Alpha Teach Yourself Business Plans in 24 Hours by Michael Miller

Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #851123 in Books
Published on: 2001-08-01
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
416 pages
Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover
Alpha Teach Yourself Business Plans in 24 Hours is a step-by-step guide for writing a business plan that any entrepreneur can provide to bankers, venture capital firms, and other potential investors. The author explains what investors look for in a business plan and shows how to create a plan that will result in funding and support.

About the Author

Michael Miller is a successful and prolific author and consultant with a reputation for practical advice, technical accuracy, and an unerring empathy for the needs of his readers and clients.

Mr. Miller has written more than three dozen nonfiction titles since 1989. His books include The Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Search Secrets, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Home Theater Systems, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Drums. He is known for his casual, easy-to-read writing style and his practical, real-world advice¿as well as his ability to explain a wide variety of complex topics to an everyday audience.

Mr. Miller is also president of The Molehill Group, a strategic consulting and authoring firm based in Carmel, Indiana. As a consultant, he specializes in providing strategic advice to and writing business plans for Internet- and technology-based businesses.
Customer Reviews

An essential book
Michael Miller's Business Plans is one of the best books I've ever read. Period.

I'm an MBA student and this is the first book I highly recommend to anyone interested in any kind of business.

It's wonderfully written. Very practical examples and perfectly designed.

Buy a copy now, there is no other option of this quality.

Not my favorite book on business plans, but definitely a good read and worth your time to read
This book is well-organized and very informative. It is written for the small business owner who has not written a business plan previously and who needs one to apply for a small business loan or to be able to approach an angel investor or venture capital firm.

My favorite part of the book was Chapter 24 where the author discusses Private Placement Memorandum (PPMs). He tells us how to put one such document together after you have prepared your basic business plan. PPMs are what you need to produce if you are going to offer stock in your company to investors who are other than your family and friends.

Appendix A was great. It gives a 20-minute summary recap of the book. I recommend you read the appendix before tackling the book.

The other chapters I enjoyed reading a lot were:

Chapter 11 - Vision and Mission
Chapter 12 - Opportunity
Chapter 13 - Market Strategy
Chapter 14 - Business Strategy
Chapter 15 - Organization and Operations
Chapter 18 - Financials

Chapter 23 entitled "Use Your Business Plan" was less than I expected. In reality, a good business plan is a benchmark and roadmap for a business owner/manager to use to move the business forward. It's not simply a document to look at once in a while or to distribute to employees to motivate them as the author suggests. A business plan is a strategic plan with regards to making money. The author could have done a better job explaining this.

My overall feeling about the book when I finished it was that it dealt too much on writing in general and not enough on specifically writing a business plan. In a way, I felt as though the author was an expert on how to write research papers and in writing this book he simply re-wrote a "how-to write a research paper" book and targeted it for readers who want to prepare a business plan.

I found it odd that the author decided to explain a plan's Executive Summary (ES) when he did. An ES is the introduction to a business plan, and any knowledgeable writer knows one writes their introduction and conclusions after the main body of the document has been written. I kind of expected the author to cover the sections of the business plan in the order in which they are created, not the order in which they are presented in the plan. But that's just me. All in all, seriously consider giving this book a read if you are interested in writing a business plan for your business or startup.