Bplanning.com, managed by Leonard Woods, is a poor choice for your business planning or research needs. The product is sloppy, and Woods will tell any story if he thinks it is what you want to hear. The business is strongly associated with Managing Director Woods (even spam email that I still recieve has his name on it), so I would be cautious even if you initially talk to another individual there.
I engaged them to write a business plan and conduct a feasibility study for a business idea I was looking to launch. Although they were pricey compared to other offers I recieved, I hoped to buy quality and individual attention. I recieved neither, and instead got my product late, with glaring errors, and as a final insult was simply forgotten about for weeks.
Woods assigned me a consultant to whom I sent my information and had several discussions about what needed to be done. He seemed to have some familarity with the area of business, so it was a satisfactory fit. This consultant was quickly put on another project without explination or apology.
What is troubling is that Woods told me the research had been completed for my plan. This did not match up with my discussions with the first consultant. When I asked him, the consultant said it was simply not ture.
I was then assigned a second consultant. Less qualified it seemed, but a nice enough guy. He did some work and prepared a draft. Woods said that he reviewed it and "it looked great." This, despite the fact that the draft went on for a good bit about an entirely DIFFERNT business. The cut and paste job that the consulant had done - apparently par for the course for bplanning.com - was left unfinnished. Even a cursory review should have caught that, along with the numerous other errors that were in the draft. Woods again chose to tell me something less than the full truth. He defended himself by saying that he is very busy and of course does not review draft plans. But they why say you did?
As for the financial projections, there was no attempt to root them in reality. Of course such projections are speculative in nature for any new business, but speculation and fantasy are not the same thing.
I sent my comments on the first draft to the consultant. Weeks later (well after all deadlines) without having gotten any response from the consultant, I asked Woods what was going on. He said the second consultant was "not availalbe." He offered a third consultant to finish the job.
I refused. Clearly, this is not a company that can deliver a quality product. I cut my losses and asked for half my money back. To his credit, Woods did not argue with this request.
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