|
|
|
|
|
|
HomeSoftwareBusiness & Office |
|
|  |
| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 21 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 39 found the following review helpful:
 almost brilliant Feb 07, 2007
By Seth
"hellsk"
This is a fantastic product that really walks you through setting up a business plan step-by-step. It calculates things in the background and basically prepares a professional-looking document for you. You'll be surprised what you are able to throw together in just a few days, and it really gives you a sense of accomplishment, which may be lacking in the early days of a startup. The customer service is pretty good. They usually get back to you the same day if you send them an e-mail, though they can be a bit short with you if your question is too obvious to them. They're not long on explanation, though, so if you're looking for a more thorough understanding of the product you won't get it there.
The major objection I have to this product, though, is the formatting of the actual plan. Though it's licensed by Microsoft Word, it really doesn't have any of Word's tools, and so there are all kinds of spacing and margin problems that arise for which there is no cure. If you're a regular Word user, you'll expect to be able to do certain things to the text you're working on and believe me, you can't! I'd say about 40% of Word's features are included in BPP. If you export it to Word, you can use Word's tools there, but it doesn't export that well, you can't re-import, and it's basically just a very clunky proccess. So this product is great for setting up your report, but lousy for finishing it. Plan on having to re-format a lot of your plan before actually presenting it to anyone if you care at all about aesthetics and complicated things like page breaks.
13 of 13 found the following review helpful:
On the technical side it is weak... on the business side it is hard to ask for more... Aug 23, 2007
By Jay F. Grissom
"JF"
Over all this software is very good.
The software does crash. But not as often as other reviews make it appear. Also, I had to download the latest update manually because it couldn't auto-magically figure out my internet connection is persistent.
My experience with this can be summed up easily. It is easy to use, when you have a question or you are at a loss, the answer is already on the screen or one click away.
This software was obviously designed with end users in mind. It has a simple layout and it just couldn't be easier to use in my opinion.
The reports look professional and clean. I find it hard to believe others were complaining about the final reports. If the reports generated aren't clean and/or professional enough, I would have to say someone is living in a fantasy world. No banker, angel, or VC wants to see animated gifs or pinstripes on a business plan. Please get a grip on reality before you attempt to start a business!
All the numbers are integrated and calculated so they are consistent across the entire business plan. If you had to do that manually you would be screwed every time you made a revision to a single entry. You would have to find where that entry was calculated across your entire plan and make the changes everywhere... This feature ALONE is worth the price of admission!
The software comes with two books also. No, not user manuals. Books that help you understand more about starting a business and how to plan appropriately.
I can see why this is highly recommended. I will recommend it to anyone who is serious about starting a business and wants to validate their assumptions or get funding.
19 of 21 found the following review helpful:
 What good is a business plan if it looks like garbage? Mar 22, 2007
By K. Durham
"bibtours"
This is the second or third business plan builder I have used, and it may be the best I've seen for putting together a plan in a logical, cohesive process. But it is by far the WORST piece of software I have ever used for formatting output and ending up with a polished, professional-looking finished product. This application is diseased with problems in spacing, indentation, tabs, bullets, numbering, and anything else that may be imported from Word or applied within this program. The MS Word export function flat-out CRASHED my MSWord XP Professional, and anything imported from Word ended up with a mind of its own once it hit Business Plan Pro. So here I am with a nice, tidy little business plan -- but I have to completely re-do it in Word and Excel or look like an idiot when I hand it out in presentations.
As much as I appreciate this product's ability to walk one through a business plan, what good is the plan if it is irreversibly locked into an ugly, inconsistent, un-fixable format for printing?
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
 Business Plan Pro Mar 11, 2007
By Harry Turner
Very solid. It helped me with the formalization of the thought process to building a business plan. It is missing a critical tool for building an organizational chart.
While it appears to be used for generating organizational capital or bank loans, it is helpful even if this is not the need.
I also bought the Marketing Plan Pro which was much more helpful to me as an orgainizational plan.
Harry Turner
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Good product Mar 11, 2007
By Francis Estrand-cartier
Good product but need better, more complete business plan sample for video production.
By the way, do not buy the product from Amazon if you need the product right away. They use UPS that is not reliable for fast delivery.
See all 21 customer reviews on Amazon.com
|
| | |
|
|
|
|
|
