When I left the US for Abu Dhabi nine years ago, I had my own business, as did most of my friends. Entrepreneurship was becoming increasingly popular as something to talk about and for the media to cover. For more and more Americans, “having my own company” was becoming a goal for the future.
After eight years in the UAE teaching entrepreneurship at universities but not being an entrepreneur myself, I’m back home once again running my own company. What has changed after the financial crisis of 2008-2009 is that more people are turning to entrepreneurship in response to unemployment or underemployment, or to benefit directly from the accelerating economic development of Miami.
Two weeks ago I attended the Miami Herald Business Plan Boot Camp along with 250 people of all ages hoping to become independent business owners. A few already have early stage companies. Most, however, are just beginning to plan their future company.
The Business Plan Challenge for which the Boot Camp is a training session has been held the past 15 years, co-sponsored by Miami’s only daily newspaper and Florida International University (FIU). The Challenge has three categories: community, FIU students and alumni, and high school.
Since I used to prepare business plans, I was eager to learn how they have evolved since 2005. Quite a bit as it turns out. The Challenge requires a 2-page narrative submission plus one page of graphics outlining financials. The plans I wrote were at least 15 pages with some as long as 30.
At the Boot Camp the five experts who would judge the Business Plan Challenge discussed what makes the best entry. All are entrepreneurs – one is a billionaire – experienced in creating, growing, and selling companies. They agreed that no one is willing to read a long business plan. It has to capture interest in the first five minutes.
The key parts of a good business plan are the Executive Summary, the Investor Deck, and the Revenue Projection. Investor Deck – a term I hadn’t heard earlier – includes concept, market, competition, required capital, and valuation. It used to take at least 10-15 pages to cover this ground.
A bad business plan is unclear – “full of unnecessary words” – and doesn’t contain “a story I can understand.” The writer claims the concept is unique – “very few concepts are,” said one panelist. It contains confidential information about other companies that shouldn’t have been shared. A bad business plan isn’t realistic in accounting for how much money is needed to start and run for two years. Beyond two years projections “won’t be right because situations change.”
The panelists emphasized that the plan has to express the entrepreneur’s personality. If he/she failed with a previous startup, that information should be included because investors consider failure a positive experience. If entrepreneurs are business beginners, they need experts as advisors to their company.
Most of the audience seemed eager to go ahead with the Challenge and submit their plan by the April 5 deadline. Judges select the top three in each category; they are then asked to prepare a 90-second presentation for videotaping. The videos will be shown on the Miami Herald’s website, and readers will vote for the winners.
Winning doesn’t bring prize money, but the publicity is worth it. Winners will be featured in Miami Herald’s special issue on May 19 and recognized at an awards luncheon two days later; FIU will host them at a reception in the fall. Amid the celebrations, winners will be hoping angel investors are paying attention.
By Alma Kadragic
