Posts Tagged ‘business plan’
Looking at developing trends can help you position your business for sale at the right time and at a higher price.
Today it’s surprising we thought it was a big breakthrough but when I wrote the first business plan to get the AOL franchise, it was considered breakthrough. That’s quite comical given that I wasn’t a great market researcher and had a zero technology bent. I just realized that you could ask questions of anybody anywhere by talking through type.
So it’s a great application of using what you know and doing it in a new way before anyone else had ever thought of it.
I think a great lesson to be learned is to be fearless in trying new things. Figure out how to hedge your risks, but then plunge forward. I wouldn’t advise diving head first into a shallow pool, but I certainly would encourage walking into a shallow pool and trying to figure out how to make best of the water.
So what is a trend spotter and what was my path to become one?
Actually, to me the word ‘trend spotting’ is anomaly. It doesn’t really apply to anything except how we go about entertaining the conversation.
I was just a sophisticated market researcher who is very good at extrapolating medium range trends – what I was seeing in society and how it was playing out numerically from survey data and our quantitative data points.
Then I would add in what I was seeing qualitatively doing journalistic interviews and ethnographic work. What was I seeing and learning that could be put to good use and every day life for business?
My objective has never been to be the kind of a crystal ball person. It’s really to build businesses; to know when to get in and when to get out.
So what I’m talking about is feet on the ground work, grabbing a lot of data from different sources and then pulling that together and connecting the dots in order to figure out what’s going on out there.
The only other piece that is really critical is timing.
Look at George Magazine, which John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Michael Berman started more than a decade ago. In those days, politics was not pop culture. It was an idea before it’s time.
If a magazine like that would have been launched around the rise of Obama culture, it would have had a very different place, much more mainstream, and the timing would have been even more right for it.
It’s medium term trending. It’s not going out too far or too far fetched.
I don’t write science fiction, and I can’t make accurate predictions about the stock market. My work is usually oriented to what’s going to happen the next 12 to 18 months from a political standpoint, from a commercial standpoint, from a consumerism standpoint, that’s going to really create business opportunity.
How did I get to do what I’m doing now?
It was a combination of having great bosses, having a lot of guts to go in and out of entrepreneurial life back into corporate life; and then really understanding how to take these ideas, the major observations that I had developed, and translate them into positive commercial events.
It sounds very multiple disciplinary.
I’m not an economist. I’m not just a hard core advertising, hard core PR person. I’m really a marketer, looking to identify a desire and how do you put product in that fulfills that desire.
Let’s look at a list of 20 tips dedicated to entrepreneurs:
1. Find passion in what you do
To succeed in your endeavors, you should proceed with passion, and you love what you do.
To do this you must start businesses that deal with topics you passionate or, in any case, try to find a taste for what you do.
If you cannot do this, you should look to do other things, for if there is passion and energy in your endeavors, the chances of success are nil.
You must seek to do business in which fun, where you work with enthusiasm, which would be willing to work for free.
2. Take advantage of your benefits
Always get more out of your competitive advantages, i.e. those areas where you excel or highlights to others.
Your benefits may be in your knowledge, experience, skills, resources; contacts, etc.
Always use them to launch your business, and to bring them up. And always try to strengthen and maintain, for example, if you know a particular subject, become expert at it, and if you have important contacts always try to keep them.
3. Offers something different
To succeed as an entrepreneur, you must always offer something different, something unique and original, something not offered by others and allows you to differentiate yourself from them.
As an entrepreneur you should be able to offer something new and different, something that is the reason why consumers will recognize, stop buying the competition and I prefer to choose and you.
4. Start small, but big projecting
Start with small businesses, but by projecting always is great. Start with small businesses, is fluent in everything you do, then gradually began to grow.
For example, start by offering a single product or based on a single type of consumer, become expert at it, and then as the business grows, offering a greater variety of products, or start looking for new markets.
5. Future projecting
Concentrate on what you do now, but always thinks about the future. Every decision you make, you should not consider only the consequences that may have now, but the possible consequences in the future.
For example, to start a business, you should consider the possibility that it could become a big business, you see what I can give the business now, but what I could in the future.
6. Always planned
Every business you undertake is it size, you should plan and make a business plan.
A business plan does not have to be complex, should simply be a document in which to put all information that may serve to make better decisions, your goals, means and strategies that allow you to achieve those goals, and your projections or estimates.
The business plan enables you to be more efficient and minimize risk, will guide you to take your business and to operate the first months of life.
7. Do not be so optimistic
By making your projections, not too optimistic about inform, analyze things well, and be as realistic as possible.
Do not be misled by the optimism characteristic of entrepreneurs, and try to see things coolly, always consider all problems or difficulties that might happen, and keep in mind that will surely appear of difficult problems that did not get to foresee.
8. Do not focus only on money
If your only goal as an entrepreneur is to get money, it will never appear.
Before thinking about having a lot of money, you should think about doing something you love, to have freedom and control in your life, serve others, to have pride in being an entrepreneur.
Only when you enjoy being an entrepreneur and stop obsessing about the money, it just appears in abundance.
9. Minimize the risk and then act
In every business you undertake, you should minimize any potential risk, for it must inform, analyze, and enable you to plan.
But you should not obsess with it, keep in mind that more analysis, preparation or planning to make, there will always be problems and unforeseen difficulties.
So, try to minimize any risk you can, but do not try to control everything, do not let it paralyze you analysis assumes some risk and takes the decision to start your projects at once.
10. Do not be afraid to make mistakes
Every time you make mistakes or fail, are when you really learn.
Errors or failures are part of the road to success is, without errors or failures, never get success.
Therefore, do not worry too much about mistakes or failures you may have. Every time you make a mistake or fail, learn the lesson, be a better entrepreneur and move on.
11. Continuously analyzes the market
As an entrepreneur you must be constantly aware of everything that happens in the market.
Always be alert to consumers, their behavior, their habits, changes in their needs, preferences or tastes to economic events, new trends, new technological developments, competition, its new strategies, new products, etc.
Be alert to what happens in the market, the occurrence of opportunities and threats, and always try to anticipate them and anticipate them.
12. Constantly looking for opportunities
As an entrepreneur you should be aware of anything that might mean a business opportunity and must be attentive to the little opportunities that arise, as they are usually out of them generated big business. And keep in mind that the best opportunities come when you least expect, so you should never stop being aware of your appearance.
13. Do not offer something you like you, but something that consumers like
As an entrepreneur, your reason for being is the consumers, you should always put in place, trying to decipher their needs and preferences, and then meet them.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that if you like something you would also have to like each other.
It may happen, but before embarking on your projects, analyze it and make sure of the needs and consumer tastes.
14. Ponder well your decisions
Making good decisions is critical in the life of the entrepreneur.
As before every decision you make, you take your time, ponder it, and analyze it well.
However, you cannot always do that and sometimes you must trust your instincts as an entrepreneur and make decisions quickly.
15. Compress time
Today, due to high competition, as an entrepreneur, you must value every second, you must work every day and every hour.
But you should not become a slave to your business, you work hard, but eventually, you must have the ability to create business systems and know how to delegate authority.
Until the day your business and not have to rely on your presence and you can spend more time with your family and do what you like, or to start new businesses.
16. Be sure to train you
As much as you know, never forgets to continue learning, either by yourself or by attending courses or seminars.
Learn about business, about new technologies, new business tools, but above all, learn all you can about that to what you do, so much so that you become an expert at it.
17. Save on everything you
As an entrepreneur you are looking to obtain the best possible sales or earnings, but at the same time, you try to do the least possible expense, not only in business to undertake, but also in your everyday life.
You always look for ways to spend less, for example, you take your time when buying something, and prices compare well, try to rent rather than buy, etc., And the time, you try to be frugal in your life daily, for example, you should avoid unnecessary luxuries, at least until you have enough money to give those tastes.
18. Surround yourself with the right people
To start your business, you know how to choose the right people, those people who are experts on topics that are not mastered, and that complement well with you and other members of your team.
If you choose to have partners, find partners that complement you, who have resources or expertise that you do not own, and have the same aspirations for growth than you.
19. Be persistent
In the way of the entrepreneur, do what you do, always appear problems with obstacles.
Therefore, as an entrepreneur must be prepared to overcome these obstacles, trust your ability and your projects, knowing that in any success, and keep going no matter what happens.
20. Be patient
And finally, the last of the tips for entrepreneurs, is to be patient.
The way of the entrepreneur is not an easy road to traverse it takes perseverance and patience. As an entrepreneur must have patience in bad times, but also well.
When things go wrong, if you really trust your ability and your projects, be patient and keep going, knowing that success could come at any time.
And when things go well, be patient and not force things, go slowly, little by little, and taking small steps, but if you find a good opportunity, only then speeds up and starts with large steps.
Once we found our business idea is, once you know which company will be created, and we already have enough resources to do this, it is time to implement our idea.
But before installing and implementing our business, we should take our time, and take into account the following tips:
Clearly define the target market
An important requirement before starting a business, is to identify clearly what the market or target audience which will target our products or services.
Clearly define our target market will enable us to know well the needs, tastes, preferences, habits, customs and consumer behavior that constitutes, we will focus only on him, specialized in design products that meet their needs, tastes and preferences, and strategies that capitalize on their habits, customs and behaviors, thus achieving greater efficiency.
When starting our company, it is advisable to target a single type of market, i.e., focus and specialize in one type of consumer, and then as we get older, just starting to turn to other markets.
Market research
Sewn for market research to gather and analyze information about consumers who make up our target market.
Which means getting to know and analyze well your needs, tastes, preferences, habits, customs, behaviors, and other characteristics?
Good research will allow us to design the product that best suits their needs, identifying the most appropriate price for them, establish sales channels more accessible to it, design the advertising message may have their greatest impact, etc.
Test the product or service
Before investing time and money in building our company, we recommend pilot testing to help us evaluate whether the product or service that we offer have a good acceptance.
To do this, we can invite some people to try or taste our product, we can put a small stand of gestation, we can install a small stall, and we can let our products on commission in another business.
The test our product or service before its launch, we will know if they really have a good host will tell us that we are making mistakes, we will take corrective action.
Analyze competition
Before starting a business, we collect and analyze information about our future competitors.
We collect information about how many, where they are located, what are the leaders, what their markets, what are their products, what prices, what are their strategies, what is your experience, what are its advantages, what are its disadvantages , etc.
To do this, you can visit their premises, purchase products, testing services, interview people who work or have worked with them, to interview some of its customers, etc.
Make a good competitive analysis will allow us to make better decisions and design strategies that allow us to exploit their weaknesses and to address their strengths.
Make a business plan
Another important tip to consider before starting a business is to develop a good business plan.
In a business plan will establish our objectives, means and strategies that will enable us to achieve these objectives, the resources they need, the processes we use, our projections of expenses, etc.
All of which will establish the feasibility of our project, the investment required, the potential profitability of the company, will guide us to build and manage our business, we will minimize the risk, and allow us to make better decisions and be more efficient.
Spare no expense
By creating our company, we must ensure that investment is the smallest possible, looking for lower costs or expenses, for example, to take our time to choose the supplies or equipment of the company, or who will choose the right suppliers.
However, low rates of investment should not mean neglecting the quality of inputs or products to buy, not to the point of projecting the image of austere company, for example, widely used to buy equipment, or having poor decoration.
Whenever we start a new company must give the image of a thriving company with a good future, we must consider what it calls poor, and that consumers will not buy from companies like austere.
Avoid debt
By creating a company, it is advisable that the total investment, or at least most of it, is made up of equity.
It is advisable to take debt as quickly, but to start with equity, then, as the business grows begin acquiring new debt that will allow us to grow it further.
If you do not have enough money to invest, an alternative is to borrow from family or friends, but always making sure the loan amount is not excessive and that, after obtaining the money, we are not going to feel so depressed at having to return on a deadline.
Have an emergency budget
When starting a business, it is common that expenditure always end up being higher than budgeted, i.e., in the end the investment required, because some costs or hidden fees or contingent, always end up being higher than originally estimated.
As a council before starting a business, is that when preparing our budgets, always reserve a small emergency capital, which can be used for any eventuality, unexpected or inconvenient.
Beware of companies
If we consider having a partner to build our business, we must try to find partners that are complementary to us, who have skills or to provide something we do not have, for example, financial resources, market knowledge, business contacts, experience or knowledge a particular item of business, etc.
We also seek partners that have the same aspirations for growth that we who are as motivated as us to create and bring up the company.
On the other hand, we also have to be careful in society, we must make clear, preferably in writing, all agreements and measures to be taken for any eventuality, for example, will split the profits, which will be functions each, what measures were taken in the event that one partner decides to withdraw, etc.
Patience
The last advice to consider before starting a business, is patience.
Patience means being able to create a business is not easy, but rather a complex, full of obstacles, uncertainties and drawbacks.
Patience also means knowing that success does not come at any moment, but something that takes time to achieve, and requires hard work, effort and dedication.
Patience also means going slowly, slowly, starting small, but projected on grade, started selling a few types of products, comprising a few types of markets, and then little by little they grow up.
As its name implies, a business plan is a summary of how the owner of the business, a manager or an entrepreneur wishes to organize his business as well as lay down the procedures and processes needed in implementing the plans to a logical and fruitful conclusion. It sets down in writing a guide of the company’s business purpose.
A good business plan has two main objectives: The first is to use it for internal management and planning while the second objective is to help convince outsiders into investing in their company based on the information contained in the business plan.
Though it is widely perceived in commercial circles that these business plans very soon become outdated, nevertheless the Business Plan is a tool for planning your business success, which in turn helps managers to better comprehend the business objectives and then choose wisely from among a set of competing options.
Business plans are dependent on the area of expertise within the organization that one wants to focus one’s attention upon. There are Business plans for Marketing, Finance, Production and Human Resources. Each delves deeply into the technicalities involved and arrives at a suitable Business Plan relevant to that particular field.
Though the business plan has many different forms, there are, however, certain formats that do address their particular needs. They contain information regarding the following topics:
- Executive summary
- Company Background
- Marketing
- Production and manufacturing
- Finance
- Human Resources
As mentioned earlier, this document is aimed at serving two purposes. It acts as a guide from inception until fruition. It functions as a blueprint that will smoothly keep you running on the right track at all times. Having expended enough time and energy into planning for the future, the chances of avoiding hazards and experiencing frustrating times are greatly reduced. It also serves as a useful guideline to potential investors, who glean their knowledge about the company from the business plan before deciding on investment options. The subject matter must be concise as well as hold all necessary information required in this context.
Creating a good business plan is not an easy task. It requires thorough knowledge and patience and a lot of endeavor. It can run into scores of pages. It need to be structured carefully and in fact, should be broken down into sections. Support it with supportive documents that spell out any additional information.
You would most certainly start with a cover sheet, which is the title page of your plan. It will contain the Name of the company, Company address, Company phone number (with area code), Logo (if applicable), names, titles, addresses, phone numbers (with area code) of owners, month and year in which the plan is issued, Name of preparer. Next is the mission statement, information about the business, products and services, location, management, personnel and method of record keeping, insurance and security.
In addition, the business plan will state the marketing plan of the company in full detail. Another aspect covered is financial statements that spell out past, present and future finances. The entire document should be professional in format and appearance. Making a favorable first impression will set the company on the right path from the very outset.