Double-Team

Writing effective business plans isn’t simply a matter of reading a book, or following a fill-in-the-blanks software “recipe.”  It calls on four strengths that, in our experience, are not often found in great abundance in any one person:

(1)  Analytical ability—for assessing what is really going on out there, even in a deceptively-complicated marketplace.

(2)  Marketing intuition and training and experience—to see a path through all these complexities, then map it all out in a winning strategy and operating plan.

(3)  Credibility and confidence—to get this strategy and plan across clearly and compellingly in words and numbers and charts and graphs that make sense.  This includes doing 3-year pro-forma financial projections, illustrated in a clear and persuasive way to investors, lenders, and those charged with making your plan work in practical terms.

(4)  Passion and conviction—to help you get everyone on board in executing the strategy and plan to the best of their abilities.

Like you, perhaps, we do a lot of things badly.  (Ice skating and integral calculus and painting pictures come immediately to mind.)  But the four business-planning tasks listed above are things we do VERY well in a "double-team" with client CEOs.

Our Business

We’ve developed some 400 business and marketing and promotional plans--in all kinds of product and service categories. 

Some were done for well-established companies.  Others were done for new companies, new products, and new services. 

More than a few of these highly-professional business plans have helped clients grow into spectacularly profitable companies.

For examples, these strategies and plans have helped build dozens of Fortune-500 clients that include Kraft/General Foods, Shell Oil, Gallo Wine, Avon Products, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Six plans were done for financial institutions.  One of them grew from zero to $600 million in assets in four years.

Another plan helped an audio-video retailer achieve the second-highest per-store sales volume of anyone in their industry.

A recent plan helped a toy manufacturer go from zero to several hundred thousand dollars in sales in a three-month market introduction. 

Another helped a "green" hedge fund get off the ground, and successfully weather the global financial meltdown of 2008.

Other plans have helped a marble-and-granite importer, a commercial real estate firm, a pet shop, an ice-cream “scoop-shop”, an IT consulting company, a “quick-clean” products manufacturer, and dozens of other businesses.  Many of these companies were started in client garages or on kitchen tables.

Every plan I’ve developed taught me something new—what works, what doesn’t work, and what “rabbit-holes” to look out for.

Wouldn’t it help your chances for success, and reduce your risk of failure, if all this big-league experience was brought to bear on your strategy and plan?  (I’m sure it would!)

Who We Are

Here’s some other information about managing director Doug Hedlund to help you make your all-important planning decision:

• CEO of a new-product, new-service, new-business consulting firm for more than 15 years.

• MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business, New York, NY.

• BA in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass.

• Military officer training as a cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs.

• Many business-building strategies were learned during my seven years of working with clients at Ogilvy & Mather/New York.

• Regular guest speaker and 6-week-series workshop leader for entrepreneurs planning new businesses.

• Taught strategy development and business planning to entrepreneurs at Santa Monica College extension division.

• Author, Double-Team Your Business Plan: How To Be (Reasonably) Sure Your Business Will Fly—Before You Go Out On a Limb” (To be published spring 2011.)