The people who are reading your business plan are likely to have already read hundreds if not thousands before yours, so it has to be written correctly. By correctly I mean outstanding and unique. Many people try to oversimplify the business plan, and even more try to over-complicate it.

The Business plan should be constructed with a maximum of 15 pages.

There are many different ways to outline the business plan within these 15 pages, but the following is one example which should help in the understanding of it’s basic layout.

-This business plan consists of 5 major points excluding a Title page and Table of Contents.-

-Part 1- Executive Summary  1-1.5 pages

The Executive Summary is a broad description of your business and your plans. The most important details are given here, but not descriptive to the point in which it takes up multiple pages. Many examples can be found online elsewhere.

-Part 2- Brief History  0.5 pages

It is here that you write about how you came up with the idea, and include background details.

-Part 3- Product or Innovation Description  1-1.5 pages
The title is self-explanatory, but you cannot forget to keep it summarized, as you do not want to overwhelm the one reading it with an abundance of extraneous facts and details that they do not care about. Mos do not read the entire plan, but instead skim it for all important information, so do not fill it with empty space.

-Part 4- Markets and Competitors  2-3 pages
At this point you include how you can outperform your competitor, or what you bring that you can at least survive in the market with. Included in this section is also the Product Operation, being what you need to carry through, and how you will execute your plan. Start ups are unlikely to compete with price, so you need to develop something else you will compete with. What benefit does your product bring to customers?

-Part 5- Management and It’s Objective  2 pages
This is where you include something similar to- “We would like ______. We will give a return of ______. at __(time)__ and will have achieved_______”

This part should explain the sales and revenue forecast, the profit and loss forecast, and the general structure of the business management as well, but most importantly the capital spending plan which is all summarized with the above example, but that does not serve enough information alone.

-Additional Information to be included-

• Risk-How will your company survive after market saturation, once most people have already bought your product? What other challenges will you face. (There are always challenges and risks.)

• Target Audience- Where will you begin? Start ups are not created as international corporations, so where will you begin geographically, and also demographically, what is your target audience?

• Goal- What goal do you have for the company after a certain time period?

• Future Trends- What is the future forecast for your product/company and the future trends that you predict will affect your market

Your business plan MUST be:

• Realistic
• Entertaining/Not boring
• Different/Unique
• Understandable

Last night the jury for the ESADE Entrepreneurship Club Elevator Pitch Contest, comprising of professors and VCs, has chosen the following ten projects from 26 applicants. These ten projects will give a 3min pitch on Monday, 31st of November 2009, at 6.30pm at the ESADE Forum.

1. Ad deliverers - Eduard Cansado
2. AFADS - AbdelAziz
3. Aircraft on Ground - Pedro Martinho
4. Jet A Suits - Marc Winter
5. Cell Tag - Eric King
6. Houseactioneer – Alfredo Paul
7. Microfinance for Profit - Chinmoy
8. New in Town - Ivaylo Vasilev
9. Park IT - Joan Muni
10. Mobile Payment System - Tobias Caldeweyher (myself)

We will be closely watched by students, alumnis, VC’s, professors, IESE and local entrepreneurs. If things turn out well a project might be picked up by an investor and the business takes off. This provides a great opportunity and it will definitely be a great event. The event will be followed by a networking cocktail for all the participants. The event costs 12€.

I have been writing a business plan since 2003 to participate in the LiveWIRE business plan awards. I won the grand prize for the livewire participant category in 2006/2007. I have also participated in the think big business plan competition. Considering I am going to submit another business plan, I thought it would be appropriate for me to share what I know. For starters I’ll just share the purpose and the structure of a business plan. I’ll cover other topics some other time.

As a disclaimer, I am not an academic business student. I do not have a degree in business or administration. I studied mathematics and science. My knowledge of business plans or business is from reading books, internet resources, participating in courses, competitions, and doing business.

First thing before writing a business plan… Choosing a business idea. Your Business Ideas should have 3 main criteria:

• Something you love to do (Passion)
• Something your good at or you know a lot about (Skill)
• Something that you can make money (Market)

You have to have all 3 or else it won’t last long. Don’ t care about how much it would cost to startup, because if you have all three, you won’t have problems that you can’t handle.

There a lot of purposes to creating a business plan, among them are:

• to put ideas from inside your head on paper, then you can start organizing ideas in concept maps or stages, so that you know what you need to do to start and see what else is missing.
• as a road map to a startup business, or  an ongoing business.
• to present to partners, investors and bankers for financing purposes.
• to present to your company or employees to share with them their part or purpose in the whole picture.
• or to join a competition.

The Structure of a Business Plan Varies, but most academic books would show it as follows:

1. Executive Summary – This is the first part read, but often the last part written. This is the movie preview. Most judges, bankers, or investors may not have the luxury to read the whole business plan. So make sure this part makes the reader want to read more.
2. About the Company – Here is where people describe their business. starting with the Mission and objectives. if it is an ongoing business, write about the milestones and achievements. If it is a startup then write about the planned milestones and also the startup costs.
3. Products or Service – Describe the products or service. How is it different or unique to everything else in the market, or how does it solve a problem. Recently, here is where people would put how their product and service cannot be duplicated easily. i.e. the use of intellectual property.
4. Market and Industry Analysis – Describe who would be interested in your product. Never say everyone, because it rarely ever is. Write up the market segmentation – age group, gender, occupation, geographical location, etc. Describe your competitors, what do they do and how you are different. Here is where you would use SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis to see the things that your company does compared to others. Write up what the market factors that will lead to your success in terms of Political, Economical, Social, and Technology (PEST)
5. Market Strategy – Describe how you would reach the aforementioned target. What medium of marketing and advertising you would use, and when you would use it. It would be nice to be able to put marketing calendar and budget at this point.
6. Human Resources/Organization Strategy – Describe who are the people who would be working in the company. Show the organization structure, The positions roles and responsibilities. If you have people working with you then write up a brief description of them. If not, then the qualities and the qualifications required of those position.
7. Operations Strategy and Business Model – Describe how the company is going to be operated, and how it makes money.
8. Financial Analysis – Show the calculation of money going in and going out in terms of Startup Costs, Sales forecast, Profit and Loss, Cash flow forecast, Balance Sheet and Break even analysis.
9. Future Plans/Exit Strategy – Describe what the company will do in the future – Expanded, be bought and sold, become public, etc.

I will be covering some of this topics in future posts. Previously, I have had the pleasure of facilitating a Business writing Workshop at the LiveWIRE Business Plan Series. The following is the facebook photo album of the workshop. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102586&id=550578077&l=e876bd84c4

Other Resources that you might be interested in:

-search for business plan in:

• http://www.google.com
• http://www.howstuffworks.com/business-plans.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_plan

-check resources in:

• http://www.bplans.com
• http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com

-read books

• Kiyosaki – “Guide to investing”. The first part of the books he explains about business systems.
• Michael e. Gerber – “e-myth”. This book is about how to work on business and not stuck in business.
• Business plan for dummies or idiots. Hey, its a simple guide.

-Courses:

• iCentre
• LiveWIRE Brunei
• Entrepreneurial Development Centre

This post has been moved.  CLICK HERE to view it.

by Natalie Bradley

In honor of Thanksgiving, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss giving and how this actually leads to getting more brides. This may be a whole new approach in your marketing to Brides … but it works… so give it a try!

When most wedding vendors are saying “gimme,gimme, gimme” in all their marketing and business information, set yourself apart for success and ask “What can I give you?” This is a MUCH more attractive form of marketing to brides and you’ll get their attention so much faster…. and you’ll book more brides too! Here are a few ways to give to get more brides starting today in your wedding business…

Three huge problems with SBA guaranteed loans, they are now guaranteed up to 90%. In a word, the bankers who are lending, very few, even with a 90% guaranty, cannot possibly lose any money and why aren’t they lending more under these guaranties? A rhetorical question, however those that are lending are motivated in two ways, both of which spell real trouble for the borrower.

1. They frequently lend you too much, upping your request, suggesting they could qualify you for more so why not take it, and who can say NO. So the happy new entrepreneur enriched by a loan larger than he needs and cannot pay back, happily goes into business, now more likely to fail because he borrowed too much and will eventually choke on debt service. A recipe for disaster, thank you Mr. Banker for your wisdom and greed. It will not be long before you are enjoying your guaranty and your borrower is worrying about how to save his house.

2. Then there is the other end of the spectrum, the banker who decides he will be conservative and counter differs the borrowers request offering him far less than he asked for, which of course the borrower reluctantly accepts and then defaults because it is not enough… brilliant.

3. The third common sin I see, is the ridiculous business plan that has no chance of success yet because of the 90% guaranty, the banker is willing to fund it, after all he has limited or no risk.

Since there is little likelihood that some bankers will overcome these bad practices, and since in the end it is the borrower who will pay the price with his personal guaranty, it is the borrower who must be aware of these issues and employ the following protective strategies.

a. Borrow only exactly what you really believe you will need, too much will cause too high a debt service and will erode your cash.

b. Walk away from a loan that is too little, underfunding is guaranteed failure as it will prevent you from implementing your strategies and will force you into failure.

c. A poorly constructed business plan that is unlikely to succeed is built in disaster. Have someone with business experience check it out, make you defend your assumptions and projections, make certain there is a chance for success. Of course make certain your cash flow pro-forma is realistic.

Your loan and the success of your business is your responsibility not the bankers. In fact the banker may have a different set of objectives to fulfill. He is renting you money with a 90% guaranty from the SBA. Be careful, his opinion may not be in your best interest. Do not sow the seeds for tomorrow’s workout.

It’s that time of year. Yes, holidays, winding down – one hopes – and looking forward to the start of a new year. It’s never too early to begin laying down the foundations of a business, marketing or personal plan for 2010. Here’s a simple R-E-C-I-P-E.

Take a RETROSPECTIVE look at 2009. Look at the good, the not-so-good. You’ve lived (almost) another 12 months and you’ve experienced (almost) another 12 months. That’s a year’s worth of wisdom. You’ve probably learned much more than you realize and you can put that all to good use in your plan for 2010.

EVALUATE the successes. What were your goals at the beginning of the year? Did you have any? If not, resolve to change that immediately! How does your year end appear to be shaping up relative to those goals? What were the successes in 2009. Were they planned or unplanned? Write them down and figure out what you achieved. Plan to do it again if possible.

CELEBRATE your successes. Give yourself a pat on the back! Even the smallest achievement is step in the right direction. It’s something to build on. Experience is a success in itself, so at minimum, you’ve got that to celebrate.

INVESTIGATE the failures. I hate to use that word, but I couldn’t think of a better one. What didn’t work as planned in 2009? If you had a plan and something didn’t work out, try to understand why. Accidents happen. The unforeseen happens. The saying "the best laid plans of mice and men…" exists for a reason, as does "if at first you don’t succeed…". You now have the benefit of hindsight.

Begin your PLAN for 2010. Yes, I know 2009 isn’t over, but it’s almost December and the year end will be here before you know it. Your plan should include measurable goals (see A SIMPLE GAME PLAN). Looking back over this year, include possible pitfalls you need to watch out for. Try and add a goal that you didn’t have this year. On your calendar, put a short-term objective for each month and a method by which you can measure success. Don’t wait until the end of next year to get yourself back on track. If 2009 didn’t go as expected, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and plan to try, try again.

ENJOY yourself. It’s the holidays. Season of goodwill and time to be grateful for all the big and little things in our lives. Next year will be a challenge, but you’re going into the New Year with a plan and a whole 12 months of additional experience and wisdom. Let bygones be bygones and resolve to begin 2010 with a clean slate and a whole year of potential.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving (and Holiday Season)!

This past week the NCW met to review their completed business/strategic development plan. They are scheduled to meet with the mayor next week to present the plan to him. Once the outcome of that meeting is public knowledge, we’ll be sure to post it…

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Having a strategy and a business plan is essential to ensure the continued success of your Internet business.

You should create your business plan immediately after you have created and decided on your business strategy. Planning is the ‘how to’ of your strategy and will tell you how to achieve the goals you have set out for your business.

Start the business plan by using the categories (only if appropriate) below and do some brainstorming with other players or partners in your business or if you are on your own, a big piece of paper and colour pens will do the trick.

Here are 11 categories to consider.

1. Selecting your Market and Product

To be more successful on the internet I would suggest (as many others do) that you identify firstly the market that you would want to operate in then find the products to sell into that market.

Identifying an existing market is always the preference, unless you have a unique product that you would like to introduce into a brand new market. This is of course the more difficult, but not impossible, option.

Key question: New market or existing market?

1. Product Strategy

Decide how you will market and advertise your product.

Key question: With my current knowledge which marketing and/or advertising strategy should I go for first?

1. Target Market and Competitors

Identify your target market.

Key questions: Who are they? (Age level, skill level etc) Who are the customers that already exist in this market? Does your product strategy cover these potential customers?

1. Economics

It is essential for you to understand your market and product costs. Research to see if the market you want to be in is economically viable. Can you sell your product in this market?

Key questions: At what price will my product be put on the market? Can my target market afford this product?

1. Implementation

Here you translate your market and product strategies into a set of tactics that eventually reads like your ‘to do list’.

The most important aspect of your implementation plan is set realistic timelines, continually review these dates and adjust where appropriate.

Key question: By when do I want my product launched?

1. Marketing Strategy

This is all about getting customers to your web site.

Key questions: How will I get traffic to my web site? How will I choose which of the traffic building methods to use?

It is important for you to choose perhaps only two traffic methods to start with and focus all efforts on those before you embark on adding more. Once you have mastered a technique and have it running well, then and only then add another method.

1. Resources and Tools

Identify the tools you need to start off your business. Use as many free tools as possible to keep your costs initially to a minimum.

Key question: What tools do I need to start? (Example, word processing)

1. Finance

Understand your financial situation thoroughly before you start. You do not want to get your business into financial difficulty.

Key question: What is my budget?

1. Risks

Make a list of any key risks that you can think of that might influence or impact your business.

Key question: What are my key risks?

10. Evaluate and Review

Identify the areas that you need to monitor and evaluate on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.

Key question: What do I need to monitor and with what frequency?

11. Growth Strategy

What will you need to do to grow your business? Make a note of any ideas that come to mind and continually evaluate to see if the idea is still valid.

Key question: How will I grow my business?

Remember, no two business plans are alike. Use categories only where you see fit and last but not the least, business plans change as your knowledge and your business grows, so adapt it as you go along.

If your business has been essentially the same size for several years, inertia has probably become a much stronger deterrent to the growth of your company than any economic downturn.

Where’s the incentive for bright, ambitious younger people to want to work for your company? 

What’s the impetus for investing in new technology, systems, and approaches?

Why would a prospective customer realistically expect that you would be able to handle a big account/project? (trust you?) (believe you could?)

What will prevent you from becoming bored someday after doing essentially the same job (tasks) year after year after year?

If these questions resonate for you, ask yourself what size your company would need to be to

• be more exciting, less routine?
• require that new skills be acquired and new ideas learned?
• generate markedly increased net profit (income) for you and others?
• attract interesting well paying customers/projects?
• provide career opportunities for hard working dependable employees?
• increase your options for succession when the time comes?
• help momentum replace inertia? 

The transformation from inertia to momentum often involves expansion of the leadership team for an infusion of energy. Start there. Imagine the leadership team that you would need to truly break inertia. Do the math. What would their compensation packages add up to? What percentage of the company’s budget should be invested in executive/management compensation? OK. What size will your company need to be to have replaced inertia with momentum?

I’ll bet it isn’t incremental change like the +2-5% goals in many annual business plans.

Small businesses new to the Internet often tend to make the same mistakes when trying to establish their online presence. CODANK Charlotte Web Design suggests that you conduct thorough research before embarking on any web site design or hosting projects for your company in order to avoid these common mistakes.

Below are a few web design and hosting mistakes that are common:

Placing too many pictures and animations on your website
Try to refrain from cluttering your company’s website with too many images and pictures. Search engine crawlers are not able to collect enough information to index your web site if you do not have text. Do not get wrapped up in having a nice looking site and forget about the content.

Ignoring bandwidth restrictions
Do not place large files, documents, or photos for visitors to view because it will make it difficult to navigate around the web site. Pictures take up more bandwidth than text does.

Not focusing on Search Engine Optimization
The most seen mistake is when a company builds a web site that ignores search engine needs. Be sure to hire a SEO professional who is qualified to help you take advantage of this great marketing tool.

Lack of a business plan
Construct a definite business plan and stick with it from beginning to end. Even if your progress starts off slowly, do not abandon the plan. Each element will help your company in the long run.

Be sure to define your target market and invest in advertising that will properly grab their attention.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

So I had this idea for a website for talent, but I’ve never started a business before and have no idea about web developing…What next?

I Googled starting up a business and found Businesslink London, which had some very useful topics on everything business, now I already knew about limited companies, sole traders and partnerships as part of my Accountancy studies but not the complex issues that I would have to factor as a business owner. I printed of their checklist for starting up a company and got cracking!

Where to start? So much information…Business name…That’s always a good start. It was going to be web-based so needed an easy to pronounce name, rolls of the lips and be visually appealing. So  I pondered for days, Talentspotter, Hoopla!, Medarts…Nothing. Everything I thought of sounded ridiculous. So needed to brainstorm with some like-minded people. I went over to a music producer friend of mine and over the backing tracks of R Kelly’s R album we talked…I told him about the concept, who I was targeting and my ambition for it. When we had finished talking he paused, swiveled in his chair and began to produce some artwork on his computer.

Just da endz was born…I liked it at the time as the group I was targeting knew what it meant…Show’s how much I knew about marketing then huh.

I wanted to base my business on the Virgin brand of businesses, have a main company and this concept plus further acquisitions under its umbrella. I called it Kimron Media.

Now I had the names it was a case of registering both companies at companies house to protect my brands. I searched for forming a company and found loads and at different prices. I based both companies at my home address (be careful if you rent your home as most Tenancy Agreements don’t allow this) and assigned my girlfriend as company secretary.

Wow…It was taking shape I now own two business names. Next! Business plan, by far the most important thing I have done to date. I wont stress enough how many opportunities this has lead to. I was working at a Media company in Paddington then so knew I had the right resources in terms of research to hand…and for free! I spent the next two weeks leaving the office at 11 pm most nights, printing, writing and info gathering. It took another two weeks to compile all my research. I remember sitting in the office with my folder, notepad and printouts thinking “bloody hell!”

I had no idea of the format I had to write it in so searched for buiness plan templates. In 2007 no one was doing what I wanted to do…Not even Myspace! So I had no comparisons to base it upon. It took me 4 months to write the full plan that came in just short of 52 pages! I knew I needed to make it more concise but by now you should know I like to go into detail.

100 Supporters

Lately, I’ve been helping several friends start their businesses. While writing up their business plans I developed a step by step networking plan to establish their first 100 supporters:

1. On average each person is connected to about 100 friends, family, and close acquaintances. You will need to reach out to these people, let them know about your business and ask them if they need your services, then ask if they know anyone that may need your services, and would they make introductions to their personal network for your business. Once you connect with everyone you know, stay in contact with them either through Facebook, other social networking sites, email, or good old fashion phone calls. If you think about it, if an average person is connected to 100 people and each of them are connected to another 100 people, that’s a really good pool of prospects to establish your business.

2. Next, reach out to your neighbors, walk around the neighborhood, pass out flyers about your business and send out  postcard about your business like realtors. Place a vinyl business sign on your car, let people know about your business, and start getting to know your neighbors and develop friendships. Every time you connect with someone, keep in touch with them on social networking sites, and/or mommy groups and/or any other social event/groups.

3. Continue to reach out to your community by providing free workshops, volunteering and joining organizations like  a church, temple, community center and professional association. Continue to befriend people and stay in touch with them. 

4. Reach out to your neighborhood businesses, offer to help promote each others businesses, you can offer to place a free ad on your flyers, or wear their business T-shirt during community events, and in return you place a contest poster or  win a free offer for your services/business (drawing contest box by the register). Remember to stay connected with new people, you want to continue to add to your list of contacts, prospects, and ever-growing base of friends who will refer your services.

5. Ask your personal network and clients for testimonials, written, and/or even better a video that you can share online and have spread virally to expand your network.

You want to quickly establish your first 100 supporters, these are people who will share, promote, be excited about you and your business. This special group of people will tell everyone, word of mouth, online, and continue to sing your praises to their personal network and many others. In essence they are your walking billboards! Your goals is to develop clients into friends and friends into clients.

If you would like me to share more ideas specific to your business needs please contact me or just ask in the comment section. How’s the plan working for you? Does the plan work for your business? Do you have any suggestions?

When one door closes another opens!

John

Photo by shioshvili

Sharyn

Last week I had the opportunity to return to one of my alma maters, University of Baltimore, to attend an event hosted by the Public Relations Society of America’s Maryland chapter. “10 Questions to Ask When Developing a Social Media Strategy” presented by Sean Carton of idfive was exactly the new information I was looking for. I’m eager to keep learning more and more about social media and how it can be used in a business capacity. What I liked about Sean’s presentation was that he spent a little time on the basics of social media and then he posed questions that really made me think and evaluate the strategy that we have in place for DECO. I was smiling and even laughing out loud throughout the presentation because Sean was able to share his 10 tips in a humorous, yet informative manner. Below I’ve highlighted a few of the questions he posed.

from fresherthan.com

Why chose social media?

Don’t think jumping on the bandwagon is a good enough answer. Just because everyone under 25 is doing it, make sure your organization is doing it for the right reason. You have to know your audience, or have a desire to build stronger relationships with that audience. Maybe you’re an organization that attracts a certain niche or you do something better than your competitors. We found that within our organization that offers services like economic analysis, it solutions, GIS consulting, business incubation, small business development and education, that we have a story to tell and we wanted to make sure the region was hearing about it.

Are you ready to give up control?

This is something that can be tricky. You can’t control what people say about your organization. And today, it’s easier and easier for people to say what they want in forums, twitter, blogs, and really anywhere. So don’t be scared of that, join the conversation. The whole point of social media is that it should be a two-way conversation. As Sean pointed out during his presentation, the truth can hurt, but it may be worth hearing.

How do you plan to get users to visit?

You can build it, but will they come? How will you spread the word? We’ve found that the content we create on our blog can help generate tidbits for our quarterly newsletter and twitter account. We’re asking university and business partners to help promote our blog and we’re sending relevant blog posts to clients hoping they will be enlightened or even share the information with other colleagues. Since the blog’s launch we have received more and more comments and also had our articles picked up internally at TU. You could say our approach is a little more on the grass roots side right now.

Who’s responsible for maintenance?

This is the tricky, but critical part of an organization’s social media strategy. At DECO we didn’t want to jump in head first and just hope the blog would work. We spent an entire summer talking with our team in DECO to find out who was interested in working with the blog, impressions of social media, and developing policies. We reviewed other blogs for what we liked and didn’t like, and then started building the framework. Since the launch, we formed a user group and meet monthly to talk about our posting schedule. This helps to keep all the contributors in the loop of the expectations. Editing and posting the articles then becomes a pretty easy task. It’s a good idea to make the maintenance part of someone’s job responsibilities so that it gets done. It’s also important to establish criteria of your social media, allow autonomy to your staff who oversees the social media and integrate it with all the forms of communication you are currently using.

Hearing this presentation gave me a few things to think about and I have a better idea of how to evaluate our social media strategy and make our presence stronger.

Click here to view the presentation

If you’re one of the 58% of Americans who have considered starting a business but don’t know how to proceed, help is at hand. The following steps will show you how to transform your dream of business ownership into reality.
1. Figure out what you want to do. You’re not alone if you know that you want to work for, job, yourself but aren’t yet sure what exactly you want to do. Start by making a list of your interests, talents, and skills. Talk to your family and friends and begin brainstorming ideas. The sooner you begin your quest, the sooner you will find the answers.
2. Start saving now. It is wise to have at least one year’s, job, worth of living, job, expenses in the bank before you quit your day job. It will take time to make a new business profitable, and it could take longer than you expect, job, . Start saving now so you can be prepared for the worst while you hope for the best.
3. Educate yourself. You can take classes through your local Small Business Administration (www.SBA.org) or seek free small business counseling from the Service Corp. of Retired Executives (www.score.org). Business books and magazines are also essential, and so are industry-specific trade associations.
4. Utilize a checklist. There are many tasks involved in starting a business and using a checklist will help you keep your priorities in order. Take it a step further by adding target completion dates to each task.
5. Formulate a plan. No matter what business you decide to start, it’s crucial that you outline a plan for success. A formal business plan is best, but at the very least begin by mapping out your goals and ideas. Committing your plan to paper will help you anticipate the direction of your business and identify potential weaknesses.
6. Obtain licenses and permits. Business license requirements vary by state and county, so check with your county offices to find out what the requirements are for your area. In most cases you will pay an annual fee to renew your license ranging from $50 to $300.
7. Start part-time. There are numerous advantages to starting your business part-time. If you can find a way to keep your day job while you launch your venture, you will have the opportunity to test your business model and make sure it’s viable while you evaluate your passion for the business and determine if it’s something you would truly enjoy on a full-time basis. You can also reinvest any profits from the part-time venture into the future of, job, the business, and may even be able to take advantage of home business tax deductions at the end of the year (talk to your accountant for assistance).
8. Dedicate the time it takes. Planning your business will take free time from your day, but if it’s something you want badly enough, it can be worth the sacrifice. You can get up an hour earlier, skip the evening news, or work during your lunch hour. This extra work time will also prepare you for the first two years of business ownership, which typically require long hours.
9. Develop a backup plan. Many businesses fail due to under-capitalization. Forecast the cash that you need for both your business and your living expenses and have backup sources for money in case you get into a jam.
10. Don’t take the leap until you’re ready. Before you even think about quitting your day job, make sure you have everything in place: a solid business plan, enough capital to make the business successful, a savings account to cover personal living expenses, insurance (medical, dental, liability and any other required policies), a thorough understanding of what you’re in for, a backup plan if things don’t go as expected, and the passion to make it succeed.
Unfortunately there are no guarantees in business. You could have a rock solid business plan but be hit with a natural disaster, new competition in your area, or other uncontrollable circumstances. As long as you don’t invest more than you can afford to lose and your business is carefully-planned, you can minimize many of the risks and increase your chances of success.
Stephanie Chandler is the author of “The Business Startup Checklist and Planning Guide: Seize Your Entrepreneurial Dreams!” and founder of http://www.BusinessInfoGuide.com, a directory of resources for entrepreneurs. Subscribe to the newsletter for hot tips and small business tools by sending an e-mail to Newsletter@BusinessInfoGuide.com.

How does your company roll out its annual business plans?  Do you get a huge spreadsheet with every cost possible, including toilet paper usage, broken down by accountants after weeks of calculations?  Is there a 95 page Powerpoint presentation that rivals any insomnia methods that exist today?  I really despise those techniques, mostly because of all the waste our leadership and accountants put into a plan that was usually irrelevant by the time the starting month began.  But that was only after I was enlightened by  the lean 7 wastes.  However, even before that I was generally uninspired by this method.

If you lead a group of people and share the same view of uninspiring business plans, I encourage you to try playing “catchball” with your group. Catchball, as described by Pascal Dennis here, is the best method I’ve have found to truly engage your team and achieve astonishing business results.  It’s a crucial part of Policy Deployment that Bruce has been blogging about.  (here, here, and here.)

The name catchball comes from the concept of taking ideas and playing catch with your team, unearthing solutions to a problem.  Within policy deployment, this problem is the large business goal and the outcome is a series of activities intended to achieve that goal. 

The key is that the team members at the lowest levels are the ones developing the solutions.  This creates intensely motivated teams with unbelievable buy in to the business plan.  It increases morale because people are working on what they determined to be the important items.  It all rolls up into outstanding business results and a high level of personal satisfaction for the team.

The best way I’ve achieved catchball success is to start with an A3 with the background information that describes the business problem, like increase sales by 15%, and the gap analysis portion completed.  Then turn it over to the team involved to analyze  problem cause(s).  Let them work on it for a couple days then get back together to scrub the information.  I’ve used 5 why’s, stand in the circle, data mining, and other methods here to capture the causes of the problem.  Once a consensus is achieved on the cause, then send the team back to develop the corrective actions.  Give them a couple days and meet again to review.  Once again achieve consensus.  Complete the A3 with the chosen actions. 

A crucial point here is to make sure that both the leadership and the team agree upon the path chosen and both take equal accountability for the outcome.  Now go to work!  This may entail creating additional A3’s and additional catchballs as you progress towards the goal.  Remember to get together and monitor progress on the A3 at frequent intervals once they are in place. 

A little warning is required here.  It all sounds great but it requires a huge amount of work and patience achieving consensus and playing catchball, but it is worth it.  You must fight the urge to just delegate the tasks to your team when you get impatient and the pressures are mounting.  You must “give up control” and fight the Amercian mentality of “I’m the boss and I’m the smartest person!”  You’ll also encounter team members that don’t want the accountability of developing solutions!  Don’t be discouraged by these things as you play ball.

If your business plans are uninspiring and you are looking for a better way, go through the LEI webinar with Pascal and give catchball a try.  You’ll be truly amazed at the results for the business and the personal satisfaction of your people!

If you decide to give catchball a try be sure to let me know how it works out!  zleanone@gmail.com

Bryan

Message from MBASA:

Dear All,

It gives us immense pleasure to announce the launch of Cerebration 2010 and invite you to participate in the Global Business Plan Competition. Cerebration is now in its sixth year and is already one of the top-notch premier business plan competitions among leading business schools around the world.

The competition gives participants the opportunity to work on live cases based on 3 global organizations that are seeking solutions to their complex business challenges. The competition begins with registration, where participants form a team and choose their preferred Case Sponsor based on the Case Summaries on our website. At the close of the registration period, complete Case Documents of the preferred Case are mailed to all participating teams based on which they will write comprehensive business plans and compete for a chance to present their strategy to the top management of their chosen Sponsor.

So if you think you are ready for a true battle of mind, mettle, and matter, register now. This competition is open to all Graduate level students. We look forward to your participation.

With best regards,

Team Cerebration 2010

NUS Business School, Singapore

Email: cerebration@nus.edu.sg

URL: http://nus.edu.sg/cerebration

CON UNA DELLE SCUOLE PIU’ PRESTIGIOSE IN ITALIA

LIVELLI DI SPECIALIZZAZIONE RICONOSCIUTI DIRETTAMENTE DA RICHARD BANDLER

A CHI E’ RIVOLTA LA SCUOLA PER COACH

La scuola prestigiosa di alta formazione di Daniela Moretti è diretta a chi vuole diventare coach professionista ed è ideale per chi:

• vuole diventare leader della propria vita acquisendo e applicando con scioltezza tutte le tecniche di PNL
• decide di fare l’investimento più utile per costruirsi una vita straordinaria per se stesso e per le persone importanti accanto
• vuole approfondire la PNL per raggiungere risultati eccezionali nel proprio lavoro
• vuole costruirsi un primo o secondo lavoro esercitando la professione di coach e formatore di PNL professionista, mettendo le proprie competenze a disposizione di aziende e privati. La professione di coach e formatore PNL dona grandi soddisdazioni personali ed economiche

CHI E’ IL COACH PROFESSIONISTA

Il coach è un facilitatore: una persona che aiuta i propri clienti (privati o aziende) a raggiungere gli obiettivi che desiderano attraverso strumenti e tecniche di programmazione neuro-linguistica, una neuro-scienza che si è ampiamente diffusa per la velocità dei cambiamenti che fa apportare.

Sempre più aziende e privati si rivolgono a coach e formatori professionisti di Programmazione Neuro Linguistica per raggiungere i risultati che desiderano in tempi brevi.

Le metodologie di coaching sono fortemente centrate sulla soluzione dei problemi, piuttosto che sul problema, incentivando così lo sviluppo di nuove strategie di pensiero e di azione del cliente, piuttosto che cercare di risolvere problemi e conflitti del passato.

Lo scopo del coaching è aiutare i clienti a costruirsi il futuro che desiderano, attivando le risorse necessarie perché quel futuro diventi realtà.

Sempre più aziende e privati richiedono di farsi seguire da coach prefessionisti di PNL.

PERCHÉ DIVENTARE COACH?

• PER IL TUO SUCCESSO. E’ un’opportunità unica per acquisire nuove abilità che porteranno successo nella tua vita privata e professionale.
• PER AIUTARE LE PERSONE A RAGGIUNGERE IL LORO SUCCESSO. E’ una opportunità per aiutare tante persone a realizzare quello che desiderano. Questo rende la professione di coach piena di soddisfazioni e capace di trasmettere una sensazione profonda di contributo al mondo.
• PER AVERE GRANDI OPPORTUNITA’ DI LAVORO. Sempre più aziende e associazioni decidono di fare la differenza attraverso l’apprendimento e l’applicazione delle strategie di PNL. Puoi svolgere questa professione come primo lavoro oppure come secondo lavoro in quanto ti permette di decidere con il cliente i giorni e l’orario.
• PER AVERE UNA NUOVA FONTE DI GUADAGNO. Ti costruisci una nuova fonte di guadagno considerevole oltre che sentirti più soddisfatto profondamente. La retribuzione giornaliera aggira dalle 400 fino ai 2000 euro al giorno e per le sessioni di coaching dai 60 ai 200 euro l’ora.

LE DOMANDE PIÙ FREQUENTI

Che differenza c’è tra un coach professionista ed uno psicologo?

Il coach è un consulente personale ed è lontano da qualsiasi forma di terapia. Il coach assume l’impegno di aiutare il cliente ad accedere meglio al suo potenziale per conseguire gli obiettivi desiderati.

Le metodologie di coaching sono fortemente focalizzate sulla soluzione piuttosto che sul problema.

Perché il coaching è oggi così richiesto?

Si sta assistendo ad una diffusione sempre maggiore del coaching da parte di persone ed organizzazioni stanche di risultati inferiori alle proprie aspettative e potenzialità. Anche per chi ha raggiunto ottimi risultati, l’intervento del personal coach è utilissimo per mantenere elevato il il livello di performance, alzare il proprio standard ed avere un equilibrio interiore che permetta di raggiungere risultati ancora maggiori e di realizzazione profonda.

Quali certificazioni ottengo con la scuola per coach di Daniela Moretti?

I livelli di specializzazione della scuola: Practitioner e Master Practitioner sono riconosciuti e firmati in originale da Richard Bandler, co-fondatore della PNL.

PRENDI L’OPPORTUNITA’ DI DIVENTARE COACH!

CHIAMA  ORA 800.90.12.34 E PRENOTA LE PRIME TRE ORE GRATUITE

VAI AL SITO DI DANIELA MORETTI QUI >>>>

Last night we had a very small session focused on refining business plans. We opened up this class just to our most recent Foundations business class participants, who finished up their six-week course last week. Six of them sent in what they had as business plans, and our presenter, Yolanda Karp, read them over and came to the session with some pointed suggestions to help them move forward. She also worked with all of them on how to clearly articulate who they are, what their business is, and why people should buy their products/invest in them/care what they do.

I grilled the participants afterwards about whether they liked this session, because this sort of follow-up is something we want to do more of. As we get more and more people coming to us and interested in our services, we have to figure out some ways to better serve them, even as our staff capacity stays the same. One way is using the skills of volunteers like Yolanda, who participants said was “a very good facilitator“. They said the session was “very very helpful for encouragement, ideas, and support“, they “got lots of good feedback” and they really appreciated “the personalized aspect of this business plan review“. Another idea we’re ruminating on is to do some sort of peer mentoring session, where clients who’ve been through the Foundations process and are further along in their business experience can help people coming in. All six of the students last night said they’d be willing to act as mentors at some point in the future.

So, we’ve got many exciting ideas for our training sessions in the future. We’re going to continue with our seminar program, inviting our local talent to share their knowledge and skills, but also encouraging our clients to share all the knowledge and experience they already know and have. Hopefully we’ll be able to reach even more people in the Portland small business community, and serve them even better.

The following were the ideas we came up with for the business plan. Wii martial art game this was an interactive training game designed to teach people how to develop proper techniques for martial arts. Cloud Gaming for Developing middleware for multiplayer games based on peer-to-peer networks. Confectionary design website an interactive website that allows customers to design their own cakes and biscuits. This is especially useful for weddings. Iphone application the screen saver is a still pool of water when the iphone is moved the water moves aswell. Operating system UI Design the special user interface for the different operating system. For example, people could have a mac interface on windows. For our business plan we decided to do cloud gaming developing middleware for multiplayer games based on peer-to-peer networks.  This software would be marketed at game development company’s. The idea of the software is to allow for cheaper online gaming by reducing the use of server farms. The software works similar to that of file sharing methods such as torrenting. Each player would host part of the game world so that way the game developers do not need to have large dedicated server farms to host the game for the player as the game doesnt have to be hosted by servers. For the business plan I worked on coming up with the financial cost of producing the software as well as the customer description.  To work out how much money we would need to start the company I worked out firstly how much money would be required for paying for programmers and how much money we would need for software and equipment to start the business. The final figure was €150,000. €120,000 was for the programmers and €30,000 was for the software and equipment needed. I then worked out how much money we would expect to make in the first, second and third year of the business. The whole team worked very well together on this business plan and ideas seemed to flow freely throughout the project.

IF YOU’VE GOT A GREAT IDEA FOR A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE, WE’VE GOT FUNDING HERE FOR YOU.

Global Social Venture Competition – Southeast Asia (GSVC-SEA) is now accepting applications for innovative and scalable social enterprise ideas until 8 January 2010.

What is a social enterprise?

A social enterprise is a self-sustaining organization–whether non-profit or for-profit–that addresses concrete needs and provides quantifiable and measurable benefits to underserved communities.

In GSVC parlance, social enterprises must be:

• Financially sustainable or profitable
• Self-sufficient on its earned revenue
• Has a quantifiable social and/or environmental bottom line incorporated into its mission and practices

Who is qualified to submit an entry?

According to the GSVC rules:

“Each entrant team must include a graduate business student from any business school or related field in the world or an individual who has graduated from a graduate business program within the past two years (from the date that the plan is first submitted). The graduate business student must be actively involved in the venture (ie, actively participating in development of the business plan and presentation or actively working on the business).”

What do winners stand to gain?

Winning entries get $4,000 as seed money for their idea, plus a host of other travel, networking, and educational benefits. Click HERE to find out what else is at stake.

Where can I find more information about GSVC?

Visit the GSVC website for more information about the competition. Also check the calendar for deadlines, as well as the guidelines and FAQs.

GSVC is  a global graduate-student business plan competition established in 1999 at the Haas School of Business of the University of California at Berkeley, USA. It was the first competition to promote entrepreneurial start-ups which not only offered financial returns, but also provided measurable social or environmental benefits. In order to expand, Haas joined with several of the world’s top business schools, including the Columbia Business School, London Business School, the Yale School of Management, Indian School of Business, and Thammasat Business School as partners of GSVC.