Tag: business plans

Cash is king... and no one except Elvis is likely to disagree. So why don't we ever have enough and how can we fix cashflow problems without selling off part of our company?

Value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. While experienced investors use a range of tools to calculate the worth of a start-up or early stage company, some also believe that valuation is more art than science. So what is this 'black art' and how do experienced investors make their decisions?

Pete Thomond spent the past four and a half years working out the secrets of successful innovation. The British academic and business consultant was co-manager of the "Disrupt-it" project, a €3 million European Commission co-sponsored programme of research and business tool development. Now he's spreading the word downunder, as a Research Fellow and innovation consultant at the Brisbane Graduate School of Business. At 29, he's young, but how many people do you know with a PhD in disruptive innovation?

There's a new reason for creating that great business plan... prize money! If the possibility of commercial success (or failure) isn't inspiration enough to do your basic business homework, perhaps you should consider the financial incentives offered to budding business planners. Scores of Australian organisations now hold annual business plan competitions, where entrants compete for cold hard cash... and the honour of being named 'most likely'. By Pi James.

J P Morgan, the famous American Industrialist, said: "People do things for two reasons... the right reason and the real reason". Understanding the real reason can be the ultimate point of differentiation when pitching for business.

A prison sentence early in life can dash the hopes of a would-be entrepreneur. Or it can fuel them. In the youth unit at Port Phillip Prison, rock bottom gives way to the bottom line as teenaged inmates become CEOs. Jodie O'Keeffe clears security to find out what it takes to build a business behind bars.

In the final days of September 2005, Anthill editor Paul Ryan caught up with five of Australia's leading early-stage venture capitalists. The meeting turned into a feature story. The feature story turned into a networking event, which we offered as a fly-on-the-wall audio CD. Now you can download/listen to it as a full podcast, which includes the previously unreleased Q&A session.

In the final days of September 2005, Anthill editor Paul Ryan caught up with five of Australia's leading early-stage venture capitalists. The meeting turned into a feature story. The feature story turned into a networking event, which we offered as a fly-on-the-wall audio CD. Now you can download/listen to it as a full podcast, which includes the previously unreleased Q&A session.

It is a truism among seasoned entrepreneurs that the business you plan to launch is never the business you will be running in three...