4 entrepreneur blog carnival IV

Welcome to the February 1, 2008 edition of 4entrepreneur blog carnival.

Rich Vosler presents Finding the lesson in your struggle posted at Sales Training Tips.

Ian Richardson presents What do Spaghetti Westerns and Internet Marketing have in common? posted at Make Everything EzyAs123.

Mark Riffey presents Tiger Woods and the “upcoming” economic recession posted at Business is Personal.

business plan

Vahid Chaychi presents 5 Small Business Opportunities for 2008 posted at Weboma.com, saying, “Think about 5 small business opportunities to start for 2008: Home protection, At-home Services, Outsourcing Services, Videoconferencing and Teeny Luxuries.”

Taylor presents Find Ideas for Posts by Using Forums posted at Super Blogging.

entrepreneur

Silveral presents The Secret of Celebrity Success | Celebrity News, and Gossip posted at Celebrity News, and Gossip.

Life. Money. Development. presents 10 recommendations for fighting panic and stress posted at Life. Money. Development., saying, “Anti-stress tactics”

Carol Bentley presents Outsourcing or when DIY writing is best posted at Carol Bentley.

GWN Lifestyle presents Goals! posted at GWN Lifestyle.

JRickG presents You Are No Different than Successful People posted at $5000 and Up.

Andrew presents 9 Smart Perseverance Tips posted at Personal Hack, saying, “*** Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go. ~ William Feather *** Perseverance, or persistent determination, is a common personal development topic, and therefore I will not be discussing perseverance in it’s traditional sense. What I will be discussing is smart perseverance. The problem with the traditional concept of perseverance is it’s vagueness. When should you persist and when should you just quit and move on? When is perseverance smart, and when is it just a waste of time? Smart perseverance simply is a conscious persistent determination. It involves regularly evaluating each one of your goals and actions deciding whether or not you should keep going. These tips will shed a lot more light on smart perseverance.”

marketing

David B. Bohl presents 5 Great Things About Blogging posted at Slow Down Fast Today!, saying, “These days, it seems everyone has a blog, and if you don’t have one, you’re supposed to. It’s “good business,” “great self-promotion.” Many people have blogs just because they think it’s the smart thing to do to build their business, and for no other reason.”

Susan Tatum presents 3 Essential Marketing Strategies for Increasing Sales. posted at TechnoBuzz.

Rebecca Suzanne Dean presents ?What Is It Makes Some Letters Pay?? posted at Rebecca Dean, saying, “Writing good sales copy”

Donna Kozik presents Market Research: How to Use Your Book posted at My Big Business Card, saying, “More and more entrepreneurs are discovering a way to establish their credibility and get noticed: write and publish a book. Here Donna Kozik of MyBigBusinessCard.com shows you how to get started on market research.”

sales

Karl Goldfield presents Coaching sales champions: Building a plan Part 1: Performance Expectations - A smidgen of Sun Tzu posted at Coaching sales champions, saying, “Good luck with the new Carnival!”

start-up company

Jose DeJesus MD presents Medical Malpractice Insurance and Punitive Damages posted at Physician Entrepreneur.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of 4entrepreneur using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Invitation to a Grand Opening Ceremony

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Trail Canyon Falls Hike

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4 entrepreneur Blog Carnival III

Here is the 3rd 4entrepreneur blog carnival ahead of schedule. I am getting hang of this. I received over 200 interesting entries this time - with some regulars coming back with new material. I also received submission from at least 2 professional authors. I have included a post from a successful and inspiring 19 year old entrepreneur. Keep those entries coming!

Dwayne Tucker, a 19 year old entrepreneur shares an inspirational post Be an Entrepreneur! posted at Dwayne Tucker - PhotoShop Blog / Tutorials. I wish him all the best. If for nothing else, he sure has the right attitude!

Lorraine Cohen presents Powerfull Living » To-do Lists vs. Promises and Agreements posted at Powerfull Living, saying, “Learn a different approach to goal-setting”

Sarah presents The Girl’s Guide to Kicking Your Career into Gear posted at SARAHSPY.

Aaron Anderson presents What A Tripod Can Teach You About Online Business… posted at Online Business Blog.

Cindy King presents International Success With Languages posted at Get International Clients.

Andrea J. Stenberg, The Baby Boomer Entrepreneur presents What’s the Key to Entrepreneurial Success? posted at The Baby Boomer Entrepreneur by Andrea J. Stenberg, saying, “What’s the Key to Entrepreneurial Success? is partially a summary of what I learned while researching my book and partially a personal reflection on my entrepreneurial journey.”

Enrique presents Worry is a Useless Emotion posted at $5000 and Up.

Michael@TSM presents Travel Writing Contest! Win $150 Cash Prize | Traveling Stories Magazine posted at Traveling Stories Magazine.

James D. Brausch presents Follow the Yellow-Brick Road posted at Internet Business Blog.

Becky McCray presents Gene Marks can’t make these technologies work, but you can posted at Small Biz Survival, saying, “In response to an article in BusinessWeek, wherein Gene Marks listed off some tech ’solutions’ he says small businesses “can’t use.” Can’t? All small businesses? Let’s go through his list of 10 “overhyped and underwhelming technology” tools “that don’t work” and see if we can make them work for small business!”

Kenton Newby presents 6 Tips for Better Recordings When Creating Your Infoproducts posted at KentonNewby.com.

Dave Origano presents The Characteristics Of a Highly Successful Entrepreneur posted at Online Marketing & Exponential Business Growth Blog.

GreatManagement presents Great Successful People Extracts - Real Practical Tips posted at The GreatManagement Blog, saying, “Numerous tips from top successful individuals sharing ideas on being a new manager, building relationships, how to have a successful career, how to manage your boss, public speaking, job hunting, leaving college. And All profits are going to the Breast Cancer Care Charity.”

Jose DeJesus MD presents Launching an Employee Wellness Program posted at Physician Entrepreneur.

Nadege presents Branding You posted at Clearly Envision.

Carol Bentley presents Saying thanks. . . posted at Carol Bentley.
James D. Brausch presents Your Natural Genius posted at Internet Business Blog.
Kenton Newby presents 6 Surefire Strategies for Writing Better Articles or Blog Posts posted at KentonNewby.com.

Mark Riffey presents Starbucks’ Howard on the Hotseat posted at Business is Personal.

Ed Rivis presents Tracking online response to print campaigns, part 2. posted at Ed Rivis.

Tim Gary presents Are Your Customers Just Fresh Meat? posted at How to Make Time Out of Thin Air.

Steve Rosenbaum presents Thriving on Chaos - The Road to Creativity posted at Learning at Light Speed Weblog, saying, “This will help in a strategic planning session as well.”

Colleen M. Johnson presents Lessen Your Stress – Hire a VA posted at cmjoffice.com Blog, saying, “Thanks for including my last blog. I appreciate it.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of 4entrepreneur using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Emerging Business Ideas for Conceptual Economy

By Jay Maharjan

I want to take a break from writing a business piece on conceptual economy and instead share some cool practical businesses that are emerging today.

I came across this website called kayak.com back in 2002. It is simply the most economical way of booking domestic flights. The site searches most online travel portals and provides you with a comprehensive list of selections, always giving you the lowest price. I have used these guys many times for both my personal and business trips. People often visit widely advertised brands like Orbitz, Expedia and Priceline. With Kayak, all brand name sites are included. As an entrepreneur, you need all the help you can get with savings and savings add up when you use places like Kayak.

Imagine a high school student in California getting one-on-one tutoring help from a smart tutor from the other side of the globe - for the fraction of the fees that one would pay locally. As we all know, tutoring is a privilege for most middle class American families. A good tutor in Greater Los Angeles can easily cost over $35 per hour. Now you can have your own highly qualified personal tutor – 8000 miles away in Bangalore, India. With the help of companies like TutorVista, your kid can get unlimited one-on-one tutoring for $ 99 per month. The value that TutorVista offers is a steal. The concept is picking up steadily. In just two years, the company has over 2000 students on board and a backing of 15 million dollars in venture funds. I am sure the venture money didn’t come easy. The founder of the company probably had to show value to the parents as well as to prove to the investing community that the economy of scale did exist. TutorVista has strong plans to offer similar services in other areas. This could clearly be one of those companies that will lead the way to introduce conceptually sound consumer based outsourcing model.

Wall Street Journal recently published their own test with different outsourcing companies for various technical and non-technical tasks and documented the following results. There is definitely some room for improvement, but the overall results are quite interesting. WSJ had companies successfully design a logo for $175, design a simple wedding planning program for $9, design a kitchen remodeling plan for $250, and design a backyard landscape design for just $ 350.

 

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Do entrepreneurs make good politicians?

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On the eve of Iowa Caucuses, the first major electoral event of the nominating process for the US Presidential election, as I watch the results on CNN, I wonder if more entrepreneurs should enter the mainstream political arena. Do entrepreneurs make good politicians? By all means, entrepreneurs possess leadership qualities along with inner drive to succeed, competitiveness, and hunger for new ideas and innovation. The most important trait of all - entrepreneurs are great at accepting constructive criticism and rejection.

Dale Buss wrote an article a while back on the topic, “Do CEOs Make Good Politicians?” pointed out that the track record of the CEOs that he presented in the article was mixed. But, I believe that majority of successful entrepreneurs that I was referring to are not represented by this group. I believe that true entrepreneurs with strong values and innovative outlook will be much more successful in understanding the issues of mainstream America - that consists of 98% of small businesses and 95% of the population that will be affected by the political leadership in one way or another.

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4 entrepreneur Blog Carnival II

Thanks for many submissions we received for our second edition. Here are the posts that were chosen. The posts are listed in the order they were received.

Jose DeJesus MD presents Motivating Top Performing Employees posted at Physician Entrepreneur.
Colleen M. Johnson presents The Value of a Standard Operating Procedure posted at cmjoffice.com Blog.
Carol Bentley presents I hereby give you permission to. . . posted at Carol Bentley.

sales

Gavin Ingham presents Selling In A Recession - Why Some People Are Going To Crash And Others Are Going To Fly posted at Gavin Ingham.
Rich Vosler presents The Power of a Smile posted at Sales Training Tips.
Charles Eglinton presents eBay Descriptions posted at AuctionIncome.com - eBay Bidding Tips & Selling Tips.
Hill Robertson presents All You Have to do is Make a Profit?. posted at Hill Robertson. Richard Lee presents The One Thing You MUST Learn To Succeed In Any Business posted at Richard Lee.
Edith presents How to Maintain a Positive Attitude posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act..

business plan

Vahid Chaychi presents To Succeed As a Business Owner, You Have to Be Tough posted at Weboma.com, saying, “If you have a business owner or you work for the others businesses, you have to learn how to be organized and disciplined. Otherwise you will not have any success.”
Ian Richardson presents 5 Vital Keys to Your Success in 2008 posted at Make Everything EzyAs123.
GWN Lifestyle presents Developing Your Winning Customer Service Plan posted at GWN Lifestyle, saying, “Customer service is the key to your success as a small business owner.”
Sagar presents 10 Ways Lazy Stupid Coworkers Can Help Boost Your Career posted at Bootstrapper.

entrepreneur

Ted Reimers presents Best Business Schools for the Entrepreneur posted at CampusGrotto.
Marcus Hochstadt presents First Class Progress, Or The Power Of Deadlines posted at Marcus Hochstadt, saying, “Many of us have encountered times where we are working on a project every day and it seems, somehow, we do not proceed in the way we intended to. What’s the cause? Why is that so? In this article, Marcus Hochstadt provides two techniques that can catapult your accomplishments to new heights, once and for all.”
Akemi presents Focus on Success posted at Gratitude Magic.
Carol Bentley presents Does your business pass the “Charlie the Plumber” test. . . posted at Carol Bentley.
Thursday Bram presents You?ll Only Do Better? posted at thursdaybram.com, saying, “While especially true for freelance writers, any entrepreneur needs a wide range of skills in order to succeed.”
Woody Maxim presents Amazon S3 is simply amazing posted at Woody Maxim. Kenton Newby presents Product Creation Perfectionism and at Least Four Things That Are More Important posted at KentonNewby.com.
Stephen Dean presents Tapping Michel Fortin’s Brain Volume 2 posted at Stephen Dean’s Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter.
Lorraine Roach presents 6 Steps To Think And Grow Rich posted at Coping With Anxiety, AnxietyEnded.com, saying, “Self discovery concerning what you want from your career or life can be the key to obtaining your burning desires and reaching your personal and financial goals.”
GreatManagement presents Great Successful People - Cameron Johnson posted at The GreatManagement Blog, saying, “Here is a 2 minute extract of my interview with Cameron Johnson (one of the most successful teenage entrepreneurs in the world), where he shares his advice to ‘getting started’ and a personal inspiration story.”
Goldfish presents Owning a Business – Be Careful with What You Ask For posted at Contrarian Goldfish.
Emmanuel presents 5 Things You Should Consider Before You Start a Business | PACE with Emmanuel Oluwatosin posted at Emmanuel Oluwatosin: Inspiring Excellence, Realising Ambitions.
Praveen presents RIP Richard Knerr - Thanks for the Business Lessons! posted at My Simple Trading System.
James D. Brausch presents How to Feel Successful posted at Internet Business Blog. Ogo Ogbata presents Finding Purpose in Business posted at Creativity & Sense - The Blog.

marketing

Cindy King presents Prepare For International Markets posted at Get International Clients.
Martin Russell presents The Danger Of Free posted at Word of Mouth Marketing. Mark Riffey presents Bose understands what people want posted at Business is Personal. James D. Brausch presents Internet Business, 101 » Top Nine Internet Business Blogs posted at jamesbrausch.com.
Andrew Erickson presents Recommended: Targeted Blog Traffic Course posted at WebSite Werx.
James D. Brausch presents Training Your Customers posted at jamesbrausch.com. Terry Dean presents What is Blogging? posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry Dean.

start-up company

Tash Hughes presents Keeping to the course « Word Constructions posted at Word Constructions.
Woman Tribune presents Create the Life You Deserve posted at Woman Tribune. Fiona Lohrenz presents Financing Your Day Care Business posted at Child Care Only.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of 4entrepreneur using our carnival submission form

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New Demands on Executives in Information Age

I see that managing knowledge is the single biggest challenge that executives are facing in this Information age. The rapid growth and expansion of Information age has demanded for strong measures to manage data. One of the big responsibilities for executives is to be able to manage piles of data and technical documents that different departments generate and convert into useful information. There are appropriate tools out there. But Good luck finding them! Often, the complexities of finding and implementing the right tools keep companies from pursuing them.

If you are an executive, here are some tips that will help you in your decision making process:

1. Do not micro-manage: Executives especially in the IT Industry need to avoid micro-managing smaller projects and direct their focus towards coming up with vision to run respective departments/companies efficiently. I constantly come across executives who spend majority of their time managing minute projects and less time delegating their reports.

2. Be vigilant, Look out for changes: You can not manage change, stay ahead of it. Executives need to be vigilant, and be aware of changing technology, competition and the market. With the advent of new e-marketing tools, competitors can emerge from the least expected places. One of our Garden Grove based partners started as a very small company six months ago. Two of the founding principals came up with this unique mass marketing software that they outsourced entirely to an off-shore firm. As a result, they were able to deliver their product five times cheaper than their leading competitor. They were also able to introduce the product faster and made tons of money along the way. The top performers in their industry never saw this small company emerging.

3. Go open-source: There are great open-source management tools out there for any vertical. Open source technology has come a long way. It takes time to find the right application - but its free. Because of its open source nature, it is also highly scalable if you ever choose to customize it in the future. The best part is that it is not just for technical people anymore.

4. Create strong alliances: Executives need to create strong alliances to launch products efficiently. This enables the companies to maintain sustainable competitive advantage. Executives especially in smaller firms have opportunities to leverage on these alliances who also act as referrals.

5. Make e-Commerce a part of the sales strategy: I remember early in 2000 dot com economy was a big hype. e-Comemrce has come a long way since then that executives must consider online sales strategy as a part of their overall strategy. With the rise of google, Youtube and blogs, the Internet is becoming a legitimate platform for sales, marketing and sharp growth.

6. Align the vision of your company with the mindset of your employees: Informed employees are productive employees. A technical person working at the bottom of the ladder should have the same level of understanding of the mission, vision and objective statement of the company as the CEO of the company. Executives who micromanage fail to bridge the gap between the top and the rest of the company.

7. Understand knowledge workers and manage appropriately: Knowledge workers are the foundation of Information economy. Knowledge workers are motivated differently and their productivity can be directly affected by the way they are managed.

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Re-evaluate and measure your marketing strategy in 10 steps

By Jay Maharjan

I believe that marketing is more of a science than an art. Every entrepreneur should be on top of their marketing strategy. Here is a list of 10 tips to take charge of your campaign.

  1. Prepare a formal marketing plan –

i.e. if you don’t have one already. Regardless of the size of your venture, having a thorough marketing plan is a no-brainer. In many instances, entrepreneurs wear more than one hat. A well-written marketing plan can be a practical reference tool to fall back on.

  1. Update your marketing plan -

This should be a yearly ritual. Often, entrepreneurs and start-up companies have one set of plan that they had written in order to get a loan or to present to a venture capitalist. Upon starting any venture for a year, it is critical to assess your marketing plan and make appropriate changes to the plan.

  1. Align marketing strategy with your core business goals -

When I write business plans, I dedicate a good portion of my plan for a detail marketing strategy. Marketing strategy or the marketing plan can be a part of the overall business plan. When updating your marketing plan, make sure to align with your core business goals. As we all know, business goals can also change over a period of time. For an instance, if demographics of the buyers who buy from you is changing, the new marketing strategy needs to address that and introduce new marketing means that align with this new target group.

  1. Measure the spending -

Most successful companies are great marketers by design. Luck can take you only so far. Once in a while, companies get free publicity and create a huge buzz! But, you can’t rely on that. For every company that gets a rare easy break, there are thousands that go unnoticed. You need a sustainable marketing plan that can be measured at every step of the way. From the strategic point of view, conduct a detail analysis of your previous year’s spending. Create a matrix of each and every marketing campaign conducted and find out the return on the investment made. Based on the hard facts, re-assess the marketing dollars spent and scrap the marketing initiatives that didn’t yield results and re-allocate to the ones that worked.

  1. Forecast expected return -

Forecast expected return for the upcoming quarter. Base your forecast on a thorough research and try to be as thorough as you can. All large corporations have strong forecasting methodologies in place. Right forecasting is the key to scaling an operation. If your business has a dedicated marketing team, forecasting ties in to the accountability of the team.

  1. Re-align marketing collaterals -

Make all the marketing materials current. There is nothing worse than your pitching a service that is different from the one shown on your brochure. What you pitch needs to align with the current business plan, marketing plan, the company website, and other advertisement campaigns running in parallel. The presentation can be very simple but by all means all the marketing collaterals need to be aligned and convey an uniform message.

  1. Execute constant PR campaigns -

With the advent of the Internet, running a PR campaign has never been easier. Prepare an electronic Press kit for your company and send it along with other sales material. Send press releases as often as possible. Businesswire is my favorite when it comes to getting exposure to larger media outlets like Forbes and Investor’s Business Daily. Business Wire charges between $200 - $500 per release depending on the targeted geographic reach. I am currently exploring some of the online free services like Prfree and Free-press-release.

h. Collaborate with products, clients, strategic partners that strengthen the brand

i. Leverage on satisfied clients to reach to other clients - Get testimonials from satisfied clients to include in your press kit, other marketing materials

  1. Establish strong direct response/ market response logistics

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Implication of the Writer’s strike to entrepreneurs and economy

The entertainment Industry saw the first hand effect of the Writer’s strike tonight at the bare-bones Golden Globe event. The award was presented in a press conference format instead of usual glitzy award show format. This WGA ( Writers Guild America ) strike is not only hurting the Hollywood economy that usually pulls in over $ 80 million in a night like this, but also having direct effect on businesses and entrepreneurs who have any sort of tie-in to the writing community.

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With the rise of mediapreneurs and the rapidly changing media platforms for content distribution, the writers as well as the media entrepreneurs are trying to get a piece of the new distribution revenue. And rightfully so!

However, emerging mediums are still being tested. NBC recently dropped its online comedy pet project after poor showing. The revenue is not there yet. But, it will happen. It is only matter of time. And by all means both the mediapreneurs who will make things happen and the writers who generate the content should be able share the reward of the collective effort.

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10 Critical Steps to Writing a Business Plan

By Jay Maharjan

Starting a business is a major commitment that will consume 24/7 of your life with no end in sight. It is always good to know what you are getting into before you take the plunge. From my experience writing business plans for large and small companies alike for the last 8 years, there are basically two reasons why you need a business plan - the first reason is to re-assure yourself that this wild dream that you have in your mind is actually attainable. And, the second reason is to convince a lender or a venture capitalist. More than likely, you are writing for the second reason. Whatever your reason may be, as the legendary management guru Peter Drucker would bluntly put - always ask yourself what your business is, who your customers are, and what the customer considers value.

In my opinion, here is a list of pointers that will save you headaches later.

a. Be clear about what you are selling.

Spend as much time as you need to define and clarify what you are selling. From the gettgo, come up with a 15 second elevator pitch. This will come handy later on. If you need professional help to come up with a pitch, companies like - 15secondpitch can help. This is a great resource to help you discover who you are, what your company does, and what others perceive of you and your verbal and written messages.

b. Come up with Mission, Vision, and Objective statements for your venture.

Mission, Vision, and Objectives - They may all look the same at first glance, but they reflect different rationale.

The mission statement represents the underlying operating philosophy and the values of the company - ‘The mission at Company ABC is to provide a reliable, yet affordable XYZ technology for residential customers.’

The Vision statement represents a long term plan - that provides a direction to make significant impact - ‘Our vision at company ABC is to become a global niche leader in XYZ technology by the year 2009.’

The Objective represent definitive goals for different purposes within the company. Peter Drucker first popularized the term “management by objective” in his 1954 book ‘The Practice of Management’. Objectives can be set in all domains (services, sales, R&D, human resources, finance) - ‘The main objective of company ABC is to understand the target market, to implement the most optimized form of logistics, to include a series of efficient fulfillment processes and to provide an unmatched form of customer service.’

c. Be honest with your Strengths and Weaknesses.

You can conduct a simple SWOT analysis on your venture. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Create four quadrants and fill up with honest lists of answers. This simple test allows you to assess your compatibility with the venture that you are getting into. This test will also indicate opportunities, threats and barriers to entry that exist in your vertical market.

d. Conduct a thorough research on your vertical market.
Leverage on new Internet research tools to conduct comprehensive studies. At every stage of your research, be open to adopt new directions based on your findings.

e. Make sure there is a real opportunity.
or move on to a different venture.

f. Make sure your product or service addresses pain point (s).

This goes back to the point (a). Understand and address your customer needs.

g. Conduct a thorough research on your competitors.

Create a matrix and conduct a thorough competitive analysis. See what your competitors are offering.

h. Make sure your product or service addresses pain point (s) better than your competitors.
Its all right if your competitors got in the market before you did. But, focus on doing things little bit differently that you address the customer needs, pain points better than them.

i. Be realistic with the revenue projections.

Don’t fall for cliches like - ‘According to Forrestor’s research, our market will be $ X billion by ___’, ‘We will drop our product in China and we will make billions.’ There is nothing wrong with wanting to become another Google or Microsoft, but make sure you have unique product or services. If you have a patent on your innovation, that helps. If you already have an angel investor on board, that gives you credibility. If you have a veteran management team in place, thats going to help you a lot! Always be ready to explain to lenders and Venture Capitalists how you are going to reach the big numbers - and never ever use cliched answers.

j. Surround yourself with people smarter than you. Do not be afraid to ask for help.

Always reach out to people smarter than you. Big ideas take right people to bring them to life. You want to do things smartly and not give your idea away, but at the same time you need to be open to sharing with right people. One rule of thumb is - it is better to team up with people with complimenting skill sets. If you are an engineer, you don’t need another engineer to support your point of view. You need a professional sales partner to sell your product, and a sharp finance guy to keep the numbers in order.

k.. Seize the opportunity to scale up - quick.

Big deals don’t happen on their own. Big deals happen because of right people, right product, right momentum in the market among many possible variations. If you have everything in order and luck is in your favor, seize the opportunity to scale up - and do it quick! Otherwise, good entrepreneurs know when to pack up their bags and move on to another opportunity. I advise entrepreneurs to get out of business if the venture doesn’t take off within two years.

More to follow on this topic. I can be reached at [email protected]

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4entrepreneur - Blog Carnival I

business plan

Caroline Worrall provides expert advice on things to consider when preparing practical revenue projection for your business plan Expected Sales: Forecasting Revenue posted at CFO Yourself .

Christina Laun presents a comprehensive list of HR tips The Planet Express Guide to Management - 33 HR Lessons from Futurama posted at Bootstrapper.

Bonnie Krueger presents How Do I Put Together A Business Loan Proposal? posted at Student Loan Consolidation.

Kevin Geary presents Five Things Racquetball Taught Me About Succeeding in Business posted at Change Your Tree, saying, “No matter what type of business you’re in, this article is for you!”

Steven Lohrenz presents Can Your Business Survive A Major Failure? posted at Steven Lohrenz, saying, “A business is only as secure as it’s weakest link. For many businesses it’s a single person - start building redundant systems to ensure the survival of your business.”

entrepreneur

Dr. Joe Capista presents The Success Triangle™ Can Increase Your Opportunity for Success posted at The Success Triangle, saying, “In order to have a successful business, you have to have a solid foundation. Without systems, you will waste precious time, money and energy. In every business, especially service-oriented businesses, there are certain needs. A business has more likelihood to be wildly successful when using the three-prong approach of The Success Triangle™.”

Ingrid Cliff presents Marketing tip - What is Squidoo? posted at Small Business Ideas, saying, “A blog post about Squidoo and how businesses can use it to promote themselves”

Kingsley Tagbo presents How to overcome procrastination in 8 easy steps posted at How to learn computer programming fast or get a job easily, saying, “Overcome Procrastination”

Lorraine Cohen presents Creating A Theme Year posted at Powerfull Living, saying, “Consider a different approach to resolutions and goal-setting by creating a theme year. Learn how to use a theme to inspire and motivate you!”

marketing

Tiffany Colter presents Lesson Learned and How I got here posted at Writing Career Coach.

Christine presents Monetizing Your Website Through Inspiration and Desire posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France.

Cathy Stucker presents Quick Ways to Generate Business posted at Cathy Stucker, saying, “Your marketing should include a combination of short-term and long-term strategies to generate a steady stream of customers. When you are looking for a way to get a quick infusion of customers and cash, try some of the ideas in this article.”

Anna Farmery presents How brands will win in 2008 posted at The Engaging Brand.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of 4entrepreneur using our carnival submission form.

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Tips for getting grants for your non-profit organization

By Jay Maharjan

One of the classic mistakes that most non-profit organizations make while applying for grants is that they do not follow proper guidelines. “ About 90 percent of applicants are rejected just for not following the required guidelines,” says Elana Edelstein, Assistant Director of Communications, Marketing and Foundation at Glendale College. She was directly responsible for writing grant proposals for the last 4 years - raising over $ 3 million.

The process of grant writing has many resemblances to writing a business plan.

Come up with a game plan: You really need to have a complete game plan. This includes understanding your program and its core needs. When you write a business plan, if you are not sure of what you want, the chances are that Venture Capitalists (VCs) and Banks will not find you credible. Same goes for writing grant proposals. If an applicant doesn’t do a thorough homework, the organization is perceived as not well managed and not having a clear mission.

Attend a grant writing seminar:Short-term grant-writing seminars like Grantmanship Training offer tremendous insights that can be applied to your strategy immediately.

Come up with a sound financial plan: It is extremely important to come up with a practical financial plan. Projections need to make sense and you need to have a clear plan on how you are going to spend the money.

Research is the key: As I mention in my Business Plan Basics posts, take time to do a thorough research. Conduct competitive analysis. Separate your proposal from the rest and outline clearly and precisely why your organization is better than the others. This includes studying your competitors’ business plans, their tax returns, and most importantly the sources of the grants that they received. “The first step that you want to do is to go after the same group of donors who previously offered grants to your competitors.” says Elana Edelstein.

Follow the guidelines: Always follow the guidelines. You need to follow much stricter guidelines when applying for grants. “You improve your chances tremendously just by following the guidelines.” adds Elana Edelstein.

Internet is your friend: Make most out of the resources that you have available at your fingertips. Grantsmanship Centers website is one of the best resources available out there on the Internet.

If you need help with grant writing, please  contact Jay Maharjan & Associates @ 877 466 2360 ext 1

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10 Critical Steps to Writing a Business Plan

By Jay Maharjan

Starting a business is a major commitment that will consume 24/7 of your life with no end in sight. It is always good to know what you are getting into before you take the plunge. From my experience writing business plans for large and small companies alike for the last 8 years, there are basically two reasons why you need a business plan - the first reason is to re-assure yourself that this wild dream that you have in your mind is actually attainable. And, the second reason is to convince a lender or a venture capitalist. More than likely, you are writing for the second reason. Whatever your reason may be, as the legendary management guru Peter Drucker would bluntly put - always ask yourself what your business is, who your customers are, and what the customer considers value.

In my opinion, here is a list of pointers that will save you headaches later.

a. Be clear about what you are selling.

Spend as much time as you need to define and clarify what you are selling. From the gettgo, come up with a 15 second elevator pitch. This will come handy later on. If you need professional help to come up with a pitch, companies like - 15secondpitch can help. This is a great resource to help you discover who you are, what your company does, and what others perceive of you and your verbal and written messages.

b. Come up with Mission, Vision, and Objective statements for your venture.

Mission, Vision, and Objectives - They may all look the same at first glance, but they reflect different rationale.

The mission statement represents the underlying operating philosophy and the values of the company - ‘The mission at Company ABC is to provide a reliable, yet affordable XYZ technology for residential customers.’

The Vision statement represents a long term plan - that provides a direction to make significant impact - ‘Our vision at company ABC is to become a global niche leader in XYZ technology by the year 2009.’

The Objective represent definitive goals for different purposes within the company. Peter Drucker first popularized the term “management by objective” in his 1954 book ‘The Practice of Management’. Objectives can be set in all domains (services, sales, R&D, human resources, finance) - ‘The main objective of company ABC is to understand the target market, to implement the most optimized form of logistics, to include a series of efficient fulfillment processes and to provide an unmatched form of customer service.’

c. Be honest with your Strengths and Weaknesses.

You can conduct a simple SWOT analysis on your venture. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Create four quadrants and fill up with honest lists of answers. This simple test allows you to assess your compatibility with the venture that you are getting into. This test will also indicate opportunities, threats and barriers to entry that exist in your vertical market.

d. Conduct a thorough research on your vertical market.
Leverage on new Internet research tools to conduct comprehensive studies. At every stage of your research, be open to adopt new directions based on your findings.

e. Make sure there is a real opportunity.
or move on to a different venture.

f. Make sure your product or service addresses pain point (s).

This goes back to the point (a). Understand and address your customer needs.

g. Conduct a thorough research on your competitors.

Create a matrix and conduct a thorough competitive analysis. See what your competitors are offering.

h. Make sure your product or service addresses pain point (s) better than your competitors.
Its all right if your competitors got in the market before you did. But, focus on doing things little bit differently that you address the customer needs, pain points better than them.

i. Be realistic with the revenue projections.

Don’t fall for cliches like - ‘According to Forrestor’s research, our market will be $ X billion by ___’, ‘We will drop our product in China and we will make billions.’ There is nothing wrong with wanting to become another Google or Microsoft, but make sure you have unique product or services. If you have a patent on your innovation, that helps. If you already have an angel investor on board, that gives you credibility. If you have a veteran management team in place, thats going to help you a lot! Always be ready to explain to lenders and Venture Capitalists how you are going to reach the big numbers - and never ever use cliched answers.

j. Surround yourself with people smarter than you. Do not be afraid to ask for help.

Always reach out to people smarter than you. Big ideas take right people to bring them to life. You want to do things smartly and not give your idea away, but at the same time you need to be open to sharing with right people. One rule of thumb is - it is better to team up with people with complimenting skill sets. If you are an engineer, you don’t need another engineer to support your point of view. You need a professional sales partner to sell your product, and a sharp finance guy to keep the numbers in order.

k.. Seize the opportunity to scale up - quick.

Big deals don’t happen on their own. Big deals happen because of right people, right product, right momentum in the market among many possible variations. If you have everything in order and luck is in your favor, seize the opportunity to scale up - and do it quick! Otherwise, good entrepreneurs know when to pack up their bags and move on to another opportunity. I advise entrepreneurs to get out of business if the venture doesn’t take off within two years.

More to follow on this topic. I can be reached at [email protected]

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CES Las Vegas

The world’s largest Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is underway in Las Vegas. Here is the live RSS feed for the coolest products from the show.

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The rise of Conceptual economy

By Jay Maharjan

In October, I wrote an article on “Creativity, Entrepreneurship and the emergence of conceptual economy”. I often get asked by my clients what conceptual economy is and how it is going to affect their businesses. Obviously, the answer is not that simple. If you look at the history, Peter Drucker coined the term “Knowledge worker” in the ’50s and what followed was the era of knowledge economy that still has strong relevance today. The understanding of knowledge workers enabled board rooms across the Western economy to manage the workers better.

We are in the middle of another major transformation. The rise of the conceptual workers and the conceptual economy is around the corner. This new form of economy will demand subject-matter experts, managers, executives and most importantly the entrepreneurs to think conceptually, to come up with creative solutions and to learn to think outside the box. In conceptual economy, an MD will have a 3D design background who designs a model for an organ with deep understanding of medicine, surgery and other side-effects. This same doctor will also have gone to a business school, hence possesses sharp understanding of business that will benefit him while running his practice.

The Art Center College of Design, the prestigeous Design College in Pasadena has teamed up with a leading European Business School based out of France and started offering Art/Business degrees. 10 years ago, when I attended the Art Center, they didn’t offer a single course on business. These are the changing times.

Today, more students are taking classes in multiple disciplines that best complement their interest. Caltechs and MITs of the world are encouraging and enrolling students with expertise and interest in the areas that reach beyond the disciplines that they apply for. As the conceptual economy matures, countries around the world are less defined by how much natural resources that they have, and more by their intellectual strength, creativity and ingenuity of people.

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No non-sense approach to Business Planning

I was encouraged to get large number of feedbacks for my previous post on Business Plan Basics. As an entrepreneur or a business owner, business planning is a very important aspect of starting a successful venture - yet people overlook the significance and end up making same mistakes. If nothing else, business plans will help you define your business and identify customers.

Peter Drucker, the inventor of the modern management as we all know it always pointed out to stay on top of three questions at all times!

a. What is our business? b. Who is our customer? and c. What does the customer consider value?

I got a chance to study directly under Peter Drucker few years back - where he repeatedly pointed out the significance of these three questions. Drucker’s many books - and there are quite a few! - also focused on these topics.

If you are a budding start-up, these questions are even more relevant. More and more lenders and investors, including venture capitalists want to see a clear business proposition and more importantly the size of the customers already acquired. Customer acquisition cost is off the roof. Within industries like Financial services and Telecommunications, acquisition costs easily exceed $ 200 in average per customer. Venture capitalists and lenders look at your existing customer base as an assurance and indication for the future results - each exisitng customer equates to the future marketing dollars saved.

More to follow in my future posts…

4entrepreneur Blog Carnival Volume I

4entrepreneur is launching a monthly blog carnival. Please sumbit a link to your expert posts. 4entrepreneur Blog Carnival will consist of posts only relevant to the interest of entrepreneurs. We are looking for expert posts on creative start-up companies, business planning, sales tips, marketing strategy, financing tips - just to name a few…. Our first carnival will take place on January 12, 2007 4:00 PM (PST)

Re-evaluate and measure your marketing strategy in 10 steps

By Jay Maharjan

I believe that marketing is more of a science that an art. Every entrepreneur should be on top of their marketing strategy. Here is a list of 10 tips to take charge of your campaign.

  1. Prepare a formal marketing plan –

i.e. if you don’t have one already. Regardless of the size of your venture, having a thorough marketing plan is a no-brainer. In many instances, entrepreneurs wear more than one hat. A well-written marketing plan can be a practical reference tool to fall back on.

  1. Update your marketing plan -

This should be a yearly ritual. Often, entrepreneurs and start-up companies have one set of plan that they had written in order to get a loan or to present to a venture capitalist. Upon starting any venture for a year, it is critical to assess your marketing plan and make appropriate changes to the plan.

  1. Align marketing strategy with your core business goals -

When I write business plans, I dedicate a good portion of my plan for a detail marketing strategy. Marketing strategy or the marketing plan can be a part of the overall business plan. When updating your marketing plan, make sure to align with your core business goals. As we all know, business goals can also change over a period of time. For an instance, if demographics of the buyers who buy from you is changing, the new marketing strategy needs to address that and introduce new marketing means that align with this new target group.

  1. Measure the spending -

Most successful companies are great marketers by design. Luck can take you only so far. Once in a while, companies get free publicity and create a huge buzz! But, you can’t rely on that. For every company that gets a rare easy break, there are thousands that go unnoticed. You need a sustainable marketing plan that can be measured at every step of the way. From the strategic point of view, conduct a detail analysis of your previous year’s spending. Create a matrix of each and every marketing campaign conducted and find out the return on the investment made. Based on the hard facts, re-assess the marketing dollars spent and scrap the marketing initiatives that didn’t yield results and re-allocate to the ones that worked.

  1. Forecast expected return -

Forecast expected return for the upcoming quarter. Base your forecast on a thorough research and try to be as thorough as you can. All large corporations have strong forecasting methodologies in place. Right forecasting is the key to scaling an operation. If your business has a dedicated marketing team, forecasting ties in to the accountability of the team.

  1. Re-align marketing collaterals -

Make all the marketing materials current. There is nothing worse than your pitching a service that is different from the one shown on your brochure. What you pitch needs to align with the current business plan, marketing plan, the company website, and other advertisement campaigns running in parallel. The presentation can be very simple but by all means all the marketing collaterals need to be aligned and convey an uniform message.

  1. Execute constant PR campaigns -

With the advent of the Internet, running a PR campaign has never been easier. Prepare an electronic Press kit for your company and send it along with other sales material. Send press releases as often as possible. Businesswire is my favorite when it comes to getting exposure to larger media outlets like Forbes and Investor’s Business Daily. Business Wire charges between $200 - $500 per release depending on the targeted geographic reach. I am currently exploring some of the online free services like Prfree and Free-press-release.

h. Collaborate with products, clients, strategic partners that strengthen the brand

i. Leverage on satisfied clients to reach to other clients - Get testimonials from satisfied clients to include in your press kit, other marketing materials

  1. Establish strong direct response/ market response logistics

If you need help with creating a marketing strategy, please  contact Jay Maharjan & Associates @ 877 466 2360 ext 1