Serious About Writing A Business Plan... Start A Business Plan Library

Tap these treasures of ideas. The best money you can spend
is money invested in your business plan education. Don't
shortchange yourself when it comes to investing in your
dream. Start gathering samples of business plans and collect
business plan books and get a business plan library started,
it can change your future. Here's what your library needs to
show: that you're a serious student of business strategy and
planning, finance and economics, selling, and writing.
Sample Business Plans
Start by gathering sample business plans. Look at the annual
reports and S-1s, S-4s, 10ks, or 10Qs filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of companies in
your industry. See how they present their case, explain
their business, and discuss their industry and competition.
What exactly are these forms and how do you get them? Good
question.
These are forms that public companies must file with the SEC
in order to register their securities or to maintain the registration
of previously registered securities with the SEC. You can find
these forms by going to http://www.sec.gov, clicking on the Edgar
database, and searching for a public company in your industry.
The key is to find the most helpful filings. These are the ones
labeled S-1, S-4, 10K, and 10Q. They usually contain
descriptions of the business, its products, industry, competitors
and strategies. Sections that should sound familiar to you if you
are planning to write a business plan.
Go to these sections and read how the company presents their
business and its products. Look at how they describe the industry
and their competitors. I encourage you to read as many filings in
your industry as possible. See what the "big guys" are saying, the
issues, challenges, and trends they see in the industry and how
they're attacking them.
Be careful though about mimicking what they write. Many of these
documents are written in legalese despite the SEC's protestations
and push for plain English. Just remember, you're doing this
exercise to see how other companies have built their case to
business investors.
Another approach is to gather and read professionally
written business plans of companies in your industry and use
them as guides to prepare your plan. Try to avoid generic
business plan templates. They're too general and often not
worth the investment. Either way. Start filling your
business plan library with business plans and registration
statements. Keep them close by and refer to them often as
you write your business plan.
Strategy
Now, here's a good book to start your business plan library
with. It's called: Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter.
In this landmark book, Competitive Strategy, Porter shows
you how to identify the forces that drive competition in
your industry. Learn what moves your competitors are likely
to make within it. Competitive Strategy provides a framework
for evaluating the competitive alternatives you must
consider and for thinking about how to change the rules of
the marketplace in your favor. Competitive Strategy is the
bible venture capitalist, investment bankers, and business
development executives use when analyzing an industry or
business venture. I use this book as the centerpiece of my
business plan library. So I'm just asking you to take a look
at Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter. If it suits you
fine, if it doesn't suit you, keep looking till you find
something that helps you understand strategy.
Opening your mind to strategic alternatives is a creative
process. You can never have too many books on strategy in
your business plan library. Read as much as you can to learn
why some companies can sell their products more cheaply than
others. Why others provide the best products...products that
are just far superior to their competition. And, why some
companies just always seem to provide unmatched service.
Fill your business plan library with business books that
inspire, challenge and answer these questions. Read. Read.
Read. And, study too. Find out how some companies are
reinventing competition in their markets and obtaining
funding while others are seemingly oblivious to the changing
world around them.
Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema set out to find answers to
these types of questions in their book The Discipline of
Market Leaders. Although the authors won't appreciate this
comment, I found the underlying fundamentals in The
Discipline of Market Leaders to closely parallel those laid
out by Porter in Competitive Strategy. Perhaps that's why I
like it so much. The difference, however, is that they
present their material in a less academic, more engaging
way. And, they provide excellent case studies that are sure
to generate many aha's! The Discipline of Market Leaders
will make you think about what it is your company or new
venture does better than anyone else; what unique value do
you provide to your customers? How will you continually
increase that value? If you can't easily answer these
questions about your business, The Discipline of Market
Leaders is required reading and a must for your business
plan library. The business owners and entrepreneurs that can
answer these questions are not only raising the value bar in
their industries, they're raising capital for their
businesses!
Finance and Economics
Be sure to keep your business plan library well balanced...
Let me give you a sense of that balance. First is finance
and economics. We all have got to have a sense of how to
make money...the universal laws of business success, no
matter whether you are selling fruit from a stand or running
a Fortune 500 company. Finance and economics are the basic
building blocks of business. Your business plan library
needs a few books on the numbers. When you understand the
basics of finance and economics its possible to bringing the
most complex business down to the fundamentals. You become
empowered to focus on the basics and make money from your
venture.
Here's a good book to help you in this area: What the CEO
Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. What the CEO Wants You to
Know captures the basics of finance and economics and
explains in clear, simple language how to do what great
business owners and entrepreneurs do instinctively and
persistently. Charan explains the basic building blocks of
business and how to use them to figure out how your company
can, does, or will make money and operate as a total
business. Learn how to use these building blocks to cut
through the clutter of day-to-day business and the
complexity of the real world. What the CEO Wants You to Know
by Ram Charan. This little book is only a 137 pages: but I'm
telling you, it's so well written you'll be as intrigued as
I was. What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. Get it
for your business plan library.
Writing
Next is writing. You have to be able to get your thoughts
down on paper. Businessese, academese, legalese - all appear
too often in business plans. Often preventing a
knowledgeable writer with good intensions to fail at getting
the message across to an intelligent, interested reader. For
some reason, when people write business plans they are
compelled to write "commence" and "prior to" instead of
"begin" and "before." If you want to write an effective
business plan, your business plan library must have books on
how to be an effective writer.
Start with Edward Baily; he wrote a surprisingly
straightforward book called The Plain English Approach to
Business Writing. This book, The Plain English Approach to
Business Writing, is about writing as you would talk, which
not only makes your writing easier to read, it's also makes
it easier to write. In a brief, entertaining 124 pages Baily
clearly lays out the dos and don'ts of plan English,
illustrating them with examples drawn from business
documents, technical manuals, trade publications, and the
works of writers like Russell Baker and John D. MacDonald.
The Plain English Approach to Business Writing offers
practical advice on clarity, precision, organization,
layout, and many other topics. Best of all, you can read it
an hour...and use it for the rest of your life.
But writing well is only a part of writing. A good business
plan must be persuasive. Listen carefully to what I just
said: persuasive. Not misleading or untruthful, but
persuasive.
Here's a book you need to look at Persuading on Paper. How's
that for a title? Persuading on Paper by Marcia Yudkin.
Yudkin is a writing consultant who coaches small-business
owners and professionals on improving their marketing
materials. In a witty and vivid style, Persuading on Paper
shows you how to use the written word to convert strangers
to prospects to paying customers (or in our case,
investors). What I like about this book is that Yudkin takes
you step-by-step through the process of creating marketing
materials that sell. Don't underestimate the power of
marketing copy in your business plan. You'll be surprised
how her methods and strategies can help create a more
powerful business plan. Persuading on Paper is a must-have
for anyone who wants to attract more clients, customers, or
investors.
Raising Capital
Next is an understanding of the process of obtaining
capital. No business plan library would be complete without
a book on the process of raising capital. Without capital
your venture is destined for failure. You need to learn how
to select the right venture capital firm, make
presentations, and negotiate your deal.
Try this book: The Venture Capital Handbook by David
Gladstone. As an executive officer at Allied Capital
Corporation, a large publicly-owned, venture capital firm in
the United States, David has reviewed many proposals for
venture capital financing. The Venture Capital Handbook
takes you through the entire process from presentation
through negotiations, commitment letters, legal closings,
due diligence, the exit by the venture capital company, to
when the entrepreneur is left to own it all. As a result,
The Venture Capital Handbook provides anyone who wants to
spend the time and money with an insight into what venture
capitalists really want. Prepare for the process of raising
venture capital with The Venture Capital Handbook.
Selling
Finally, study the art of selling. Like it or not, when you
are trying to start a business venture or raise money for
your business you have to sell investors on why they should
invest with you. It's like a rite of passage. But fast
talking salesmanship won't raise the money you need for your
business. You need an approach that respects the power of
the investor...one that builds a relationship with investors.
So, fill your business plan library with books on selling
and presenting.
Here's a book to try: Socratic Selling by Kevin Daley with
Emmett Wolfe. Socratic Selling as the title implies, uses
the Socratic Method: "A method of teaching or discussion, as
used by Socrates, in which one asks a series of easily
answered questions which inevitably lead the answerer to a
logical conclusion" (Webster's Unabridged). Dalely's
concise, easy-to-follow chapters explain how to open a sales
dialogue and go right to the heart of the matter. Socratic
Selling is a fun and informative 162 pages for those of us
who believe selling means talking with, not at, investors.
Study these techniques; they can make you more effective
with potential investors.
If you are serious about writing your business plan...show it.
Start a business plan library that shows you are a serious
student of business plans. Fill it with business plans,
public filings and annual reports of businesses in your
industry. Stay away from those generic business plan
templates. They are too general. And, Read, read, read and
study too about strategy, finance, economics, writing, selling,
and how to raise capital. Spend the money. Buy the books. The
reward can be great...a funded business plan.

Twelve Green Coffee Bean "Defects" That Will Damage Your Roast

Continuing with our Green Bean Series, this month we're going to take on defects in wet processed Arabica coffee beans; their cause, how to identify them and the effect they have on the roast.
Our "Roasters Tools - Green Bean Series" is a five part evaluation of how the characteristics of green coffee beans affect the outcome of the roast.
Roasters who consistently purchase strictly top grade premium coffees may have only rarely been confronted with defects, while the majority of roasters run across them much too often, even when presented with what is being sold as "Specialty" grade coffees.
The fact is, any one of these dozen defects will negatively affect the quality and alter the taste of the coffee you're producing. These defects are both identifiable and preventable.
The defects in this article are different than the "formation" defects we talked about in a previous article.
With that in mind, we aim to give you a very straightforward, to the point identification of what these defects look like, their causes, and how they can affect the profile of your roast.
The Twelve Key Defects To Look Out For:

1. Faded Beans
2. Amber Beans
3. Coated Beans
4. Green Water Damaged
5. Pulper Damaged
6. Insect Damaged
7. Immature Beans
8. Foxy Beans
9. Triple Center Cuts
10. Stinkers
11. Over-Fermented
12. Diseased

FADED BEANSFaded beans can be a result of either over drying or absorbing excessive moisture, depending on the environment. Either way, faded beans have a low resistance to environmental factors.
The effect on the roast is that they give a dull roast regardless of the roasting profile. The result is a soft bean with musty and woody flavors in the cup. And, the percentage moisture loss will be very high. The color of these beans is pale, whitish brown.
Normally, they result from beans that have a high moisture content (11% - 13%) and when stored in a warehouse, they'll tend to dry out. In the process of drying out, and because they are not in contact with direct sunshine, these beans tend to fade.
Instead of drying, these beans are actually rotting and developing molds inside. It's these molds that cause the beans to dry excessively, producing their pale to whitish brown color.
In addition, during the drying of wet or dry processed beans, the coffee can be negatively affected if not properly exposed to sunshine at the appropriate stage in the drying process.
Another cause is when coffee has been over-hulled using a hammer mill. In this case, the beans will come out with a dull color as a result of the outer cells being bruised and microscopic dust permeating the outer layer of the beans.
One final factor that can contribute to the fading of coffee is from older coffee that has been kept in a warehouse for two to three years or more, causing the beans to dry out, develop molds and other negative consequences.
AMBER BEANS
These beans have a bright shiny gold color. The cause is due to mineral deficiencies in the soil (including iron).
When you roast these beans, the cup will be lacking in acidity, with a flat harsh body and a bitter flavor. Also, the roast produced by these beans will be very dull in color.
COATED BEANS
These beans have a sticky silver skin caused by either overbearing or from being drought affected. The characteristics of these beans look whitish, rough and display microscopic lines from the silver skin.
In the process of roasting, you'll experience soft beans with excessive chaff. The roast can result in negative effects in the cup, including excessively high grassy, hay, earthy, woody, greenish and potato flavors.
GREEN WATER DAMAGED
These are fully processed beans that, when hulled, get in contact with water where a chemical reaction takes place, turning the beans a greenish color. This situation results in the beans becoming moldy and toxic.
PULPER DAMAGED
In the process of going through the pulping machine, coffee beans can get stuck, creating excessive pressure which causes the beans to become wounded.
These wounded beans will burst and then begin to slightly oxidize, become contaminated with water and over ferment, causing molds which result in earthy, leather and musty flavors.
In addition, the roasted beans will be uneven; some will be split, while others will appear round and mixed together with the solid beans.
INSECT DAMAGED
Berry moths inject the coffee cherry in the process of laying eggs, creating a black needle-like hole.
Antestia bugs damage beans causing them to bruise, which produces rough black to yellow-like colored spots.
Beans with these types of insect damage will give a soft roast and the beans will tend to shrink, creating dominant musty, alkaline and salty flavors.
IMMATURE BEANS
Picked under-ripe, often as a result of overbearing and drought affected conditions, the characteristics of immature beans include a rough surface and greenish color with a sticky silver skin and will usually have thin edges.
The roast will be very dull, with open center-cuts, soft beans and subsequently produce no acidity, heavy body, with greenish and grassy flavors.
These beans can also lead to Quakers in the roast; visible only after roasting by their pale appearance and flat peanut butter taste. Avoiding the purchase of immature beans is the best way to avoid contamination by these defective beans.
FOXY BEANS
As you might imagine, the name comes from the color of a red fox.
This rusty-red color is generally brought about by the beans being over-ripe. These beans tend to have a dead embryo and will give you fruity fermented and nutty flavors.
TRIPLE CENTER CUTS
These are deformed beans caused by malnourishment due to either drought affected conditions or lack of minerals, creating ragged beans with multiple center cuts.
During the roast, these beans can split open at their double or triple center cuts. They are fragile, soft and very permeable; which will over roast, creating a heavy body, a flat cup and a smoky, burnt taste.
STINKERS
Stinker beans can have a normal formation, but have a dead embryo and are yellow in color caused by over-fermentation and/or over-ripe. If crushed, broken or cut open when raw, they put off an order that's very unpleasant.
Even one or two stinkers in your roast can ruin the whole batch and give you a foul cup.
OVER-FERMENTED
These beans look soiled and have a tobacco color.
When roasted you'll get a pulpy, sour flavor and unclean, dirty cup; with a smell of rotting flesh or a cow shed aroma. If only slightly over-fermented, your roast may give sour and onion flavors.
DISEASED
These defects are brought about by the coffee being affected by various diseases like CBD (Coffee Berry Disease) and Leaf Rust.
When disease strikes a coffee farm, the mother plant will produce beans that are premature. This will affect the berry before it ripens, usually at the milk stage, and the beans will either not develop at all or only partially develop, with a very small berry or nonexistent berry inside the parchment within the cherry.
The deformed part of these beans looks somewhat brownish to very dark brown in color, often with deformities that resemble a chipped off piece where the bean is left with dark brown marks which go deep into the bean. The deformed part of these beans is generally flaky and ragged in formation.
These small diseased beans will be only partially developed, but can still be harvested and end up mixed with other beans of normal quality, then sold in the marketplace.

Startups To Watch - ContextMedia

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Shradha Agarwal and Rishi Shah were writing an article on out-of-home media for their university's business magazine in 2006 when it dawned on them: This would make a great business. TV screens had become de rigueur in taxicabs, shopping malls and high-rise elevators. But the Northwestern University undergrads saw an untapped opportunity to bring multimedia content to a more targeted audience: patients in waiting rooms.

"My grandmother passed away young from diabetes complications," Agarwal says. "Rishi's father is a diabetes specialist. We saw how small bits of information at the right time and place can make a huge impact."

Their idea was to sell doctors' offices prepackaged video segments containing tips on diet, exercise and other lifestyle tweaks patients could make to improve their health. A TV screen in the reception area would broadcast this programming, modeled after segments on shows such as Today, while patients waited for appointments.

To test the idea, Agarwal, Shah and classmate Derek Moeller bought TVs and DVD players, culled content from the internet and distributed the equipment and "shows" to 50 doctors in five states.

The feedback? "This is great. We love it. The information is so useful," Agarwal recalls doctors saying. Patients were sold, too. They appreciated the suggestions, and the videos were helping them ask their MDs better questions. There was only one hitch: Because insurance companies don't reimburse patient education, the physicians had no budget for the service. In other words, no sale.

After considering, then nixing, the nonprofit route, the 'treps decided to offer content free of charge to healthcare professionals and to sell advertisements that would air between segments. Shah and Moeller dropped out of college to launch ContextMedia in Chicago, with investment from family and friends. Agarwal joined her co-founders full-time in 2008 after graduating from Northwestern ahead of schedule. (Moeller left the company in 2009.)

Because it's what they knew best, they started with diabetes. To obtain quality one- to five-minute edutainment videos, they partnered with health-content creators such as the diabetes platform dLife. "Commercial breaks," which last 15 to 120 seconds, make up 25 percent of the content ContextMedia streams into waiting rooms. Among the company's advertisers: health-food companies, gyms, retailers, pharmaceutical companies and makers of medical devices.

ContextMedia became profitable its second year in business. Revenue has grown 100 percent year over year since 2010; the company is on track to clear $10 million in EBITDA this year. ContextMedia's videos reach 50 million U.S. patients a year and serve 4,000 hospitals, private practices and other medical waiting rooms, including those at Yale, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern and Harvard. The company employs 45 people, including five in its New York office, which opened in 2011.

Agarwal, now 28, is chief strategy officer. She credits ContextMedia's success with the variety and specificity of its library, which contains thousands of videos. The company has content for cardiology, rheumatology, neurology and urology patients and targets the videos streamed to each office based on patient income, ethnicity and medical literacy. "It's always relevant, and patients aren't watching the same thing over and over," she says.

But Agarwal and CEO Shah, 27, aren't satisfied just building a health-media empire. They want to help others succeed, too. Using their personal savings, they started angel investment fund JumpStart Ventures in November 2011. To date, JumpStart has invested more than $1 million in 19 startups working to solve U.S. health and education problems.

"Companies in healthcare and education really struggle to catch the attention of venture capitalists because they're not very sexy industries to be in," Agarwal says. "So we decided, where better to put our fund than to help other entrepreneurs build their businesses?"


[Via - Entrepreneur.Com]

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How the Moisture Content in Wet Processed Arabica Beans Affects the Flavor Profile of the Roast

This month we'd like to share with our friends and colleagues, why the ideal moisture content in green beans is so important to developing a roast that will deliver a high quality and flavorful cup.
First, a little background following the moisture content of the beans from the fresh picked cherry through to the bean's final processing.
WET PROCESSING
In wet processing, coffee beans are harvested from the farm by selectively picking the ripe red cherries. These beans go through several stages. The first major process occurs at the factory, where the beans are separated ripe from unripe, de-pulped to remove the outer cover, and soaked in a fermentation tank to remove the remaining mucilage. After an adequate period of time, the coffee is soaked and thoroughly washed to remove the covering sugars and prepare for drying. The wet beans are fully dried and taken to the hulling plant, where the parchment is removed. Next, the beans go through the polisher to remove the sticky silver skin. Next, the clean beans go through a process where they are graded by screen size. For improved quality, the graded coffee is often passed through a density separator to separate heavy beans from lights.
THE SIX STAGES OF DRYING
At the factory, after removing the outer covering (outer skin & mucilage/fruit) the parchment coffee beans will have a moisture content of 55%.
During the process of drying coffee, six stages are considered to be of prime importance:
1. Skin drying (outside moisture); moisture content of the bean goes from 55% to 45%.
2. White stage (of the bean inside the parchment); moisture content goes from 44% to 33%.
3. Soft black stage (bean is now very elastic); moisture content goes from 32% to 22%.
4. Medium black stage; moisture content goes from 21% to 16%.
5. Hard black stage (bean is very hard and goes from black to the natural color according to the quality of the bean); moisture content goes from 15% to 12%.
6. Fully dried parchment coffee before hulling; moisture content of the bean goes from 11% to 10%.
Throughout this process, the beans are in parchment form. However, after hulling when the parchment is removed, the green coffee beans should maintain the final moisture content as shown above.
At the Coffee Research Foundation in Africa, experiments were conducted to test the suitability of mechanical drying at each stage in the process. The results revealed that at stages 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6, mechanized drying had positive results, with no material affect on the quality. But, at stage 3, sun drying was found to be mandatory in order to maintain high quality beans.
WHY 9.5-10.5% MOISTURE CONTENT IS OPTIMAL
Because raw coffee beans are very susceptible to volatile environmental changes, it's been proven that a moisture content between 9.5% to 10.5% enables the beans to be resistant to negative conditions that can affect the quality (Ref: Coffee Research Institute).
During ocean transport, coffee with ideal moisture content will normally gain 1% and then go back to its original level, while still maintaining its quality and color. If the moisture content is too high, 11%+, the beans will gain 1.5+% causing the beans to become moldy, fade and lose color. As these fungal laden beans dry, they will retain the green water damage and mold-based toxins, resulting in musty and woody flavors in the roast.
An increase in moisture during transport or storage can cause the beans to become moldy, change color and become dark and mottled. When this occurs, a chemical reaction takes place resulting in the beans becoming toxic with Ochratoxin A. Often these molds are inside the beans and not readily visible to the naked eye.
Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin produced by fungi and occurs naturally in moldy raw coffee beans. It's been found to be highly toxic to the kidneys and potentially carcinogenic in humans, as well as having genotoxic properties.
In coffee, it can be found in raw coffee beans that have not been dried or stored properly. It can also be found in warehoused coffee that has been stored for long periods of time.
**More important to the coffee roaster is that Ochratoxin A can also be found in brewed coffee and isn't completely eliminated when the beans are roasted!**
IMPACT OF MOISTURE CONTENT ON THE ROAST
Roasting of coffee at the ideal moisture content (9.5% to 10.5%) will typically give a dark chocolate color at a medium roast, with a percentage weight loss between 8% and 12%. During the process of brewing, beans of this type will give you a proper extraction which will represent balanced acidity, body and flavor. Beans with a high moisture content (11+%), usually take longer to roast, but more important, the beans will first "bake" prior to roasting.
This baking process creates a light colored, soft bean, which forces over-roasting, giving a light acidity, full body and negative flavors in the cup. Beans that have been baked become soft and permeable. After grinding these beans will give an uneven grind that is highly solvent in water, creating dissolved impurities that build excessive high body in the cup. During this process, the beans will lose desirable acidity and natural flavors.
Brewed coffee from high quality beans with proper moisture content will be clearer to the eye, more like a thick honey color because of having fewer impurities. This type of coffee usually has a sweet balanced cup with good acidity, quality and taste.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
1. Always check the moisture content of the sample during cupping before you buy and look for coffees with target moisture content from 9.5% to 10.5% as a general guideline.
2. Keep an eye out for light colored and mottled colored beans, and internal molds containing Ochratoxin A, which result in soft beans that will first bake, leaving dissolved impurities in the cup.
3. Store green coffee in their original bags in a low moisture environment where there is air circulation. Quality green coffee at the ideal moisture content should stay relatively fresh for up to twelve months in their original bags.

This article is the third in a five-part series describing general guidelines on how to determine quality characteristics of green coffee beans before the cupping analysis.

Best Tips to Success in MLM or Network Marketing

MLM or Multi Level Marketing (Networking Marketing) or direct selling is a
popular business scheme of the world. This kind of business can be done part-time or
full-time.


Whether you’re young or old, a professional or still a
student, network marketing can be a lucrative business for you if done
the right way. If you want to achieve success in MLM or network
marketing.

The Following are

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