Trump University is a Growing Business supported by the larger Trump Organization. We’re training 100’s of students on becoming better Entrepreneurs. Palo Alto software is used to support the efforts of our Entrepreneurship Mastery Program, an 8 week intensive program designed to assist students in formalizing their business or business idea.

What pain points within your company/division were you looking to elevate by using Business Plan Pro?
We wanted a flexible and comprehensive software package to assist our students who might be at a very early stage in their business concept or years into their ongoing business. Business Plan Pro gave us that flexibility.

What had you done in the past to help solve this problem?
This was the only solution that we implemented when putting our program together.

How did you hear about Business Plan Pro?
We conducted a web search initially to narrow down our options.

Why were you interested in using business planning software?
Flexibility

Who had a hand in choosing the software for your program?
Our executive team

How did you use the software for your program?
It’s used by our students to submit their homework. We have 7 assignments, each focused on a different section of the plan.

What was the outcome of using the software?
It’s allowed us to successfully deliver our program with maximum value.

What would you do differently regarding your program?
The initial setup is still a bit complicated. Also I’m a fan of a comprehensive Executive Summary that incorporates some elements of the entire plan as opposed to just the objectives, key actions etc.

Did the cost of the software justify the results?
ABSOLUTELY!!!

Outside of software, what other tools made your program more effective/successful, or would have made it made it more successful?
We use two books that focus on several key elements of starting a business that supports our lectures, elevator pitch session, private consultative sessions and discussion boards that makeup our Entrepreneurship Mastery Program.

What feedback on Business Plan Pro have you received from your end-users?
We’ve had overwhelmingly positive reaction to the software. It allows our students to structure a terrific plan for their business regardless of what they are doing.

Additional Comments

We have been extraordinarily happy with the Business Plan Pro software and more importantly with Palo Alto relationship. In fact we think of it as a partnership in many ways and not simply as a vendor client arrangement. Palo Alto has gone out of their way not to just support THEIR software but rather to support OUR program and the use of their software within it. They are a creative, competent and customer oriented organization that anyone looking for entrepreneurship based solutions should consult. Thanks guys!!!

Larry Morris
Trump University
New York, NY 10005
http://www.TrumpUniversity.com

Posted on June 12th, 2008 | No Comments »

“Marketing Plan Pro is absolutely the best software for creating an effective marketing plan.”

— Laura Ries

Posted on June 5th, 2008 | No Comments »

Business Plan Pro was picked in the June 2008 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the top resources that can take your company to the next level of growth and profitability:

BUSINESS PLAN PRO from Palo Alto Software is the leader in business planning software for startups and small businesses. The company offers a wealth of business planning advice plus 60 free sample business plans for companies ranging from auto repair shops to sports bars. You can download Business Plan Pro with 500 plus sample plans for only $99.95 (bplans.com/sp/businessplans.cfm)

Posted on June 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »

Q: Can you describe the product and its target audience?

A: We launched a new product called Email Center Pro, which is a Web-based service application. It’s a different product for us — we’re known primarily for our business plan software requiring installation.
Read more »

Posted on June 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »

Mary Ann Beauchamp of Cafe Yumm!

My story begins where all of our stories begin – at my birth in Tokyo, Japan in 1950, to an American serviceman and his young Japanese wife.

From an early age, circumstance, parentage and fate stepped in to shape the events, give me the passion and hand me the knowledge, tools and people I would need to help create a business my husband and I could never have envisioned in our wildest dreams.

Mark came into this process so early on that the Cafe Yumm! story is truly our story. His life and beliefs were being shaped in a different way than mine, but we emerged, together, with a similar philosophy and desire to eat great food – healthy food – and be able to feed and teach other people to do the same.

We never expected to come up with a product and business that would succinctly speak a unique language that would resonate with so many people. Our passion has become their passion, and for that, I am amazed and grateful. We are truly able to have a “lifestyle” business, where our life is supported by a business we are deeply interested in, have a lot of fun with, and most important, has given us valuable and meaningful relationships with many people with similar beliefs.

I have been fascinated with food and cooking all my life. Being born in Japan and then living in Italy when my father was stationed there for my early years set the background for my future culinary pursuits. At an age when most American children refuse to eat little beyond hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, hamburgers and spaghetti, I was dining on sushi, linguini with clam sauce, many varieties of fish, exotic vegetables and gourmet cheese. I was exposed to southern cooking – black-eyed peas, okra, mustard greens, ham hocks, gravy and my aunt’s prize-winning pecan pie.

My dad was from Kentucky and they knew how to cook – and eat. Unfortunately, when I was fourteen, all that fried chicken, gravy, steak and butter ganged up and came calling in the form of a heart attack for my father. Worse than that, he was being fed chicken-fried steak and gravy in the hospital.

I knew even at fourteen there had to be a healthier alternative to the food the hospital was serving to a sick man. I questioned how an unhealthy body could handle such unhealthy food, much less get well. I realized at that point that we, as an incredibly abundant society, knew very little regarding nourishment and how our food choices got us in trouble in the first place. But at that age, I didn’t really know what to do.

This quandary just remained with me, quietly, until I met Mark at the University of Alaska.

Mark was recruited from southern California to play basketball for the U of A in the early 1970s. I was a cheerleader there, following my dad’s decision to move to Alaska after his Army career was over. Mark had the odd habit of eating salads and sandwiches with sprouts on them when the rest of the team was gorging on steak and burgers. He had been interested in food and health since he was a young boy, reading many of the “pioneers” in what was then the new health-food movement coming out of California. The day we met he was carrying a sprout sandwich! It was a match made in food heaven.

Later, when we decided to become vegetarians, our friends were aghast – “What will you eat?!” Knowing what a foodie I was, they seemed to think it wouldn’t take long for me to get over this very bad idea. Actually, the foodie in me pushed me to create all manner of new things with a different set of boundaries and rules than what I had lived by before. One of the sauces I came up with for us and our two-year old daughter during my search for all things healthy and delicious was the now famous “Yumm! Sauce.” In my first food venture, I made my own lunch with this sauce. People would see it, ask for a taste and, almost without exception, do a little knee dip, roll their eyes, and say “Yumm! What is this?” From there, I opened a deli and wine shop and my customers demanded this dish be placed on the menu. When this little layered bowl of rice, Yumm! Sauce, black beans and salsa became the most popular item on my otherwise very gourmet menu, we felt we were truly on to something unique. People wanted it for the taste and texture – it was a plus that it was also healthy. We eventually changed the name of our deli to Cafe Yumm!

In 1999, we opened a second location, and added a third in 2002, all within three miles of the other. In 2000, Mark joined the business, leaving a well-paying career as a managing broker for a large real estate company. We decided to take a leap of faith, believing in our product and ourselves. It was sometimes scary living on credit cards and hope during the number of years it took to get this venture off the ground. When the third café opened, it was a success from the beginning and in a location which provided a huge influx of new customers. We stopped most advertising because “word of mouth” was working so well, we almost couldn’t handle the amount of business we were generating.

At this point, more and more people were inquiring about franchise possibilities, but we didn’t give it a thought. It was only after we sat down and talked about what we wanted to accomplish, both philosophically and financially, that we knew a “mom and pop” operation wouldn’t take us there. We began to receive inquiries as to investment opportunities as well as employment inquiries from highly skilled professionals wanting to work for us. After being in what he called “franchise denial,” Mark began to take the steps toward that possibility. For one, we really wanted to get this food out to more people, and the only way to do that was by franchising.

When Mark got serious, Business Plan Pro was the perfect tool for us. Using Business Plan Pro helped us plot out a strategy for our existing business as well as realize our dreams for other stores and product lines. It showed us where our assumptions needed adjustment and really focused us on milestones and the financial realities as well as the possibilities.

Today, we own three Cafe Yumm! stores in Eugene, Oregon, and a franchisor entity – Beau Delicious! International, LLC – which opened a company-owned Cafe Yumm!, newly designed with beautiful, environmentally sustainable materials. A franchise store is opening in Springfield, Oregon, in November, and another franchise is scheduled to open in Bend, Oregon, in November as well. Serious inquiries are underway for Corvallis, Portland and Boise.

Cafe Yumm! won the 2007 “Environmental Values” business award, beating out 18 other nominees. Our Yumm! Sauce is produced by Rising Sun Farms in Phoenix, Oregon, and is distributed statewide to 70 grocery stores, including major retailers Whole Foods and Market of Choice. The success of our Yumm! Sauce has encouraged us to introduce some new products as well. Look for them soon.

From a homemade sauce created in my kitchen for our family, a huge network of people and friends has been brought together to help us achieve a dream.

We are the dreamers – Business Plan Pro helped us realize our vision.

– Mary Ann Beauchamp

Posted on June 2nd, 2008 | Comments Off

May 6, 2008

One of the BIG pains that I know many of you face is how to deal with email - especially email handled by more than one person. Maybe you have a “sales@” email box or a “questions@” email box. Right now you might have one person assigned to answer or filter through this email, or you might have a few people doing it.

The challenge is that some email might be missed (there goes a $10,000 sale) or a customer or prospect is emailed more than once by more than one person in your company. What a pain. How to deal with it?

Read more »

Posted on May 6th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Palo Alto Software—the folks behind the super-successful Business Plan Pro software—are launching a new web-based email solution that solves a vexing problem: How to manage shared inboxes for easy access and response to customer emails sent to a group address such as info@yourcompany.com. Email Center Pro puts all client email in one place, and makes it simple to route and answer. It helps prevent duplicate answers, or no answers and eliminates shuffling emails from person to person and PC to PC. Email Center Pro lets you see all emails exchanged between a customer and your sales and service staff, offering a 360-degree view you probably don’t have now. You can assign emails to others, add notes and comments for internal reference, tag emails into categories, and more. Five packages range from free to $149/month. Looks like a terrific solution from people with a track record of success. —D Kehrer, Business.com Editor

Posted on April 22nd, 2008 | No Comments »

Newest product categorizes, assigns and allows group viewing of incoming email and responses- saving time, resources and ensuring the end of lost email.

Eugene, OR (April 21, 2008) – Palo Alto Software (www.paloalto.com) today announced the launch of its newest software as a service (SaaS) Email Center Pro.

Email Center Pro is the latest innovation from Palo Alto Software allowing for the management of shared inboxes and providing easy, secure access to all customer email – ensuring that inquiries will always get fast and accurate responses.

Email Center Pro solves a common problem in small business. It helps a business run better by making it easier to manage group email accounts like info@yourcompany.com or help@yourcompany.com. Shared email accounts are often mismanaged. One client’s email slips through the cracks. Another client gets three unrelated replies with different messages. These are the kind of real-world problems that Palo Alto Software struggled with before developing this system for its own internal use. It is still in use at the company today.

Read more »

Posted on April 21st, 2008 | No Comments »

Alan Gleeson, managing director of Palo Alto Software UK, will be presenting on the following topic: “Will my idea work?” at the BStartup Exhibition at London Excel at Friday, April 25 at 12.30PM (Hall 3). His presentation will be focused on the importance of sales forecasting when compiling a business plan as well as highlighting some of the key areas to focus on in any business plan.

We will also be exhibiting at the show (stand 810), so please be sure to call by to say hello if you are in the vicinity. The BStartup Exhibition claims to be the UK’s largest exhibition for people starting and expanding a small business. We have exhibited at BStartup for a number of years and have enjoyed meeting so many people looking to set up a new business.

Posted on April 21st, 2008 | No Comments »

Portland, Or. - April 13th, 2008

At the 17th Annual New Venture Championship this past weekend in Portland, Palo Alto Software awarded Best Written Plan to Klymit™ who has developed a patent-pending, revolutionary form of adjustable insulation technology, which utilizes inert, noble gases. Nate Alder and Ben Maughan were on hand to accept the award from Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software, as well as a check for $1,500.

Klymit also won the Tektronix Mini-Trade Show award and tied for co-champions of the 2008 New Venture Championship.

Palo Alto Software would like to congratulate Klymit and all of the participants of the event.

Posted on April 14th, 2008 | No Comments »