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WORKBOOK
MAY BE FREELY QUOTED, EXCERPTED OR REPRODUCED WITH PROPER ATTRIBUTION. Over several years, Blue Rock Capital has developed mini-papers, hand-outs and work-sheets for use with various venture-related groups. Through its website - www.bluerockcapital.com - we offer these resources to entrepreneurs, new management teams, and company advisors. From time-to-time, we also accept invitations from entrepreneurial and venture groups to make presentations on selected topics. These topics are marked below with a P. There is also an additional listing of presentation topics at the end. Planning Your Venture Alternative Pathways for Commercialization (P) - Just because your venture involves a great product doesn't mean that you have to make it yourself or start hiring salespeople. Just because you need money doesn't necessarily mean that venture capital is the only choice. Various ways of getting the functions your young company needs and getting your product into the marketplace. (1 page paper) The Various "Kinds" of Business Plans - Be aware that not every Business Plan is the same. Nor should it be. Different situations (and objectives) require a different focus. (1 page listing) S-O-F-T Analysis [ RTF ] (P) - A Worksheet that helps you sort issues into the right categories before you start dealing with them. (2 page Worksheet) Critical Issues in Defining a Potential Venture Opportunity [ RTF ] (P) - Want to write a 1-page Business Plan even your grandmother will understand? Quick-and-dirty. Painless. Immediately useful. Do this before you even attempt to write a full-blown business plan. (2 page Worksheet) Milestone-based Operations (and Funding) [ RTF ] (P) - You've come a long way already. Here's how to see your current situation in the context of where you've come from and where you're headed. The single most important document you can create for your venture. (2 page Worksheet) Company Assessment Form (P) - How does your company rank comparatively in terms of the essential functions that must be in place. An effective guide to ongoing planning and management (and a great way to prepare for the fund-raising process). (4 page Worksheet) How to "Sniff-Test" a Venture (P) - If only you knew in advance how a prospective funding source thinks about candidate ventures that are presented for consideration, wouldn't that influence that way you think about presenting (and planning) your venture? (2 page paper) How to Write an Effective Business Plan in Just 3 Hours (P) - These are the Workshop materials used at the annual meeting of the National Business Incubation Association. A sell-out each time it has been offered. Gather your team (and their laptops), lock the door, put on the answering machine, and order the pizza. In three hours, you can have the whole thing defined. (Sure, you may want to come back for more in-depth work later on, but this can be one heck of a start.) (17-page Workbook) Finding Funding Venture Funding Stages - Companies at various stages of development are classified differently. Usually, funding sources are interested in some but not all stages. What's your stage? (1 page listing) Calculating the Funding Needed by Your New Venture [ RTF ] - 7 steps to help you determine your requirements plus a listing of line-items to consider for your cash-flow forecast. (4 page paper) Traditional (vs. Entrepreneurial) Sources of Capital - the Competition for Funding. Three lists to get you thinking about your options. (1 page) Guidelines for Getting (and Keeping) Funding in Today's Market (P) - The process of finding the right kind of funding can seem discouraging. Here are some thoughts to help you be more efficient and stay focused. (1 page paper) Due Diligence: Unraveling the Investment Opportunity [ RTF ] (P) - Due diligence is the process by which investors actually decide whether to make an investment in a particular company. Entrepreneurs who understand how the process works can organize their own information, presentation, and fund-raising strategy to be compatible with the steps and issues that are typically involved in the due diligence process. (9 page paper) Blue Rock Capital's Investment Criteria - To represent a good fit, there are four key categories where companies must present clear strengths - or at least compelling strategies for developing the appropriate capabilities. (1 page paper) Venture Fair Presentations Entrepreneurs' Eye Chart [ RTF ] - Before you invest time in preparing your next presentation, invest a minute in studying this eye-opener. (1 page paper) 8 Issues in 8 Minutes: How to Prepare an Effective Venture Fair Presentation (P) - At Venture Fairs and in meeting privately with potential investors, it's important for a company to get its whole story communicated effectively. And with enough detail to be both interesting and credible. But without so many specifics that you bog down or kill the opportunity for back-and-forth discussions. Here's how. (3 page paper) How to Make an Effective Venture Presentation (P) - The history of venture financing is littered with the carcasses of truly worthy companies that just never made it through financing. When it comes to making a presentation, the key mistake made by most entrepreneurs (and mere mortals as well) is that they practice their presentation by "saying it in their minds." Only. It's fascinating to realize how rapidly one can do a presentation in one's mind and, by contrast, how long it seems to get the damn words out when doing it "live." Grab your tape-recorder and your stopwatch. (4 page paper) Workshop: How to Write an Effective Business Plan in Just 3 Hours! Power Point presentation for the Association of University Technology Managers (September 2003 Conference) - Most launch-stage ventures and would-be entrepreneurs actually consume far too many precious resources in writing the company's initial business plans. Worse, the wrong information often gets over-emphasized while truly critical information gets left out or given too little attention. Here is a step-by-step process for writing your first business plan -- in just one sentence! In turn, this sentence can serve as the basis first for analyzing your company's current Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats ("S-O-F-T") and then for preparing a definitive commercialization strategy as the true focus of your initial business plan. This is actually the first half of the full 3 hour workshop process. The really good news is that this first workshop piece ought to be accomplishable in no more than an hour of your time (including flipping through the Power Point slides). Operational Issues The Five Key "Risks" (P) - Just because you have created a company doesn't guarantee that it will survive. Or prosper. Here are the five major challenges that savvy managers must overcome as their companies move more deeply into the marketplace. (1 page listing) Day 1: Buying Just 1 Hour of Time with Your Company's New Attorney, Intellectual Property Counsel, Accountant, and Business Consultant (P) - This is the most valuable money you ever spend. What questions should you ask? What should you look for? (2 page paper) Questions Your Advisory Board Should address on Behalf of Your Company (P) - Six "big picture" issues to help fight entrepreneurial "tunnel-vision." (1 page paper) Operating Characteristics: What Changes as Companies Grow (P) - Your company probably has the same functional requirements as most Fortune 500 companies. If your company is brand-new, it's you who do them all. If your company has celebrated a couple of anniversaries already, things look different. What if you could anticipate these differences and actually plan for them? See what may lie just over the horizon for your venture. (1 page Worksheet) A Classic Mistake Entrepreneurs Make (P) - The truth about "selling." (1 page paper) Entrepreneurs' Primer on Marketing, Advertising, and Selling [ RTF ]- Marketing isn't advertising. Selling isn't the same as marketing. And advertising isn't selling. Most entrepreneurs recognize that effective marketing, advertising, and selling are critical to the success of a venture. Yet in many instances, young companies seem confused or just plain inaccurate (this means "wrong") in the way they understand these three critical functions. This mini-paper is provides a quick insights about the linkages between marketing, advertising, and selling. (8 page paper) The 4-1/2 Marketing Issues that Entrepreneurs Absolutely Must Get Right (P) - When investors look at companies, they know from experience that there are certain things that are critical factors in building a growing "top line." (Reprinted from the presentation at the 1995 Philadelphia Trade Conference.) (6 page paper) Marketing, Product Introduction and Distribution Issues - Now that your product has been prototyped and can actually be manufactured, what comes next? Maybe it would even be useful to think about these issues before you get started. (2 page paper) A Model of the Real Selling Process - It's just the opposite of what you have always thought it is. And this model is equally applicable to finding your next job. (Hint: the Good News is "No.") (4 page paper) The 12 Key Reasons Why Companies Fail (P) - Experience can be a great teacher. You can take advantage of others' experience or you can re-learn these lessons the hard way. "Fore-warned is fore-armed." Once you see the reasons, you can incorporate them into your planning (and management) processes. (1 page paper) Related Topics Opportunities with Young, Emerging-Growth Companies (P) - Corporate downsizing and mid-career self-assessments have been leading many people to consider opportunities with other companies. Entrepreneurial companies now attract interest because the significant up-side potential of a venture stands in marked contrast to the retrenchments that are occurring in many traditional sectors of the economy. What is different and what is the same about entrepreneurial life? What should you expect? What if you were to buy a company or start a venture yourself? (2 page paper) Surviving Downsizing (P) - Many large companies have been refocusing on what they deem to be their "core" business interests. Because many non-strategic or smaller businesses will be closed, sold, or spun off., many employees may face unexpected decisions. Here are the issues involved in doing something entrepreneurial. (2 page paper) So Ya Wanna Be a Consultant, huh? [ RTF ] - The ABCs of effective consulting practice. And two do-it-yourself formulas for determining how much you should charge. (Based on 10 years of successful real-world experience.) (4 page paper) Building a Venture Community from the Ground Up: A U.S. Case Study in a Regional Market (P) - Many communities are intrigued by the idea of creating technology incubators or other forms of support for promising young companies and eager entrepreneurs. But companies and entrepreneurs cannot succeed and prosper in a vacuum. To support the process, other resources - both financial and non-financial - should be created to guide would-be company founders and to help start-ups survive long enough so they can ultimately stand on their own. This 10-year case history illustrates how the creation of "entrepreneurs' forums," venture funding for seed-stage investing, spin-off opportunities from large companies and universities, and enlightened business and government involvement encourages market-based regional economic growth even when other sectors of that economy may be down-sizing, shrinking, or experiencing other dislocations. Written with William A. Scari, Jr., Pepper, Hamilton. LLC. (32 page paper) Designing an Effective Business Incubator [
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