An article marketing plan (e.g. Microsoft Word/Excel template) will help increase your traffic as it gives you a framework for writing your blog posts and scheduling your posts in advance. If you plan to blog for a living or want to earn money blogging part-time, then you need to spend some time creating super low-tech workflow that lets you write as efficiently as possible. That makes sense, right?

Why use an Article Marketing Schedule?

For example, if you run five different blogs, you will need system to keep on top of your writing and ensure that your blogs are updated on time. Otherwise, you may find that you work on one blog, then stop. Work on the next blog, and then stop to work on the next… This stop/start approach will undermine your efforts and remove all the good work you’ve put in.

Download your Article Marketing Schedule Template here.

How to Organize your Blog Writing Schedule

The simplest way to do this is use a simple Microsoft Word or Excel template. Then create columns for the

• Article Title – enter the working title for your article. This may change as you revise the blog post.
• Blog address – enter the address where you will post the article. This gives you a clearer picture of where you need to focus and the sites that need most attention.
• Keywords – enter three to five keywords that you want to use in the Title, Meta tags and in the URL. One tip is to use variations of keywords rather than repeating the same word all the time.
• Start Date – enter the date when you need to start writing the first draft.
• End Date – enter the date when you complete the post and get it online. The more you use an Editorial Calendar for your blog, the more accurate you will be in estimating how long it takes to write multiple articles.
• Status – enter Draft, Revise or Final depending on the status of the article. This is a nice way to see where you are with your overall blogging activities. It also gives you a snapshot of where there are gaps in your writing and the blogs that need more attention.

Download Article Marketing Schedule

To get you started, I’ve created this Article Marketing Schedule in Microsoft Word.

Download your Article Marketing Schedule Template here.

This template is Creative Commons and can be shared with your colleagues and fellow bloggers. There is no email required to download this file!

Takeaway: Create a Writing Workflow

The critical point is to develop a system that lets you focus more on writing and spend less time on other non-writing tasks. Creating a simple set of Microsoft Word/Excel files that simplify your workflow will make a huge difference in the long run.

My suggestion is to use this as a starting point for your blog writing and modify it where you need.

What do you think?

PS – if you want the Microsoft Excel version, drop me a line.

One myth about writing Business Plans is that they’re hard. Not true. They’re very hard to do right. But before you hit the Back button, here is one way you can get it written it, with a lot less pain than you’d expect.

photo credit: Namibnat

Chip Heath: Shrink the Change

In Switch, Chip and Dan Heath outline a framework that helps you  tackle large monster size goals and break them into bite size chunks that are easier to manage.

It’s like the parable of eating the elephant.

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

Examples of Shrinking the Change

Let’s say you want to learn Spanish. You buy a Spanish study guide, start at Chapter 1 and begin to plough through.

If you’re like me, I guess you’ll get to Chapter 3 or maybe 4… and then lose steam.

Later you’ll kick-start the project again, get to Chapter 5 and then slide.

Somewhere along the way, you’ll decide that a) it was too hard or b) you didn’t to learn it after all or c) more important things came up.

Why is this?

It’s to do with how we approach large tasks. We see (way off in the distance) the finishing post and then charge towards it. But distractions arise and we get deviated. Once we fall off, it’s hard to get re-started with the same level of enthusiasm.

Switch to a More Effective Approach

Instead, we need to shrink (reduce) the change into management chunks.

So, you want to learn Spanish? This might work better instead:

• Get Visual – Buy Flash Cards that you can carry with you everywhere. You can use these in the car, metro, kitchen, even in the toilet. Aim to learn 5, not 10, a day. Visual aids are designed to learn/digest  information through different parts of the brain than those involved with words.
• Change the Order – Read the Spanish book you got in any order you want. Dip in where you want and read a few pages. You don’t have to go from 1-100. Read what interests you first.
• Use Your Ears – Bookmark some Spanish websites and listen to these online.
• Ears and Eyes - Watch some Spanish movies and become familiar with speech patterns and the rhythmns of the language. Things you wouldn’t glean from reading a grammar study guide.
• Travel – Visit Spain, Mexico or South America. This can be a gift to yourself. Make a deal that once you’ve learned 500 words, you’ll visit Barcelona and walk along Las Ramblas.

This multi-faceted approach will help you learn the language from different angles. Instead of relying on books, a rather dry medium, you can give yourself more opportunities by learning words and phrases from different angles.

This ‘slow but steady’ also works as it rewards you emotionally, not just intellectually.

And this is where most folks fall down.

To achieve larger goals, it’s not enough to be rational and logical about the process.

You must tap into your reservoir of deep emotions and use these to energize your projects. We all know how easy something is once we feel charged up… and how painful even the simplest task is if we’re not in the mood.

So, how does this apply with business plans?

How to Write a Business Plan Without The Pain

Let’s take a similar approach to your Business Plan. You don’t have to start at the Executive Summary.

• Do the Pen Portraits first if you want.
• Or get the endorsements.
• Work on the images, prototypes, and other design elements.
• Find a nice template that makes it easy to write it.
• Download some examples of other Business Plans and print out what you like.
• Fill in the key sections here and there.
• Take breaks from the document. Leave it aside for a few days and then come back to it.
• Meet others who’ve also written Business Plan, say at the Chamber of Commerce meetings, and ask them for advice.
• Head over to LinkedIn and join groups that discuss Startups. Ask questions and feed the responses back into your plan.

3 Business Plan Mistakes to Avoid

Most startups I work with lose track with their Business Plan for three reasons:

1. Vanity – They believe that they can sell the concept to investors by making a good pitch. And they can, to an extent. But, when it comes to funding, most investors want a breakdown of the numbers, projections, forecasts, and details of the key personnel involved. They want it in writing.
2. Laziness – They’d prefer to work on the product development, as that’s what they love, rather than type up the plan. At some point, they have to start. Putting it off won’t help. The sooner you start, the sooner, it’s over.
3. Fear – Others justify not writing a Business Plan as they’ve read of some amazing startup who had no Business Plan. I’m sure this has happened but most investors are cautious types and don’t part with their money easily. In reality there is a fear that if they start on the Business Plan, what they ‘feel’ is a great product, may not stack up.

Remember, your Business Plan is the DNA of your business. I suggest to those starting out to see this, not as a duty you have to perform to investors, but flip it around.

See the Business Plan as the Bible of how your company will be run.

Rather than writing it once and filing it away, see it as something that grows and evolves as you do. When you see it in these terms, it no longer becomes a chore to be delayed, rather an opportunity to nail down exactly what you stand for.

See the difference?

Ever watch the Apprentice? I enjoy waiting for Trump to pull the trigger and give it to them. ‘You’re fired!’ It’s nice to watch this from the safety of our sofas. We’re involved but also separate from it. And we can switch off.

In the real world, it’s not so cosy. Sometimes you’re the one that has to give the bad news, sometimes you’re the one that has to give negative appraisals. Sometimes you’re the one that has to fire people. In many respects, this may fall under the umbrella of your Communications Plan strategy.

‘All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me – consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected.’ Donald Trump

Negative v Positive Business Writing

This week we look at how to write negative messages. Not nasty messages, emails and such but material with a negative edge.

For example?

In some ‘negative messages’, you may have to address faults or issues with a team member. When writing these emails, reports or messages such, keep a professional tone, avoid attacking your colleague – but make your position on the issue clear.

Don’t fudge it. That creates other problems.

‘Do you mind if I sit back a little? Because your breath is very bad.’ Donald Trump

One school of writing encourages us to ‘express bad news in a positive angle’.

To do this, avoid such words as:

• Cannot
• Deny
• Fail
• Forbid
• Impossible
• Prohibit
• Refuse
• Restrict

Look at these examples. The first draft is phrased in cold and negative terms; the second is positive, cordial and generous:

Negative writing:

The incredible amount of information you requested in your report is too much ad means that I cannot help you without disrupting our work schedule. Revision: I see in your letter that you require specific project information, which I will help you locate. However, due to our work load, I can answer only a few of the questions right now….

Negative writing:

If you do not complete and return this contract by Jan 1, 2011, you will not receive your apartment. If we have not heard from you by this deadline, we will sell the apartment to another person.

Positive writing:

Please complete the enclosed contract and return it to us by Jan 1, 2011. After this date, we will have to put the apartment back on the website. I hope we hear from you before then.

Negative writing:

While I am willing to discuss changes in the Functional Requirements, I am not prepared to change the project deadlines.

Positive writing:

I am open to suggestions and comments about specific Functional Requirements, or your thoughts on additional areas that you think we should examine. However, I want to ensure that this does not impact the project deadline as you can understand.

‘If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.’ Clint Eastwood

How to re-position negative communications?

Focus on the other persons:

• Needs
• Interests
• Purposes

If you must talk about yourself (or role) in a business letter, make sure it relates to your concerns for the other person (and their role).

Develop a You First Attitude

This recipient-oriented ‘you-attitude’ writing style means the recipient is the focus of the letter, not you.

Negative writing:

We have changed our pricing policy to save our company time and money. In an operation like ours, it costs us a great amount of labor time to clean our equipment…

Positive writing:

We will update our pricing policy effective December 15^th, 2015. This will enable us to serve your needs more often and without delay…

Like Donald Trump you will have to deliver bad news on occasion. The approach you use, and how you structure your arguments, will influence the outcome. Instead of creating conflict, you can help the Project Manager or Proposal Team Lead to see your side and try to accommodate your needs.

The trick is to acknowledge their needs first and then outline where you stand in relation to these. Don’t bulldoze them into submission. You may win the first battle, but you’ll lose the war.

What’s the worse piece of news you have to give someone in the office?

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides Business Tips for Smart People on Klariti.com. His also runs the popular Business Planning Blog at http://www.ivanwalsh.com

PS – The Communication Plan Template is here

One of the hardest things about running your own business, especially if you’re trying to get it off the ground, is dealing with the constant flow of criticisms, negativity, and sniping. Part of this goes with the territory. When you try to start something, others will try to pull you back. That’s how they validate themselves. And that’s fine until their criticism begins to undermine your credibility and/or the quality of your products. One way to do this is to develop a communications plan so that all outbound messages express the same values. Another is to learn how to deal with critics in business meetings, workshops, and other public places.

How to Anticipate and Deflect Criticism

For example. The project has fallen behind schedule. It is way over-budget, morale has collapsed, and your leadership is being questioned. It’s got real nasty. It’s your fault. They’re pointing the finger at you. What should you do?

If the criticism is from outside the organization, then define the ground rules for your Communications Plan. Identify who is responsible for what type of communication, how it will be delivered and what messages you want to convey. The benefit of a cohesive Communications Plan is the message coming from all staff will be consistent and ensure that your core values are communicated effectively.

8 Ways to Deal with Critics inside and outside an Organization

Recognize that the criticism leveled against you is a problem that must be resolved. You can’t wish it away regardless of how unfair it may seem. But, where do you start? Here’s an idea. Scan through the newspaper and see how Obama, Hilary Clinton and other prominent politicians handle their critics.

Why?

• They’ve been trained to handle criticism.
• They’ve spent thousands of hours learning how to argue their points, assert their opinion and
• They know (if they’re good) how to press people’s buttons and win over their harshest critics.

Maybe you don’t care for Clinton. It doesn’t matter. Put your feeling aside for ten minutes. Look at this as an experiment; observe as much as you can.

Obama ran into rocky waters recently with his healthcare reforms. The honeymoon period is well over; the knives were out. Let’s look at how he dealt with his critics. He had three options: send out a PR handler to deal with the press, arrange a state visit abroad, or face it head on. Guess which one he chose?

• Turn Up – Stand your ground. Turning up shows your opponents that you’re ready to take them on. Your first task is to get the situation under control. Be pro-active. Arrange a meeting. Set the time, place and agenda.
• Be Open – Circulate an agenda and emphasize that ANY questions can be asked. Remember, they’re going to do this anyway but you can preempt this by stressing your openness and commitment to dialogue. Obama invited the press to video tape his meetings. This forced his opponents to behave cordially on camera and to choose their words more carefully.
• Stay Calm – When they try to rile you, as they will, rise about it. Breathe deeply. The louder they shout, the quieter you respond. Practice ‘arguing’ with trusted friends, if possible. See it as a ‘performance’.
• Admit Your Imperfections – A small joke at your own expense is a great way to deflect criticism. No one is perfect. Remind them of past successes (in a casual, modest way) and how you (and your team) has worked to address the critical issues. Scan your notes occasionally; try to avoid reading your copy line by line.
• Don’t Get Defensive – This is where most people get caught. Wily operators know how to put others on the back foot, for example, by quoting something out of context and then asking for ‘clarification’. Proceed with caution, folks. Avoid defending your decisions; it makes you sound guilty.
• Criticize Your Opponents – Your opponents are not perfect, either. Find ways to highlight their short-comings but don’t get personal or sound petty. Be firm. Speak with confidence, don’t stammer or read from your notes. Look directly at your detractors and demand that they respond to your questions. This takes the heat off you, at least for a while.
• Remember to Smile – Don’t fidget with your clothes, pull at your sleeves, or chew on your pen. Breathe slowly. Smile occasionally but don’t smirk. It looks juvenile. Also, don’t clench your hands. Tension makes you sweat, which is never a good sign. Remind yourself: this will be over in less than an hour. Stay calm, smile, and relax.
• Engage – Asking for questions is another way to deflect negative attention. You can ‘up the ante’ by asking specific people if they have questions, especially if you think they are behind the back-biting. Stay calm. Listen very carefully. Then respond as politely as possibly.

…and, of course, thank them for asking.

Send Positive Messages To Your Team

Showing your face ensures you get your side of the story across. Putting your best foot forward sends out a positive message to your family, staff, and supporters, all of whom look to you for direction. And, by standing up to your opponents, you demonstrate that you have what it takes to lead.

What are your thoughts?

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides Business Tips for Smart People on Klariti.com. His also runs the popular Business Planning Blog at http://www.ivanwalsh.com

PS: The Communication Plan Template is here.

Let’s say you’re about to write your first Business Plan. Or maybe write another one for a new business. Or maybe re-write a Business Plan that didn’t work in the past. And you have a choice… You can trawl the web and download some free Business Plan or get out the credit card and buy one. Tricky, isn’t it? There is so much out there, it’s hard to resist. Ok, why am I rambling on about this?

What Google Thinks of Business Plans

A quick search on Google shows us that the business community has some strong opinions on the value of business plans. Some deride them as antiquated whereas others see them as the foundation stone for a business growth. Who’s right? Well, it would be nice if someone did some research on the value of business plans. Actually, they have and Tim Berry presented the findings.

can Business Plan Software really Help your Business?

Here is a quote from a paper presented to the University of Oregon Department of Economics by Eason Ding and Tim Hursey:

Results suggest that planning with software is highly correlated with subsequent successes for a variety of firms.’

Business Plan Software, a closer look

Tim Berry is the founder of the well-respected Palo Alto Software (Business Plan Pro software firm) and, in fairness, flags this upfront.

He explains, “Palo Alto Software asked thousands of Business Plan Pro users a couple of dozen questions about their businesses, goals, type of business, years in existence, and business planning. Almost 3,000 people responded.”

The research findings suggests that those who finished their business plans were about twice as likely to:

1. Successfully grow their business,
2. Get investment, or
3. Land a loan than those who didn’t.

You can see the numbers on the chart above

What’s the real reason Business Plan Software Makes A Difference.

The researchers used the completion of a business plan as the explanatory variable, the success of the business plan as the dependent variable, and a number of related results – original intent of the plan, type of company, stage of company growth, and so on – as controlling variables.

Tim’s interoperation, which I largely agree with, is that ‘

completing a business plan correlated with increased success in every one of the business objectives that came up in the study (which were: getting a loan, making a major purchase, getting investment, recruiting a new team member, thinking more strategically, and growing the company). In every one of these cases, well beyond the threshold of statistical validity, completing a business plan improved the proportion of respondents who achieved the goal.

The authors of the study said:

The analysis indicates that completion of a business plan is positively correlated with every success variable indicated, even when controlling for intent of using the business plan.

And here’s their conclusion:

Except in a small number of cases, business planning appeared to be positively correlated with business success as measured by our variables. While our analysis cannot say that completing a business plan will lead to success, it does indicate that the type of entrepreneur who completes a business plan is also more likely to run a successful business.

the problem with free

I’m not sure it’s to do with the software or the templates….

Why?

I feel that when you make an investment in something, for example, buying business planning software or templates out of your back pocket, then you’re more likely to follow through. It’s not guaranteed but no-one likes to buy something and then let it sit there on your hard drive doing nothing.

For example, the investments I make in my career, business and people ensure that I am more likely to follow through and less likely to take them for granted. I’ve invested in them financially or emotionally and dont want to see the investment wasted.

In a society where ‘Freemium’ is seen as a new business model, we may need to consider the true returns we get from paying for things.

If you get it for free, do you really value it? Does paying for something mean you value it more?

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides Business Tips for Smart People on Klariti.com. His also runs the popular Business Plan Blog at http://www.ivanwalsh.com

PS: The Business Plan Template is here.Discloser: I work as a consultant for Klariti Ltd just so you know and all. I still think this template pack is the best ten bucks you’ll spend this week

Warren Buffet’s Annual Reports were the first annual reports I ever read. To this day, I go back and re-read them to remind myself what business writing is really about – making a connection with words. That’s it. The more you can connect, the more people will read you. They may not agree with you – more on that later – but they will read what you have to say.

‘Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.’ Warren Buffett

Warren Buffet is from Omaha. Not sophisticated LA or cosmopolitan New York. Saying their simple folk is a bit patronizing. Rather they saw things as they see them. His Annual Reports are a joy to read. Most mainstream annual reports are like sedatives. You read a page or two and then the zzzzs.

Warren Buffet’s Nine Steps To Effective Business English

What’s this got to do with business writing? Well, if customers don’t understand what you’re selling, they won’t buy. If employees don’t understand your principles, they won’t follow. If you don’t understand your own vision, you can’t lead.

Writing is a process of clarification. We edit to make things clearer. Let’s start at the top.

1. Customer Focus – it sounds obvious but… write the letter so that it addresses ‘their’ needs, not yours. It’s easy to get caught up when under pressure to sell or promote your ideas but, step back, and look at this letter from the customer’s perspective. Put yourself in their shoes. What’s their impression of your letter?
2. Facts – likewise, stick to what you know. Don’t make up facts, figures, amounts, dates or other numbers to impress the reader. You’ll look very foolish when these are seen as ‘mis-informaton’. We all know what that word really means? Avoid saying, “I feel that”. Rather use “I believe that” or “I think that” and then explain why you believe this to be true.
3. Include Technical and Legal Document As Attachments – if you need to refer to technical documentation or other such material, don’t insert it in the document, rather cross-reference in the Appendix. For printed material, print out the material and include it in a binder. This also applies to sales collateral, such as case studies and white papers.
4. Jargon – write in a professional tone, avoiding slang, jargon and acronyms. Few things annoy me more than unexplained acronyms appearing in the middle of a case study. Am I supposed to know what this means? If I don’t, I feel a bit stupid. Is that what the writer meant?
5. One Page Max – train yourself to keep business communication under one page. You can do this by compressing the main points together and using lists to break out the key points. If the document needs to be more than a page, then consider calling the person or arranging a meeting. Also, if it’s more than a page, it’s unlikely that the customer, employee, or colleague will respond to all the points.
6. Proof the letter – for business critical information pay special attention to the financial data. You can be forgiven for the occasional grammar or spelling mistake, but you won’t be forgiven if the numbers are wrong. Check these more than once. Where possible, get a colleague to check them also.
7. See The Big Picture – have the overview in mind before you start. Don’t start writing your next business plan when it’s still half cooked in your brain. Think it through first and then start writing.
8. Short Words – don’t write ‘utilize’ when ‘use’ will do. Don’t procure meat products when you mean get a sandwich. Use simple everyday words. There are no Nobel prizes for emails. Use direct, immediate language that describes the main topic. If you go over a page, the reader may leave it to later… and never get to read it. So, if shorter letters have a better chance of getting read, then use this approach.
9. Structure Your Letter – Before writing your business letter, make a list of the key points you need to cover. Prioritize them. For example, as prospective clients are more likely to read the first two or three bullet points, highlight these to convey their importance. Then work through the other points.

Conclusion

What I’ve learned from Buffet is that annual reports, proposals and other business documents can be written is a simple, easy-to-read format. They don’t have (and shouldn’t) intimidate the reader. Or bore them.

The next time your boss says the Annual Report needs to be more ‘serious’ and more professional, hand them a copy of Buffet’s letter and see what they think.

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides Business Tips for Smart People on Klariti.com. His also runs the Business Plan Consultant Blog at http://www.ivanwalsh.com

PS: The Business Plan Template is here

PPS: Another great read from Buffet is this Plain English Guide He wrote the Foreword for the SEC.

This article is about writing headlines, summaries and abstracts. Before we start, what is an Abstract?

Philip Koopman, at Carnegie Mellon University, reminds us that, “Writing an efficient abstract is hard work, but will repay you with increased impact on the world by enticing people to read your publications. Make sure that all the components of a good abstract are included in the next one you write.”

Photo Credit Pjern

Why We read Abstracts and Summaries?

When you open your inbox every Monday morning and see a stream of emails crying for attention. Which do you choose? I’d guess it’s the ones with the snappiest headlines, like these:

• Zen and the Art of Remarkable Blogging
• A Simple Four-Step Strategy for Developing Content That Connects
• The Benjamin Franklin Guide to Marketing Your Business Online
• Five Common Headline Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
• Become a Master of Metaphor and Multiply Your Blogging Effectiveness
• Metaphor, Simile and Analogy: What’s the Difference?

These are from CopyBlogger .com and show how smart headlines can tickle your fancy. So, when you read, ‘Are You Leaving Your Readers Out of the Conversation?’ you can’t help but start to answer the question in your mind. And when you do that, you open the article and start to read.

So, good headlines act like hooks bringing you into the story.

Abstracts are also important. We have an ever-increasing need for quick access to information we rely on abstracts and summaries to provide a snapshot of what’s in the article.

If you visualize it as a pyramid, on the top is headlines, then summaries, and then the body of the article. You can see how one leads to the other.

How To Write An Abstract

You have two options. Write it before you start on the main document or after you’ve finished writing, take a break and explore:

• What is the main subject in this article?
• What conclusion has the writer made?
• What message does the writer want to convey?
• What do you want the reader to do after reading the document?

Analyze this and define it in one sentence – this is your ‘topic’ sentence.

Write one topic sentence that covers the entire document, regardless of whether the document is a five page letter or a hundred page annual report.

1. Getting Ideas

Then, look at the recommendations, conclusions, summaries, and results in the final document. When abstracting a technical manual, look at the tutorials and see if these help form the topic sentence.

2. Don’t Use the Document’s Title

Avoid using the formal name of the document as this can be misleading and may not help you write the topic sentence. Chances are the ‘working title’ will be too vague. Parts of the title might serve as modifiers in your topic sentence, but you’ll probably need to go beyond the title.

3. Be Specific

Make the topic sentence as specific as possible.

Avoid writing

“This report describes [document title].”

Instead, write something like

“The results of this [subject] study show that [result].”

4. Use Supporting Sentences

After you identify your topic sentence, write supporting sentences. Make each of these supply specific details about the ideas in the topic sentence. Think of what supports the topic sentence.

• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• How? and
• How much?

Give statistics, results, conclusions, or recommendations that back up the topic sentence. Only use two or three major supporting ideas. Include the less important evidence as subordinate clauses and modifiers.

5. Use Transitions

Arrange the supporting sentences in a logical sequence after the topic sentence. Add whatever transition is needed to connect the supporting sentences to the topic sentence and to connect ideas within the sentences to each other.

Re-write the sentences to improve the connections.

10 Other Ways to Write a Better Abstract

1. Write the abstract only when the document is finished. Abstracts written before then are just previews.
2. If you are forced to write an abstract before the document is completed, think about its purpose and write a topic sentence. Keep in mind that you’ll need to rewrite the abstract when the document is finished because it will no longer accurately reflect the contents of the document.
3. Before starting the abstract, list your thoughts on the document. Group related items together.
4. Prioritize the list and put the most important group first. The first few groups form the core of the topic sentence. The rest lead to supporting sentences.
5. If you can’t create a topic sentence, write the supporting sentences first. The topic sentence may then become obvious.
6. Write for an audience not necessarily up to speed in your subject area. This is important because you never know who will read your abstract.
7. Choose acronyms, abbreviations, and technical terms carefully as they may confuse many readers.
8. Define the scope of the project in the abstract.
9. Re-read your abstract after several days have passed and remove superfluous information and padding.

This technique works for documents of any length from a couple of pages to multi-volumes.

Using Keywords in Abstracts

I’ve added this in as many business documents are published directly to the web. This tip applies to writing abstracts, headlines and summaries.

Use keywords in your Titles, Abstracts, Headlines are documents are file electronically. As users search for documents by keywords, write the documents headings with these keywords in mind.

Likewise, your abstract must contain keywords that about the article, proposal, or report so readers can retrieve it quickly.

What other ways can we improve our business documents?

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides Business Tips for Smart People on Klariti.com. His also runs the popular Business Planning Blog at http://www.ivanwalsh.com

Over the past few weeks we’ve looked at how to write business proposals (and business plans) to generate new business opportunities. One way to succeed in this area is to understand how the ‘Business Case’ is generated within an organization (as this is often written before the actual RFP is sent out) and the type of concerns the business analysts have when writing Business Cases.

The second point to consider it that if your relationship with the client is sound, you can help them address the salient points in the business case, for example, if they approach you with a ‘rough idea’ of what they want. Business Cases can be seen as ways to ‘test the water’ from a financial perspective and see if the core concept is worth investing in.

Business Case Template

What is a Business Case?

The Business Case outlines the benefits, competitive edge, and other gains the company stands to make if it invests in this project. For certain projects, the Business Case is a fore-runner for a Request For Proposal (aka Invitation To Tender) where business proposals are accepted from external firms.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll look at how to write, review and assess business proposals. For now, let’s focus developing the Business Case.

I’ve put together this Business Case checklist which covers most all areas related to the project/service you are exploring. This checklist should help you address areas such as Achievability, Benefits, Costs, Critical success factors, Resources, Risks, Scope, Strategic fit, and Value For Money.

Business Case Checklist

To ensure that your business case is complete, examine the following points:

1. Achievability — this ensures that you (and other parties) have the experience, expertise, and resources to manage the project. Examine different approaches that can overcome any potential obstacles, e.g. additional resources, timelines, or budgets.
2. Assumptions — speak to all stakeholders and gather their main assumptions, e.g. in the case of outsourcing IT development, that the Intellectual Property Rights will be owned by your organization. Examine whether these assumptions are valid or not.
3. Benefits — outline the benefits, and opportunities, that each option provides. Identify the high-level benefits that align with your company’s main business objectives, and explore how these benefits can be measured
4. Costs — obtain indicative figures for the cost of the project over its entire lifecycle, not only the implementation costs. You may want to factor in 15-20% for scope creep, if appropriate. Also, determine who will pay for the project, if they have agreed to do this, and the payment method. Examine how to get an acceptable balance of cost, benefit, and risk.
5. Critical success factors — seek consensus with the other stakeholders on what constitutes success. If you do not take this step, stakeholder will have different expectations of the final deliverable. Define success factors that are specific, measurable, and achievable; identify any other factors that could affect success, such as the delivery of other parallel projects.
6. Dependencies — outline the internal (e.g. staff availability) and external dependencies (changes in the marketplace, new government legislation).
7. Options – gather details on all available options that could meet the business needs. Consider the trade-offs associated with each option, and the degree to which each option meets the project’s needs. Make sure that you have included the overall supply chain’s needs, i.e. the organization, partners, suppliers, staff and customers.
8. Procurement — send an Invitation to Tender (ITT) to prospective contractors. Evaluate their bids. Hold presentations with the most impressive bids.
9. Project Group — identify those (individuals, units, and departments) who are involved and/or affected by the project. Determine their interests and endeavor to resolve any potential conflicts.
10. Resources — scope the anticipated resource and capabilities requirements that you will need, such as staff, IT, workspace, equipment, and funding.
11. Risks – Capture all anticipated risks – plan contingences. Prepare a high-level estimate of the costs for each risk.
12. Scope – define what is in/out of scope with the existing budget; scope what can be delivered with a reduced budget, with indicative delivery dates; ensure that there are no conflicts with other on-going projects. Look at the impact that delaying the project or under-delivering could have.
13. Stakeholders — identify their role, responsibility, availability, and contingencies if they become incapacitated/released from the project.
14. Strategic fit – confirm that the project is still required and that its objectives are in line with the company’s business goals.
15. Value For Money — examine how to get Value For Money from the contractors, contractors and other third parties. Agree what constitutes VFM with the project stakeholders.

Once you have checked off these points, your business case should be ready to send to the project stakeholders.

What are your thoughts? What have I missed?

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides Business Tips for Smart People on Klariti.com. His also runs the popular Business Planning Blog at http://www.ivanwalsh.com. Follow him on Twitter @ivanwalsh

PS: The Business Case Template is here.

Last week I showed you how to use Microsoft Visio to create business process maps, use case diagrams, flowcharts. org charts, and other type of documents. This week, we’ll look at text. How to add, change, flip and control the text in your diagrams. For example, if you have a lot of shapes in the same flowchart – and need to add text instructions – it can be hard for the reader to see the text clearly. This makes your diagram looks crowded and hard for business analysts to understand the process flow or use case.

How To Control the Position of Text On Lines

Here is one way to control how text is positioned in your Visio diagrams.

1. Double-click on the text.
   
2. Use the slider to move the text along the line.
   
3. Click the yellow arrow to move the entire block of text along the line.
   
4. This lets you nudge the text closer to endpoints and to squeeze in more text, especially in tight diagrams where there is not much space.

How To Rotate & Flip Text

Another trick is to flip the text.

1. Select the blue curved line and do copy/paste.
   
2. Right-click on the copy and then do Shape, Flip Vertical.
   
3. This flips copy upside down. Select the line and nudge it until it snaps to the shapes.
   

Remember to use the Format, Line option to control the visual appearance of your diagrams. A few minutes can make all the difference between a boring black and white diagram and a really stunning presentation.

What tips do you have to make Visio diagrams more professional looking?

‘Simple and to the point is always the best way to get your point across.’ Guy Kawasaki

Does this sound familiar? You’ve started a business, built products, made some sales, and started to scale. But your cashflow has ground to a halt! You need funds to drive the business forward and also ensure it doesn’t slide backwards. Investment is the answer, right?

Why no-one wants to write a Business Plan?

Here’s the part no-one wants to hear.

It takes effort.

You didn’t get a degree in college by accident. You have to put in the hours, get the credits, and make the effort. We all understand this. Effort equals reward. And it’s the same if you want to get your business to graduate. It takes time, effort, and a little dedication.

So, to grow the business you need to develop a Business Plan to get the (significant) funding you need and also to clarify to yourself what direction the business should be heading in. I hear what you’re thinking. I know you can find articles that tell tall tales about companies setting up with no business plan and ‘following their passion’. And it’s true, some companies grow by the seat of their pants. But the exception doesn’t prove the rule.

Still not convinced you need a Business Plan?

Tim Berry shares this research findings which show that, ‘those who finished their Business Plans were about twice as likely to successfully grow their business, get investment, or land a loan than those who didn’t. You can see the numbers on the chart.

But, you’re not sure how to write a Business Plan. Anyway, many investors laugh at the idea of writing Business Plans. Seems a little dated, right?

What investors say on their twitter-feeds to look cool and what they do in the office are not always the same. They want to know who you are, what you’re selling, and what the profit margin is.

Where To Get Funding?

You can get funding in different ways, though.

You can get it from yourself (mortgage your house), your family (Dad, we don’t talk enough, I have this idea, maybe you’d be interested …), friends (look, you trust me, right? Well, I have this amazing idea, let me explain. maybe you’d be interested.)

Each of these has its own merit and somewhere on the web is a case study of a guy who built an million dollar company in his garage. Remember, the exception proves the rule!

Taking Investment From Friends?

One warning about taking investment from friends. If you lose the money, you may lose the friendship. I’d advise you to keep business and friends apart. If you need money, go to the Chamber of Commerce, Venture Capitalists, or explore other investment options, such as SBA or bank loans.

What Goes Into A Business Plan?

One school of thought is to develop a 1 Minute Investor Pitch also called an Elevator Pitch. For example, if you met Warren Buffet—and had just one minute—how would you pitch your idea?

I don’t know if this works in the real world. Somehow, I doubt if Warren Buffet or Guy Kawasaki invest in firms on the basis of an Elevator Pitch. They want detail. One way to get those details is to develop a Business Plan.

How To Develop A Business Plan

Guy Kawasaki says that it’s the people involved in the business that interest him first.

• Will they drive this business forward?
• Can he trust these them with his investment money?
• Will they stick with it through the difficult periods?
• What’s their track record?
• Have they don’t this before?
• What’s their biggest weakness?
• Do they know their own biggest weakness?
• If not, how will this impact the business?
• Investors invest in people.

Ok, what does this mean for your Business Plan?

The Biggest Mistake In Business Planning

Remember when I said that people invest in people. The number one mistake to avoid in Business Plans is not talking about your people. Or to put it another way, not weaving their story into your business plan.

• Talk about your team,
• What drives them?
• Why did they build this product?
• Why did they leave their former employer to create this product?
• Where did they come from? Both socially,
• How they got there? Discuss their qualifications and how they will drive the project onwards.
• What are their ambitions? Why do they believe in this project over a comfortable 9-5 job?
• Why do I need to do this?

Even if your business model is excellent, if the people involved are ‘perceived’ to be raw/weak/inexperienced, the project will most not get the funding it requires.

So, your story needs to be very compelling.

Most startups fail, not because of the product, but because those involved didn’t have the long-term commitment to the project.

So, when writing your Business Plan, develop each section to highlight how your team (and why it has to be your team!) will be the ones to make this happen. Why they will be the ones to ‘carry the can’ when things get rough.

How To Write A Business Plan?

Break it into eight sections.

1 – Business Concept

• Define your product or service – outline what you’re offering in its simplest terms.
• What problem does it address – describe the single most important problem is solves.
• This tells the reader what you’re offering and what problem you’re solving.

2 – Target Market & Potential Customers

Break out the target market and the number of customers you hope to attract.

• Who are your target customers?
• What is the market size?
• How large will this market be in the next 2,5,10 years?
• How do you plan to attract customers?
• What is your sales strategy?
• What is your marketing plan to promote your company?

All of this is speculation. You don’t know how many customers will actually buy. Maybe none! But, you have to future plan so you can attract the investment you need.

3 – Competitive Advantage

In this section of your Business Plan, describe what gives you a Competitive Advantage.

• What makes your business unique?
• What patent do you have (or will develop) that will generate royalties?
• What makes your product than others in ways you can quantify? For example, you can provide credit cards to teenagers. Most companies are not authorized to give credit cards to teenager. You can! That’s your competitive advantage.
• Identify the greatest obstacles to the success of your company and not just competitors. Maybe it’s legislation, drug trials, testing, compliance, IT platforms, or other issues such as lack of experience.

4 – Competitor Analysis

Next, counter-balance the claims made in your Competitive Advantage and identify the three ways your competitors may undermine your business. If you don’t know your competitors, you have looked hard enough!

• Who are your three main competitors?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses?
• Could you partner with them?

5 – Legal & Managerial Issues

In the next part of the Business Plan, look at the nitty-gritty of setting up a business from a legal perspective. While this may seem boring at first, hire the right lawyer and accountant to setup your company.

For example, setting up as a Limited company (LLC, LTD) gave me tax breaks that I didn’t have as a sole trader, single businessperson or partner. You can also set as a charity or religious organization and avail of tax breaks that way.

• How will you setup the company? Most likely as a limited company but you may also consider making it a partnership, corporation, or other business type.
• What other legal considerations need to be organized, for example, patent protection, and copyright?
• Identify the organizations, companies, groups you plan to build relationships with? For example, Chambers of Commerce, international trade organization, peer groups, industry bodies.

6 – Finances

Financials are the heart of the Business Plan. It’s where the investors will examine the numbers, run business model calculations, and see what profit margins can be made.

See this Cost Benefit Analysis Template for more details.

• Using tables or matrices may help present the financial data, especially for projections.
• How much will it cost to make your product?
• How much will it cost for recruitment?
• How much will it cost for marketing?
• How much will it cost for equipment, software, hardware etc?
• How much will it cost for operations, office, infrastructure etc?
• How much will it cost for salaries?
• How much total up-front investment is needed?
• How will your company generate revenue?
• When will your company break even?
• How will you use the profits you generate?

7 – Management Team

If the investors get past the Financials, they’ll want to see who’s involved.

• Describe each team member’s background.
• Describe the unique skills they bring to the project.
• Explain why this is a winning team? Why the investors should believe in the team.
• What other people/skills do you need to find?
• Add resumes to the appendix.

8 – Appendices

Include any supplementary information (graphs, charts, statistics, research etc) that would help you put your idea in context.

Conclusion

Provide the answers to the questions that the investors will most likely have. Let me put that in better English.

Write the Business Plan from the perspective of the investor. No investor wants to invest in a project unless it passes all the tests. From an investment perspective, put yourself in their shoes. What fears are they most likely to have? Then address these fears. What concerns will they have about your team? Describe the unique attributes that make your team special. Where will the profits come from? What contingencies do you have in place?

It’s classic FUD. Address their Fears, examine where they have Uncertainly, and why they might Doubt you. Then respond to each of these point by point.

Business Plan Excel Templates

Over to you.

If I were to help you write your next Business Plan, what would be the one area you’d want to do first. Let me know and we’ll discuss it here next week?

Please share your thoughts below.

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides Business Tips for Smart People on Klariti.com. His also runs the Business Plan Blog at http://www.ivanwalsh.com. Follow him at http://twitter.com/ivanwalsh

PS – you can download the Business Plan Template here

Developing a Capacity Plan is vital if you want to understand how much capacity will be required to support your IT systems and, by extension, the infrastructure that supports it.

Think about it.

If you plan to install a new large-scale solution, for example, IBM WebSphere or SAP, you also need to consider the impact these will have on your existing systems.

1. Capacity Planning & Outsourcing

Another area where Capacity Plan is vital is outsourcing. Say you plan to outsource your Help Desk to a third party firm.

Well, for them to support the system technically (not from a business perspective) they need to prepare a Capacity Plan that details the technical requirements to support this solution.

2. Developing a Capacity Plan strategy

• Assess the current solution and component performance
• Identify constraints that may be imposed on the system
• Use this information to develop the Capacity Plan for component acquisition, configuration, and upgrade.
• Make recommendations on how the Capacity Plan should be maintained, monitored and updated as necessary.

3. Benefits of a Capacity Plan

Developing a Capacity Plan ensures that business and technical requirements can be supported by the infrastructure and application elements of the new solution. In this case, the Help Desk or the IBM back office solution.

4. Management Guidance

The Capacity Plan provides management with:

• Breakdown of the resource capabilities required to operate the solution
• Assessment of current capacities
• Estimates on the resources and services to be upgraded and acquired
• Projection of resource and services capacities that may be required by the solution
• Capacity Planning ensures that there is sufficient processing capacity to run these new applications and for some predetermined time into the future as your business expands.

A well-defined Capacity Plan takes into consideration the likelihood that your business will grow and provides the appropriate estimates so you can develop the systems in line with these projection and also budget accordingly.

5. Capacity Plan Risks

If your company runs out of system processing capacity at some point (for example, due to increased user numbers, higher business volumes), the system’s performance will begin to suffer and you may be faced to upgrade the system (and associated applications) or move to a different more powerful system/server to process these applications.

To ensure that these applications can process the application load at cutover, and for some period of time following this, develop and check your capacity plan.

Capacity Plan Template

The method and results of this study should then be captured in the Capacity Plan document.

What’s the fastest way to take a screenshot of a website, turn it into a thumbnail, and get it on your blog? How about if you could automate this?

Most of us hit print screen, take it into Snagit or PhotoShop, play with the size until it’s right and then save. Well, here’s a faster way.

Andy Wibbels was looking for API-based services that create thumbnails. He found PageGlimpse.

Instant Site Thumbnails for Your Blog with PageGlimpse

Here’s how to do it.

1. Get a PageGlimpse Developer Key.

2. Go to http://www.pageglimpse.com/signup and sign-up.

Once you activate your account you’ll get a developer key, i.e. random collection of letters and numbers.

3. Drag-and-drop the Create Thumbnail link to your Links toolbar in your browser.

NOTE: Don’t click it. Click-and-hold-and-drag-and-drop.

4. There is a Create Thumbnail is in your Links toolbar. Add your Developer Key to it.

5. Right-click on the Create Thumbnail link in your Links toolbar and select Properties.

The script will look something like this:

avascript:void((function(){location.href=location.href.replace(/^http\:\/\/([^\/\@]+)/,”http://images.pageglimpse.com/v1/thumbnails?devkey=YOUR-DEVELOPER-KEY&size=medium&url=”+”$1″);})())

6. Replace DEVELOPER-KEY-GOES-HERE with your PageGlimpse developer key and save.

7. Go to whatever site you want e.g. http://andywibbels.com/

8 Click on Create Thumbnail.

9. PageGlimpse will create a screen capture.

10. Save the image or Add it to a post.

Note: you can replace the size variable to small, medium or large.

This means that every time you take a screenshot with this tool, all the thumbnails will be the same size. No more time-wasting in Paint, Photoshop or whatever.

How it works behind the scenes

The PageGlimpse web service is a REST service, meaning that you can construct request URLs that will work in your code, in your browser or at the command line.

The REST access to the PageGlimpse service is simply an HTTP GET or POST request (RFC2616). The service parameters are passed as simple HTTP parameters.

All request URLs start with the host-name followed by the API version number and resemble the following code:

PageGlimpse http://images.pageglimpse.com/v1/

Andy Wilbbles: http://andywibbels.com/2009/07/instant-site-thumbnails-for-your-posts-using-pageglimpse/

If you know a better way to do this, please let me know. It takes about 5 min to get setup and then you’re flying. Let me know if you have any problems getting it working.

You can track DHL, UPS and other packages by tracking number from inside Bing.

For example, type DHL 123456789

Let me know if this works or not. I dont have any UPS packages to trace so am taking Microsoft at their word.

Has it worked for you?

Bing provides great general search results, relevance, a big index and speed — all of the hallmarks of a good search engine.

However, because sorting through search results can often be time consuming, Bing organizes popular results in a different
way. 

It is designed to help you get the answers you’re looking for without having to guess the right way to phrase a search term.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12205

I had mixed success with this. Let me know what you think.

How to check the number of webpages indexed in Bing.com.Type site:yoursite.com  to see how many pages have been actually indexed in bing.com.

For example, site:ivanwalsh.com.

To verify that your website is in the index, type url:yoursite.com.

For example, url:ivanwalsh.com returns a single result.

Tip: Check that your robot.txt file allows Bing.com to index your website.

If you are outside the USA, you may not be getting all Bing’s features and only it’s localized version.

To view all the options in Bing, which may not be available in your region, visit http://www.bing.com/worldwide.aspx?FORM=WHSE and set English – US as your default region.

To add your site on Bing, click on http://www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx

This link will direct you to the submit URL page of Bing where you can provide the URL of your blog or website

Jakob Nielsen explains the different benefits that Short versus Long articles bring to your site, especially if you are running an online business. In his newsletter, he asks “should your website have concise or in-depth content?”

His conclusion is that:

a) If you want many readers, offer short content. This is ideal for advertising-driven sites or sites that sell impulse buys.

b) If your readers need a solution, offer comprehensive coverage. This is more suitable for solutions to complicated problems.

He recommends writing articles instead of blog postings as people who “really need something are the highest-value users because they’re more likely to turn into paying customers.”

Read more at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/content-strategy.html

Word 2007 is very different than Word 2003. One of the frustrations I have found is trying to find out how to do things in 2007 that I can do very quickly in 2003. Learning to customize the Quick Access toolbar is one way to make your life a little bit better!

The Quick Access toolbar puts frequently used commands at the top of the screen, so you can access them quickly. Makes sense!

The only problem is that when you start Word 2007, there are only three commands here: Save, Undo, and Redo.

You can add more commands to the Quick Access toolbar and customize it to suit your needs. Don’t add too many or it may impact the application’s performance.

To add a command to the Quick Access toolbar:

1. Click the downward-pointing arrow beside the toolbar.
2. Select from any of the commands that appear or click More Commands if you don’t see the one you would like to add.
3. Select a category from the box labeled “Choose commands from”. In the box below that, select a command. Click OK
4. The command you selected now appears on the Quick Access toolbar.

More tips at: www.wordtipsandtricks.com