Hello Entrepreneurs,
I finally jumped; I opened my own business few months ago, after 2 years of business plan & brainstorming.
It is upmost important to acknowledge all legal issue in order to open "cleverly" your business:
- Entity of your Business (LLC, Corp...)
- Get the EIN (FEIN) number (identify business entity)
- Do you need a resale tax number?
- Do you need a business license?
- Find an accountant (who does not charge for information phone call, at the beginning you will have tones of questions in mind, do not hesitate to ASK)
Read, read, read, more you read more you will be In Control.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Monday, November 24, 2008
Time Management
Hello entrepreneurs,
It is time to balance your life!
Right now, I am very busy juggling my day-to-day work, my classes, my research, sport, spending time with family and friends and the daily unexpected tasks…
I realized that 1 hour is 1 hour; you can do so much in one hour.
Thinking back to high-school, I remember that classes lasted 8 hours (on average), and each hour I was studying one important subject. My days were marked by hours, and even with 8 hours classes a day, I had time for other activities such as sport, homework, spending time with family and friends, and even play. I realize that even without planning my time, I was already organizing my day according to the tasks that needed to be completed.
So, time management is about planning your daily life focusing on tasks.
I feel more fulfilled and self-satisfied at the end of the day/week when I have carried out all my tasks.
Don’t you feel the same? how do you organize your life?
k
It is time to balance your life!
Right now, I am very busy juggling my day-to-day work, my classes, my research, sport, spending time with family and friends and the daily unexpected tasks…
I realized that 1 hour is 1 hour; you can do so much in one hour.
Thinking back to high-school, I remember that classes lasted 8 hours (on average), and each hour I was studying one important subject. My days were marked by hours, and even with 8 hours classes a day, I had time for other activities such as sport, homework, spending time with family and friends, and even play. I realize that even without planning my time, I was already organizing my day according to the tasks that needed to be completed.
So, time management is about planning your daily life focusing on tasks.
I feel more fulfilled and self-satisfied at the end of the day/week when I have carried out all my tasks.
Don’t you feel the same? how do you organize your life?
k
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Business Plan
Hello entrepreneurs,
When opening a business, you need to make a business plan.
- For financial sourcing
- To show the seriousness of your project
- To obtain a loan from the bank
Many believe that a plan bears an important part in the success of a business.
In my opinion, it is like a guide, the bible of a business. Writing a business plan helps me to get a clearer understanding of the structure that I will implement and which aspects I need to develop and learn.
I realized that it is wiser to make a very detailed business plan considering all the aspects upfront to be ready when the big day arrives.
Example: Before going to war (in the challenging concept), you need to arm yourself with a uniform and weapons, think about the defence (knowledge), the attack (marketing) and the strategy; you also need to locate and mark the area (the market) and know the enemies (competitors)…. Your business plan is your war plan, you need to ve ready...
The business plan helps to:
- Get a precise idea of the target customer
- Re-organize and clarify your ideas
- To consider all aspects of the project: marketing, financial, supplier, delivery
- Get a clearer picture of the financial part: budget, prices, target sales...
Your business plan makes your project from an idea to a concrete project.
Of course you can search the internet and find templates. But, those ready-to-go business plans are boring; I think it is better to personalize yours. Your business project is your idea and you know which points would be more important to bring out than others. Be different and show that your business is worth it.
Make a person/professional read your business plan and ask him/her to prepare a question sheet. This will help you to fill out the gap and consider points that slip out.
The crucial section to develop cautiously is the financial part. The financial projection would show the sales, cost and expenses, services, promotion … Of course you will project your financial plan with (optimistic/pessimistic) realistic estimates.. This is the part which will be consider by the banks.
In the next paragraph, I will show the first draft of my business plan and in some other articles; the important parts of the business plan need to be developed.
g
When opening a business, you need to make a business plan.
- For financial sourcing
- To show the seriousness of your project
- To obtain a loan from the bank
Many believe that a plan bears an important part in the success of a business.
In my opinion, it is like a guide, the bible of a business. Writing a business plan helps me to get a clearer understanding of the structure that I will implement and which aspects I need to develop and learn.
I realized that it is wiser to make a very detailed business plan considering all the aspects upfront to be ready when the big day arrives.
Example: Before going to war (in the challenging concept), you need to arm yourself with a uniform and weapons, think about the defence (knowledge), the attack (marketing) and the strategy; you also need to locate and mark the area (the market) and know the enemies (competitors)…. Your business plan is your war plan, you need to ve ready...
The business plan helps to:
- Get a precise idea of the target customer
- Re-organize and clarify your ideas
- To consider all aspects of the project: marketing, financial, supplier, delivery
- Get a clearer picture of the financial part: budget, prices, target sales...
Your business plan makes your project from an idea to a concrete project.
Of course you can search the internet and find templates. But, those ready-to-go business plans are boring; I think it is better to personalize yours. Your business project is your idea and you know which points would be more important to bring out than others. Be different and show that your business is worth it.
Make a person/professional read your business plan and ask him/her to prepare a question sheet. This will help you to fill out the gap and consider points that slip out.
The crucial section to develop cautiously is the financial part. The financial projection would show the sales, cost and expenses, services, promotion … Of course you will project your financial plan with (optimistic/pessimistic) realistic estimates.. This is the part which will be consider by the banks.
In the next paragraph, I will show the first draft of my business plan and in some other articles; the important parts of the business plan need to be developed.
g
Special Thanks
Thank you Alessio M for your help and support.
Thank you for being always the first reader of each article, you are my third eye.
Good luck with your projects.
Be positive!
Thank you for being always the first reader of each article, you are my third eye.
Good luck with your projects.
Be positive!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Over-Excitement
When you have a project and begin to visualize your future company, do you start to get excited about it and sometimes overexcited?
You think about your project all the time, you dream about your business and have loads of ideas.
You think about your project all the time, you dream about your business and have loads of ideas.
BE CAREFUL!
-You need to stay focused
-Write down your ideas (all ideas are valuable)
-Write a plan, and organize yourself
When I started to visualize my business, I got excited and at one point overexcited!
Excitement is like a product life cycle
-You need to stay focused
-Write down your ideas (all ideas are valuable)
-Write a plan, and organize yourself
When I started to visualize my business, I got excited and at one point overexcited!
Excitement is like a product life cycle
Business Idea = beginning of the excitement = you found your business idea
Introduction = increase of the excitement as you started to visualize it = you started to make some research, learning, speak and think all the time about your project
Growth = excitement at high level, risk of overexcitement = research, more ideas…
Maturity = mature excitement = entrepreneur matured about the project knowing the opportunities & risk of the business
Decline = discouragement = confronted by reality, many pre-entrepreneurs decide not to give life to their project
In my case, I am in the growth stage; I am excited about my dream project and think about it all the time. I wake up and sleep with my business project until I reached the overexcitement stage. I have millions of ideas that I throwing everyday from my mind, I was getting lost. Then, I thought that I have to be more efficient so I decided to focus, concentrate on each idea and organize myself. I bought a notebook named it after my future company and started to write down my ideas per subject such as:
Ideas on marketing
Ideas on product
Ideas on the website….
Organize your ideas and don't allow yourself to get lost in them.
Last week, I met a potential future entrepreneur. At the beginning I was quite impressed as he is clothes designer with great ideas: and he was speaking with lots of excitements. Between each idea, he was snapping his fingers, and his body was moving a lot.
I told him “This is great, when did you get that idea of creating your own company?”
He answered: “well, yearsssss” . Then I thought that he was just giving me ideas, but no business plan, no action plan, no date just snapping his fingers
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Is your idea a good idea?
Market research is crucial to understand if your idea is feasible.
What is market research about? It is about opening your eyes on the market, observing and analyzing the market, the competitors and the consumers.
When I started my market research, I had several questions in mind:
- How is the market today? the size of the U.S. market?
- Who will be my customer? Will they buy my product?
- Who are my competitors? How many of them?
Market research
When I started my research, I realized that my product was already on the market and that the competition was really high. So I decided to narrow my specifications to give more value to the product. I will import handmade, unique and quality product and I will put high emphasize on packaging and customer service. Market research helps me to develop my idea and the vision of my business.
Market information
Observing the market gives you information on the prices of the competitors, their selling techniques, their products and their services.
For example, I am going to sell my product online via a well designed website. So, I started to analyze my competitors’ website, their styles and designs, their prices and their delivery service (time and price). This helps me to understand what I want (safer service, credit card payments…) and don’t want to offer to my customer (poor packaging, flashy color...)
Analyzing your competitors’ strategies helps you to develop your business vision and you Dos and Don’ts want to offer list.
As said before, my target market is highly competitive, so I decided to evaluate the market. According to the USA Department of commerce, in 2007 my target market reached 64.5 billion dollars with a constant growth of 5.9%.
This shows that the U.S market is an attractive market open for new entrepreneurs.
Next, analysis of customers buying behaviour
What is market research about? It is about opening your eyes on the market, observing and analyzing the market, the competitors and the consumers.
When I started my market research, I had several questions in mind:
- How is the market today? the size of the U.S. market?
- Who will be my customer? Will they buy my product?
- Who are my competitors? How many of them?
Market research
When I started my research, I realized that my product was already on the market and that the competition was really high. So I decided to narrow my specifications to give more value to the product. I will import handmade, unique and quality product and I will put high emphasize on packaging and customer service. Market research helps me to develop my idea and the vision of my business.
Market information
Observing the market gives you information on the prices of the competitors, their selling techniques, their products and their services.
For example, I am going to sell my product online via a well designed website. So, I started to analyze my competitors’ website, their styles and designs, their prices and their delivery service (time and price). This helps me to understand what I want (safer service, credit card payments…) and don’t want to offer to my customer (poor packaging, flashy color...)
Analyzing your competitors’ strategies helps you to develop your business vision and you Dos and Don’ts want to offer list.
As said before, my target market is highly competitive, so I decided to evaluate the market. According to the USA Department of commerce, in 2007 my target market reached 64.5 billion dollars with a constant growth of 5.9%.
This shows that the U.S market is an attractive market open for new entrepreneurs.
Next, analysis of customers buying behaviour
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Positive Thinking
A special dedication to Maria A who is gaining a positive attitude
In general, I am a positive person, always trying to convince myself that everything is possible, that is if others can do it, I can do it as well.
- Positive Thinking
I think I have been a positive person since a very young age, and believe that any failure, a word I have eliminated from my world, happens for a reason: either to learn something from it or change your way.
Failure = challenge = test
For example, when I was in high school, I had good grades and I was supposed to go university to study accounting as I was very good in math; it was obvious from everybody's points of view as well as myself that this was the right subject for me to study. But for whatever reason, I panicked and I did not get my Baccalaureat (high school diploma). I was very sad and did not understand why I failed. So, I had to repeat that year, and actually that year gave me time to think and stand back. I realized that I never wanted to do accounting but international business. So if I had passed my exam, I would not have been here as I would probably have become an accountant. However, thanks to this “failure”, I changed my path, and decided to study international business with passion.
- Keep positive energy
What helped me to stay positive?
The vision, I visualize projecting myself in the future. Today, I visualize myself opening my business, travelling to get the best products for my customers, preparing my marketing strategic plan and be successful. The power of the vision has always been, my grand-mother told since I was very young to visualize what I want, a doll, good marks, a diploma, a trip, a business, a house, a new car and so on…
Do you think that it cannot be so easy?
Of course it is not, when I am stressed, I cannot visualize myself being successful: in the last 2 years, I was so frustrated because of my job. All my life was turning around that frustration, so everything was blurry, I did not see any way out. After a trip to India (the clicked trip), I came back with a fresh mind and analysed my situation, thought about myself, my happiness, what I wanted and finally decided to open my business. Now, I can visualize…
Speaking, I usually prefer to keep my plan secret until it gets official, which explains why I am not giving detailed information about the business that I am planing to open. But, I like to speak about my project at least to 1 person, speaking about my project, that is how I am going to market, how I am going to find suppliers, the packaging color… Speaking about it helps me to build my ambition and motivation. Speaking about your project with people who will support you and are positive.
Positive people, be always around positive people, this is really important. My sister is on my same level right now: she is in the process to open her own business but her problem is to be surrounded by negative people. Why?
She calls me sometimes saying things like : "maybe it is not a good idea", "it is going to be difficult","if it does not work", "it is just a dream", "it is too risky", and of course her negative friends confirm her doubts, so in the end everybody agree and say that it is not a good idea. What is going to happen?
She will not fulfil her dream. We all have doubts once in a while; I have doubts as well and in order to motivate myself, I read about entrepreneurs and ask hundred times to my entrepreneur friends, what make you jump?
I always answer to my sister, “those people are not passionate like you, you live just once so give it a try, you don't want to live with a IF, they do not have a passion like you which is bad, you are so lucky to have the ideas and the talent, in the end you will be very happy waking up every day and doing the job you like…” and then the entrepreneur spirit of my sister replies “I will be the best” …
"Keep a positive outlook even when faced with life challenges." Catherine Pulsifer
In general, I am a positive person, always trying to convince myself that everything is possible, that is if others can do it, I can do it as well.
- Positive Thinking
I think I have been a positive person since a very young age, and believe that any failure, a word I have eliminated from my world, happens for a reason: either to learn something from it or change your way.
Failure = challenge = test
For example, when I was in high school, I had good grades and I was supposed to go university to study accounting as I was very good in math; it was obvious from everybody's points of view as well as myself that this was the right subject for me to study. But for whatever reason, I panicked and I did not get my Baccalaureat (high school diploma). I was very sad and did not understand why I failed. So, I had to repeat that year, and actually that year gave me time to think and stand back. I realized that I never wanted to do accounting but international business. So if I had passed my exam, I would not have been here as I would probably have become an accountant. However, thanks to this “failure”, I changed my path, and decided to study international business with passion.
- Keep positive energy
What helped me to stay positive?
The vision, I visualize projecting myself in the future. Today, I visualize myself opening my business, travelling to get the best products for my customers, preparing my marketing strategic plan and be successful. The power of the vision has always been, my grand-mother told since I was very young to visualize what I want, a doll, good marks, a diploma, a trip, a business, a house, a new car and so on…
Do you think that it cannot be so easy?
Of course it is not, when I am stressed, I cannot visualize myself being successful: in the last 2 years, I was so frustrated because of my job. All my life was turning around that frustration, so everything was blurry, I did not see any way out. After a trip to India (the clicked trip), I came back with a fresh mind and analysed my situation, thought about myself, my happiness, what I wanted and finally decided to open my business. Now, I can visualize…
Speaking, I usually prefer to keep my plan secret until it gets official, which explains why I am not giving detailed information about the business that I am planing to open. But, I like to speak about my project at least to 1 person, speaking about my project, that is how I am going to market, how I am going to find suppliers, the packaging color… Speaking about it helps me to build my ambition and motivation. Speaking about your project with people who will support you and are positive.
Positive people, be always around positive people, this is really important. My sister is on my same level right now: she is in the process to open her own business but her problem is to be surrounded by negative people. Why?
She calls me sometimes saying things like : "maybe it is not a good idea", "it is going to be difficult","if it does not work", "it is just a dream", "it is too risky", and of course her negative friends confirm her doubts, so in the end everybody agree and say that it is not a good idea. What is going to happen?
She will not fulfil her dream. We all have doubts once in a while; I have doubts as well and in order to motivate myself, I read about entrepreneurs and ask hundred times to my entrepreneur friends, what make you jump?
I always answer to my sister, “those people are not passionate like you, you live just once so give it a try, you don't want to live with a IF, they do not have a passion like you which is bad, you are so lucky to have the ideas and the talent, in the end you will be very happy waking up every day and doing the job you like…” and then the entrepreneur spirit of my sister replies “I will be the best” …
"Keep a positive outlook even when faced with life challenges." Catherine Pulsifer
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