Business Planning | Five recommended books
Following on the series of business planning related blog posts (see ‘What a good business plan looks like?’, ‘Developing a Business Planning Process’ and Some Business Planning ‘Top Tips’, Personal Case Study), this post outlines five recommended books for the business planner (and business presentation/report writer generally).
Books on start-up business planning abound. Whilst I certainly haven’t reviewed them all, one that I personally found useful is
I strongly recommend this to anyone seeking a user-friendly, comprehensive companion to the process.
On a related point, a business plan is (as I explained earlier) a key communications tool. Like any such product your company develops, especially so client documentation, its effectiveness is a factor of how well you structure your argument and present your data. In this regard, I thoroughly recommend the following books, and authors, as key protagonists in this – often poorly done – area.
Taking an interest in such work, and encouraging your colleagues to do similar, will lead to more impactful communications generally. And, what better place to start this pursuit of excellence, than with your inaugural company plan?
A classic text in relation to how to structure any business writing; Minto provides a clear, logical approach as to the structuring of the content of a professional argument/report.
This book focuses not on the structure/flow of your work but on how you present information. It is full of ideas as to how to present and format information so as to make it clear and impactful.
Voted one of the best 100 non- fiction books of the 20th century, this is a beautiful book. Perhaps best placed on the coffee table, it is one of the classic references as to how quantitative information should (and should not) be displayed.
Like Tufte, McCandless is another masterful exponent of information visualization, that is using innovative visuals to better see and understand information. Like Tufte’s classic, this is not a reference guide per se; just a beautiful book to own.
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If you are interested in re-charging your business ambition/strategy/plans, Dom runs his (three-day) Five-Year Entrepreneur Retreat twice a year (March, September) – see here for previous delegate testimonials and details on future presentations. If you would like to make a reservation (capped to 14 attendees per Retreat) please drop a line via the contact page.
