Posts Tagged ‘Business Plan’

The story of entrepreneur Peter Burns is a remarkable example of how entrepreneurship works. You see, many people nowadays think that you need to finish a degree in order to become successful. What they fail to realize is that the richest man in the world, Bill Gates, was a college dropout.

Of course, education is very important in the development of a person. It can help you get a great job and a high salary. However, there comes a time in a person’s life when he or she has to make a choice. Entrepreneurs often face this decision in life. They encounter great ideas, but they are faced with the choice of risking it all for their great idea or ignoring the urge and continuing on a safe path.

Peter Burns discovered entrepreneurship while he was on his first year in college. He enrolled entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia. Entrepreneurship classes are supposed to encourage the growth of the entrepreneur in you.

The course sure gave life to the entrepreneur in Peter Burns. One assignment that they always give you in entrepreneurship classes is to seek out a potential business and try to form a feasible plan.

This assignment is actually supposed to train your entrepreneurial instincts and allow you to closely observe your environment for any opportunities. Peter Burns, future entrepreneur, thought of doing a business plan on renting mopeds at US vacation spots.

Peter Burns’ instructor found the plan simply brilliant and encouraged him to try it out during the summer vacation. Now, many people do not realize the effect entrepreneurship can have on the college student.

You see, even in the world today, college students aren’t so sure that their parents’ advice about getting a degree actually holds water. When you take a look around you, you’ll probably see a lot of people with all sorts of initials and letters after their name suffer the world of unemployment.

You see, we live in a world where connections often matter more than degrees. This world really does not allow employees to rise to the level of success. We live in a nation where the word “employment” means that you’re underpaid, overworked, and you work under a person who is always dumber than you.

Kids hear their parents complain about their work all of the time, so why should they believe them when they say that getting an education is the key to a great future? These are the thoughts that enter a young person’s mind when they think about their futures.

Now, Peter Burns became an entrepreneur at the encouragement of his teacher. He tried out the business he presented and found that it was actually quite profitable for him. Plus, he was doing what he loved. He was his own boss. What more can a 19 year old ask for?

You see, in the four months of summer vacation, young entrepreneur Peter Burns was able to make 50 thousand dollars.

When you think about it, minimum wage just seems so lame compared to that figure, right? So, young entrepreneur called up his instructor and said the inevitable: he already got started on his road to successful entrepreneurship.

Of course, tourist season was soon over and Peter Burns had to find more customers. He took his business on the road. He started traveling to different tourist spots to find more customers. He had a pretty clear view of his target market. He went to places with plenty of scenery, a long tourist season, and slow traffic. These, according to him, are the best conditions for moped rentals.

Now, the business of Peter Burns has grown to a point where he actually franchises. It just goes to show you that there are things you can learn about business outside school. In fact, entrepreneur Peter Burns’ rentals now gross over 1 million dollars a year. You want to hear the good part? It’s all in cash.

The success story of entrepreneur Peter Burns doesn’t stop there, of course. He may now be thinking about real estate holdings. This just tells you how sheer talent can really compensate for a college degree. Peter Burns got to this point in life all because he made a choice and stuck with it.

The Advantages of a Home Based Business to Entrepreneurs

Trials and hardships are what the budding entrepreneur always expects to encounter. No entrepreneur really expects to begin at the top, right? Anyway, even those lucky enough to be born rich face a lot of challenges when they decide to become entrepreneurs. For one thing, being born rich doesn’t really equal being born with the talents of an entrepreneur of the year.

How do entrepreneurs get started? Well, there are a number of ways that you can get a business off the ground. There are a number of opportunities out there for people to use their entrepreneurial skills.

Actually, more and more people are finding that the market is really hard to penetrate if you are competing against a major corporation. But have no fear; all you need to do is contact the right people in order to succeed in the world of entrepreneurship. Contacting other people means you have to get your resources in a manner that would make using them effectively easier for you.

Definitely, more and more people are finding out that home based businesses are the best way for an entrepreneur to go. Funding is not really a problem since lots of financing companies would be happy to lend you the money you need in order to get your business rolling. Exactly how do you get funding?

Going to financial companies, you might want to bring along a business plan and projected financial statement to show that your business is something worth investing in. Home based businesses of entrepreneurs often attract financiers if they have a good solid plan that can get them back their money quickly.

In that light, you can say that a solid business plan (and some collateral) is all you need to get your venture off the ground. Just remember not to be tricked by financing companies with too high interest rtes and too much service charges.

Knowing about how entrepreneurs run home based businesses is essential to your success. Learning about entrepreneurial techniques with your business in the line can prove costly. Most people research on different things that can help them before they actually start a venture. Naturally, ventures can face a lot of problems on the first year of operation and it helps to be prepared.

Of course, home based businesses of entrepreneurs have to face the problem of gaining a customer base. Popularity t this stage is easy to get through word-of-mouth. Quitting can be a very tempting option if you face problems. Rest assured, you will get through this stage if you find the will within yourself. Several people actually find that the first year of operating an entrepreneur’s home based business can be the true test of your skills.

Time will come when you realize that the hardest part of your business actually proved to be the most satisfying for you.

Understanding the way people think is a crucial part of success. Ventures succeed not because of their products, but the way people react to those selling the products. What you need to do is to study the community around you and understand what makes them tick. X-ray vision, of course, is out of the question. You need to get inside their shoes and see what they need that an entrepreneur’s home based.

Zen-like calmness of the mind can definitely help you with making decisions without giving in to the panic you will experience when running your own home based business.

Another thing you might want to think about is whether or not you can compete in the market. Basically, it’s hard to introduce a home based business if the entrepreneur has no connections. Competing with the big names in the business should not be your priority yet. Don’t take your defeats too hard. Far too many businesses have gone down because the owners can’t get up when they fall down. Greatness comes from inside.

Home based businesses are preferred by entrepreneurs because they require the least capital. In most cases of home based businesses, you require very little capital as you don’t really have to rent office space. Just think about all of the money you will be able to save by bringing your business home.

Let me ask you a question.

Do You Have a Marketing Plan?

Marketing is the real back bone of your business. Don’t you think that it is important enough to need a plan, completely separate from your basic business plan? After all with out a plan how will you know where you are going. Let’s go over the basic information that your marketing plan should include.

First you need a marketing strategy and a budget. It is a good idea to get the basics of your marketing plan written down, so that you can see exactly what you are  aiming for. Start the process by making lists.

List of all the advertising you plan to do. Include websites, newspapers, radio, flyers, the yellow pages etc.

For each form of advertising you should assign an estimated cost. Determine how many customers you expect to reach. This will allow you to work out your cost of per customer, which is how much of you budget you need to spend on advertising to bring in one customer.

Next make a list all of the pricing policies you plan to have, as well as any special offers that you think will be good. Don’t worry you can make price changes and new offers later, The idea here is to have some  basic long term plans.

Another good idea is to have a list of other businesses in your area that could be considered to be competitors.  You need to know who you are up against and a good plan to differentiate yourself from them.

This is just a basic outline for starting your business plan. Remember, when in doubt seek out help. Do a quick search for sample marketing plans online or visit your local library for more information.

 Thank you for reading this post…

As always, I’d love to hear from you, you can add a comment below!

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You have nothing to lose, have you?

But it could start you on the road to financial security.

Today I’m going to talk about….

Disaster Plans.

Do you have one?

I don’t mean to be a downer but, any time you start a business, you are taking the risk that the business might fail. What you may not have considered when you started out was along with your business plan you need a disaster plan. Having a business disaster plan in place will help you shield yourself from risk and help you make sure that you can keep your business going even on the brink of disaster.

You need to have a plan for what you’re going to do if your business looks like it is going to go under.

Are you going to borrow money, raise prices, cut back or fire people? Are you willing to sell your possessions or mortgage your house? What will you do? This is where your business disaster plan comes into play.

Just like a business plan your business disaster plan will layout a list of options that you can refer to if your business runs into trouble. In your disaster plan include a list of the things that you will or will not do before you close your doors on your business.

A good disaster plan will depend a lot on how much risk you’re willing to take on yourself. If you are sensible and conservative then you will go as far as you can to avoid selling or borrowing against any of your own assets to keep your business open.

If you don’t lean to the conservative side and are willing to take more of a risk, then you may consider getting a loan against your car or maybe even your house. Just be prepared to lose it all if you can’t recover from whatever business disaster you may encounter.

A good disaster plan also includes a recovery plan. Once you have decided what you will do to handle a business disaster you need to decide how you will recover. When writing your disaster plan consider adding these things to your list. What will you do if you keep your doors open? How will you rebuild?  What will you do if you decide to go out of business?  Start another business? Go back into the job market? What will you do next?

How you handle a business disaster is completely up to you. That is where having a good disaster plan comes into play. You have to decide are you going to cut your losses and walk away or dig in your heals and risk it all to make your business a huge success.

I hope that is helpful to you!

Working from home is a big dream for many. But fear holds us back. Below I have listed a few reasons why starting a home business is a great idea.

Your Great Idea Comes to Life. You have a great business idea. This is the number one reason that most people go into business from home. Remember the kind of ideas that are good for a home business are ones that can become real quickly, and start bringing in an income almost immediately

You can do What You Love. Most people have something that they really love to do.  Getting paid for doing what you love is a dream come true.
You get to be the boss. No more working your fingers to the bone for someone else. You will be the boss and you will reap the rewards.

You want more time with your Family. No more missing out on weekends, family occasions or Holidays. You will be home for every special moment.

No More Wasting Time and Money Commuting. With the high price of gas and the average commute to work being thirty miles one way just think of the time and money you will save when you work from home!

These reasons alone are good enough to say I am ready to start my own home business. In an up coming issue we will discuss how to write your business plan.

Join my NewsLetter to receive valuable information that will provide you with creative, novel and inventive ideas for jobs AND / OR BUSINESSES that you can START FOR LITTLE OR NO MONEY that you may never even have thought about that will kick start your very own business from home!

Alternatively, all you have do now is to put your first name and email address in the box below and that will trigger the free ideas to be sent to you automatically every week. You need do nothing more.

Every idea you receive will be explained in sufficient detail that should be enough for you to consider if it’s suitable for your own circumstances. You may be able to combine two or more ideas that might complement each other.

You can Join My FREE NewsLetter Here!

You have nothing to lose, have you?

But it could start you on the road to financial security.