Response to Melissa's Articles

Forbes:  I thought this article was very interesting. It discussed a lot of things that I never would have considered in relation to properly building a business plan. It made it very apparent from the beginning that this is definitely technical writing. You need to understand your audience and adapt whatever you generate to best appeal to them in the hopes of getting your business off the ground. The importance of discussing your competition was surprising as well, but in reality makes total sense. If you don't show that there is a market for whatever it is you want to do, why would someone give you money? Not answering every possible question and scenario makes total sense as well. It really seems like writing a business plan would require a lot of extra knowledge of business practices as well as similar businesses to the one which you want to start. I think the article did a good, quick and dirty job of presenting the most important steps in designing a plan.

Entrepreneur:  This was a much more intense article than the one from Forbes. Much of the same guidance and information was present here, but it was MUCH more fleshed out and detailed. I found a lot of great information here that I didn't see in Forbes. The importance of the legal writing dealing with the power structure of the business was interesting - I wouldn't have thought that you would need to address all of these issues which would be essential to whatever form the business eventually might take. There were also some math formulas to help the enterprising entrepreneur calculate things like employee numbers required and capital requirements. I think the article did a good job of breaking this down to a level that anyone could understand, or at least have a better chance of understanding. This was a bit overwhelming though, it threw tons and tons of information, all of which was presented as essential to the overall success of the plan. The one thing that I didn't really see in either article was guidance as far as writing style and what can be successful or not successful. Is it appropriate to be formal at all times? Can you be successful with a less formal approach? I imagine that this, like everything else, needs to be tailored to the business and the investor.