Most of investors are people who have been entrepreneurs
themselves and understand how to build a business by doing something completely
new. This description fits both Barbara Corcoran and Kevin O’Leary. Barbara
Corcoran is a businesswoman founder of the Corcoran Group, Barbara Corcoran
Venture Partners among other companies, besides being a consultant, speaker and
author. Kevin O’Leary is a Canadian businessman, investor, writer, and founder
of diverse companies such as the Learning Company, O’Leary Funds and O’Leary
Financial Group. Both of them are widely recognized for being part of the hit
show Shark Tank, where they make deals with entrepreneurs to invest in their
companies.
Their knowledge and experience is very useful for aspiring
entrepreneurs just like myself as well as others and all of their knowledge can
be found in diverse interviews and articles throughout the Internet.
Barbara Corcoran believes that
a business plan shouldn’t be as lengthy and instead be very precise regarding
the product or service, the market needs it will serve and how much will it cost
to produce and sell the product/service. The reason behind this is because she
thinks that business plans are not adapted to reality and once you step out to
the real world your plan can change given the market conditions. Instead she
prefers to value more the entrepreneurial drive a person has and how much are
they willing to work to make their business a success. Business plans can be knocked down easily by the realityof life and an entrepreneur needs to understand that it won’t be easy,
while been able to push trough it.
Kevin O’Leary speaking on an Ivy League Forum shared some of his considerations regarding
a business and business plans. For him the key aspects is proving you’re the right person to
execute the plan, is the product actually desired by consumers, and lastly
knowing the numbers inside out to understand the financials of your company.
Such aspects are very important because you can have the best plan but if there
isn’t a strong team who believes in the business execution won’t be good.
Second, numbers are really important and you need to understand how are you
spending money and how are you making money, without this your plan can be
knocked down very easily. Lastly if there is not a market for your product then
it doesn’t even make sense working further on it.
For my business plan I am considering all of their
suggestions, I want to make my plan as flexible, adaptable and close to reality
as possible, by talking with potential customers I will find out the actual
need and price I can charge for the service I am selling. This way my plan can
be more successful and if needed adapted quickly enough. Also the financial
section of my business will be very important because a business without sales
won’t last long, so I will make sure to carefully develop viable and as real as
possible financial projections. Lastly I will make sure the team I assemble has
the same passion for what we do as I do.
