Thursday, October 25, 2007

Why jargon is a money loser

Business plan howlers
I spend a lot of my time studying business plans from entrepreneurs looking for investment. Many are impressive but some are ghastly. Among the worst offences are: ...

... Overly technical documents. Business plans should be written in layman’s terms and avoid all jargon and endless acronyms. They should be readable and accessible, not obscure. Inventors can get too wrapped up in their subject – they forget that there are always thousands of projects seeking money. And promoters often use long-winded gobbledegook to disguise a fundamentally bad idea. If I can’t understand the deal, I don’t get involved.

This is as true of customers as it is of investors. Techies, including sales-engineers, think that using technical terms makes them look smart. It doesn't. It just confuses customers and repels sales.

I founded Presto Vivace with the idea of replacing tech speak with clear English.

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