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  • 1.  Business Plan Questions

    Posted 03-01-2016 15:06
    The traditional business plan was 25 pages of text and 15 pages of appendices (including the financials). While over the years the requirements for business plan competitions changed this to more along the lines of 10 pages of text and 7 of appendices, I am curious what page limit faculty use in practice. 

    In my school, most business plans are not going to competitions (or even for angel, much less VC, funding), and so pedagogically, I can see where it makes sense for students (esp. undergraduates) to do a longer plan to better capture and frame their thinking about the details of the proposed business. On the other hand, if bankers, and family lawyers and accountants are expecting shorter plans, that is a countervailing consideration.

    Thoughts and experiences are welcome.

    Jerry

    --
    Jerome A. Katz | Coleman Foundation Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director, Billiken Angels Network  | John Cook School of Business, Saint Louis University, 3674 Lindell Blvd.
    St. Louis MO 63108 USA, 314-977-3864w; 314-302-0641c, katzja@slu.edu, http://eweb.slu.edu

    ************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Jeff Pollack (jeff_pollack@ncsu.edu) or Kevin Cox (kcox24@my.fau.edu). Ventures HO!


  • 2.  Business Plan Questions

    Posted 03-01-2016 16:00

    Hi Jerome,

     

    I have spent some time thinking about the teaching and learning efficacy of B. plans and have found these articles to be helpful:

     

    Bridge, S., & C. Hegarty, (2011). An alternative to business plan-based advice for start-ups? Paper presented at the 34th Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship conference, Sheffield, UK, Novemeber 9-10.

    Honig, B. (2004). Entrepreneurship education: Toward a model of contingency-based business planning. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 3, 258-273.

    Jones, C., A. Penaluna H. Matlay & K. Penaluna, (2013). The student business plan: useful or not? Industry and Higher Education, 27(6), 1-8.

     

    We still have a business plan course at Memorial and we opt for the industry standard – i.e. the shorter plan.  We are going to be introducing a course based more on lean startup in, I hope, the near future to augment our offerings in this area.

     

    Hope this helps.

     

    Best, Blair

     

    Blair Winsor, Ph.D.

    Assistant Professor, Entrepreneurship

    Faculty of Business Administration

    Memorial University of Newfoundland

    St. John's, NL

    Canada  A1B 3X5

     

    Phone: +1-709-864-4007

    Office Room: BN2018

     

     

     

    From: Entrepreneurship Division Listserv [mailto:ENTREP@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Jerome Katz
    Sent: March-01-16 4:36 PM
    To: ENTREP@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: [ENTREP] Business Plan Questions

     

    The traditional business plan was 25 pages of text and 15 pages of appendices (including the financials). While over the years the requirements for business plan competitions changed this to more along the lines of 10 pages of text and 7 of appendices, I am curious what page limit faculty use in practice. 

     

    In my school, most business plans are not going to competitions (or even for angel, much less VC, funding), and so pedagogically, I can see where it makes sense for students (esp. undergraduates) to do a longer plan to better capture and frame their thinking about the details of the proposed business. On the other hand, if bankers, and family lawyers and accountants are expecting shorter plans, that is a countervailing consideration.

     

    Thoughts and experiences are welcome.

     

    Jerry

     

    --

    Jerome A. Katz | Coleman Foundation Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director, Billiken Angels Network  | John Cook School of Business, Saint Louis University, 3674 Lindell Blvd.
    St. Louis MO 63108 USA, 314-977-3864w; 314-302-0641c, katzja@slu.edu, http://eweb.slu.edu

    ************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Jeff Pollack (jeff_pollack@ncsu.edu) or Kevin Cox (kcox24@my.fau.edu). Ventures HO!

    ************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Jeff Pollack (jeff_pollack@ncsu.edu) or Kevin Cox (kcox24@my.fau.edu). Ventures HO!


  • 3.  Business Plan Questions

    Posted 03-02-2016 08:57
    Hi, Jerry:

    I'll share my own recent experiences, but they won't necessarily be an answer to your page-count question. I began to question the relevance of business planning in the classroom and refocused on the concepts of lean experiments and validated learning. The classroom work I developed for my entrepreneurship courses is based on lean startup and customer discovery and uses tools such as customer personae, the value proposition canvas, landing pages, experimental loops, and crowdfunding campaigns. 

    In response to my students' pleas for more tangible direction, I created this google document that describes each of the activities, learning objectives, and suggested "how-tos."  Anyone in our ENT community is welcome to use these or to adapt them to their own classrooms. And I absolutely welcome feedback.

    I hope this helps, Jerry!

    Craig E. Armstrong, Ph.D.

    Associate Professor, Management

    The University of Alabama 
    Alston 155, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
    office 205-348-8919 | mobile 205-394-7499 
    carmstro@cba.ua.edu | http://culverhouse.ua.edu/academics/departments/management

         



    On Tue, Mar 1, 2016 at 2:05 PM, Jerome Katz <katzja@slu.edu> wrote:
    The traditional business plan was 25 pages of text and 15 pages of appendices (including the financials). While over the years the requirements for business plan competitions changed this to more along the lines of 10 pages of text and 7 of appendices, I am curious what page limit faculty use in practice. 

    In my school, most business plans are not going to competitions (or even for angel, much less VC, funding), and so pedagogically, I can see where it makes sense for students (esp. undergraduates) to do a longer plan to better capture and frame their thinking about the details of the proposed business. On the other hand, if bankers, and family lawyers and accountants are expecting shorter plans, that is a countervailing consideration.

    Thoughts and experiences are welcome.

    Jerry

    --
    Jerome A. Katz | Coleman Foundation Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director, Billiken Angels Network  | John Cook School of Business, Saint Louis University, 3674 Lindell Blvd.
    St. Louis MO 63108 USA, 314-977-3864w; 314-302-0641c, katzja@slu.edu, http://eweb.slu.edu

    ************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Jeff Pollack (jeff_pollack@ncsu.edu) or Kevin Cox (kcox24@my.fau.edu). Ventures HO!

    ************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Jeff Pollack (jeff_pollack@ncsu.edu) or Kevin Cox (kcox24@my.fau.edu). Ventures HO!