Business Plan in a Weekend™, a live, virtual online business growth program, will provide access to business planning tools and approaches used by big companies to grow – but tailored to small business’ unique need.
A survey of 3,000 business owners by Palo Alto Software showed that those with a written plan were about twice as likely to successfully grow their business, get investment, or land a loan than those who didn’t. But a Wells Fargo study showed that one in three business owners don’t have a plan. What gives?
Some blame the LEAN Startup movement, an approach which preaches gaining quick market feedback on business ideas – and pivoting as necessary – instead of doing lots of planning prior to launch. But LEAN still requires a testable hypothesis – in essence, a light business plan.
The real reason may be more straightforward: Many small business owners simply don’t feel that they have the time to build a business plan. And even if they did have the time, they not sure where to start.
Three entrepreneurs are leveraging their strategic expertise, technology and their passion for small businesses to solve this. Business Plan in a Weekend™, a live, virtual online business growth program, will provide access to business planning tools and approaches used by big companies to grow – but tailored to small business’ unique need. For an investment of just a few hundred dollars, participants will spend two days with marketing experts, and wake up on Monday morning with a winning plan to grow sales, beat the competition, and attract investors.
Through her popular Bestseller in a Weekend™ program, Alicia Dunams has educated thousands of Business Owners, Entrepreneurs and Professionals over the past 9 years on how to write a book fast. Now she has teamed up with marketing experts and Impact Planning Group Partners Tom Spitale and Mary Abbazia to create the Business Plan in a Weekend™ program.
“For the last 9 years, I’ve enjoyed helping thousands of business people demonstrate their industry expertise through writing a book faster than they ever dreamed possible” said Alicia. “I’ve seen these books become an integral part of my client’s business plans. It seemed logical to partner with Tom and Mary to help these businesses create their entire business plan with quality and speed, like we’ve learned to deliver through the Bestseller program.”
Over the last two decades, Mary and Tom have played an instrumental part in the success of hundreds of products from some of the biggest companies in the world. As marketing strategists, teachers, facilitators, and co-authors of “The Accidental Marketer” (published by Wiley), they have created tools and processes that help anyone become a better marketer fast.
“Mary and I are small business owners ourselves, and are both from small towns where we learned to appreciate the crucial role these enterprises play in the economy,” said Tom. “For years, we have been looking for the right technology, platform and opportunity to bring our guidance to this market. Through Alicia and the Business Plan in a Weekend™ program, we have found it and we couldn’t be more excited”
This virtual online course will guide participants through Impact’s frameworks, which break down the ways that companies in all industries have achieved market success. The frameworks were developed based on Impact’s historical study of marketing’s greatest successes. They are tailored tools that Mary and Tom teach to big business audiences through Executive Education programs at acclaimed universities such as Cal-Tech and Columbia, and at companies like GE, Johnson & Johnson and United Technologies (UTC) – but modified for the specifics of smaller businesses.
Business Plan in a Weekend™ participants will receive live instruction via their personal computers, progressing through all the most important parts of a business plan over the course of the weekend. In between modules, participants will apply Impact’s tools to their own specific business issues. They will be “buddied up” with another participant to bounce ideas off of, and will have direct access to Tom, Mary and their team during the entire session.
“Not only will participants get the vast majority of their business plan completed over the weekend,” said Mary. “We will not be satisfied unless those plans contain several big ideas that position participants as the obvious choice for their customers and prospects in their industry and market.”
Business Plan in a Weekend™ is scheduled August 13-14, 2016. You can register at http://www.BusinessPlanInAWeekend.com. Business Plan in a Weekend™ co-founders Alicia Dunams (http://wordpress-399429-2150085.cloudwaysapps.com), Tom Spitale and Mary Abbazia are available for media inquires and interviews. Email Alicia(at)AliciaDunams(dot)com for media inquires.