Definitive Business Plan, Second Edition, The

It's normally like this

If statisticians have added anything to human knowledge, it is their insight about what you normally find when you look into a bucket of numbers. In case you are unfamiliar with this, I will elaborate. It is a masterpiece of observation. But do not dismiss it lightly. It provides a great tool for understanding present and future events that affect your business.

It allows you to say with confidence, I am 95% certain that sales will be between $80 000 and $100 000. There is only a 12% chance that R&D will fail to deliver (you must have excellent boffins). There is an 80% likelihood that profits will exceed $5 million. And so on. You can use this tool to qualify any such statement. First, the mechanics. Remember, this is ...