ISBN: 0-9633184-5-4
52 pages spiral bound
8-1/2" x 11”
$29.95
The Entrepreneur's Tool Kit
The Entrepreneur's Tool Kit (the "Tool Kit") is a guide for planning businesses, thinking through business strategies, and developing business plans.
The ToolKit contains three methods for developing and evaluating business plans:
- Question and Answer method that contains over 270 questions for guidance in developing and evaluating a business plan
- End Product Checklist method that lists over 100 milestones and end products in the business planning process
- Action Plan method that consists of a step-by-step action plan
If you are even thinking about writing or evaluating a business plan, then The Entrepreneur's ToolKit is a must for you.
See more information about the ToolKit below.
Buy The Entrepreneur's Tool KitSee below to order
The links on the right
are to
additional
content below.
The ToolKit - Links to More Below
Background
Tool Kit Highlights
3 Methods in the ToolKit
Publishing Information
About the Author, Jim Ball
Comments about the ToolKit from Jim Ball
This Tool Kit is a guide to help you think through your business so you can then write a business plan. The focus here is on the thinking and idea creation of what the business will be and how you will create it, not the writing.
Please note that while the information in this Tool Kit is organized similarly to the way you might organize and lay out a business plan, this Tool Kit is not intended to be a template with suggested language and section headings for the actual writing of a business plan that you can submit to others.
My view is that the hard part of writing a business plan is creating the business ideas and how you will implement them and the easy part is writing down what that plan is.
Once you know what you are going to do and how you are going to do it, it is not too hard to write that down. But what is harder, is figuring out what to do in the first place. And that is what I intended this ToolKit to do — help you figure out what your business will be and what you can do to create it.
Good luck!
Jim Ball
Background
Jim Ball developed the ToolKit when he was in the venture capital business to help entrepreneurs prepare their business plans. Jim taught the methods in the Tool Kit to the founders of the companies his venture capital firm was investing in. Many of these companies, like The Discovery Channel and Digene went on to become very large and very successful.
When Jim first conceived of the methods in the Tool Kit and began writing and talking about them, the owner and publisher of Venture magazine featured a summary of the questions Jim had developed in Venture magazine and used them in courses he taught at college.
Jim and others have used the Tool Kit as the course book for teaching business planning and entrepreneurship courses at colleges. Many venture capitalists and college professors have used the Tool Kit when conducting competitions for student developed business plans.
Jim also has used the Tool Kit to teach business planning for executives at many corporations. In addition, he has used the methods in the Tool Kit to prepare or help prepare over 50 business plans, many of which were funded and resulted in successful businesses.
Tool Kit Highlights
The Entrepreneur's Tool Kit is just that, it is a spiral binder that includes Three Tools that are Methods and an Overall Business Planning Chart.
You can use these tools to help you think think through what your business will be and then think through your plans and strategies for creating that business. These tools represents different methods you can use together any way you desire to stimulate thoughts and ideas for your business and your plans to build it.
The three methods in the Tool Kit are:
-
Method 1: The Q&A Method
-
Method 2: The End Product Checklist
-
Method 3: The Work Plan Approach
8 Core Components of a Business
Each section or method in the Tool Kit is organized to address 8 Core Business Components of a Business:
- Overall or General
- Customers and Customer Relationships
- Marketing
- Sales and Distribution
- Products and Services
- Manufacturing and Service Delivery
- Management and Personnel
- Finance
Q&A
The answer to most things in business can be found by first asking the right questions. This is powerful, particularly when you write down the answers to those questions. This crystallizes your thoughts and lets you see what you are thinking.
Businesses are complex. It is not easy to start a business and build it successfully if you do not know the obstacles you face and have strategies and plans for addressing them.
3 Methods in the Tool Kit
The Tool Kit presents three methods you can use for thinking through your business and developing your plans. These are described below.Method 1: The Question & Answer Method
This tool is comprised of 270 questions to consider and then ask and answer as an approach to brainstorming your business and your plans. Since some questions have several parts, there are actually over 300 questions here.
You should not try and do not have to ask and answer all 270 questions. When you are using the Tool Kit you would not necessarily answer all the questions; rather you would pick those that are the most relevant and important for your business and focus only on those questions.
To illustrate the types of questions listed in the Q&A approach, several questions are listed below for the Sales area of the business. This is just a partial listing of questions in the Sales area to provide a feel for the type of questions in the Tool Kit:
- Who specifically, will sell the company's products or services?
- Will third-party representatives of distributors be used? If so, why, and why do you believe they can do a better and more effective job than a direct sales force? If not, why not?
- How will prospective customer leads be generated (Internet, direct mail, telemarketing, seminars, referrals, advertising etc.)
- What constitutes a qualified lead?
- How will leads and customers be qualified?
- What sales aids will be used?
Method 2: The End Product Checklist
This tool is a listing of possible end products you can create during your business planning efforts. Each end product is a milestone you would complete for developing your business and related plans. You can think of the checklist as a blueprint for completing your plan.
The Checklist is laid out in 4 Phases -- these are the phases in the planning process:
- Pre-Planning and Conceptualization of your business
- Preliminary Design of your business
- Detailed Design and Specification of your business
- Modification, Finalization, and Implementation of your business
Here are a few examples of the "end products" listed in the checklist for the "Sales" component of the business for the Pre-Planning and Conceptualization Phase of the planning process:
- Preliminary summary of channels of sale and distribution
- Preliminary evaluation of the plusses and minuses in each channel
- Realistic assessment of the sales skills and selling aptitudes among existing team members
Method 3: The Work Plan Approach
This tool s a four-page summary of the action steps you can take to plan your business. These action steps represent a work plan you can use to guide your efforts. A couple of examples of the action steps in the plan for the sales area are below. Each action step begins with a command:
- Identify and evaluate the channels for the sale and distribution of the company's products or services
- Select the channels to be developed
- Identify and flowchart the selling process and selling cycle
Overall Business Planning Chart
This is a simple chart on one page that illustrates the Phases of a business planning effort and the 8 Core Components of a Business.
Publishing Information
- The Entrepreneur's Tool Kit
- ISBN: 0-9633184-5-4; 52 pages 8-1/2" by 11" spiral bound
- Written by James R. Ball, president of The Goals Institute
- Published by The Goals Institute
"The key to planning any business is thinking, yet many people start out without doing very much of this. The ToolKit will help you think better and plan better, so you get a better business."
— Jim Ball
About the Author
James R. Ball, Jim to everyone, is president and CEO of The Goals Institute. Jim co-founded The Goals Institute to help businesses and organizations achieve their potential through goal achievement.
Jim previously was co-founder and CEO of a venture capital firm and before that he was a Managing Partner at Arthur Andersen. Jim has been an adjunct faculty member at George Mason University and he has provided keynotes and executive seminars for hundreds of organizations.
The Goals Institute has many clients in many industries. See the About Us section of the web site of The Goals Institute for an illustrative listing of clients and for comments from clients on programs provided. Jim is the author or co-author of the books below. For more information on these books, please visit our Bookstore.
Books in the Keep It Simple for Success® series with Jennifer Kuchta:
- Professionalism Is for Everyone
- ABCs for Life
- It’s About TIME!
- The Anacondas in Life
- World-Class Customer Service.
Other books:
- GOALS: Wisdom, Insights, and Strategies
- Soar . . . If You Dare
- DNA Leadership through Goal-Driven Management
- The Entrepreneur’s Tool Kit
- 10 Best Tips for Closing the Sale
- 10 Best Tips for Getting a Job (scheduled for 2Q 2009)
Jim previously was co-founder and CEO of Venture America, a venture capital firm that helped launch and develop twenty companies, including The Discovery Channel.
Before that, he was a managing partner at Arthur Andersen in charge of an office that served rapid growth technology companies. Jim also was in charge of the training and professional development programs for Andersen's staff associates and managers in the Washington, DC area.
Jim has been an adjunct faculty member at George Mason University where he co-founded GMU’s Entrepreneurial Institute, Inc. Jim has a degree in accounting and is a member of many professional organizations.
Order online here.
The Entrepreneur's Tool Kit
To order the Tool Kit online, click 'buy button' below. To order by phone, call us at 703-264-2000.
Buy a ToolKit @ 29.95 each
Thank you for your business!
Just $3 for Shipping and Delivery: To simplify things, for shipments inside the Continental U.S. we charge a flat $3 shipping charge for each order to one location, no matter how many books you buy. If you are outside the Continental U.S. we will email you a quote for the shipping cost before we ship your order.
We ship orders by US Postal Service and FedEx Ground from Virginia. Orders usually are shipped the next business day after the order is placed. Orders to Western states take several days transit time. If you want overnight, special delivery, or need your order by a specific date, please email or call us to discuss shipping options.
