Experts Views on the Value of Business Plans

Business plan experts offer a broad range of tips and success strategies to address the spectrum of unique and complex problems that impact business plan development.

Tim Berry and Gwen Moran are both business plan experts that write for Entrepreneur Magazine. They both have a wealth of knowledge on business plans and business development.

Tim Berry is a very successful entrepreneur and also founder of Palo Alto Software, founder of bplans.com, and a co-founder of Borland International. Berry reads and reviews about 50 business plans per year as an investor member of the Willamette Angel Conference (WAC), a local angel investment group. He served as investor chair in 2010 and is slated to be fund manager in 2012. He frequent judges business plan competitions including the Rice University Million-Dollar Business Plan Competition and the University of Texas’ Venture Labs Competition, formerly Moot Corp, the super bowl of business plan competitions.

Gwen Moran is a freelance writer and author of two books, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Business Plans and Build Your Own Home on a Shoestring. She currently writes a column for Entrepreneur Magazine. She also previously owned Moran Marketing Associates, a marketing communications firm, for nearly a decade.  She has a strong niche for business plan development and identifying business needs. Her firm’s exceptional growth and management practices were recognized when she was named a regional winner and national finalist in the United States Small Business Administration’s "Young Entrepreneur of the Year" awards in 1996.

When it comes to business plans investors are looking for several key things, how much money will they need to invest, is it something they believe they can profit from, product or service being sold, is there a need for the product or service that your company is selling, and return rate/percent of return on investment, at what rate and how long will it take for them to see a return on the money that they have invested. A solid business will be detailed and all investor questions will be answered the only left to handle is picking up the check.