Starting a new business - or expanding an old one - requires a lot of thought and research. Your options: Roll up your sleeves and do some of the research yourself, hire a marketing consultant for a mere $150 an hour, or experiment with an emerging breed of software designed to help you make informed business decisions. This month, Lew Hoff, president of Bartizan Corporation, a multimillion- dollar manufacturing firm with 85 employees based in Yonkers, New York, describes how "MBA-ware" helps steer his evolving business.
While I was considering this new business, I read about a $795 software package called Business Insight from Business Resource Software (800-423-1228). It's a database of 30 management experts' collected knowledge. It asks hundreds of questions about finances, products, distribution, and so forth. ... the program generates a report based on your scores. It then rates your new venture's chance for success and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of your business, suggests ways to modify your plan. For $795, I got the same kind of information I would have received from a marketing consultant, without being charged about $1100 a day for four day's work. And a consultant would have tied up a tremendous amount of my time and my staff's time.