Business Plan Development, From Experts Guy Kawasaki and Dan Schawbel

For the purpose of this blog post, I have researched two experts, Guy Kawasaki and Dan Schawbel, regarding business investments. I first heard of Guy Kawasaki in an Executive Leadership course at Full Sail University. As a well-published author, Kawasaki has solidified his placement in business education and commentary conversation. Interestingly enough, Kawasaki was integrated into one of my first blog entries at Full Sail and now he is also part of one of my final blog assignments. Dan Schawbel is making his Hertzblog debut with this post.

A highly praised branding and entrepreneur expert, Dan Schawbel gives valuable insight into the development of business plans. Recognized by New York Times as the “personal branding guru,” Schawbel is the managing partner of Millennium Branding, LLC. Schawbel is also responsible for an international best-seller. Like Kawasaki, Schawbel is also a highly sought-after national speaker enlightening audiences on his views of various business topics relevant today. Schawbel has taught that investors seek business plans that include a variety of key elements; the return on investment is probably the most important element of the business plan to an investor. Other crucial variables to a business plan include in-depth knowledge of the demographics, industry, and competitors.

Schawbel and Kawasaki have different views on business plan development but both realize the importance of a solid business plan. In his blog, The Zen of Business Plans, Kawasaki provides 9 do’s and don’ts for professionals preparing a business plan to be presented to an investor. I found the entry very useful as Guy explains what he looks for and what will best attract investors. According to Kawasaki, the fundamentals of the business plan should always include the following: Executive Summary, Problem, Solution, Business Model, Underlying Magic, Marketing and Sales, Competition, Team, Projections, Status and Timeline, and Conclusion. He adds that each section should ideally be one page in length but expects a ‘fudge factor’ of 9 pages. The shorter and cleaner the plan, the more likely it will be read.

Developers may also find it easier to create the pitch before the plan. This helps with having a better deliverable pitch and plan because it’s easier to master the pitch and make changes than it is for the actual plan. Dan Schawbel put an emphasis on the scheduled review of the business plan in his blog entry titled “Build an Extraordinary Business Plan to Kick Your Brand into High Gear.” Schawbel says that every plan should begin with a review schedule. By creating the schedule in the beginning of the project, the team will be better focused and informed. Noticed I said ‘team.’ Kawasaki believes one person should create a business plan while Schawbel recognizes that groups develop most plans. Kawasaki believes a plan created by only one person reads more cohesive and incorporates a better flow of information. Either way, a review plan would be beneficial to a developing business plan.

Free Streaming Music & Playlist Discovery Made Simple With Songza

I am just going to get right to the point here and tell you that I am onboard and proud to be on the Songza fan-wagon. Less than 24 hours ago I had never even heard of Songza. A good reason for this may be attributed to the fact that Songza has only be available to the public for just a day now. What’s-a Songza you ask? It’s quite simple (and free). Songza is a (free) digital music provider that allows subscribers to stream entire playlists at just a click, tap, swipe, or press of button. The extensive inventory of playlists have already been crafted, compiled and categorized for your convenience making music discovery uber-easy with Songza.

Brand new and free, Songza comes available in two forms if you’re interested (and trust me, you should be), mobile app and website. In case I failed to mentioned earlier, the membership is totally free. Currently, Songza has a library of over 14 million tracks which puts it in the same size category as Spotify while trumping Pandora. What sets Songza apart from competitors is the ease and time, or lack thereof, needed to produce the perfect playlist. Right now there are well over 75,000 playlists already available on the site. That number continues to grow as users contribute their selections to that list.

Navigating the website is simple. In just two clicks from the homepage you can be enjoying music catered to your desires. Users can search the catalog via two methods: entering artist’s name or playlist into a search field, or browsing categories. I love discovering new music so dabbling about the various categories is my browsing method of choice. The categories include Genres, Activities, Moods, Decades, Culture and Record-store Clerk. Each category is full of subsections chockfull of music available for almost any occasion. Check it out!

Future iTunes, No 'Match' For Me (Yet)

We, music enthusiasts, are facing some new and exciting movements within the industry. One interesting and anticipated advance is coming from Apple. Many Apple product owners, commentators and speculators are clamoring about the new iOS 5, which is due to reach consumers this fall. The iOS 5 will include many cool new features that we have come to expect from Apple, of course, but one of the most talked about addition will be the iTunes cloud service. The cloud service will include a great little sleuth of a feature called iTunes Match, designed to compete with services introduced by Amazon and Google.

Apple recently announced that iTunes Match will give users the option to download or stream their music libraries on up to 5 devices including iPads, iPhones, iPods, etc. Apple, keeping many details of how the iTunes Match service will actually work under wraps, has said that all music ‘matched’ or copied from the Apple’s master library will play at a decent quality (256kbps). However, for tracks in your library that iTunes cannot ‘match’ with Apple’s offerings can only be streamed from the cloud after it has been uploaded. Either way you will have complete access to your music catalog (up to 25,000 songs) on your various iOS devices and computers.



I am personally not sold on this Apple service just yet. To be quite honest, I just do not have the need for a service like this one, yet. I listen to my music from my home computer, which is connected to a sound system that my neighbors and I both can appreciate. And currently I use my iPhone to access my songs both in the gym and in the car. Being that I do not even get workable service in parts of my gym, how would a streaming service even work?

The ability to store your library in the cloud comes to us at a price of $24.99 each year. Apple already receives enough of my wages each month as it is. I will just need to keep that in mind before I am convinced that I just cannot live without this new iTunes service.