Interview with Tim Norton, CEO of PlanHQ

Our goal is to allow startups to create living plans for their business. Often, a startup will create a business plan and once they launch the service, the plan no longer plays an active role in the business. With PlanHQ startups can create a business plan that grows and expands with the business.

We try to keep it really simple, so that anyone in the business can engage with the business plan and understand how the business is doing with a very clear dashboard. At a glance anybody can tell whether you’re on or off track.

We also break it up by each area of the business. So when you come into PlanHQ, by default, we have a product area, marketing/sales, and an organization area. You can divide up your business however you need to.

And rather than try and help you create those big three year sales forecasts look like a hockey stick and very easily, the numbers get pulled out of thin air we try to help you be grounded. The last six months where there’s actual activity, and just plan out the next six months, but really try to get you better at planning.

As time progresses, the system begins providing forecasts as it learns and calibrates from your business.

I’ve always been involved with many startups and have worked on everything from development, product management, sales/marketing, a bit of business development, to eventually raising money for a company I used to work for. Obviously there’s a huge amount of business planning going on, both to grow the company and execute the business.

It was from those experiences that I found that business plans were not growing with the businesses. I decided to build a service that makes business plans a functional part of a business.

Initially we’re looking at investment bank companies. We’ve received interest both from venture capital and angel investment companies as well as from the individual businesses who are raising money or reporting to investors.

Our service is perfect for anyone who is looking to a large scalable business.

Currently we offer a 30-day free trial, and plan to offer free plans shortly. The free plans allow us to build a bigger customer base for the future.

The key mistake is not focusing on the goals of the business. As an entrepreneur sets out to build a business there are always additional ideas, a way to expand the product vision, and opportunities to expand to new markets.

If you have unlimited energy and a similar team, then you could do it all. If not, then you start to sacrifice in some areas and many businesses are simply not able to do everything at once. Entrepreneurs need to maintain their strength, energy levels and maintain their confidence.
The idea of PlanHQ is to try and help entrepreneurs achieve their goals in a very achievable way.

If anything it comes down to realism. Interestingly entrepreneurship takes time and is quite a process. Along the way, you got to have very realistic checkpoints where they can actually look at something and be honest with yourself.

You have to set certain benchmarks for yourself, the startup and your investors. If you are not receiving the traction you expected, or if your return is going to be significantly lower than you expected, then it is time to take a hard look at cutting your losses.

We feel companies will do well with our type of service. In fact, we use it as well. It helps everyone to understand how the business is doing and to keep our objectives in line with the business goals.

In terms of moving out to a wider market we want to get business coaches and advisers linked up around a huge community of business growth around PlanHQ. Our goal is to build a worldwide community focused on growing their businesses.