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Strategic Planning Information
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The Best Entity to Hold Real Estate Possibly THE most frequently asked question of me is "What is the best business entity to use for real-estate investments?" My recommendation to most people is that a limited liability company (an "LLC") is the best entity for this type of use. Here's why: Troubled Waters Require Capable Leaders at the Helm Canada's lean leaders need to look beyond the horizon and chart the future Top 10 Tips to Create A Business Plan! (For People Who Hate Business Plans) One of the key challenges for any business is to remain focused and invest resources for maximum pay-off. It's said that 80% of a business's activity accounts for only 20% of total profits. In plain language, most of the work we do is unfocused, poorly designed and ineffective. In today's competitive world, no business, whether it's an individual professional or a large manufacturing operation, can survive with that much lost time and wasted effort. A business plan can help, but most small business owners (and some managers/supervisors) hate doing them! In the spirit that any map is better than no map, here are my top ten keys to creating your own map to success: Buying Used Detailing Equipment and Rainy Day Services Mobile auto detailing equipment becomes very inexpensive around March each year. If you look on eBay or your local classified section of the newspaper you will see. This is because mobile auto detailers are in a seasonal business. They find themselves scraping bottom when it is too cold to work because the water is freezing or it is raining and it becomes hard to sell detailing services. No one wants to see their business cards when it's raining. The only people who page them are their girlfriends who they can no longer take out for dinner or a movie. They can't use their car phone because it's been turned off by Verizon or Sprint. In a rainy year their cash reserve, if they had one, has been used up by mid January. They are eating Top Ramen by February. Their business no longer supports their needs. So they quit. Too bad for them; they obviously are not winners because: "Winner's Never Quit and Quitters Never Win!" Becoming Wise - Wild & Free - Writing A Successful Business Plan - Part 2 - Do It In Steps So you've decided to write your own business plan because you know the value that the experience will give you. With the books and software that are out there today you can probably sit down and complete the plan in a day or so, right? Plug in the numbers, add the notes, write the whole narrative (story), print it and get it out to the banks or investors. Strategy Without Tactics is Futile From time to time there seems to be a flurry of studies and surveys on effective communication in the workplace. As a communication specialist, I'm always eager to read these studies, but am often disappointed with what I see. That's because they all seem to be about communication strategy. Changing Strategy Without Losing Your Customers - Three Vital Steps to Refining Your Strategy American Eagle Outfitters and Wet Seal Stores have issued statements about company turnarounds needed to cut sales loses. This kind of story occurs far too often: a business disconnects from their customers because the company either wants to sell to a larger customer base or they want to upgrade to a more prestigious look. 25 Ways To Find Companies To Buy When you start your program to purchase your "ideal" company, you quickly realize that your ultimate success will depend on two primary skill sets: 1) Your ability to FIND viable companies that are for sale, and 2) Your ability to effectively qualify the potential acquisition investment once found. Laying It Out On Paper You might be thinking to yourself, "Why should I waste my time writing a business plan? I know what (web designers, freelance writers, professional organizers) do!" Knowing intellectually what your industry is all about and pinpointing exactly where you want your business to go are two entirely different propositions. Business Results - Four Critical Success Factors Scenario One Three Easy Ways To Know Thy Competitor "Did you hear what your competitor is doing?" This question has caused many business people to freeze in their tracks. How about you? Does your sales team know what your competitors are doing? And if a prospect was to ask them, "give me 10 unique reasons why I should buy from you and your company," could they answer this question without a pause? "Knowing thy competitor" is critical, and this article will outline three easy ways to know more about them, than they know about you! Let's get started! 10 Critical Facts to Put On the Cover of Your Business Plan... In most business plans, no matter how striking the idea, the covers are critically important. The majority of investors may flip to the executive summary, if they get past the cover, when deciding whether or not they are interested. Exactly like the front page of a daily newspaper, a business plan cover puts the important highlights of the proposal upfront for potential investors to read. Benefiting from Strategic Thinking I recently took an organizational behavior class where my professor conducted a strategic thinking exercise in which groups of students were to be a part of a scholarship committee. The purpose of our committee was to use strategic thinking on allocating a scholarship budget to reward several incoming freshmen to our university. I, along with some classmates represented freshmen candidates who would receive the scholarship. The Chief Cause of Business Failure & Success Business rises and falls on leadership. According to business guru, Brian Tracy, "Leadership is the most important single factor in determining business success or failure in our competitive, turbulent, fast-moving economy." Still not convinced? Based on a study by Jessie Hagen of the US Bank, here are the main reasons why businesses fail: Writing a Business Plan for Success in Business and for Funding Writing a business plan to help you direct and manage your company is a key part of starting you new company that will help lead you and your company to success. Creating a "living and breathing" business plan makes that success even easier to reach. Many people feel that the sole purpose of a business plan is to get funding, and write a plan that is targeted to that audience. This plan should be considered a piece of you Fund quest documentation, but should not necessarily be edited to meet each funding source. Vendor Relations Strategies Sample Outline One of the quintessential parts to any business is your supply chain. To insure that the supplies are there when you need them; in this new day and age of "just in time" distribution where very little sits on warehouse shelves until you order it you will need excellent vendor relations. Without the help of your vendors a small customer need turns into a astronomical problem and if you cannot solve it or serve your customer, you will indeed lose that customer to someone else who will. Someone who has constantly maintained a close relationship with their vendors in fact and can get what they need quickly with a simple phone. You say; "you wish it was that easy!" Yes, I hear you, yet I have seen over the years that with the proper vendor team, you can do anything, build anything, create anything and move forward faster than any competitor ever dreamed of. How do I know? Well, I built a multi-state franchise company with no outside investors from the smallest of small businesses, that's how. Business Strategy Planning Made Easy Ask Yourself three simple questions that affect your strategy planning... What direction is my business going in? How do I create my business strategy so that I can position myself as a leader in my industry? Where do I go to find out information about business strategy planning? Mining Market Data With a heightened awareness of opportunity, ideas can often be generated by market research. The National Women's Business Center (NWBC) defines market research as "a systematic, objective collection and analysis of data about your target market, competition, and/or environment with the goal being increased understanding. Through the market research process, you can take data?a variety of related or non-related facts?and create useful information to guide your business decisions. Top Ten Reasons To Create A One Page Business Plan There is a story, about a business owner who wasn't doing very well. She had no business plan, but had heard, quite a bit, how creating one would help. When Do I Need To Hire A Business Plan Consultant Every new business owner knows that a business plan is critical ? it is drilled into them by potential investors and every banking officer they meet. So why is something that is so important to the launch of a new venture so difficult to write? Good question! In this article I will try to address when you should go out and hire a business plan writer versus taking on the task yourself. First time entrepreneurs often cringe when sitting down to write their business plan. Some spend 6 months agonizing over each period and comma, and even worse others spend 6 months procrastinating and do nothing. So lets break it down and see where / when a business planning company should be brought in:
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