January 12th, 2010

Speaker:  Joel Petrocy - Writing an effective Business Plan

Joel was working with some rather out-of-the-ordinary AV equipment. I didn't see wires, and the sounds appeared from a speaker at the side of the room. Next time we'll ask him what that equipment was and if he made it in his own factory.

He had prepared a Power Point presentation, and that provided the digitally projected display of notes and Joel's vacation pictures in Las Vegas. Several of the pictures were of Joel and his millionaire prospective clients in hotel lobbies.

Joel discussed the projects that his company developed based upon his inventions. These were project involving several types of manufactured signs for the display of text and images. He discussed how negotiations take place during the licensing, process, with vendors, and with prospective manufacturers. Problems involving business models and the business plan were also discussed. Major aspects of the business plan were venture capital and invention development.

Interesting product development problems involving prototypes and virtual prototyping were discussed. Everything he said was covered under Non-Disclosure Agreement, and as a result we cannot say what he said. The world of large LED video displays and advertising signs in the future will really be something.

Joel, it turns out is a dynamic and interesting speaker. He didn't stress the business model as much as I had hoped, however, his itemization of the steps of the business plan avvcvv99090nd of the orientation of the plan to the market model was a primary.

The business plan, Joel implied, is aimed at the manufacturer's or venture capitalist's context. He explained that the specifics of the intellectual property, the product's engineering trade secrets, and the project's detailed cost calculations are important and that they must include mention of everything. The number of pages for the business plan is a problem, and the manufacturer or venture capitalist may not heed the plan or heed the specifications for the product to be manufactured. Additionally un-called-for revisions and alterations must be minded and controlled.

Joel summed the talk on the business plan with three main ideas.

1. In the business plan the detailed calculations of a particular project are not as important as the overall money projections and their realities in facts. 2. Knowledge of one's own technology is important, and it is a practical problem that requires one's attention to control one's intellectual property. Teaching the private label manufacturer one's technology is a problem in that the vendor's ex-employees and co-employees will be transferring the intellectual property to others, especially in the PRC, and 3., business money calculations are not as important in the business plan as the amount of know how of the product and also the Venture Capital and Invention Development.

Ralph Hertle
Secretary, NSI