business plan

Got time?

Are you stressed? Not enough minutes in the day to handle all your tasks and still spend quality time with the family?

You’re running your own business and time is money. Still – even with modern technology and automatization time has become a luxury for many of us technology professionals. Time becomes more crucial when you’re being self-employed. You’re not being paid when not working and to maximize your revenue it is important to get most out of the day.

It is never too early to start being more efficient and to work with the time that you have. Maybe there is a way that you do not have to work longer hours, but to squeeze more value out of the available time.

1) Learn to say “No”. Put a value on your time. Sometimes it is just not worth doing certain things when being asked. it may sound rude, but saying “No” to a problem client can save you a lot of time.

2) Delegate. If you have employees you hired them for a reason. Make sure they do the work you imagined them to do. Don’t spend your own time on something you hired somebody for.

3) Set priorities – daily! Every morning set up a list of the 3 most important things that need to be done that day. At the end of the day those 3 things NEED to be done.

4) Don’t travel. If you can use phone, email, IM, or fax to get something done – don’t travel. Do not leave the office for tasks that can be taken care of remotely. Even driving 15 minutes (one-way) to meet a potential web design client can be a waste of time. If you really need to meet with somebody – prepare yourself properly. Your time to travel needs to be as efficient as possible. Ask better questions over the phone before going somewhere.

5) Be prepared. Prepare yourself for situations like talking to your banker or the new client. A meeting can only be really successful if you are fully prepared.

6) Do less things that don’t work. You will have much more time when you eliminate the work and tasks and do not deal with people that take up your time, but do not generate return of investment.

7) Do more things that work. Identify the activities, projects, people that generate the highest return on your time.

Do less meetings. Meetings can be productive. But often meetings are an excuse not to do real hands-on work. Fewer meetings can increase productivity.

Filed Under: Business Management Tagged With: business plan, business startup, running a small business, small business marketing

Successful Business Plan – Simple Techniques for Writing Your Own

The very first business plan I ever wrote was praised by the Small Business Development Center counselors and loan officers and immediately accepted and forwarded to the local SBA representative for approval. And no, I didn’t use canned software.

When I realized a business plan would be needed for my small business startup I scoured the Internet and read books and was so intimidated by all the required financial reports I put it aside for two years. But I knew a business plan was going to be a necessity if I was going to get serious about my business idea.

It took me only three weeks from beginning to end and was about 15 pages long. And it contained every single required report. How did I do it? I scoured the Internet for information. I did searches on business plans and compared several outlines against what was recommended at the SBA’s (Small Business Administration) web site. What I quickly discovered was that there was one generally acceptable format that contained very specific essay and financial reports.

At first glance it looked so daunting. But I was so tired of the corporate grind and I wanted so much to have my own business that I pressed forward. I took it one step at a time.

One of the required items was the business description. Within that section was to be a description of the competition. Easy. The reason I knew my idea was a winner was because there was very little competition in the immediate and surrounding area. I simply did a short write up describing those businesses and added a quick comparison showing how my idea differed from and improved upon those existing businesses.

That wasn’t so hard. Maybe I can do this. With newfound confidence I forged ahead to the next section. Marketing. More specifically defining my target market. Who was my customer? I was going after the wedding industry’s customer base. So I hopped on the Internet and went to the census bureau’s site www.census.gov and did a search for marriage statistics in my state. From that I was able to determine how many people had gotten married in recent years. I wrote a few paragraphs about that info.

Two sections down with just a few more to go. It wasn’t such an insurmountable task after all! I realized the essay portions could be written in such a way that I was able to summarize my information into a few concise paragraphs for each section.

The secret to the essay portions was to use an exciting voice with very descriptive adjectives. I wanted to grab the reader’s attention and see why I was so excited about this business. I especially took great care to write the Executive Summary as a brief, but stimulating and provocative attention grabber. (It is extremely important to hook the reader from the get go so they continue on with the rest of the plan.)

The financial statements were just as easy to tackle. The first thing to do was the assumptions. To do that I simply took the selling price of my service (or product) and determined how much I would make in sales per day, week, month and year. That basic information was the basis for the remaining financial reports.

For example, the Cash Flow Statement is simply a detailed “budget”. You take your monthly sales assumptions and add any other incoming “cash” (loan dollars for example) and subtract your expenses. Carry over any extra (or loss) to the next month until you have populated the statement for 12 months. Voila! Another section completed.

Three weeks from start to finish.

When it was completed I took it to the local SBDC office (usually housed in community colleges) for their review and advice. They were floored that I had completed it myself without software. And better yet, they loved it so much they said it was good to go. They suggested local banks that were favorable to start ups and off I went.

The loan officer was equally as impressed. She said that she normally did a quick glance and rarely read entire plans, but was so captivated by the opening Executive Summary that she asked me to wait while she finished reading. She immediately agreed to forward it to the SBA representative for approval. That was an exciting moment indeed!

Why didn’t I just use a template or ask the SBDC or SCORE folks to do it for me? Because it was my baby. I was going to ask for funding from a bank and I felt that I needed to be aware of every minute detail of the plan. This way I could, with full confidence, defend the data should questions arise. I also reasoned that if I couldn’t get this one item taken care of, then maybe I had no business being in business for myself.

Don’t let this one item keep you from realizing your dream. You can do it too!

Sylvia Talo has authored the step-by-step manual, “You Can Write Your Own Successful Business Plan”, now featured in the One Stop Business Start Up Kit. Visit her web site http://smallbusinessstartup.biz a one stop site to help you start your own small business.

Filed Under: Business Plan Tagged With: business plan, business startup, how to write a business plan, small business resource

Developing a Business Plan = Developing a Succesful Business

Whether you are starting up a new business or you already have an established company, the importance of a business plan may be over looked. Yes, they can take some time to draw up but just think of your business plan as a map of a country. Without the details and information on this map, trying to navigate yourself around a country will usually end up leaving you lost. Probably travelling the same routes over and over again, taking you 2-3 times longer to find your way(if you do every find your way).

A detailed business plan could mean your success in business. Consider this. How can you take your company in the right direction, developing the methods you need to succeed if you do not know what you are trying to accomplish. It would be like building a house with no plans and trying to put the roof on first. Yes, you may be successful in building the roof but your house will be missing some essential pieces. You may not miss these pieces at first, but down the line(especially when the winter comes) you are going to be wishing you built those walls too!

A business plan plots a course for your business to follow. It allows you to determine and realize your growth but more importantly what steps are needed to be token to achieve this. It helps you figure out the materials you need in place so that you can first build a strong infrastructure for your business. Another great thing about a business plan is that like any map it can be changed over time to represent the lay of the land. Which allows you to make any changes that need to be made to your route and to help you navigate them better.

While you are developing your business plan you will see that it will start to show you what you will need to do to be successful. Including such things as materials needed, your timeline and projected numbers for your business. It also will show your projected income and losses, as well as how your business will do in the first months and year(s) of operations. This information is priceless.

Another important factor of a business plan is that it will show you how you need to grow. You may wonder why this is so important? Simple. It falls right under you developing a marketing plan and picking out areas/markets for you to advertise in to grow your business. Without knowing where your business is going, there will be no way for you to develop an accurate marketing plan. These two things go hand and hand with each other.

So remember whether your business has been around for days, weeks months, years or is just an idea in your head. Develop a business plan which will help you develop a successful business.

About the Author

Anthony Jewell has over 6 Years experience in the Web & Graphics World. You can visit my business at www.logo2d.com

Filed Under: Business Plan Tagged With: business plan, business web hosting

Should You Write Your Own Business Plan?

If you are just starting a company and looking for funding, or looking for additional funding for growth, you will need to develop a traditional business plan. Creating a business plan is a business hurdle that entrepreneurs seem to dread. Do you do it yourself? Do you hire someone to do it? How do you get it done quickly, but without spending too much money on it? Will what you do yourself be adequate to get funding?

In this article I will discuss the pros and cons of do-it-yourself business planning versus having a business planning consultant do it for you or with you.

The Do It Yourself Business Plan

Particularly if you are seeking capital of less than $200,000, consider creating the plan yourself after taking a class or reading some books or getting some coaching for someone who has written successful business plans.

Consider taking a three-hour business planning class through SCORE or the local Small Business Development Center. Even if you decide afterwards not to write your own plan, you will have a much better idea of what you want out of the process and what to expect.

There are some good reasons for an entrepreneur to do the business plan:

* First of all, because you can. If you?ve read sample business plans and find their accounting jargon intimidating, you are not alone. But as long as you can clearly get your message across and have other people such as you accountant look at the plan before it goes to lenders or others, you can do this work yourself.

* It is in learning the business planning process that you develop analytical thinking skills necessary to run your business with an intimate understanding of your own business model. Going through the planning process is an invaluable business experience.

* You need to know the plan inside and out and really understand the variables involved. You are the one who will be asked the tough questions by potential investors or lenders, such as ?What will you do if only half your expected revenue comes in?? or ?What will you do if you find out that direct mail is not working for you as your primary marketing tool??

Outsourcing the Business Plan Process

Entrepreneurs are fire fighters. One of the most important jobs of an entrepreneur is to manage time, and do those things that you are best skilled to do. Many entrepreneurs decide to hire someone else to do their business plans, often because they have an urgent need for the funding and can?t afford the learning curve to be able to develop a high-quality plan that will meet the needs of lenders or investors.

In addition, if your funding requirements are more than $500,000 my recommendation is to get some professional help with this project, even if you do some of it yourself.

Some reasons to consider hiring a consultant:

* It will get done! Business planning is done much faster with someone who knows the process. Every entrepreneur has good intentions about getting plans completed, but months later they still haven?t done all the work. Planning should be high priority work, but it is hard to get to when customer calls and employee problems require immediate attention. The sooner the plan is completed, the sooner funding can be attained. And the price of hiring the consultant will be small in comparison with the increases in growth and profitability of the business.

* It will get done in a way financial professionals will respect. Business planning is done better by someone who knows how finance people look at plans and what they will and won?t question. Once you?ve been through the business plan process many times, you know what it takes to get funding – what to emphasize and what to play down.

* The consultant?s objectivity will allow for non-emotionally-based projections and expectations for the business. A consultant will be much more objective in the process and question your assumptions, making it less likely that the business will have problems after the funding comes in.

No matter what, don?t let a business planning consultant talk you into putting any information into your plan that you aren?t comfortable with. If it doesn?t look right to you, it probably isn?t. It is your business, and you will be stuck with the plan long after you?ve paid the consultant?s bill. Make sure it is the plan that you want, one that matches your goals and objectives, and captures the way you look at business and the spirit of your company.

If you do decide to hire a business planning consultant, here are some of the important questions to ask to make sure you get the greatest value from your investment:

1. How many business plans have you written for my type of business? How many of them were funded?

2. How much time will you need of mine during the planning process?

3. When will the plan be completed, and how many drafts should I expect to see and have the opportunity to comment on?

4. Will you be writing the plan yourself or do you have associates who do the work with you?

5. Will there be an opportunity for you to present the plan or for me to present the plan to my other advisors before the final draft is done?

6. How do you work in collaboration with my partners and advisors so their input is taken into consideration during the writing of the plan?

7. Do you do the market research and the financial spreadsheets, or are those things done separately (and charged for separately)?

8. Does your price include revisions or customization for certain types of funding (to include different information needed by investors versus lenders)?

9. Does your price include coaching to prepare me to talk with lenders or make financing presentations?

10. Will I have an electronic version as well as a hard copy version of the final plan (so I can make changes later if I need to)?

The Optimum Solution: A Blended Approach

At best, the planning process should not be at either end of the spectrum, but squarely in the middle. In my experience, plans that win funding come from a true collaboration between a skilled consultant/facilitator and the entrepreneur?s team of employees and advisors.

A business planning consultant can act as a coach, first assessing the job to be done, and then recommending who is best to do it. The business plan should be a compilation of work between the vision and goals of the entrepreneur, the technical understanding and expertise of his or her accountant and other professionals, a consensus of employees or others, and the research and writing abilities of the business planning consultant. The consultant should meet with all parties involved, talk about what is needed for the plan, and use all the resources available to get the work done as quickly and cost effectively as possible. It is the consultant?s responsibility in the process to take all the pieces and make the final plan into a readable, accessible document that will stand up to investor/lender scrutiny.

My final caveats:

* Don?t pay more than a few thousand dollars for a plan unless you are looking for capital of well over $1 million. I have heard more than a few horror stories by people who have hired university professors assuming they are the experts (they aren?t) and paying tens of thousand of dollars for a poorly written or incomplete plan. Ask your banker for business planning consultant recommendations, or better yet, talk with someone who had a good experience having a business plan written for them. It is reasonable for a consultant to expect you to pay half of the fee up front and the other half at the completion of the plan. And you can?t hold the consultant responsible if you don?t get funding based on the plan ? too much is based on your own credit and management skills.

* Don?t expect to get a finished plan that is a roadmap of everything you need to do to have a successful business. That isn?t the purpose of the business planning process. A traditional business plan is intended only to document your strategies for the business very briefly ? but well enough to get funding. If you are hoping for something that will tell you how to market or how many people you need to hire, you will have to start with a deep strategic planning process, and probably buy lots of consulting time to get you going.

* Don?t expect a great a business plan from a poor business model. If your costs are too high to make your business profitable, the business planning process will help you discover that. Then it will be up to you to make the hard decisions about changing your costs structure to make the business work. The business planning consultant is a skilled professional, not a miracle worker. A good business plan can help you highlight your strengths and minimize your weaknesses, but it cannot make an unworkable business model into a thriving business.

And one final thought: Don?t go on to start a business or make changes in your current business if everything in the business planning process tells you it won?t work. Things don?t get better out in the real world if they don?t work on paper. Deal with the weaknesses ? get more training, consider product redevelopment, or have a home-based business to reduce costs until you can sustain the rent for an office. Businesses fail finally because they?ve run out of money. If your plan tells you that you can?t make enough money to make the business work for the long run, pay attention to that reality.

About The Author

Jan B. King is the former President & CEO of Merritt Publishing, a top 50 woman-owned and run business in Los Angeles and the author of Business Plans to Game Plans: A Practical System for Turning Strategies into Action (John Wiley & Sons, 2004). She has helped hundreds of businesses with her book and her ebooks, The Do-It-Yourself Business Plan Workbook, and The Do-It-Yourself Game Plan Workbook. See www.janbking.com for more information.

jan@janbking.com

Filed Under: Business Plan Tagged With: business plan, business web hosting

The Top 10 Mistakes Made in Business Plans

Top 10 Mistakes Made in Business Plans

Lenders and investors may see hundreds of business plans in a single day. Make your business plan stand out against the rest,
and avoid these common mistakes.

1.Not proving that you have the management expertise to make it happen. The quality of your people will lend
credibility to your ideas and even to your financial projections. If your management team is not as strong as it could be,
join forces with a great board of advisors.

2.Not demonstrating where your revenue will come from – what customers pay you and why they pay you. Don’t be too
aggressive in setting revenue projections or you will undermine your credibility.

3.Not proving that your business model and long term cost structure is good enough to make a real profit. How will
your business make money – what is your margin structure, what are your costs?

4.Not being clear enough in your product description to allow the reader to quickly see the need and the niche for
this product. It may seem obvious to you, but not so to the reader not educated in your business.

5.Not proving that the market opportunity is big enough to get interested in. How big is your market now and what will
it look like in 5 years?

6.Not adequately acknowledging your competition. Investors know that if there is no perceived competition, there may be
no market for what you are offering. The better you can describe your competition, the better you understand your
market, and the more likely you will dominate it.

7.Not writing for the target audience. Although the core is the same, the plan should be written for the perspective of
banks, equity investors, and others. Go as far as you can to tailor each plan to the audience’s specific interests to
show you’ve done your homework and know to whom you are talking.

8.Starting with a boring, unenthusiastic executive summary. This is the first section to be read, and if it isn’t
exciting the rest may never be seen. Make it fun and be enthusiastic. It should stand alone and generate interest
for more. It deserves all the thought you would put into a professionally done promotional piece for your customers.

9.Poor presentation. If you have typos and grammatical errors in your business plan, the reader will assume the
work you do in your business is sloppy too.

10.Saying too much. Keep the entire plan to a maximum of 30 pages, with an executive summary of 3 pages or less. If
investors are interested, they will ask for any other information they need. Amateurs talk in the business plan
about unimportant details because they don’t know what they should say and what they shouldn’t. Hire a professional
editor to reduce the page count and help you emphasize your strengths.

About the Author

Jan B. King is the former President & CEO of Merritt Publishing,
a top 50 woman-owned and run business in Los Angeles
and the author of Business Plans to Game Plans: A Practical
System for Turning Strategies into Action (John Wiley & Sons,
2004). She has helped hundreds of businesses with her book
and her ebooks, The Do-It-Yourself Business Plan Workbook,
and The Do-It-Yourself Game Plan Workbook.
See www.janbking.com for more information.

Filed Under: Business Plan Tagged With: business plan, business plan mistakes