McKinsey's Starting Up [1998]
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I feel I have learned a lot about planning for a startup from this book. Some things that years of reading HN posts have not taught me.
It sort of led me to believe starting a business without writing a business plan with these 8 chapters (so at least ~8 pages) is a fools errant, and at best is taking needless risk.
Is there anyone who has experience with writing a good business plan before going into business, is there a sort of business that just wouldn't benefit from this at all? Why?
summary: An executive summary of the entire plan, for the busy VC to get a small idea of what the plan is all about.
idea: The business idea in detail, what is the opportunity, the proposed value?
team: Who will be leading this venture? Why?
marketing: How will people know about you, how will you make money?
business system / organization: How will the product/service be built/delivered? What will happen when it's done, will it ever be done?
schedule: When do you think what will be done, what decision will then be made?
risks: What can go wrong? What will you do when it goes wrong?
finance: How much money should I give you? What will you spend it on?