Do I Need a Business Plan?

March 8, 2010

Clay

As in just about every area of life, the importance of planning really can’t be overemphasized for the entrepreneur.  This old saying is very true:  Failure to plan is a plan for failure.  Even though some entrepreneurs may “luck” into success without going through the process, a lack of planning really is a formula for failure.

The business plan does not need to be complex or long, but it is necessary.  In simple terms, a business plan is a written description of your business, a document that describes what you plan to do and how you plan to do it.

What is included?

  • A business plan conveys the business goals and the strategies you’ll use to meet them.
  • It discusses the potential problems and risks that may confront your business and ways to solve them.
  • The plan highlights the organizational structure of your business and who the team members are.
  • It demonstrates that there is a market for your product or service and that you know how to tap that market.
  • The plan highlights how the product or service will be produced.
  • It also discusses the amount of capital required to finance your venture and where you expect that money will come from.

Clay Hickson advises a TowsonGlobal business

Business plans have several purposes. They’re used to seek support from potential lenders or investors.  They also may be used to attract key team members, win new business, work with suppliers, and understand how to manage the business better.  However, just because you have a plan doesn’t mean that everything is covered and that there won’t be surprises.  It does mean you will be much better prepared and more likely to achieve success.  Even so, once you have the plan in place, it doesn’t mean that all your work is done.  A business plan is a living document that should be regularly revised as conditions and goals change.

There are numerous resources available for guidance on developing a business plan.  Small Business Development Centers have workshops that teach all the basics.  Their counselors and those of a Small Business Resource Center or of the Service Corps of Retired Executives also can help.  Of course, there also are templates and other resources available on line, such as from the Small Business Administration.  In addition, participation in a business incubator program like TowsonGlobal can provide an entrepreneur significant help in fine tuning his or her business plan.

This nautical analogy sums it up pretty well:  “It’s better to be 5 or even 10 degrees off your charted destination than to have no port in mind at all.  After all, the point of sailing is to get somewhere, and without a plan, you’ll wander the seas aimlessly, sometimes finding dry land but more often than not floundering in a vast ocean.  Sea captains without a chart are rarely remembered for discovering anything but the ocean floor!”

Do you need a business plan?  Yes!

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Posted by Clay Hickson

Got Social Media?

November 23, 2009

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

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Posted by Sharyn Kuczka

What is an Entrepreneur?

October 15, 2009
Clay

Clay

The term entrepreneur comes from the French word, entrependre, which means “to undertake,” and this is precisely the basic principle of entrepreneurship.  An entrepreneur is one who has a vision of an opportunity and takes the initiative to capitalize on it.  In simple terms, he or she organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business.  Surprisingly, there actually is debate over exactly what the term means, but few would argue that anyone who embarks on a new venture in order to create a new business would be considered an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs and other small businesses are the driving force behind the US economy, creating jobs and innovative technologies.  These businesses “represent 99.7% of all employers, employ more than half of the private sector workers, account for 39% of high-tech jobs, and create 60-80% of the net new jobs annually,” says Entrepreneur magazine.

A true entrepreneur has a vision to seize an opportunity with passion and diligence.  And these traits are crucial to success.  If you are thinking to yourself:   “This whole entrepreneurial thing is a piece of cake!  It can’t be a complicated process?  I can make millions effortlessly!”  Well, you are sadly mistaken.  Experience, knowledge, and most importantly, planning breed success.

from Flickr MartinPhotoSport

from Flickr MartinPhotoSport

Entrepreneurs often are innovators, creating new products, new production methods, new markets, new forms of organization….  However, being an innovator doesn’t ensure success.   People come up with new ideas everyday that we never even hear about.

Planning is the key to success.  Even though some entrepreneurs may “luck” into success, a lack of planning really is a recipe for failure.  There must be a market for whatever the idea is, and the product/service must actually be successfully produced and marketed.  And then there is the competition; someone may already be doing something very similar, or may learn how to do it better very quickly, stealing the market away.  The successful entrepreneur has a pretty good handle on all of these elements because he’s done his homework, he has planned.

towsonglobalMany entrepreneurs find that obtaining the support of an incubator can help them move more quickly along the path to success.  Incubators like TowsonGlobal provide a wide range of support, including affordable office facilities; business counseling & mentoring; networking assistance; and workshops and other educational forums.

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Posted by Clay Hickson