Gordon Benzie, Author at Making Every Word Count

How Much Skin do You Have in the Game?

I recently completed an engagement with a client interested in starting a new web-based portal to serve the music industry. As part of writing his business plan, the discussion came up on what level of funding was sought, and at what point in the process would it be reasonable to pursue. I thought this was a good question, so am writing this post to talk about the timing component of when to fund a business, as part of your writing the business plan.

Clearly, one of the reasons to write a business plan is that you seek funding. This means you need a document that can clearly and quickly articulate how your plan and business vision can become a actual company generating revenues. (Before you decide to actually start writing your plan, here are 5 questions to ask.)

Here is where we have a bit of a paradox … if you are writing the plan to secure funding, then how much can be expected of you to get the business started to demonstrate viability? My client had a real challenge on his hands, in that he really didn’t have any money to invest in the venture now – his expectation was to find an Angel investor to pay for everything. I challenged this assumption, suggestion that he was going to need to put some of his own “skin” into the game, be it either from pre-negotiating some of the necessary partnership agreements, to finding a web developer that could start programming the portal. I suggested he find someone willing to do the work for experience and future equity, so cash outflow was not necessary required. One way or another, my advice to him was that he was going to need to make some sort of investment to show his commitment and devotion to the business.

As you are writing your business plan, either on your own or with a business plan writer, you too will need to think about how to bridge this important gap. My experience has taught me that few investors are simply going to give you a check to pay for everything, and then wish you well … unless you have had a terrific history and have earned that privilege. For the rest of us, we will need to prove our way forward to demonstrate that we have the wherewithal, perseverance and ingenuity to make something out of nothing, so to speak. This concept is critical as part of your selling that your business plan is worthy of being funded.

The best written plan in the world won’t get you funding if you can’t answer the question of “What skin do you have in the game?” Do time and effort count? Absolutely. But, most likely you will also need to have made some sort of financial investment too if you really want to “close” your investor. After all, if you are trying to pitch your business plan to an investor and haven’t invested any of your own hard-earned money, how can you reasonably expect an investor to?

Gordon Benzie is a marketing adviser and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies.

What Role Does Social Media Play in your Marketing Plan?

Like it or not, social media is here to stay. It has changed the way we communicate, the way we shop and the way we share these experiences. Consumers would rather buy from someone they know. Absent this type of referral, a product or service review by an independent third party is deemed as nearly as valuable and certainly more credible that what a company says about itself.

According to a recent McKinsey research survey, “Social technologies as a group have reached critical scale at the organizations represented in our survey. Seventy-two percent of the respondents report that their companies are deploying at least one technology, and more than 40 percent say that social networking and blogs are now in use.” The below charts published in the McKinsey report demonstrate the consistent growth social media has experienced within the business world.

There are two ways you can leverage social media as a business tool: As an internal means to improve productivity and efficiency, and as an external means to further engage with your customers.

As an Internal Tool

Social media can be used as a collaborative platform to better share ideas and solve customer issues faster. Here social media is being used as a shared IT application, no different than the use of browsers for web surfing or applications for word processing. As a collaboration tool, it should be centrally managed with a set of agreed upon usage guidelines to encourage appropriate behavior that isn’t offensive and makes good business sense.

As an External Tool

Here is where inflated expectations sometimes lead to unrealistic lead generation, branding or awareness assumptions. The likelihood of acquiring a million users that want to use your product after reading your twitter feed is probably unrealistic, unless there is a highly compelling event that can give you the exposure for such traffic volumes. A more likely scenario is one where your customers reference and, ideally, praise your product or service within their existing social media sites and usage patterns.

The critical question to ask consider is “How easy are you to work with?” How difficult is it for one of your customers to extract data from your service and upload it into their social media sites? If it is easy, then social media might indeed have a role in your future growth. Also, what content are you providing? Is this information that will be helpful for them as part of their purchase decision and evaluation? What is of primary importance, however, is that you think about it now, and that you realize that the way we use social media will likely change over time. Today we are in the middle of a communications transformation. This means you have to be ready to make the time, effort and financial investment to stay current and learn with the rest of the other companies.

Just in the same way that every marketing and business plan should have a competitive review and a strong positioning, companies today writing a business plan or marketing plan must now have a Social Media component. Businesses must now recognize that this is not a trend that will quietly go away. Social media is an important communications vehicle that should ideally be used both internally and externally as part of your marketing and communications plan.

Gordon Benzie is a marketing adviser and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies.

What is the Right Length for a Business Plan?

Anyone who has contemplated writing a business plan must decide upon an appropriate length. If you are a frequent reader of business plans, then you probably complain that they are too long. Alternatively, if you are passionate about your new innovation, technology or process, then you might feel that more detail is needed, to help explain why the investment opportunity is so special. This divergence of opinion often results in ambiguity when determining what the right length should be.

Before I proceed to articulate my opinion on this topic, let’s first consider the following: Most readers of your business plan will never read it in its entirety, regardless the number pages, how well it is written or what neat images are included. If you can embrace and accept this concept, then it will force you to think differently about what length is best … worse case, your choice will only impact a small percentage of total readers!

Following in this theme, I am sure you can now realize that it is absolutely critical your business plan includes an Executive summary.

Regardless of how busy your reader is, most will spend the time to read a single page for a glimpse of the business opportunity. It is for this reason that your Executive summary is the most important page of your entire plan.

Here is where Pareto’s law comes into effect – only 10 to 20% of your plan (the Executive summary) will likely be read by 80-90% of your readers. How well you write that section will determine, to some extent, how much (or if) the rest of the plan will ever be read.

Next, if you follow my logic, the rest of your business plan may only be read by 10-20% of your readers. These folks are now engaged and interested. Your topic has appealed to them in some way, so now you have them “hooked.” They are now willing to make a time investment to learn more. It is this group, therefore, that we must seek greater understanding, to then best determine an appropriate length to satisfy their needs.

My logic follows this path:

2-3 pages on the industry and market challenges
1 page to describe the company and its mission
1-2 pages to describe your product or service
2-3 pages to describe your competition and how you will compete
1-2 pages for a marketing plan
1-2 pages to describe the management team
1-2 pages for the financial projections, in summary; detailed monthly proformas can be included as an appendix

If you add an Executive summary to the above pages, you will have a plan that is anywhere from 10 to 16 pages, plus appendix.

Practice has taught me that the extra effort to add more pages is seldom worth it, nor will it really help you to better sell your idea to an investor. Of course, if your product is highly technical and requires a more thorough product description to really get it, then your plan might need to be longer. That is fine, and may well be the right answer. But, if that is the case, you might simply want to take a different path, and offer a technical guide as a supplement instead. After all, not all of your readers will be highly technical – they will likely get lost with greater technical descriptions. This extra content won’t really help you with your objective to secure funding, or better describe your idea to start building your company or new product.

What do you think? Have you experienced different results? I would be interested to hear from you.

Gordon Benzie is a marketing adviser and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies.

Creativity is Critical to a Marketing and Business Strategy

I am sure each of you has had at least one conversation about what led to a successful business … or why a particular business failed. What makes some startups work and others fail? Obviously, the answer is multi-faceted, with no single reason. I would propose that of all the contributing factors as to why a business survives, there is no more important skill that the management team’s creativity in defining and modifying their business plan, and how they use creativity to execute upon it.

A sound business plan strategy is to choose to excel at either being the low cost, high service or best product provider. But, once a direction has been chosen, it all then depends upon execution of the plan. And, as we all know, unexpected surprises will occur, sometimes even requiring a new strategic direction, product or market. It is the creativity on how these decisions are evaluated and pursued that separates those companies that survive and thrive versus those that don’t.

Creativity is a difficult characteristic to measure or evaluate. The question of whether or not one is creative is often known but seldom fully understood. Willingness to think “outside of the box” is a reasonable description, pointing to an ability to consider new paths previously not considered.

Creativity actually takes a far larger role in our life’s direction, often without our even really realizing it. For example, two identical individuals may both face the same challenge. The creative person may see a different solution that in actuality leads to a positive outcome. The other person may simply not have the vision to see the better solution, so instead takes a different path that is harmful to their personal or family’s future. The irony is that the person in the latter scenario may never learn of the missed opportunity.

How do you rank in creativity? How do you know what you might not know? Perhaps you should try to test your creativity, to see which person you are most like … the one that say the opportunity, or the one that missed it. Next time you are faced with a challenge or “life decision” that doesn’t seem to be all that great, take a perspective that there is a positive outcome – you may simply not see it yet … keep looking to challenge your creativity to see a new perspective that could actually lead to greater success.

Creativity will help you articulate a business plan better, to then have greater success in getting your plan funded. Those with greater creativity will have better success running their business or pursuing their careers. Without creativity, even the best product, service or pricing can only take you so far.

The good news is that, with practice, creativity is a skill that can be expanded upon. But, it takes effort, it may be uncomfortable, and it may take a little more time. But, the sweet taste of success will make it all worthwhile.

Gordon Benzie is a marketing adviser and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies.

Why Write a Business Plan?

This is a topic that inevitably comes up once an entrepreneur comes up with a new idea and already has a clear vision of what a company might look like to address this market need. The question is whether it makes sense to actually write a business plan if you already have a good understanding of what to do. If you have a strong understanding of the industry and a great idea for a new business, one might argue there is little benefit to write down what you already know in your head. And, if you plan on being self-funded, there is no investor audience you need to speak to … maybe your time would be better spent focusing on actually starting the business?

These are all important considerations, especially if you are very busy, so would have to incur a cost to hire a business plan writer to accomplish the task.

My response would be that there is a very important benefit you gain when going through the process of writing a business plan – it forces you to think about the critical details, any one of which might cause you considerable pain if left unaddressed. The critical benefit of writing a business plan is that it forces you to think about exactly how you will start your business, how you will position your value and segment your audience in your marketplace in a unique way that actually resonates well. In other words, by putting the words on paper and discussing your ideas with others, you can flush out your concept into an actual plan that can then be executed.

Let me give you an example. Let’s imagine that you want to start a party balloons business that provides decorative balloons for all sorts of events, both big and small. In your mind, you know balloons and the competition. You start in your garage and begin handing out flyers throughout your neighborhood. How do you know you have identified the best market segment to serve? How long have your competitors been in business, and what are their margins? How seasonal is your business? What is your five year profitability plan? Without a formal plan, you might not spend the time to think about these types of questions. And, if you don’t put these types of issues down on paper, how will you know if you are on track to achieve your objectives? These are the sorts of questions that might not readily come to mind unless you actually go through the process of writing a business plan.

And, if your competitor does go through this process and you don’t, then they might be in a better position for long term survival.

Only after taking the time to dig deep into what your business can become do you have any chance of actually growing it into something that can actually achieve and exceed your wildest dreams. Question such as what types of customers might you reasonably expect to draw? And, from an income and expense perspective, how sensitive are your suppliers and cost of goods sold? What happens if costs increase by ten percent? Will this make your profits disappear? If so, wouldn’t you want to know this fact before you started your business?

It is this “digging deep” philosophy that can make the difference between your business undergoing a slow and painful death, or to survive and thrive, based on the careful review you have already performed by holding yourself accountable by putting your plan in writing. It is amazing what commitment can be achieve when the process of simply putting something down in a printed or digital format. There is a sense of obligation once such a document has been prepared, which then becomes your roadmap for success. If you hire a writer to help guide you on this journey, you will hold yourself even more accountable to what is agreed upon in the plan. Funny how when you pay for something, the desire to get value out of it tends to increase dramatically!

Once you have achieved your initial stated objectives, it might then be time to seek outside funding. If you can present a plan that was already prepared from a year or two ago, and can then show that you have been following it (more or less), your story and “street creditability” with an outside investor will increase substantially, perhaps even getting to a point where it becomes the difference between securing initial Angel funding – or not.

If you are serious about starting a new business or expanding an existing business in a new direction, the minimal investment of time, resources and cost to sit down and write a plan on how you plan to proceed will offer you a tremendous return on investment, giving your business an important “jolt” of adrenalin that might make the difference between success and failure.

Gordon Benzie is a marketing adviser and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies.

5 Ways to Improve Website Usability on a Mobile Device

As a seasoned marketer that has written many pages of copy for websites, it is refreshing to now see a new trend now underway. There was a time not too long ago when a website’s content layout could simply be maximized for viewing by ensuring it worked on Internet Explorer, or “IE”. The early days of Firefox were sometimes challenging when image displays or text wrapping would not work quite right … but, it didn’t really matter too much if only 2-3 percent of your audience were using that browser. Website usability on multiple browsers is now a reality that marketers must embrace.

Today’s web browsing market is highly fragmented, a condition further exasperated with the proliferation of mobile “smart” devices. The dominance of IE is now gone (see: The End of an Era: Internet Explorer Drops Below 50 Percent of Web Usage). While desktop browsing is still the dominant format, mobile browsing has grown significantly, from virtually nothing three years ago to nearly six percent today.

So, what does this new evolving social behavior have to do with your business? Here are five considerations to evaluate:

How important is your website for lead generation? If this attribute is key, then how “user friendly” is your site? For example, how well can you actually read the content? How many images to you have on each page, which thereby forces the phone to auto size your text to be way too small? Is your competitor’s site more “mobile-friendly”?
How well does your website display on Safari, Android or Opera? These three operating systems comprise 94 percent of all mobile browsing activity. Given Apple’s current market share leadership for this segment (62 percent), it might be a problem if your site has issues with how it is displayed in this browser’s application. For example, is Flash on your site? Flash doesn’t work on an iPhone or iPad, so forget about a user being able to read or engage with this content.
How fast does your website load on a mobile device? This is critical for mobile viewers, as they might be trying to multi-task with another activity while searching your site, such as waiting in line to see a movie, pumping gas, etc. This type of “burst” web viewing has a low threshold for delays when accessing web pages; they will simply turn off the browser or move on to another activity that can be completed quickly.
If your “call to action” necessitates providing info, how streamlined is it? For example, if you are promoting registration for webinar or event, how many fields do you require to be completed? Anything more than 2 or 3 will start to push the limits of what can be accomplished on a mobile device, despite how well skilled your prospect is at typing on their smart phone.
How quickly can information be found on your site? What extent do menu hierarchies play as part of your website’s navigation structure? Whereas a desktop-based viewer has a mouse that can be easily used to track through several tiers of menu choices with a single click, this type of navigation simply isn’t possible from a mobile device.

As a general comment, how often do you check how your website appears on an iPhone, iPad or an Android OS device? If you only own a Blackberry, how informed a decision can you really make, given Blackberry’s meager 2 percent market share within the mobile web viewing market?

Fortunately, options exist to address these challenges. First, it is possible to build a mobile website without destroying your existing site. The use of a .mobi extension can make this possible; viewers can then see a version of your website that has been optimized for mobile viewing. And, if you are really serious, then an App for mobile devices might start to make sense, as it really does offer a much better interactivity experience than trying to simply find information on the web.

What other suggestions do you have on how to better design website for mobile usage? I would be interested to hear your feedback.

The Importance of Editing

Having written many business plans, press releases, and other marketing collateral, one thing I have learned is the importance of an edit and review process. It doesn’t matter how good your writing skills are – no one can write anything great the first time.

It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking there isn’t the time or that it isn’t necessary for this particular communication. Or, maybe you were told the document only had to be a rough draft. Regardless, it is always a good habit to either hiring a third party to review your work or simply save your work and come back to it in 24 hours to have a look with fresh eyes. I am always amazed when I look back at my work from the prior day and reflect “What was I thinking?”

When we speak in a conversation, we typically don’t put much effort into editing what we say, so it is easy to think that writing is the same. But, if you think about it, when we have something important to say, then we will rehearse and practice it … just look at the industry of speechwriters that serve this need. We will edit and re-edit a speech many times before we are comfortable it gets the right message across. Writing is the same way.

Here are five benefits of following a good editing process, or having a good editor:

1. Ensures your written message matches what you were trying to say
2. Helps to condense and improve the efficiency of your writing
3. Questions your flow of thoughts, ensuring there’s good logic
4. Tells you if your content is too technical or if it doesn’t make sense, at least to the general public; it is very easy to “get into the weeds” about a topic you are very knowledgeable about
5. Asks questions or presents an alternative perspective that you might not have considered; in the case of a blog, this feedback might be an excellent follow-up for a new post

The best person to edit your work might be someone that is not too close, so as to have the courage to tell you exactly how they feel, or what they didn’t like. A good editor might be someone that doesn’t even work at your company – or even in your industry – so as to focus purely on the content in your article, without the worry of political ramifications.

To be a good writer, one must write in a concise manner (see my prior post on taking the time to write shorter copy). A great way to achieve this objective is to work with an editor. It’s easy to fall into the trap of writing about a topic you are familiar with and forgetting to take into account that your audience may be just learning about this topic for the first time.

5 Ways to Speak to Different Audiences

One of the challenges in getting your message out is that your audience is typically quite diverse, especially when dealing with a technology product. Engineers have one way of talking; Chief Financial Officers have another and end-users yet another. Effective marketing and business communications dictate that you offer a message for each of your targeted audiences to ensure your message is understood by all relevant stakeholders. You need to speak in their language.

Complex software or other technology sales are seldom performed in a vacuum or decided by an individual. Therefore, a consensus must be achieved before a final “buy” decision can be reached. For business communications in high-tech industries, you must address a wide, diverse group of individuals. Finding your audience for a cult movie such as the Rocky Horror Picture Show might be equally difficult!

The challenge is how do you accomplish this task?

First, you need to realize that you can’t speak to each of these different “personas” at the same time, in the same venue. Not only would this be complicated to write, but it would also be difficult to read! Your best course of action is to pick different media or channels to conduct your varying messages.

Here are five different venues for your consideration when speaking to your different audiences:

Write a white paper that offers a detailed explanation of how your product works, how it is used, why it is better than the competition, etc. Point is that this is a venue that highly technical IT or engineering audiences can understand your message or communications
Record a video interviewing your president, speaking to how he/she/they is committed to the direction of your company, the research that has been done to ensure the product is delivering maximum value … busy “C” level executives might have time to listen to a 4-minute video of your president
Get a placement of a contributed article in a publication that speaks to return on investment (ROI, return on assets (ROA), etc., to entice potential senior financial management audiences to read and understand the financial impact of purchasing your product
Post a blog entry for middle management or “line of business” personnel to read, on a topic that concerns actually using your product, or what specific challenges can be addressed … getting more into the “weeds” of what your product does
Be a sponsor at a trade show with a booth, staffed by employees. This type of venue offers a different “slice” of who you can speak with about your product, but one audience that it is quite effective at reaching is your partners, who might also be exhibiting or attending. This is an important audience to speak with, both from a future partnering perspective as well as to convince them that your product is viable in the markets you serve

Teachers understand this task, as seldom do each of their students learn the same way. Some might be visual learners; others learn by doing and some may learn only by reading. Marketing or business plan writing is no different. Marketers must recognize that quite often a different language and medium must be chosen to communicate with each of these different stakeholders. Business plan writers must know what type of investor they are writing for, to then better understand what level of industry terms and jargon should be included and what should be defined better, for novice readers.

Who do you write for? I would be interested in hearing what other venues have worked for you in the past.

Gordon Benzie is a marketing adviser and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing business plans and marketing strategies.

5 Ways to Shorten Copy

“I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”

– Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662) Lettres provincials

It would appear the challenge or writing concise communications has been with us for a long time.

Today, shorter copy is needed more than ever. Just look at the success of Twitter, the “ultimate” short copy communications platform. Messages are mostly limited to 140 characters per tweet, requiring a new mastery of short communications.

Upon reflection at my own writing, I probably could do better. So I came up with five reasons why my communications might be too long, to try and write with greater brevity.

Too many examples – When presenting complex topics, the inclusion of examples to help explain a concept is sometimes necessary. If your objective is to teach, then providing more content may be right; in a business communication, perhaps it might better to offer a link or source for an example that already exists.
Too long an introduction – Perhaps your topic or challenge being solved is complex, or there are different nuances to the business challenge, and you need to be sure to explain what variation you are solving, requiring a longer introduction. I can’t think of a shortcut here, other than trying to condense your topic down to a paragraph or less.
Too many industry buzz words – This is tough when seeking to improve Search Engine Optimization. The more industry terms, the better your chance of showing up higher on Google. Links to other web pages might help address this challenge.
Too many editors – This is a tough one. Often I have two or more stakeholders invested in my document with different points that must be included. More time to perform more edits is the solution, but, sometimes deadlines contradict this goal.
Too worried about missing a key point – When tasked with writing an important document, such as a business plan, as they say, you only get one chance to make a first impression. Considerable care must be taken to be sure all relevant points are included. Keeping a prioritized list can help address this challenge; if a point has already been made, perhaps it doesn’t require duplication in a later section. Alternatively, future communications can be added to address omissions.

In the end, the path to shorter copy is to spend more time … time planning to identify the most concise wording, and time writing more efficiently using shorter phrases that are edited several times. In the end, your goal is to make a lasting impression – getting your content read and understood – which is simply easier with a shorter message.*

*Note the first version of this post exceeded 700 words; final version has 450.

Gordon Benzie is a marketing adviser and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies.

Express Yourself How You see Fit

Like so many of us that have been following the latest political scandals, such as that involving Anthony Weiner’s twitter escapades and resignation, I have been amused at how quickly a new word can make it into our English language. One of the recent AP news headline read: “Weiner to resign over sexting scandal.”

To the best of my knowledge, I have never seen “sexting” used in a news headline before, and yet, a pretty respected journalism outlet has used it in a title of a story. The joint combination of two known words is a great way to build a new word, should the opportunity arise where a new term is warranted. In this case, I would say that it was warranted, and the inclusion of this term was indeed appropriate, and highly descriptive. We all know what they are talking about!

Upon reflection, I would propose that the fluidity and strength of the English language is greatly helped by the fact that it is entirely acceptable to create a new word, based on the writer’s own perspective. If the market fails to recognize the word or doesn’t understand what it means, the simple consequence is that the term won’t be repeated, fading away into obscurity. No harm, no foul.

Interestingly, the French view their vocabulary differently, with a strict process for when a new French word is “approved” for general use, ultimately by the French Minister of Culture. With the recent explosion of IT related terms and technologies, the French “word police” have been quite busy. According to an article posted in the Wall Street Journal, before a word such as “cloud computing” (“informatique en nuage”) or “podcasting” (“diffusion pour baladeur”) receives a certified French equivalent, it needs to be approved by three organizations and get a government minister’s seal of approval, according to rules laid out by the state’s General Delegation for the French Language and the Languages of France. The process can take years!

Imagine if the same set of rigid rules existed here in the United States. I think our IT industry would be at a loss for words as to what we do. One might even argue that our innovation might even be curtailed, at least with regards to how we talk about new products or services. One thing for certain, those of us tasked with marketing communications or business plan writing would be in for a real challenge when talking about a new start up offering a new service.

Fortunately, it is still the “wild west” in America, at least with regards to coining a new word. And, with all the social media outlets today, the opportunity for a new word to be recognized and go viral is pretty good … so feel free to express yourself how you like, without worry that you will be found guilty by a Minister of Culture, at least for all of us living in the land of free speech and writing!

Gordon Benzie is a marketing adviser and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies.