Business Cycle Graphs

Business Cycle Graphs | How to Use Graphs and Charts in Your Business Plan

2009-06-24T06:22:00.000-07:00

How to Use Graphs and Charts in Your Business Plan

I often hear the question, "how many graphs or charts should I have in my business plan?" As with most other business planning questions, the answer is "it depends." This article discusses the key factors influencing the number of graphs and charts to include in your business plan.

To begin, the key point to consider in developing your business plan is the time restraints of your audience. If your audience is a retired angel investor, he may have few obligations and can spend an hour reviewing your business plan. However, the more likely scenario is that a venture capitalist, corporate investor or loan officer will review your plan while sitting at a desk topped with fifty other business plans. As such, it is critical that your plan conveys its key points quickly and easily - this is where graphs or charts come in.

In determining whether to use a graph or chart, consider the old adage, "a picture is worth a thousand words." The point here is that the picture should save a thousand words. That is, the graph or chart should supplement the text; it should not be explained ad naseum in the text, or that defeats its purpose. Likewise, the graph or chart must be relevant and support the text, rather than detract from it.

In addition to respecting the time constraints of the audience, the business plan must respect the audience's energy level. That is, after reading seven business plans, an investor is likely to skip a page with 400 words of straight text. Even if no charts are applicable to support the page, Growthink suggests using appropriate spacing and/or callout boxes (e.g., key text phrases highlighted in boxes) to make the page more readable.

Finally, if the business plan is only being presented to a single or a small number of investors, the amount of graphs and charts should reflect the wants, needs and sophistication of those few readers. For instance, if the plan is being presented only to strategic investors who understand the market, graphs can be used to convey information for which these investors may already have background knowledge.

Conversely, always keep in mind that the plan is not a slide presentation, and too many graphs and charts may position the company as one that is too lazy to complete the process of developing a formal business plan.

To summarize, the amount of charts and graphs used in the business plan must reflect the audience for the plan; an audience that is usually time and energy constrained. The charts and graphs must complement the text, enable the audience to quickly and easily digest the information, and as always, interest the audience in taking the next step (e.g., scheduling an in-person meeting) in the investment process.

Author: Dave Lavinsky
Article Source: www.goarticles.com
As President of Growthink, Dave Lavinsky leads a company that develops strategic business plans, conducts market research, and builds financial models for growing ventures. To date, Growthink has developed over 200 business plans for clients who have raised over $750 million in venture capital.

Business Cycle Graphs | Top Tips On How To Make Easy Money Online

2009-01-24T07:12:00.000-08:00

Top Tips On How To Make Easy Money Online

Who wouldn’t want to make money online? You choose your hours, you can work from any location in the world and you can leverage your time in a way that makes having a job seem like the biggest waste of time imaginable!

However, it’s only easy to make money online if you do your homework first. The best way to make easy money online is surely to follow what other successful internet entrepreneurs do, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. You could waste a ton of money and a lot of time trying to make money with, for instance, Google Adwords, or on eBay or with affiliate marketing and so on, if you simply log onto the website, create an account and start trading. There are proven techniques, tricks of the trade and short cuts to enable you to make money online quickly and successfully. There are also a lot of mistakes to be made and a lot of money to be wasted if you don’t know what you are doing.

Tip One is to study first, make money second.

So many people want everything for free and feel that if they have to buy information, they are somehow being ripped off. I bought a stack of information when I started out, and don’t feel that any of my money was wasted – yes, some information helped me more than others, but it was all a learning curve, and saved me wasting a fortune making mistakes. I learnt from the mistakes others had made instead. Think of it this way – if, in one year from now you are earning enough to walk away from the day job, would it be worth ‘going back to school’ and studying your new career path before you get started?

Tip Two is to have a variety of online businesses – some you will take to more than others, some will pay out sooner than others, but at the end of the day why put all your hopes on one business stream when you can have several?

Tip Three. Be patient. Give yourself a year or 18 months to really give your online career a chance. If you don’t see results as soon as you want them, don’t give up only to try something else that you may not stick at either. It takes time, for instance, for new websites to get ranked in the search engines, and although you can learn how to create a website that will rank well, you cannot cheat the system. What you can do, is learn search engine optimisation techniques and put them all into practice, which will reap you big rewards further down the line. (There’s a free e-book on my website about this).

Making money online can give you total financial freedom – you have to want it enough to work hard initially, so that you can then sit back and enjoy it. Follow the leaders, don’t imagine you don’t need anyone’s help, be a ‘sponge’ and learn all you can and kiss the day job ‘goodbye’.

For a free ebook that details all the different and best ways to make money online just click on my website and download your copy.
http://www.easymakemoneysite.com

Author: Joanna G Payge
Article Source: www.articlecity.com

Business Cycle Graphs | Can You Start A Successful Home Based Business

2009-01-24T06:48:00.000-08:00

The internet has helped more ordinary people start their own home based business than at any other time in history. In this article let's analyze where to find a successful home based business tips and whether or not you should start one.

First of all understand that a successful home based business takes time to develop. If you are the type of person who gets easily excited and then can not follow through then this might not be for you.

However if you have qualities like persistence, do not get easily depressed, and are a highly motivated person you can earn considerably more working for yourself than you will at most jobs.

This may not mean quick cash and short hours like some of the ads you see on the internet. We are not talking about earning thousands working 2 hours a day at first. But down the road you can be financially set if you do it right.

Maybe you know what kind of home based business you want to start. Maybe not. Regardless taking your time and doing some research is important to your long term success.

If you are thinking about what to sell you should investigate any company you are thinking about representing. If you have an industry in mind but not anything specific in the way of products you will need to do even more research.

Get to know the profile and background of several companies. You are looking for stability and a success model you can follow. Franchising is good for this, but you can not usually do it from home.

Take the same approach though and look for companies and products that already have a success model you can use.

Anybody looking to start a home based business should look for testimonials from other successful people. The internet makes this easier to do. Most times you can even find a phone number and talk to a real person.

Pick their brain. Look for the whole story and not just the positive part you will get from a business.

Another place to find information is in discussion forums relating to the industry you are looking at. People who hang out in forums are incredibly helpful and you can get many of your questions answered there.

In summary doing your research before you start will help get you off to a great start. A successful home based business can be built with hard work over a period of time.

Article Provided By: My Articles Directory
About the Author: Vincent Murphy is the Webmaster/Owner of http://www.HomeGrail.com
How to Start a Successful Home Based Business FREE GIFT, 6 FREE HOME BUSINESS EBOOKS: http://www.HomeGrail.com/newsletter-signup.html

Business Cycle Graphs | The Sales Business Cycle

2009-01-24T06:36:00.000-08:00

The Sales Business Cycle

The basic philosophy behind the sales perspective is the more you sell the more money you make. This makes a lot of sense, so let’s take a look at business management from the perspective of a sales led organization.

The basic representation of business from a sales perspective consists of four main steps:

1. finding leads
2. converting those leads
3. closing the deal
4. delivering the product or service

The end goal, as always, is to provide a solution that the customer is happy with so you can collect payment.

In small organizations lead finding, conversion and closing may all be handled by the sales staff. In larger organizations these functions start to get split up and assigned to separate teams. The best way to split them up depends on the organization and the dynamics of the market you are selling to.

Lead Generation - Finding People To Help

Lead generation is all about getting potential customers to take a first look at you and your company. The objective is to make initial contact with people and determine if there is the potential for a mutually beneficial business relationship. You may not even have a specific product or service in mind during lead generation. Just an idea of your desired market and the type of people and businesses you want to serve is enough to launch lead generation campaigns.

It is important to recognize that the success of lead generation tactics is measured by the number of qualified leads generated by those tactics, not by the amount of sales. The money comes later. Some common examples of lead generation tactics are: broadcast advertising, direct mail, and networking at trade shows and other events.

Many people (myself included) believe the ideal business scenario is to first define your desired market. Then go get some leads and get to know them and the problems they are having. Only after gaining a deep knowledge of your chosen market’s biggest needs and wants are you in the right position to develop suitable solutions. You then get the added benefit of offering your solutions to a market that already knows and trusts you because you didn’t come in trying to get their money pushing whatever you happened to have before getting to know them.

Generating leads is where all new businesses start. Without leads you have no one to convince to buy. You can't get any orders, you can't deliver any solutions, and ultimately you can't get paid. Without leads to follow up on no other part of the organization can even begin to function.

Author: Daryl Cowie
Article Source: www.articlecity.com
Daryl Cowie has shared management tips with 1000s of people in over 30 countries around the world. His mission is to help you and your company turn business opportunities into business realities. Sign up for his free business management home study course at http://FreeManagementTips.com

Business Cycle Graphs | Life Cycle Management

2009-01-24T06:03:00.000-08:00

Life Cycle Management - A Modern Approach For Business Efficiency

Just as biological processes and human life move through progressive stages of development, so too do products, systems and the set of management strategies that apply to each phase. The stages that scope and bound this process from initial inception to death is know as the life cycle. Life cycle management is the analysis of each stage of the life cycle to adjust processes according to a graded set of criteria. This criterion is weighted according to economic, social and environmental importance.

It is thought, that by analyzing each phase of the process, and investigating the input and output stages that a superior outcome can be produced. Companies and governments are adopting more progressive life cycle management techniques to not only improve productivity, profitability and sustainability but to minimize the social and environmental consequences of the process.

Life cycle management requires the ability to model and analyze the variables that comprise each stage of the process. This applies to the input and output level including stakeholder objectives, the analysis, design, development, procurement, implementation, logistics and waste disposal requirements. By knowing the consequences of each selected variable, opportunity costs and alternative scenarios can be graded according to best practice criteria. This can involve tradeoffs that are adjusted according to organizations objectives after considering the social, economic and environmental consequences. If the cost of producing cheaper packaging for a product results in difficulty disposing of the packaging, tradeoffs take place to balance environmental with economic objectives. This is an example of the process at work.

Life cycle management draws heavily on best practices in other industries. By using successful case studies, process improvements, and trends from other markets, companies can model processes by using a synergy of characteristics that can be adapted for company best fit. This progressive outlook can help streamline company processes and to produce superior economic, environmental and social outcomes.

The changing business landscape in response to the environmental legislative requirements is forcing companies to become more accountable. In the past, companies have not faced stringent requirements or scrutiny over their business practices. With the emerging movement towards environmental accountability, government and societal pressure is forcing big business to consider the implications. This is helping to put life cycle management of the agenda of the public policy decision making process.

Author: Andrew Winthorp
Article Source: www.goarticles.com
Andrew Winthorp is freelance writer for http://www.life-cyclemanagement.com Life Cycle Management . Learn more about how Life Cycle Management can benefit your business.

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2008-08-03T07:12:00.000-07:00

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