Evaluating Business Plans

As I approach the end of my degree program here at Full Sail University I’ve learned and am still learning how to develop my business plan.  Of course it has changed with every month I’ve had a chance to think about it, but now this is the real deal.  Things that stood out to me were the financial aspect of the plan.  It was very hard to imagine this part of my plan, so I will spend extra time focusing on getting it right.  Especially since money is not that easy to come by.

During my next two blogs I will be evaluating two experts on the ‘value of business plans’.  I will discuss the ideas of Kevin Gieger and Daymond John.  Kevin Gieger is film producer, computer animator and CG supervisor for Disney. He discusses that it’s important to have a unifying creative plan, it should be organized and this is what should be pitched to potential investors.  He also believes that its important to development your own company.  Concerning film, this could serve as a production for all the entities or an umbrella as a LLC (Limited Liability Company). He has a great video series on indie film business plans that goes through more detail.  This is very interesting and helpful.

Daymond John is the founder and creator of FUBU and one of the entrepreneurial gurus on the hit series Shark Tank. John talks about the mistakes he made in his early years of opening his company and says he wished he paid more attention to his financials.  He found himself buying expensive watches because someone told him “jewelry was an investment”, but realized how they depreciated over time.  I was excited to see that John’s Business plan essentials were very similar to ours that we’re learning this week. He just provided more detail in the financials like balance sheets, income and cash flow statements.  Although, we did have to add some financialsJ

Hopefully, you and I will learn a lot together from these experts.  Stay tuned.