Sunday, June 3, 2007

Using Business Planning Software

Over the years I have written several business plans. If you have not had the experience as of yet, get ready for some work. There are some great resources on the web to get more information. One I particularly like is Tim Berry's Hurdle Book. Berry gives some good insight and practical methodology to putting your plan together.

Berry is President of PaloAlto Software, who produces Business Plan Pro. Business Plan Pro has come a long way over the past few years and is very flexible. In 2001, I tried this application for a plan I was writing. Although the plan templates were very comprehensive and helped guide me through the key areas of the plan, I found it hard to work with and eventually put the plan together using Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The current version (2007) offers much more flexibility in the areas where you will need it most (importing and exporting). I am currently completing a new plan and Business Plan Pro has been great. In the future I hope PaloAlto offers increased flexibility with their spreadsheet formulas.

Business planning is a long arduous process. PaloAlto is not a sponsor of this blog, and I don't work for Tim Berry, but I have looked at a few different business planning tools and found Business Plan Pro to be the best.

3 comments:

Tim Berry said...

Hi Dave,

Wow, thanks, it's great to get this feedback. The hurdlebook site is a labor of love, so your post helps us stay motivated to keep up that site free.

Re Business Plan Pro I'm glad its working for you now. We'll see about adding flexibility on the spreadsheets, we are always working on it.

I'll take this post as a chance to thank you too for the great work SBDCs do for entrepreneurs. You are the first place we send people who want more help.

-- Tim Berry

Dave Lewan said...

Thank you, Tim. I just published this blog over the weekend, so it was great to receive your note.

As I have been writing my new plan, I am constantly searching the web for more information on Arizona small business. The more I search, the more I realize that there is a great need for an online business resource "for AZ business owners, written by AZ business owners".

I will be telling my friends about Arizona Small Business so they too, may share their thoughts, ideas and opinions; I will also be telling them about Tim Berry and "Hurdle".

Thanks again!

Dave

Anonymous said...

This is a great software, i can use this and inform my clients about this new technological way of business planning.