The Inside-Out Business Plan(tm) -- Your Small Business Plan in 10 Easy Questions. I Have a Headache!.
Writing a business plan for your Solo Entrepreneur business doesn't have to be a daunting project. If you can answer 10 straightforward questions about your business, you can be ready to go.
The key to success is to answer all of the questions in enough depth that if a friend asked you to invest in this business, you'd say yes. Most importantly, make sure you record your business plan somehow...whether you write it by hand, type it into your computer, or put it on stickie notes on your wall. Keep it someplace handy where you can refer to it when you are making important business decisions. And, make sure you review it monthly--or, even better, weekly--and update it at least annually.
1. Your Dreams: What do you want your business to provide for you? (think time, money, freedom, who you work with) Be specific--how much money, how many hours, when do you want to "retire".
2. Customers: Who are your customers and what do they want/need?
3. Products and Services: What products/services will you provide to meet customer's needs?
4. Markets: Where are your customers and what do you know about them as a group? "Where" might be geographic, it might be what kind of places they hang out, or where they go to find products or services like yours. What is their age, income, gender, hobbies, family structure, etc.
5. Your Style: How will you reach customers and what will you say? Your methods of reaching customers needs to match with where your customers are--and with a message that they can relate to.
6. Competitors: Where else are your customers likely to get this need met? Find out all you can about how your competitors price, market, and provide service.
7. Your Uniqueness: How will your product/service meet customer's needs differently than your competitors? Consider how your personal uniqueness impacts that.
8. Your Abilities: Of the skills necessary to run your business, what do you do well, and what do you need help with?
9. External Resources: What people/technology/services will support you in the skills you need help with?
10. Fulfilling your Dreams: How will your business provide the kind of working environment you desire, both in how much time you spend, how you perform your work, and how much money you make? Here's where the rubber meets the road--make sure you can show how you will sell X amount of product or service at Y price, cover your expenses, and reach the goals you set in 1. above.
Once you can answer all these questions, have it reviewed by some trusted, experienced professionals who will give you objective feedback. Consider a business coach, as one such resource!
Copyright 2004, Terri Zwierzynski - Accel Innovation, Inc.
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Terri Zwierzynski is a coach to small business owners and Solo Entrepreneurs. She is also the CEI (Conductor of Extraordinary Ideas) at Solo-E.com and the author of 136 Ways To Market Your Small Business. Terri is an MBA honors graduate from UNC-Chapel Hill. Terri has been coaching for over 10 years in a variety of settings, including 6 years as a senior-level coach and consultant for a Fortune 500 company. She opened her private coaching practice in 2001. You can reach Terri at http://www.TerriZ.com.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
Actually, my headache is not the result of just thinking - it's due more to what I've been thinking about. I can normally go for months and months and months without any perceptible twinge of intracranial discomfort. No problems at all. Well unless I decide to chance it and watch more than one reality show in a week. Then I'll notice a bit of distress. But apart from that, life is good and the old gray matter just keeps cruising along in the smiley mode.
But today is different. Here's what happened. I decided to do a bit of research on healthy living to include diets (not necessarily to lose weight) and supplements. In the course of doing this, I naturally came across a pile of information related to what foods to avoid and what other foods or supplements could potentially prevent physiological malfunctions.
A big pile of information. A gigantic pile of information! A super-mega-humungo pile of information! (Are you beginning to get a clue as to why I have a headache?)
In an attempt to turn all of this into a positive, beneficial experience, I need to pass along what I've learned. So here it is.
I've learned that:
1. Everybody - that's EVERYBODY - has an opinion about what works and what doesn't. About what's good and what's bad for you.
2. There are as many folks who disagree with other folks opinions as those who agree.
3. The phrase "studies have shown" can be translated to "the studies that I agree with have shown". Let's try this... studies have shown that there are probably way too many studies.
4. We are thinking entirely too much about the possible effects of weird stuff like d-chromo-anti-lycoperene beta 4 and how it binds to the interceptural neural hair follicles to create left ear moles. Or something like that.
5. There are more dietary supplements which are guaranteed to be "ultimate solutions" to all of our health problems than there are galaxies.
6. For only $79.95 we can all receive the "secret" to a long, happy, healthy life.
72-->7. They eat guinea pigs in Peru. (I don't recall how I stumbled onto that one...)
8. Passing gas in the bathtub is not bad for your health. (Actually, I didn't find that one. I just instinctively knew it.)
9. There is something either in tropical ocean waters or equatorial jungles that will solve your problem.
10. Veggies and fruits are good for you. Whole-grained foods, too. Duh...
As I did my research, I thought about growing up in the Midwest. I thought about all the old folks I knew that lived long (like up into the 80's and 90's) healthy lives. Shucks, they didn't know about all of these wonderful dietary discoveries we've made in the last 50 or so years. They obviously didn't have a clue that their health could have been improved dramatically by taking one of the thousands of supplements that we have available to us today.
Instead, these old farm folks just ate what they had - including lots of red meat, greasy fried potatoes and eggs, butter, lard, and a gob of other "unhealthy stuff" - and worked their buns off to make a living.
The conclusion seems to be pretty simple, doesn't it? Farm food ("natural food"?) - no matter what it is - is probably very good for you. So is hard, physically demanding work. Instead of worrying so much about what causes or cures what, maybe we should just focus mainly on eating a good, balanced diet of wholesome "farm-type" foods and get a whole bunch of exercise. A good vitamin supplement probably wouldn't hurt either. Who knows - it might even help prevent headaches...
Gene Simmons, through NuPathz.com, provides an easy reading
self-help blog, articles, quotations, thoughts and links along with affordable self-help and self improvement books & materials - all designed to help folks find the road to a more enjoyable lifestyle, to pass on some of life's "secrets for survival" in a chaotic world & offer a few smiles along the way. It's a down-to-earth, simple approach to discovering a better life. You can visit Gene at http://www.nupathz.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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