What I Have Learned!!!!!

This month has been very fundamental to my personal business. Starting my own business I thought was easy, but as I learned the different aspects of an actual business plan, I have pushed back the start of my business by a few months.  This class gave me an opportunity to hear interviews with Jayson Whitmore, Sara Blakely, and Steve Blank. I intend on having a written, professional business plan prior to starting my business.  Some of the changes that I plan to incorporate into my business plan and strategy are to sell myself in my business plan, incorporate interns to take the place of salaried workers to save money, and to be confident about my business so that others can be confident in my business as well.

I must have a professional business plan that sells not only my business, but myself as well. When I started my class I didn’t think about incorporating myself into the business plan in that aspect. Since then, my focus and business plan has changed.  Selling myself I always looked at as being hard, because I know that there are people that view me in a different way then I do myself. I am looking forward to writing my business plan; selling myself in my business plan and then letting some true and honest people evaluate it with a fine toothcomb.  When my business plan is ready to go I am confident that it will be with little to no flaws.

Since I am just starting out, it will be hard to have salaried employees on staff with benefits.  Thanks to my instructor, he has suggested that I utilize interns. That was an idea that I totally overlooked. My goal now is to utilize interns from a prominent school here in the Atlanta, Georgia area. These interns will be business, media, and entertainment majors, but not limited to marketing and sales majors. In return, I am hoping that the students will receive college credits for their services.  The interns will be treated with the same respect as the regular employees. Interns can bring a lot of innovative and new ideas to the company so my goal is to use interns continuously as the business continues to grow. My goal will also be to hire interns that are working with me already prior to searching from the outside.

 My confidence will grow as I work side by side with my mentor. I have no worries about that.  It will be to my advantage to pay close attention, establish relationships through networking, and execute what I have been taught in order to be confident and successful.

I think the most important section will be the section where I am selling myself. If I can get the investors to believe what I believe about my company, and myself then if the business plan isn’t the best, they know I have the potential and the plan can be modified. I want them to be able to trust and know that if they invest in my business, they will reap a profit every year.

Opinions About Business Plans

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The businessman that I chose to write about was Chuck Blakeman. Chuck Blakeman has 5 businesses and two non-profit businesses that he started from the ground up. Chuck Blakeman is an international business motivational speaker that has been featured in CNNMoney, NYTimes and the Entrepreneur Magazine. Chuck Blakeman has his own company named Crankset Group. His company works with business owners to help them make money fast.  I don’t believe that making fast money is always the best way to make money. One of the theories that stuck out to me was that Chuck Blakeman believes that having a business plan for your business is a waste of time. He believes that the time you are spending writing the plan you can be working the business. I totally disagree with his thought process. A business plan is necessary to make sure that your business is on track and that you have not forgot any key areas while planning and starting our business. I believe that the people who do not have a business plan are setting their business up for failure. Even after the business is up and running, you want to be able to track the profitability and make changes along the way. Being a new business owner this is key. I am not sure how successful Chuck Blakeman has been or how many times he has failed, but as for me and those around me, we choose to have a business plan that is precise and defined.

The next businessman I decided to write about was Steve Blank. Steve Blank is from New York and is the founder of E.phipany. Steve Blank is a professor and Berkley University. Steve is a firm believer of writing a business plan but believes that you should also write a business model down the line after that.  Steve Blank does not believe in people competing over business plans.  He believes in business models because business models are owner oriented and business plans are market oriented. I can agree with this statement.  I think that the business plan or model should compensate the market and the owner. Both areas are very important. You can have a great business plan/model, but if there is no place in the market for you business then you are back at square one.

Each investor has a different view as it relates to business plans. The key is to do what is best for you and your company. I believe in business plans and even business models, but there is a lot of other information the owner need to acquire and have prior to doing either one of them.