Advantages: BizPlanBuilder
So... What's so great about this business planning software?
Originally, we wrote business plans for clients, then ourselves...
From the very beginning, our goal has been to support people developing new products and services to help (save?) our world. We want the best stuff to prevail. Entrepreneurs, inventors and others who offer something great, and must succeed in the face of extraordinary competition, overwhelming odds and tight budgets, need all the help you can get.
At first, it was easier to see other people's ideas and businesses and help them put together a pitch to investors and lenders. The idea to turn our materials into software came like many other entrepreneurial ideas and we ran with it. That was great for versions 1-5. Then we wanted an SBA loan (we used BizPlanBuilder and expanded it to address the SBA's requirements), then we wanted a line of credit (we used it and improved it to address all the bank's questions), we used it again to develop relationships suppliers (we improved it further to address their concerns), and we added and refined it further to get investments from professional investors.
Besides 20+ years of using BizPlanBuilder ourselves, talking with people every day and from feedback from thousands of business owners and consultants like you...
- We are members of the United Inventors Association.
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We are members of the Silicon Valley Association of Start-up Entrepreneurs (SVASE). - We attend Kieretsu Forum presentations.
- We participate with the Gathering of Angels, Golden Capital Network, and many others' events.
These guys are tough and can be brutal on business plans... They're often investing their own cash and have seen many deals before! (Usually they say they want a short 2-3 page plan... that's because they don't trust anyone to get it right. Actually, they want to know many many things before writing a check!) We've been listening and watching for a long time and we've built-in the answers leading you all the way with the text and numbers in the structure they expect. With BizPlanBuilder, you will be prepared with the 2-3 page summary, as well as the plan and the pitch!
Here's a short list of immediate advantages of BizPlanBuilder
Some of the advantages of BizPlanBuilder are simply unique; no-one else does it. For many BizPlanBuilder just goes further, bigger and better.
Easy - Uses native Word & Excel / Office (required) so you can quickly edit and customize your business plan without software import/export hassles
Fast - Sample plans are already written & integrated
Comprehensive - Sample Plans + Financials + Everything you'll need
Modular - Intuitive Office document assembly system
Multi-User - Access your plan from your office, laptop or home
Collaborative - Share the project with your team and consultants over a network, server, or the Internet
Flexible - Financial models are in familiar Excel workbooks vs. locked in a 'black box' program
Proven - More real (and BIG) success stories than any other
Refined - We developed the first business planning software and have been upgrading it longer than anyone else
Reliable - Input from practicing experts in every field
Teaching Video - "The Thinking Behind Your Business Plan"
Web links - Free web-based Resources
Better - See this list of advantages
Guaranteed - Download it, use it... 60-Days or Money Back
Here's what customers tell us after they've used some competitor's software
- BizPlanBuilder is lot easier to format... I can just pour my own words into what has already been set up.
- [competitor] is not as detailed as BizPlanBuilder (PC World concluded the same thing.)
- The spreadsheets in BizPlanBuilder are much more thorough and flexible, and cover a wider range of possibilities. (PC World concluded the same thing.)
- BizPlanBuilder’s financials all interact together ([competitor]’s are fixed.)
- I can modify the financial models in BizPlanBuilder (In [competitor], I cannot.)
- It’s easier to print the BizPlanBuilder financial statements.
- BizPlanBuilder is altogether much easier to complete.
- BizPlanBuilder allows me to plug in my company’s historical numbers and go forward ([competitor] is like starting from scratch.)
- [competitor] doesn't help me calculate the value of my company and the stock give-up. BizPlanBuilder does.
- While [competitor] may initially impress you with some technical bells and whistles, the end result that I show investors is dramatically superior with BizPlanBuilder from JIAN.
- I have edited a number of business plans written from software, regardless of [competitor]'s many sample plans (which I had to deconstruct), BizPlanBuilder provides a far superior basis for a business plan. It is by far better written, better structured, and makes much more sense in the final analysis.
Competitive comparison page...
Out of the Checkbox Solution
Some software products present you with a screen and some check boxes or radio buttons expecting you to make your decisions, out of context, then and there with the system taking over to produce your documents. We think that is more difficult for you as well as a bit dangerous – at JIAN we look for “out of the checkbox” solutions and ideas that may actually work better for your company. First, you need to be shown the bigger picture, offered some choices and provided with thorough explanations before you commit your business to a certain choice. Therefore, we do not limit you to checkboxes and radio buttons, instead, we provide the entire plan where you can read the options and edit the text your way. Throughout, we provide expert comments explaining each choice and making suggestions to consider for each stock options plan point within the context of your entire agreement and management desires.
3 Biggest Reasons BizPlanBuilder Out-Performs the Other Business Planning Software
- Topping $2 billion in capital raised, BizPlanBuilder incorporates professionally-written, compelling text that provides the desired content and demonstrates the style proven with investors & lenders. The idea is that it's easier to edit than to write from scratch — rather than answer a series of questions in a vacuum and let the program assemble a collection of canned paragraphs, BizPlanBuilder presents the text and numbers in familiar Word, Excel & PowerPoint templates where the user can see the context into which their answers will go — finish the sentences, overwrite the examples, and modify the formatting to make it perfect for your business. The financial models have evolved over 20 years and include characteristics gleaned from angels, VCs, bankers, and customers worldwide. For advisors working with business owners on their plans, BizPlanBuilder provides a valuable business education in itself.
- BizPlanBuilder is the only "open" business planning system on the market.
Most business concepts are very unique today, rendering most industry-specific sample plans useless. Instead, BizPlanBuilder provides the best of hundreds of business concepts cross-pollinated from every industry enabling the user to quickly adopt proven ideas and include them in their plans. A pull-down menu even lets you include external documents. The financial planning models incorporate Excel workbooks designed to make it easy to enter all of your assumptions, play "what-if", and handle the presentation to investors and lenders. An interesting addition is the inclusion of a table in the "Use of Proceeds Summary" page suggesting levels of investment required over 9/12/18/24 month periods — compelling the user to plan for certain milestones. The financial models are completely flexible enabling perfect customization to any business model, plus they allow an unlimited number of links to and from external spreadsheets. (not so with Business Plan Pro)
- Multi-user system enables time-saving collaboration over a network, server or web.
The BizPlanBuilder system is optimized to enable collaboration with an unlimited number of others over a network, server or the Internet. Entrepreneurial and/or consulting teams can easily divide projects and work together no matter where they are. No more emailing sections, cutting & pasting or overwriting each other's work. All of JIAN's 10 business-building titles run on this same system — learn one, use them all. (You can even drag and drop a section of your business plan in to your employee policies manual!) Beyond the templates; however, business teams can even use the JIAN system itself for developing their own custom projects like technical manuals, sales books, or procedures guides. Likewise, individual users can enjoy anytime access to their plans from office, home, and laptop PCs.
More business plan and planning software experience
We've been developing business planning software since 1988. While that may seem dated to some, to you it means that we didn't just build a web site and start downloading software. We've been through many business cycles — we've been making this software and content better for a long time, and we're excited to say that this latest version of BizPlanBuilder is the most effective and streamlined yet... We listened to the professional business consultants in our network. We listened and incorporated ideas we got from thousands of successful customers.
BizPlanBuilder is the software tool that makes producing a compelling business plan a seamless and sensible process. It's very real, up-to-date, and with the right combination of art and science to help you all the way from idea to implementation.
The best of a thousand business plans in one...
We’ve discovered that it’s easier and better for you if we gathered the best ideas and proven concepts from every industry and incorporated them into just a few master templates. That way, you get more, better ideas and it’s only your task to edit the multiple choices, complete the sentences, and delete things you don’t need.
If you want to start a dog walking business, you can find that among the 500 sample plans offered by a competitor. If you work for the government and you have unlimited time, we can recommend another software system that drags you through 1,200 questions before generating a canned business plan for you.
However, if you have a unique concept, not something easily canned, perhaps even something that will make a contribution to our world, please bring it on! And keep reading...
Hundreds of sample plans are already integrated
A competitor hired part-timers to produce 500 sample plans to make you think you're getting something special. (One of the people sent us his resume hoping that we would hire him to do the same no-brainer job! His qualifications should frighten you.)
Instead, we've taken everything we've learned over the past 20 years—from angel investors, bankers, consultants, successful customers, VCs—and synthesized it into a few fundamental plan prototypes. These can be customized beyond any 500 sample plans in a few minutes.
See how other users have succeeded using BizPlanBuilder in almost every industry.
We didn't strip out otherwise good ideas to make your plan fit a specific industry—it's actually more work to undo those sample plans in order to get a good plan you can use! We actually give you more to work with in an easier to use system. Think of BizPlanBuilder as a carefully compiled collection of the best of business plans providing you the very examples of exactly what to say. Only we make sure it all makes sense and that you can rely on it.
With BizPlanBuilder, you also benefit from the cross-pollination from many industries, supporting your business's uniqueness, and implementing the best-practices sought after by investors, lenders and others who can help y
20 years studying what investors & lenders finance
Our customers report having raised over $2 billion dollars through venture capitalists, investors, banks, the SBA and corporate management. While many investors will tell you they want just a 2-3 page plan (you'll use the Executive Summary), it will really take a lot more than that to extract any real investment. While BizPlanBuilder provides everything in one document, it also is designed like a quick-reference guide to quickly access and address all of their questions. Given our unique experience, we help you anticipate investors' and lenders' questions, such as:
- Have you thought about...?
- What about...?
- How many...?
- Who else...?
- How much...?
- Can you prove...?
The unique JIAN process assures that you'll be prepared—ready to face even the toughest audiences and able to answer every question.
Written from the investors' and lenders' point-of-view
We often remind people that, "The better job you do on your plan, the better deal you'll get!" And, that your language can either attract capital or repel it. For these reasons, we provide you a planning system written from the investors and lenders point of view—because they are the ones who will give you the capital you need.
The BizPlanBuilder system provides a series of Word-based modules that help you consider every aspect of your business concept, with Excel workbooks doing all of the financial arithmetic for you.
Includes this Informative Video—The Thinking Behind Your Business Plan
Watch this 100-minute video on your computer. JIAN founder and CEO Burke Franklin talks to a group of entrepreneurs about the various aspects of business planning, and about the audience to whom you are presenting your business idea and plan. At risk of being politically incorrect at times, he's very real, he's been there, done that, and really wants to help you to understand the process and pitfalls. Watch it here
Part of an integrated family of proven business development software tools
Downloading BizPlanBuilder is a great start. Now, what if you could also take the work you put into your business plan and reuse it with other important projects in the future? You can.
All JIAN's product work the same way.
We use the same software program platform to power all of our products — which, in-turn, manage familiar Word, Excel and PowerPoint templates. You already know how to use the Office tools... Learning BizPlanBuilder is easy, and applies to a growing number of useful tools to build your business.
Continue to build your business using JIAN's tools
JIAN offers a complete suite of companion products to help you market, publicize, and build your business as it grows. We make it easy for you to cut and paste from your business plan to your employee handbook, expanded marketing plan, PR plan and press releases, etc. Our web site is also rich with articles, affiliates and links which will be invaluable to you in addition to the software programs.
Try it for 60-Days Risk-Free
Sometimes the best way to see if something fits what you are doing is to just try it. If you download BizPlanBuilder now, you can see how well it handles your specific needs and fits the nuances that make your business unique. If it's not right for you, we will pay you back—there's nothing to ship, no taxes, and you can keep the software anyway (your karma can be the judge!).
A comprehensive business plan can help you get what you want for your business.
BizPlanBuilder makes it easy.