Business planning workshop with Company Partners

My colleague Raika Wokoeck kindly agreed to write up this workshop for the blog:

As part of my Masters in Information and Library Studies I am completing a management course which requires me to write a business plan for a fictitious new service. If, however, you have only ever worked in Humanities based environment this can prove not only tricky but quite difficult. Yes, I’ve read the literature and I can write it in a Word document but putting theory into practice turned into a challenging task.

However, being an employee of The British Library does have its advantages, and I was able to attend one of the Business & IP Centre’s workshops on 16 March.

company-partners-logoLawrence Gilbert, the founder of Company Partners and Alan Gleeson of Palo Alto Software were presenting a comprehensive ‘how to do’ workshop on the do’s and don’ts of business plan writing. The attendees came from various backgrounds and were interested in start-up as well as continuing business plans, and contributed actively. This very interactive group made the workshop even more enjoyable.

After everyone introduced themselves, Lawrence started the half-day workshop by talking about the secrets of successful entrepreneurs. The part that I found the most helpful, however, was the following presentation on how to structure a business plan and what makes it a successful one. Lawrence provided a practical insight through case studies and examples helping us to understand the practicalities and purposes of a business plan.

Business-Plan-ProAt the end Alan took over and presented the Business Plan Pro software, how to use it and what it can do to help you writing your business plan… I so want this software now. There are two editions available, Premier (£129.99) and Standard (£79.99),

Sadly the workshop was the last one at Business & IP Centre for the time being due to funding issues, although I hope it will return soon. Keep an eye out for it on the Business & IP Centre website at or Palo Alto’s website.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.