May 2008 – Page 7 – Getentrepreneurial.com: Resources for Small Business Entrepreneurs in 2024

The Closet Entrepreneur: You can use any word-processor to create your business plan, yet the urban sprawl of text that results after your second or third page is enough to render the plan useless. Your business plan is supposed to be a tool that effortlessly tracks the tasks and details of your business, yet word-processors create page after page of static text which makes accessing, organizing, and updating the different sections of your business plan slow and cumbersome. Of course you could always add bookmarks, hyperlinks, and a table of contents to access the sections, yet even these items require extra work.
Finding A Better Solution
The first thing that can make your business plan more useful is separating the various sections by tabs. For example, you can create a separate tab for your vision, branding, to-dos, advertising, financials, et cetera. This way, instead of digging through several pages to find the section you’re looking for, you simply click that section’s tab.
The second thing that can make your plan more useful is the ability to prioritize specific items and reorganize sections on a page – in essence, the ability to create your own to-do and task lists.
Last but not least, being able to collaborate with business partners is a bonus as well as being able to send a Word or PDF version to a VC, Angel Investor, or Bank.
By the way, fans of GTD are probably already using something that does all these things so please feel free to share any recommended apps in the comments!
Five Applications That Will Make Your Business Plan More Useful
Taking the aforementioned wish list into account, here’s a list of readily available applications that make your business plan more useful.
1) Microsoft OneNote
2) Microsoft Word for Mac
3) 37signals’ Backpack
4) Google Notebook
5) PlanHQ
5 Apps That Make Your Business Plan More Useful [The Closet Entrepreneur]

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If you had a person, let us say Jeff, who places a very high valueon freedom and fun, and you compared him with someone else, called Sam who places a very high value on security and comfort. Wouldthey behave very differently and make very different decisions? Of course they would. Will they go on the same kind of vacation? I do not think so.

You know, Jeff who values freedom and fun might go mountain climbing ,sky diving, while Sam who values comfort and security may go on acultural museum visit for example. They will buy very different cars, marry very different kind of women and probably be in very different jobs.

When I wanted to find out what drove the top insurance agents in Singapore, I interviewed the top three and asked them, “What gave them the energy and the passion that made them different from all their colleagues?” The first lady I interviewed remarked that she was really driven every single day by her family. The way she wakes up at 6 a.m.every morning, she plans her day, makes the calls and followsthrough, she thinks about her family and how she is going to give them what she never had before. See, her value of family was totally in line with her goals ofbeing successful in her career.

But when I asked the second insurance agent who was equally successful, what drove him? He said it was not family at all. What drove him was the sense of achievement, of beating the competitionand always being ranked number one. This other person was just as successful again but what really drove him was a difference sense of value.

The third agent, who was equally as successful, was totally different. She said that every time she sold an insurance policy she felt so wonderful inside, knowing she had made a difference to the security of the family she was serving. And this inspired her to go on and on in spite of all the hard work and rejection. Again, her value of contribution and making a difference was totally in line with her goals.

These are all different values that drive all these people. But then when I worked with agents who were below average, those who were struggling to get by, I found out it was because either theywere not clear on their values or that their values were totally misaligned with their goals sabotaging their goals in the process.

It is very important for you to know what your towards values are. What are the significant emotions do you move towards on a daily basis?

What are the values do you move away from? Knowing and clarifying these values will allow you to make better decisions and take the required actions that are in line with yourvalues thus allowing you to accomplish your goals naturally.