Business plan guru, Tim Berry, will be reading and evaluating 75 or so business plans in a single month so he should know something about how to create them and how to judget them.

As Berry says: “This is business plan season for me. I just finished reading half a dozen plans for Notre Dame’s annual business plan competition (we (Palo Alto Software) give a prize to the best one), and another half dozen plans for the Rice business plan competition (I’m a judge, and we have a best business plan prize for that one too). I still have to read five plans for the University of Oregon’s New Venture Competition next weekend (I’m a judge), and I’m supposed to produce a first-cut on 43 plans for the Willamette Angel Conference (I’m one of the angel investors) by the end of the workday today.:

Here’s his take on what sort of business plan you need: