Tag Archives: youtube

10 Lies About Business Planning (Video)

November 19, 2010Business Planning, Planning Fundamentals, Planning Processglobal entrepreneurship week, youtubeTim Berry

Business plans are a waste of time? That’s a dangerous lie. Don’t bother, because nobody’s going to read it anyhow? That’s another lie, because it’s about running your company, not whether somebody else reads your document. The lies matter because they interfere with business planning, which ought to be part of your management. Planning is supposed to be a tool to help you control your own destiny. Instead, many of us don’t plan right because we let some of these lies get in the way.

The list of 10 is included in the video here, a recording of the webinar I gave as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, earlier this week. And what’s more important is that I talk about what you should do, instead of believing the lies, to make business planning part of your business management. The goal isn’t just listing lies: it’s steering your company, managing better, and having a better business. Control your destiny.

http://www.youtube.com/p/AE90BC08FB7DB700?hl=en_US&fs=1

Would you take a trip without planning it? Would the plan be a big honking document? Would it matter to you whether anybody else read it? Would having a plan mean you couldn’t change it when a flight got cancelled?

This webinar was sponsored by bplans.com (an entirely free site, which you are on as you read this) and Palo Alto Software, publisher of Business Plan Pro.

(If you don’t see the video, you can click here for the original on YouTube)

The Next Big Thing Already Happened

October 23, 2009Back to Fundamentals, Business Mistakesamazon.com, Facebook, Netflix, youtubeTim Berry

The next big thing is never a repeat of last big thing. It’s always something new and different. It’s an original, not a copy.

What if the next Facebook already happened, and it was Twitter? What if the next Netflix already happened, and it was YouTube.

I see this a lot in business plans: businesses out to become “the next this” or “the next that.” Among the recent ones to cross my desk were “the Netflix of books” and “Facebook for business.” Yawn. Boring. Unrealistic. Copies are so unoriginal.

A tag line referring to some existing big thing (“Netflix for books“) rarely works.

(Image: Stephen Gibson/Shutterstock)

Fundamentals of BtoB Marketing … Then and Now

July 10, 2009MarketingBMA, Business Marketing Association, Man in the Chair ad, McGraw-Hill, youtubeTim Berry

This is a simple two-minute video that makes a very powerful point about how fundamentals can change, evolve, and yet, still remain as fundamentals. It was produced by the Business Marketing Association for its 2009 national conference.

I’m told that part of it is a remake of a classic McGraw-Hill “Man in the Chair” commercial from a couple generations ago. I’ll take their word for it. I think the whole thing works.

And if you don’t see it, you can click here for the YouTube original.

For more information on BMA’s “UNlearn” conference and to see the original “Man in the Chair” ad, go to http://www.marketing.org/conference and http://www.marketing.org/images/Mcgra…

Reality Check: Beauty, Women, Distortions

May 12, 2009Marketing, Reflectionsadvertising, beauty, distortion, fashion model, photoshop, youtubeTim Berry

I picked this up while browsing Seth Godin’s recent post over the weekend. He had it here, as part of a riff on the new world of commercial advertising on YouTube. Good post too, but I ended up thinking this Dove commercial on YouTube deserves special attention.

(If you don’t see the video, click here for the YouTube source.)

I assume you’re aware of how much we distort the supposedly ideal beauty in women. I am. But we forget. This is a bad thing. It hurts people, both women and men, and we should remind ourselves frequently.