<DIV>Judging by all the hoopla surrounding business plans, you'd think the only things standing between would-be entrepreneurs and spectacular success are glossy five-color charts, bundles of meticulous-looking spreadsheets, and decades of month-by-month financial projections. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, often the more elaborately crafted a business plan, the more likely the venture is to flop.<BR><BR>Why? Most plans waste too much ink on numbers and devote too little to information that really matters to investors. The result? Investors discount them.<BR><BR>In <I>How to Write a Great Business Plan</I>, William A. Sahlman shows how to avoid this all-too-common mistake by ensuring that your plan assesses the factors critical to every new venture:<br><BR>· The people?the individuals launching and leading the venture and outside parties providing key services or important resources<BR><BR>· The opportunity?what the business will sell and to whom, and whether the venture can grow and how fast<BR><BR>· The context?the regulatory environment, interest rates, demographic trends, and other forces shaping the venture's fate<BR><BR>· Risk and reward?what can go wrong and right, and how the entrepreneurial team will respond<BR><BR>Timely in this age of innovation, <I>How to Write a Great Business Plan</I> helps you give your new venture the best possible chances for success.</DIV>