Recent Articles Published by Noah Parsons
Industry Research Versus Market Research: What’s the Difference?
Writing a business plan? You'll need to analyze your market and industry. But, what's the difference between industry analysis and market analysis? Read more »
How to Build a Website for a New Product (and How We Did It)
No matter what kind of business you are starting, you need a website. Here's how we built the website for our new product, Outpost—we'll walk you through the process. Read more »
An Inside Look at the Best Way to Build a Sales Forecast
Sales forecasting is a great way to kick off your business planning, and it gives you a solid starting point for the rest of your financial forecast. Here's how to forecast your sales, and how we did it for our new project, Outpost. Read more »
How We Designed Our New Logo (Plus, a Creative Brief Template)
You don't need to have a graphic designer on your team to create a logo for your new business. Here's how we designed the logo for our new product, Outpost. Read more »
Struggling to Name Your Product? Here’s How We Did It
It's hard to force creativity—so we created a process. Here's how we named our new product, Outpost, and the method we used to choose the right name. Read more »
How We’re Building and Launching a New Product, Step-by-Step
Ever wondered what actually goes into launching a new product? We’ve decided to give you a peek behind the curtain and share with you how we’re doing things. Read more »
What Is a Business Model? Business Models Explained
Finding a problem that needs solving is often the first step of starting a business—but how will you make money? Here's where your business model comes in. Read more »
How to Create an Elevator Speech (With Examples)
A great elevator speech can spark interest in your business and hopefully lead to a deeper conversation—and maybe even a partnership or funding opportunity. Read more »
Demand Validation: How to Find Out If Customers Want to Buy Your Product
Before you start your business, it’s essential that you make sure that customers are interested in buying your product. Here's how to do it. Read more »
The History of Lean Planning
The traditional business plan simply didn't fit the needs of modern, fast-moving companies. It was time to bring a scientific approach to business planning—and so Lean Planning was born. Read more »
Going Beyond the Napkin: How Do You Know If Your Idea Is Any Good?
How do you know if your business idea is a good one? Is it worth pursuing now, or does it need to be refined and improved—or maybe forgotten about entirely? Here's how to find out. Read more »
How to Format a Business Plan
The format of your business plan will help you achieve your goals, so it’s important to think about the plan’s structure as you build it. Read more »
Easy Tips and Tricks to Help You Complete Your Business Plan
We've learned a few things that can make the business planning process much easier and faster. Here’s our list of tips, tricks, and resources. Read more »
20 Marketing Tools Every Small Business Owner Should Try
Here’s a list of marketing tools that we've had hands-on experience with and are comfortable recommending to other entrepreneurs. Read more »
11 Angel Investor Blogs You Should Be Reading
In the business world, angel investors are sometimes equated with actual angels, sent to help us fund what could not otherwise be funded. These guardian angels of innovation are responsible for bringing many new ideas to life. The thing is, many of us—most notably those seeking investment—don’t know a lot about what angel investors are... Read more »
17 Venture Capital Blogs You Should Be Reading
Whether or not you’re raising money for your business, getting advice from venture capitalists can be invaluable. But, getting in the doors of a Sand Hill Road VC in Silicon Valley can be an incredibly difficult undertaking. Fortunately, many of the top VCs share their thoughts on their blogs and are full of advice for... Read more »
Ask Me Anything! (Well, Almost Anything)
Hi. I’m Noah and I’m COO here at Palo Alto Software. In case you didn’t know, Palo Alto Software is the great company behind Bplans. Our goal has always been to help entrepreneurs succeed in business. In addition to making business planning software, we also try and help by providing all of the articles and advice... Read more »
How Do You Know If You Have a Good Idea for a Business?
This article is part of our Business Startup Guide, a curated list of our articles that will get you up and running in no time! How do you know if you have a good idea for a business? One of my biggest challenges at Palo Alto Software is figuring out which ideas to pursue and... Read more »
Our Favorite Black Friday Deals for Your Small Business
We all know that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are great days to pick up deals and get your holiday shopping done. But, what about your small business? It needs a few holiday gifts to get it ready for the New Year. Here are 10 of our favorite deals that will help boost your business... Read more »
The 5 Metrics You Need to Track for Your Subscription (SaaS) Business to Succeed
This article is part of our SaaS Business Startup Guide—a curated list of articles to help you plan, start, and grow your SaaS business! Subscription and software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses are everywhere these days. From the predictable to the downright weird, you can seemingly subscribe to anything. Subscription businesses are hot because of their recurring revenue model.... Read more »
