What do you think?
Rate this book
The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan
The principal author of Business Plan Pro, the country’s bestselling business plan software, simplifies the business planning process and reveals how to create business plans that grow with the business. Providing adequate guidance for every situation and every stage of business, readers are trained to ignore the traditional, formal cookie-cutter plans that other business planning resources offer and to focus on tailoring a plan to their company; allowing them to literally plan as they go and to, ultimately, steer their business ahead while saving time. Clear-cut instructions help business owners quickly build the type of plan that works for them; one that helps them take total control of their business, improve profits, raise capital, operate a profitable enterprise, and stay ahead of the competition. Very comprehensive, yet easy-to-understand, this business tool offers more than just the nuts and bolts of writing a business plan; the author also provides invaluable insight through real-life examples illustrating key points and avoidable mistakes as well as cutting-edge information for the 21st century entrepreneur. This guide is designed to be a reliable tool for those entering into the world of starting and owning their own business.
270 pages, Paperback
First published July 2, 2008
25 people are currently reading
167 people want to read
About the author
Guy Kawasaki
97 books2,651 followersI was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1954. My family lived in a tough part of Honolulu called Kalihi Valley. We weren’t rich, but I never felt poor-because my mother and father made many sacrifices for my sister and me. My mother was a housewife, and my father was a fireman, real estate broker, state senator, and government official during his long, distinguished career.
I attended Iolani School where I graduated in 1972. Iolani is not as well known as its rival, Punahou because no presidents of the U. S. went there, but I got a fantastic and formative education there. (Punahou is “USC,” and Iolani is “Stanford”—but I digress.) I pay special tribute to Harold Keables, my AP English teacher.He taught me that the key to writing is editing. No one in the universe would be more shocked that I have written ten books (or one book ten times) than Harold Keables.
After Iolani, I matriculated to Stanford; I graduated in 1976 with a major in psychology—which was the easiest major I could find. I loved Stanford. I sometimes wish I could go back in time to my undergraduate days “on the farm.”
After Stanford, I attended the law school at U.C. Davis because, like all Asian-American parents, my folks wanted me to be a “doctor, lawyer, or dentist.” I only lasted one week because I couldn’t deal with the law school teachers telling me that I was crap and that they were going to remake me.
The following year I entered the MBA program at UCLA. I liked this curriculum much better. While there, I worked for a fine-jewelry manufacturer called Nova Stylings; hence, my first real job was literally counting diamonds. From Nova, its CEO Marty Gruber, and my Jewish colleagues in the jewelry business, I learned how to sell, and this skill was vital to my entire career.
I remained at Nova for a few years until the the Apple II removed the scales from my eyes. Then I went to work for an educational software company called EduWare Services. However, Peachtree Software acquired the company and wanted me to move to Atlanta. “I don’t think so.” I can’t live in a city where people call sushi “bait.”
Luckily, my Stanford roommate, Mike Boich, got me a job at Apple; for giving me my chance at Apple, I owe Mike a great debt. When I saw what a Macintosh could do, the clouds parted and the angels started singing. For four years I evangelized Macintosh to software and hardware developers and led the charge against world-wide domination by IBM. I also met my wife Beth at Apple during this timeframe—Apple has been very good to me.
Around 1987, my job at Apple was done. Macintosh had plenty of software by then, so I left to start a Macintosh database company called ACIUS. It published a product called 4th Dimension. To this day, 4th Dimension remains a great database.
I ran ACIUS for two years and then left to pursue my bliss of writing, speaking, and consulting. I’ve written for Macuser, Macworld, and Forbes. I call these the “Wonder Years” as in “I wonder how I came to deserve such a good life.”
In 1989, I started another software company called Fog City Software with three of the best co-founders in the world: Will Mayall, Kathryn Henkens, and Jud Spencer. We created an email product called Emailer which we sold to Claris and then a list server product called LetterRip.
In 1995 I returned to Apple as an Apple fellow. At the time, according to the pundits, Apple was supposed to die. (Apple should have died about ten times in the past twenty years according to the pundits.) My job on this tour of duty was to maintain and rejuvenate the Macintosh cult.
A couple years later, I left Apple to start an angel investor matchmaking service called Garage.com with Craig Johnson of Venture Law Group and Rich Karlgaard of Forbes. Version 2.0 of Garage.com was an investment bank for helping entrepreneurs raise money from venture capitalists. Today, version 3.0 of Garage.com is called Garage Technology Ven
I attended Iolani School where I graduated in 1972. Iolani is not as well known as its rival, Punahou because no presidents of the U. S. went there, but I got a fantastic and formative education there. (Punahou is “USC,” and Iolani is “Stanford”—but I digress.) I pay special tribute to Harold Keables, my AP English teacher.He taught me that the key to writing is editing. No one in the universe would be more shocked that I have written ten books (or one book ten times) than Harold Keables.
After Iolani, I matriculated to Stanford; I graduated in 1976 with a major in psychology—which was the easiest major I could find. I loved Stanford. I sometimes wish I could go back in time to my undergraduate days “on the farm.”
After Stanford, I attended the law school at U.C. Davis because, like all Asian-American parents, my folks wanted me to be a “doctor, lawyer, or dentist.” I only lasted one week because I couldn’t deal with the law school teachers telling me that I was crap and that they were going to remake me.
The following year I entered the MBA program at UCLA. I liked this curriculum much better. While there, I worked for a fine-jewelry manufacturer called Nova Stylings; hence, my first real job was literally counting diamonds. From Nova, its CEO Marty Gruber, and my Jewish colleagues in the jewelry business, I learned how to sell, and this skill was vital to my entire career.
I remained at Nova for a few years until the the Apple II removed the scales from my eyes. Then I went to work for an educational software company called EduWare Services. However, Peachtree Software acquired the company and wanted me to move to Atlanta. “I don’t think so.” I can’t live in a city where people call sushi “bait.”
Luckily, my Stanford roommate, Mike Boich, got me a job at Apple; for giving me my chance at Apple, I owe Mike a great debt. When I saw what a Macintosh could do, the clouds parted and the angels started singing. For four years I evangelized Macintosh to software and hardware developers and led the charge against world-wide domination by IBM. I also met my wife Beth at Apple during this timeframe—Apple has been very good to me.
Around 1987, my job at Apple was done. Macintosh had plenty of software by then, so I left to start a Macintosh database company called ACIUS. It published a product called 4th Dimension. To this day, 4th Dimension remains a great database.
I ran ACIUS for two years and then left to pursue my bliss of writing, speaking, and consulting. I’ve written for Macuser, Macworld, and Forbes. I call these the “Wonder Years” as in “I wonder how I came to deserve such a good life.”
In 1989, I started another software company called Fog City Software with three of the best co-founders in the world: Will Mayall, Kathryn Henkens, and Jud Spencer. We created an email product called Emailer which we sold to Claris and then a list server product called LetterRip.
In 1995 I returned to Apple as an Apple fellow. At the time, according to the pundits, Apple was supposed to die. (Apple should have died about ten times in the past twenty years according to the pundits.) My job on this tour of duty was to maintain and rejuvenate the Macintosh cult.
A couple years later, I left Apple to start an angel investor matchmaking service called Garage.com with Craig Johnson of Venture Law Group and Rich Karlgaard of Forbes. Version 2.0 of Garage.com was an investment bank for helping entrepreneurs raise money from venture capitalists. Today, version 3.0 of Garage.com is called Garage Technology Ven
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 15, 2011
This book was worth a look for any business pro or upcoming entrepreneur.
Tim Berry makes a distinction between planning versus a plan. Planning is a vital activity that helps create expectation and purpose for the organization and steers it toward a successful horizon. A plan though in and of itself is always wrong since we are all human and we can't possibly account for every variable that will influence our future. But nonetheless plans are vital. That's the hard to swallow part of the book - plans are always wrong but vital. The metaphor that Berry uses regularly to explain this contradiction is that of dribbling a basketball. A basketball player is constantly dribbling a basketball who has to constantly consider the terrain and his defenders and his teammates are doing so that the team can score. I prefer the metaphor of driving a car in which the user constantly makes adjustments (moving the steering wheel) to keep the car on the road and moving toward a goal (the intended destination).
My favorite concept that is promulgated by Tim Berry is conveyed in the title. Your plan should only be what you need it to be. Start planning with where ever you are in the process of business development. As your business idea/project grows, then grow your plan accordingly to account for that growth. Start with marketing, sales, or product development, and as the business grows account for those other areas of your business in your plan.
Tim Berry's book also has a great introduction to basic business accounting and principles. For someone, like myself who doesn't have a background in this area it was worth going through. This book can easily be used as reference potential. A few tabs on the right pages and I'll be able to easily identify the needed information and jargon for running a business.
On a personal note, I've never been much of a planner. In my past, I've always tried to "wing it" doing my best but never taking the time to chart out a course for how things will flow or what will be achieved by this date. I've since changed this view and I am an advocate for appropriate planning, so this book resonated with me.
I'll definitely try implementing most of Tim Berry's principles regarding planning. I recommend this book to anyone who is potentially looking to start a business as well as folks already running a business themselves to consider more frequent planning sessions/events in their business.
Tim Berry makes a distinction between planning versus a plan. Planning is a vital activity that helps create expectation and purpose for the organization and steers it toward a successful horizon. A plan though in and of itself is always wrong since we are all human and we can't possibly account for every variable that will influence our future. But nonetheless plans are vital. That's the hard to swallow part of the book - plans are always wrong but vital. The metaphor that Berry uses regularly to explain this contradiction is that of dribbling a basketball. A basketball player is constantly dribbling a basketball who has to constantly consider the terrain and his defenders and his teammates are doing so that the team can score. I prefer the metaphor of driving a car in which the user constantly makes adjustments (moving the steering wheel) to keep the car on the road and moving toward a goal (the intended destination).
My favorite concept that is promulgated by Tim Berry is conveyed in the title. Your plan should only be what you need it to be. Start planning with where ever you are in the process of business development. As your business idea/project grows, then grow your plan accordingly to account for that growth. Start with marketing, sales, or product development, and as the business grows account for those other areas of your business in your plan.
Tim Berry's book also has a great introduction to basic business accounting and principles. For someone, like myself who doesn't have a background in this area it was worth going through. This book can easily be used as reference potential. A few tabs on the right pages and I'll be able to easily identify the needed information and jargon for running a business.
On a personal note, I've never been much of a planner. In my past, I've always tried to "wing it" doing my best but never taking the time to chart out a course for how things will flow or what will be achieved by this date. I've since changed this view and I am an advocate for appropriate planning, so this book resonated with me.
I'll definitely try implementing most of Tim Berry's principles regarding planning. I recommend this book to anyone who is potentially looking to start a business as well as folks already running a business themselves to consider more frequent planning sessions/events in their business.
June 4, 2018
It's an OK book based on Berry's blog posts, but it's not in depth at all. Most of what was discussed felt quite elementary, I didn't feel like I've learned anything.
July 7, 2018
Invaluable information! I have calendared my review meetings monthly. What a difference reflection makes 😊
November 21, 2010
Good not great. A collection of well written and insightful blog posts. I guess it would be inspiring for someone who is stuck at starting a business plan, but I would like a little more direction. His main point is that the key issue with business plans is the business PLANNING. And to do planning correctly it needs to be regularly reviewed and adjusted. Its a keeper, but will definitely need to be supplemented with some other books.
July 14, 2009
great and down to earth business advice for those addicted to planning (like myself)
October 28, 2014
Helpful for a newbie.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews