Home: Message List - Pending Recession

Take Time To Plan

Adducent — Sat, 24 May 2008 22:11:46 GMT

Congratulations! Stepping away from a job or a career to start or work at your own full time business is a very scary and thrilling experience. Over the years I have worked with over 352 entrepreneurs starting or developing their own business and there is nothing more fulfilling than hearing of their successes. I wish you the best of good fortune with your business.

I saw one of your earlier posts that you had not created a business plan for your business. Here's some advice from 26 year experience: One things I've learned is how important it is to develop a plan for your business - it does not have to be anything fancy ... but when you create the plan it does become a road map for you to follow. Now that you are committing your self full time to the business do try to carve out some time to create a plan. You don't have to nail it completely the first time you sit down to come up with one. To give you something to shoot for here is what one should consist of (especially if you ever plan to look for funding or capital for your business from banks or other funding sources or investors):

Executive Summary
Market Opportunity
Vision, Mission, & Objectives
Management
Business Strategy
Competition
Risk
Financial Plan
Capital Requirements
Summary

When you start you will probably feel you don't have enough data, information or even experience to complete some of the sections. Don't worry about that; focus on the ones that you can do some work on and that you can get put to paper. They can be refined and revised as you go and the other sections you can work on or seek help with to get them down on paper when you need to have them done. Once you have a good working draft ... the whole plan could be polished further. Treat it as a work in process and work on it as you can a little at a time. The process of thinking about it just by itself will help you with your business.

Again, good luck to you and best wishes.

Dennis Lowery
Adducent, Inc.

Re: Pending Recession

jnees1023 — Fri, 23 May 2008 05:59:35 GMT

Congratulations on taking control of your own future. You took a step out in faith and now you are now about to start the next chapter in your life and you will be at the wheel. All the best of luck to you!

Jackie Nees
Integrity Office Solutions
http://www.integrityofficesolutions.com

Re: Pending Recession

frazzle — Fri, 23 May 2008 02:27:01 GMT

Sorry, should've given you an update, it's just been so hectic here. Well, it's kind of a long story, but I'll try to sum it up...
I was on the fence as you know as to whether I should take the plunge or not. About 2 mos. ago I had an email correspondence with a big company about buying some of their product. The gentleman I was speaking to asked about my business, and when I told him what I did he mentioned he may need my services in the future. Well, as much as I wanted to be optimistic about the prospect, I knew better than to get my hopes up, and dismissed it as a nil opportunity and all but forgot about it. A few weeks pass, and my day job was really starting to grind me down. I wanted to leave, but was reluctant to b/c of the whole recession and state of the economy going on. What I really needed was something to prompt me to make the move.
And then, at my darkest hour of working and out of the clear blue, I received a phone call. It was from the big company I spoke to weeks before. They wanted to hire me for some work, and asked when I could fly out there to do it. I was estatic. Well, I wanted to tell them "right away", but of course I was still working the day job and couldn't leave. So I told the company it would be about a month. They were fine with that. The next day I walked into my day job and handed my one month notice. Why one mo. and not 2 weeks? Well, it's a small place with only 5 people, myself included. Two of the employees had vacations in the coming weeks, so my departure would have left the business very short handed while trying to find my replacement. So, being the nice guy I occasionally am, I stuck through for the month. Mind you, I hate my job, but the people I work for and work with always treated me ok, so I felt I owed it to them to stay.
Now, here we are, May 23rd, 2008. I have one day left of working the day job and that's it. No more, ever! From then on, I control my destiny. And in another week, I fly out to a very large and prestigous account. Any reservations I may have had before about leaving the day job are gone. And just today, I was comparing this years sales to last years sales, and my sales are up over 500% for 2008 compared to '07. So I think I'll be ok, and have no more worries. Well, some worries, but the typical kind that go with running a business.

Re: Pending Recession

designer — Fri, 23 May 2008 01:22:59 GMT

Frazzle, What did you decide to do?

Re: Pending Recession

The Expert — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:46:14 GMT

And dont forget to display the sign "PROUDLY MADE IN AMERICA'
Good Luck

Re: Pending Recession

designer — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:44:33 GMT

Not to belittle the whole economy and recession, but we all have to stay strong and toughen up. Once I was looking for sympathy and expressing to a co-worker that my sales were down from a year or two ago and I blamed the economy. He right away said, "Ken, people have money and they are still going to spend it". He then added: "They are just going to be choosier what they spend it on". I think if you have great quality products, they will speak for themselves. Sure, the luxury products are going to suffer in sales because people need food on the table and gas in the car. If you as a business owner have personality and passion, people are going to see through that and it will be contagious. I know I love Halloween and decorate like crazy for it. It is 2nd to Christmas in my home. If you got nice things....people are still going to buy.

Re: Pending Recession

sbedge24 — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:26:33 GMT

Frazzle,

Congratulations! You are one step closer to realizing your dreams.

Don't forget the business plan. In an unstable economy, a good business plan will help you stay focused. You need to also treat your plan as a living, breathing document (you need to reference it on a regular basis). The plan needs to incude: A Strategic Goal (where do you want to be at the end of 2008? $1 million in sales? 15 new accounts?). It must also include an operational plan (How you plan to get to $1 million in sales--new business? Increased business from existing accounts?). You also must have a contingency plan--what happens if the new business you projected doesn't come in? Or, if the increased business isn't there? How will you then reach your Strategic Goal?

In all likelihood, you will not recognize the plan you have in December as the same plan you wrote in January. The only way that happens is if you put it in the filing cabinet and never open it again. If that's the case, then don't bother with the plan. It will be a waste of time.

Remember this: People who have active business plans are more than twice as likely to succeed in their business as people who don't have a business plan.

Good luck with everything,

Brian

Re: Pending Recession

frazzle — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:58:58 GMT

Brian,

Thanks for the sound advice and words of encouragement (thanks to your mother as well). Since originally posting this thread I have had just that revelation: I no longer am fretting over the economy.

Re: Pending Recession

sbedge24 — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:42:19 GMT

Frazzle,

The best piece of advice I ever got on starting my business came from my mother. As I worked at my old company, waiting for the "layoff" shoe to drop, I prepared a business plan to start my own publishing company. The situation was similar to what you are facing today (2002--post-9/11 economy; very bad in the publishing world). I mentioned to my mother that I was worried about security--who would pay the rent, light and heat?

Her answer was classic. She said, +*"The only security you will ever need is between your ears."</s<br />
If you wait for the right time to start your business, it will never happen.

I have a quote magnet on my desk at work. It says "Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover!

Make the decision to be in charge of your own destiny. Put a strong, detailed business plan together to guide you like the North Star, and take the plunge.

Brian

Re: Pending Recession

frazzle — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:16:36 GMT

Regarding health insurance...both my wife and I have minimal health benefits (another con related to working for a small business). When our daughter was diagnosed with O.I. (Osteogenesis Imperfecta or Brittle Bone Disease) we knew we had to get good health coverage for her since she'd be in and out of the hospital so much (she's had 4 broken bones already, and she's 2 1/2). We live in CT, and we're lucky enough that CT has the Husky plan for children. We signed up for that. It's a great plan with max benefits, so she's covered.