Why Without a Business Plan Your Business Could Be Headed For Disaster!



When you decide to venture into the world of business and set up your new business, you should understand that writing a business plan is very vital. This is a document that will let you have access to essential things that will make the concept you have to be the business you want in reality. You have to be very careful and focused when you are writing your business plan because it can give you a breakthrough in what you want to achieve, or break your ambitions before you even start. You need to pass your message in clear manner that will attract your targeted executive team. Remember that when writing your business plan you are trying to attract funding from the potential sponsors that you may be targeting, and you have to convince them that their input will not be in vain.

Explain Your Business Purpose

The purpose that you will set will guide you in the operation of your business. This shows what your business is all about, the services or products that you are to offer and your targeted clientele. When you have all these set up, you will be in a very good position to make decisions and set strategies that will make your business thrive.

Request Funding With the Business Plan

When you are very sure that you have written your business plan as required, you can then present it to your targeted sponsors for funding. Here you will have a chance to explain in person how you intend to run your business, and all the goals that you have set to make it flourish. Be very careful because what you will explain to them must conform to the contents of your business plan. You ought to have done enough research at the time of writing the business plan, because it should present facts and statistics that will convince the investors to chip in and make your business grow. Clear and understandable figures are very vital because investors will not like it when you present your ideas in vague and sketchy details.

Business Plan for Loan Application

Business plans are not only written at the time of starting a business. You might at times want to expand your business, and you may not have enough funds to do it. Writing one will increase your chances of getting the amount of money that you will require. All lending institutions like banks and cooperatives will require added information on top of your application for the loan, and writing one will save your day when you explain how you will the loan and how you intend to pay it back.

It Will Help To Focus In The Future

A business plan will have all the details of the life of your business. Everything to do with the growth and expansions that will be required in the way of operating it will be captured. The best of them all is that it will help you to predict the behavior of the market in a given duration to come. In that case, no change ion, the market will get you off guard.

How to Experience Both Spiritual Fulfillment and Financial Success in Your Business

As you may remember, last week we talked about some best practices for your authentic business success as an enlightened entrepreneur journey so you can experience both spiritual fulfillment and financial success in your business. I walked you through my first 3 authentic business success principles of enlightened entrepreneurs. We talked about setting an INSPIRED intention to authentic business success for everyone involved. We talked about making your enlightened energy (mental, spiritual, emotional and physical well-being) as much a top priority as your authentic business success, and then taking full responsibility for creating authentic business success on your own way.

This week I'd like to take you through the two essential pieces of making a positive impact and income doing what you love so you can finally experience both spiritual fulfillment and financial success in your business. I want to give you my 2 authentic business success agreements of enlightened entrepreneurs that you must have if you too want to experience both spiritual fulfillment and financial success in your business.

2 Authentic Business Success Agreements of Enlightened Entrepreneurs

1. Build a Thriving Business with Authenticity, Passion and Purpose NOW

What are you waiting for? Don't wait any longer. Give yourself permission to build a thriving business with authenticity, passion and purpose NOW. Don't think that you need another qualification or that you need to learn ____________ (fill in the blank) or that you can't rest, relax or align your authenticity, passion and purpose with your business until you achieve X, Y and Z.

It doesn't matter where you are in your enlightened entrepreneurial journey. Whether you are just getting started or you haven't "officially" started yet, or maybe you are already in business for a couple of years or more, the transformational truth here is to dig deeper to discover WHO you truly are - your AUTHENTIC YOU and get crystal clear on your true PASSION and PURPOSE so you can start sharing your passion and living your purpose, while at the same time AUTHENTICALLY creating a THRIVING business doing what you LOVE!

Why NOW? Because now is your time. Enlightened entrepreneurs... are you listening? Your time is NOW. Today is the day. There's never been a better time to build a thriving business around your authenticity, passion and purpose. So apply the Law of G.A.D.I. - Go And Do It NOW.

Listen carefully. I know how you are feeling, I've been there. Trust me. Maybe you don't even know what you are striving for right now. That's perfectly OK. Just know you have it already. Your DREAM is INSIDE you, maybe praying, asking and begging you to come ALIVE. So start enjoying the ride, start sharing your PASSION, living your PURPOSE and creating a THRIVING business doing what you LOVE NOW!

I want you to realize that nothing else needs to happen for you to appreciate your business and life right now. As an enlightened entrepreneur (or aspiring to be one!) you know it, you feel it, even though you can't explain it, you just know it's your time to TRULY THRIVE and make the difference you were put here on this planet to make NOW.

And remember if you are in your "soul searching" journey and want to move from "soul searching to soul singing," meaning "from surviving to thriving" the best, quickest and most authentic way to do that and move towards where you want to go and who you want to become is to look INSIDE. The Enlightened Entrepreneur's path to authentic business success is a true self-discovery journey where you discover the true authentic self WITHIN you. There is no other place to go, then inside! There is no where to go, then within you!

When you begin to awaken the true power within you and face all your fears, frustrations, and concerns with compassion, forgiveness and love, the door of unlimited opportunities opens, the window of infinite possibilities opens, and the faucet of authentic abundance opens. When you are AUTHENTIC anything is possible! When you believe anything is possible you start experiencing spiritual fulfillment and financial success in your business.

2. Become an INSPIRED Leader, an EMPOWERED Creator and an ENLIGHTENED Entrepreneur to LIGHT the way for OTHERS

As human beings (NOT human doings), we have so many layers to us, so many levels, patterns and unconscious beliefs, so much to grow, expand and evolve. At the same time, you have so much to get stuck in.

As a THRIVING business owner and ENLIGHTENED entrepreneur, you don't deny it. In fact, you welcome and appreciate it. For me, for instance, every time I get the chance to work on myself, not only on my business growth, but also on my self-growth it gives me one of my precious pleasures.

Three Reasons Why a Business Coach Can Transform Your Business



The way businesses are run changes every time to fit the rate of competition that is in the business world. A business person should hence be on his or her toes to learn the things that are making businesses thrive in such tough conditions. The fact that a business owner is always busy checking the various elements that makes a business function like reordering for stock, monitoring the performance of employees, ascertaining that the customers are satisfactorily attended to and all the other duties associated with a business owner, there is barely no time to check the rate of competitions and the steps that can be taken to match and even perform better than the competitors. This is where the importance of a coach comes in.

Many may question the importance of a coach, and how long he or she is supposed to be in operation. The truth is that their existence makes businesses thrive and to understand it you will only need to learn about the three areas that they can engage in and turn your business around by improving its growth.

1. A Resource Manager

A professional business coach will revive your business by applying the perfect skills that they have of resource management. When you hire a coach, you will never overspend because when it comes to expenditures, business coaches will never want to see you spend money on areas that are not of importance to the business. They will always know where to channel more funds as well as cut on areas of low importance. In the long ran this strategy will increase your profits significantly.

2. They Help Organize

When a business is starting from scratch, it becomes difficult for the owners to manage it because they are not always familiar with how it is run. Coaches can be hired to help in the organization of schedules and procedures that will make the business run without interruptions. This will avoid time wastage where business people spend more time on things that could have been done within a very short time. Good planning by the business coaches will see the effective handling of the important things first before the less important ones. In that case, the tasks in the business will be spread uniformly, and no employees will be overwhelmed to cause the business to lag in its growth.

3. Hire And Revive

Hiring a coach will help you in reviving a business that has taken a nosedive in terms of performance. Coaches inject new and fresh ideas into your business, and this will eliminate the monotony of old way of running the business, which doesn't give it the growth it needs. The coach knows all the strings to pull and bring life back to the business. He will do all that is required because the truth is that the business's fate is in his or her hands, a reality that will make the coach work diligently towards changing the business positively.

Four Elements of Small Business Success

The prospect of starting a small business may strike people as exciting, intimidating, or both. This is for good reason; the appeal of being your own boss and launching a lucrative business is tempered by the high failure rate of small businesses. A quick internet search reveals no shortage of studies providing causes and statistics regarding small business failure rates. While the exact rate of each study varies by industry and timeframe, most studies indicate that roughly half of small businesses remain in operation within a few years of opening.

This reality invites the question of what makes the survivors successful? I recently had the opportunity to speak with a few small business owners, each of which owns a retail storefront. The purpose of my inquiry was simply to learn a bit about the challenges of being a small business owner, and even more so, to learn what has contributed to their survival and success.

Factory Direct Trains is an Asheville, North Carolina-based online and storefront retailer of scale model trains. Factory Direct Trains specializes in HO scale trains, and has been in business for six years. The Music Shoppe is a music store located in Harrison, Ohio, a suburb on the west side of Cincinnati. The Music Shoppe, which has been in business for 21 years, sells musical instruments and offers instrument repair service and music lessons. Originally founded by three partners, the Music Shoppe is now solely owned and operated by one of the original three. The Practical Outdoorsman, which is also located in Asheville, North Carolina, has been in business for two years, and sells retail and consignment outdoor goods for hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, biking and paddling.

In speaking with the owners of each of these three businesses, a few consistent themes emerged that were attributed to their success: conservative financing and the general avoidance of debt, a priority on customer service, business differentiation, and the service of an identified market void or opportunity.

All three businesses started small, slow and deliberate, and did not go into debt to launch their business. Often small retail operations with comparatively little overhead can avoid business loans with proper planning. Each business owner interviewed began with his own money, and in one case, also the money of two partners. Launching with savings as opposed to financing carries the benefits of a heightened personal commitment, as well as the absence of the burden of third party debt. Business loans or some manner of external funding are often unavoidable in other businesses with higher overhead and fixed costs, but retail can offer more flexibility in this area, depending on the scale of the launch.

A contributing factor to the low overhead of these businesses is the small number of employees, the largest of which employs four people including the owner. The absence of debt facilitated a business growth pace for all three, which was directly linked to the growth in sales and revenues. Conversely, some of the interviewees cited the opposite scenario in which a business owner, typically a rival, borrowed money to build a business that was of a scale larger than the market it served, and as such, the business was then unable to both service the debt and generate enough money to cover operating expenses.

Commitment to customer service was emphasized by each business. The age of internet retailing and large discount box stores makes it imperative for smaller businesses to offer value through other means, as they generally cannot compete on price and selection. This is where the human element becomes critical. A personal selling effort and cultivated relationships with return customers, if managed properly, are able to win out over the appeal of larger retail options. Some people are willing to pay a higher price for a more personalized buying experience.

Differentiation was another key factor identified by all three businesses. Something needs to set your business apart to draw customers through the door. As previously discussed, customer service is one area of differentiation when competing with box stores and online retailers. Customer service is the primary differentiating factor between The Music Shoppe and larger, national chain music stores.

Other differentiation criteria were also cited. Factory Direct Trains competes in the scale model train industry. This business, which maintains a physical storefront but is primarily an online retailer, differentiates itself from its competitors by having a sophisticated web presence. Integral to this web presence is a robust and growing degree of social media connectivity. This is a relatively modern model in an aging hobby business. The social media participation makes a small company in North Carolina highly accessible to online customers all over the country and internationally and as such, social media is a key component of Factory Direct Trains' customer service efforts.

The Practical Outdoorsman is unique in that it offers retail and consignment outdoor gear under one roof. Additionally, this business carries local, handmade outdoor items such as hunting knives, fishing lures and flies, and hunting calls. Such products give The Practical Outdoorsman the appeal of local authenticity that is not found in the larger chain outdoor goods stores.

Each of the three businesses has remained viable by serving a market demand that was either growing or previously under-served. Two market opportunities were dictated primarily by geography. The Music Shoppe opened in a suburb on the west side of Cincinnati that is roughly 20 miles outside of the city. Since the store's opening, this suburb has grown significantly, and the Music Shoppe has grown along with the population and economy. The Music Shoppe secured dealer status for large music brands such as Guild, Taylor and Martin guitars, and thus serves as the nearest dealer for such brands for the west side of Cincinnati as well as southeastern Indiana.

Research prior to opening revealed to the owner of The Practical Outdoorsman that the nearest similar consignment and retail outdoor goods store was located over 150 miles away. Additionally, this store is located in the northwest quadrant of Buncombe County where there are very few outdoor goods stores. The Practical Outdoorsman is also the only North Carolina Wildlife Agent in this quadrant of the county, which provides such services as selling hunting and fishing licenses. Serving as a Wildlife Agent generates significant customer traffic.

Factory Direct Trains found its market niche by establishing a strong web presence in a hobby industry that has been comparatively slow to embrace online retailing and social media usage. In doing so, Factory Direct Trains has been able to reach out and expand its customer base in areas under-served by local hobby shops with more limited selections.