com
website: firstbestordifferent.com