Writing Business Plans

There is so much good advice out there about business plans. And some pretty hilarious stuff over here, not to be missed.

Still, the bottom line is the simple "pitch" and if you can't make it clear, basic and intriguing in 10 Powerpoint slides, don't bother. Guy Kawasaki tells all:

Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting—and venture capitalists are very normal. (The only difference between you and venture capitalist is that he is getting paid to gamble with someone else’s money). If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business. The ten topics that a venture capitalist cares about are:

1. Problem;
2. Your solution;
3. Business model;
4. Underlying magic/technology;
5. Marketing and sales;
6. Competition
7. Team;
8. Projections and milestones;
9. Status and timeline;
10. Summary and call to action