Success

It happens to a lot of businesses that start out self-funded: since nobody is requiring a business plan from them, they don’t think they need one. It’s not long before they realize what they’re missing.

That’s what happened to Monique Riviere, of Springdale, Maryland, when she bought her V2K Window Décor & More franchise two and a half years ago. V2K is an independently owned franchise providing custom window coverings and installation services to residential and commercial clients.

“There didn’t seem to be a need for a formal business plan — I didn’t have a lender that I needed to present my case to. Midway into my first year, I realized I was being pulled in many different directions. I needed to get my goals down on paper so that I didn’t respond to every whim, which could waste both time and money,” Monique remembers.

Like many small-business owners, Monique wasn’t sure she could write a business plan herself, but found the cost of having a professional do it prohibitive. “I felt very intimidated by the process and didn’t know where to start. I got estimates from a few companies starting in the low $1,000s, which was out of my range.”

Before she knew it, she was in her second year of business and still didn’t have a plan. Small business counselors with whom she consulted wanted to see one but, she says, “I had nothing to show.” It was time to get serious about writing a business plan, so she set out to find a computer program to help. Her requirements for the software: user-friendly, low-cost, and updatable.

She discovered that Business Plan Pro met those criteria. “I was immediately comfortable with the step-by-step interview process and impressed by both the interface and the content. My most intimidating areas – financials and market research – were even made simple.”

Being at ease with her business plan allowed Monique to enjoy the aspect of owning a business that excites her most: the freedom. “Charting my own path and determining how successful I want to be. The rewarding feeling at the end of a long, hard project makes it all worth it.”

Besides recommending having a business plan, Monique has some advice to entrepreneurs starting down the same road she did: “If you can partner with someone you know, like, and trust, do it! If not, make sure you have the consistent support of family, friends, and colleagues. You’ll need it to get through the bad days.”

The take away from Monique’s experience? Don’t kid yourself — you do need a business plan.

Jay Snider
Palo Alto Software

Tags: business plan pro, success story, testimonial
Posted on June 3rd, 2009 | 3 Comments »

Statistics show that 70% of entrepreneur-owned businesses do not survive the founder. Did you work this hard, for this long, to see your life’s work implode?

One of the most important features about good marketing process is its impact when it comes time for the owner to move out. Whether you plan to sell out or pass the business on, having a system installed that generates leads and converts them to loyal, profitable clients will significantly improve your business’s value.

Your marketing system should include a clear statement of how you are different and better; a complete sales kit filled with persuasive reasons to do business with you; a lead-generation process that includes the internet, advertising, public relations and referrals; and a process that effectively and efficiently converts leads to loyal customers.

Succession planning is more than just marketing, however. Here are seven other areas you need to consider:

1. Retirement isn’t death. Small business owners don’t plan for succession because they genuinely hate the idea of not working—no control, no work, no identity …so only about one quarter have a plan. Not planning leaves your staff and their families incredibly vulnerable.

2. Retirement isn’t just deciding not to go into the office anymore. It’s ensuring you have enough money to retire on from the sale of your business. Will your business even carry on or will you sell it? Who’s going to manage the business? How will ownership be transferred?

3. The biggest business “killers” are taxes and family discord. So succession planning is about management, ownership and taxes. Will an owner manage the business or not? Will all owners have the same number of shares? How will you reorganize the company to reduce your taxes?

4. Outsource. If you’ve been successful, you already depend on a network of help to manage your financial, tax, and legal; maybe even marketing, distribution and HR issues. Small business owners are typically too emotionally involved to make good succession plans, so let someone else you trust do it for you.

5. Train and mentor your successor(s). Okay we know you hate this one—who has the time? But how can you expect your business to continue to thrive without you if you don’t train? And remember, you’ll be throwing away your life’s work if you don’t.

6. Start business succession planning early. Okay we know you hate this idea too. But five years in advance is good. Ten years in advance is better. Many business advisors tell budding entrepreneurs to build an exit strategy right into their business plan.

7. Read. You owe it to yourself, your family, your employees and your suppliers to know the issues that will affect them once you’ve left.
Canadian Resources

An overview by the Financial Post of retirement planning, after the sale, taming your tax liability, financing the sale, and accurately evaluating the business.

“Investing in Your Future: Building a Succession Plan” to members of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Transition planning tips from the Business Development Bank of Canada

“Closing or Selling Your Business—A Succession Plan Info-Guide” from the Canada-Ontario Business Service Centre. Includes toll-free numbers to get detailed information on legal and tax requirements, plus helpful information.

Ken Burgin and Elizabeth Walker are the Marketing Masters (www.MarketingMasters.ca), a full-service marketing and advertising partnership that helps build busy businesses. Send your ideas on How to Thrive in Times Like These to liz@marketingmasters.ca or ken@marketingmasters.ca, or call 1-866-908-5720.

web: http://www.marketing,masters.ca
blog: http://thebuzzwithkenandliz.blogspot.com/

Tags: Duct Tape Marketing Coach, Elizabeth Walker, Ken Burgin
Posted on June 2nd, 2009 | 3 Comments »

Andrew Warner, Founder of Mixergy.com

A few weeks ago, I posted an article on BIG blog mentioning my assignment to interview successful men.  Today, Friday, May 29th at 11:00 AM PDT, I will be interviewing Andrew Warner, a young, super star entrepreneur, and Founder of Mixergy.com The interview will run live on the Mixergy site.

I surf business sites daily.  However, Mixergy.com sucked me in on the first click.  It’s an amazing collection of interviews, tips, shared secrets and how-to’s for entrepreneurs and anyone hoping to increase their business knowledge and revenue.  Andrew says he created the site for ambitious people to learn from experienced entrepreneurs.  Seems like a perfect match for the BIG Blog demographic!

While Mixergy is a virtual smorgasbord of information, I found very little information about Andrew Warner himself; such as how he launched (and sold) a $30+ MM business.  I am honored he is gracing me with an interview so we can learn more about him and how he has become so hugely successful.

Join us today to learn more about this amazing Man, his Mission and of course, his Style!

-Lisa

Lisa Bruckner is a consultant for Trunk Club – a revolutionary way for men to buy clothing.  She writes for two men’s blogs: Wasabi Nights and The Trunk Club Blog and spent twelve years in the research sector before switching gears to follow her passion for fashion.
Trunk Club
Wasabi Nights
Twitter

Tags: Lisa Bruckner, The Trunk Club
Posted on May 29th, 2009 | 5 Comments »

Another great video from our friends at the Oregon Small Business Development Center Network.

The Vocal Booth is a five year old company that started up in Calvin Mann’s apartment.  After Calvin created the first booth to keep his neighbors and landlord happy, he realized there was a need in the industry for the product and went after it. He’s grown the company from 1 to 13 employees and his products are offered worldwide.

Watch the video on YouTube

VocalBooth.com™, Inc. manufactures state-of-the-art portable vocal booths and sound isolation enclosures for the professional and home recording studio, as well as for the audiology, scientific testing and industrial sound dampening industries worldwide.

As always, we’d like to thank Mark Gregory and the new State Director,  Mike Lainoff,  for the opportunity to share these Oregon success stories with you.

Did you miss a video?  OSBDCN Success Story Videos

‘Chelle Parmele
Palo Alto Software

Tags: oregon, OSBDCN, Success
Posted on May 13th, 2009 | No Comments »

I’m fascinated by the hubbub that Tropicana created by changing their branding.

Have you seen this?

A while back, Tropicana decided to change their boxes from the straw in the orange look to a new, cleaner looking box with a “crate and barrel glass” filled with juice on the edge of the box.

The move, as I read at the Daily Heller,  was pushed as a “historic integrated-marketing and advertising campaign… designed to reinforce the brand and product attributes” and “help consumers rediscover the health benefits they get from drinking America’s iconic orange-juice brand.” Wow, that’s a pretty big job for a simple box redesign.

What was the result of this “historic” push?

It lost money. Either because people didn’t recognize the branding anymore or were turned off by the “generic” look of the new box. Personally, I like the clean look of the new branding, but the thing that used to say Tropicana doesn’t say Tropicana to me anymore.  It says Orange Juice.

Maybe they should have talked with Naota Fukasawa who designed new fruit juice packaging meant to mimic the look and feel of the fruit inside.

Updating your packaging and by extension, your brand can be important to keep current in the fast moving world, but at what expense?

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager

Tags: branding, Marketing
Posted on April 20th, 2009 | 9 Comments »

Another fantastic video courtesy of the Oregon Small Business Development Center Network.

If for some reason you’re unable to see the video below, you can view it on YouTube here: Cascade Peak Spirits

Again, we’d like to thank Mark Gregory and the new State Director,  Mike Lainoff,  for the opportunity to share these Oregon success stories with you.

Did you miss the first video? Don’t worry, you can catch it here:  Bike Newport

‘Chelle Parmele
Palo Alto Software

5/5/09: The Video has been updated with new links and should be available now.

Tags: oregon, OSBDCN, video
Posted on April 13th, 2009 | No Comments »

Every so often (a rather ambiguous date range, don’t you think?) the demise of email is predicted.

It’s a pain.

It’s a spam-laden nightmare.

It’s archaic and clunky.

It’s possible that you, too, see email through this lens. But I’m going to hazard a guess and say that, regardless, email is still an essential part of your business and of your life.

In fact, I’ll go a step further: Without email, your overall communication plan (business or personal) would be irrevocably stunted. This is nothing to be ashamed of (though it seems many are). Without the keyless entry on my car, I’d drop a lot more groceries. I don’t think this makes me a bad person.

The latest fad in the “email is dead” game is to claim that social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace will replace traditional email. Status updates, it is said, will suffice for passing along the critical information that travels through email. Check out this BBC article to prove it.

If this appears to be a sleek, trendy, agile solution to the headaches associated with email, well, it’s a bit premature. There is a long list of interesting and useful business applications possible with social networks. Conveying developed pieces of information necessary both internally and externally as part of the business process is not one of them.

That’s still the job of email.

• Email is a place where you get more than 140 characters to decode your message (unlike Twitter, for instance).
• Traditional email (as opposed to Facebook messages, for instance) is a credible, go-to business communication channel. It’s still a vehicle for CEOs to reach out to one another and for customer service reps to personally engage your customers.
• With 210 billion messages sent every day (a large percentage spam, I know), email is a part of our communication fabric, tied undeniably to much of what we do.

Want to make email even more useful? Check out some tips and tricks by clicking here.

Jason Gallic
Product Marketing Manager

Tags: communication, email, Email Center Pro, emailcenterpro
Posted on March 17th, 2009 | No Comments »

The New York Times had an article last week about how laid-off workers are taking matters into their own hands. The article talks about when, in a recession, do people start thinking about starting a company vs. just sending out resumes and trying to get a job:

Economists say that when the economy takes a dive, it is common for people to turn to their inner entrepreneur to try to make their own work. But they say that it takes months for that mentality to sink in, and that this is about the time in the economic cycle when it really starts to happen — when the formerly employed realize that traditional job searches are not working, and that they are running out of time and money.

I know there are a lot of people in this boat right now – laid off for a few months, no prospects in sight, and money is starting to run out. If you find yourself in this situation, why not think about starting a new company? What do you have to lose? Think about what skills you bring to the table, what you are REALLY good at, and figure out what services or potential products you can offer to people. It’s better than sitting around waiting for something to happen to you. Funny how people say that the harder they work, the luckier they get!

Food for thought!

Sabrina Parsons aka Mommy CEO

Tags: business planning, start up, starting your business, Success, unemployment
Posted on March 17th, 2009 | No Comments »

Tim Berry was featured on Jim Blasingame’s Small Business Advocate radio show yesterday.

Succession planning is a big part of the long-term planning for millions of small businesses. Tim Berry has studied this and actually done it successfully, and he talks with Jim Blasingame about his advice based on his experience.

You can listen to the full show by clicking on the image below.

And be sure to check out the Small Business Advocate website! Jim and his amazing staff have a wealth of information contained on the website.

Tags: jim blasingame, radio appearance, succession planning, Tim Berry
Posted on March 17th, 2009 | No Comments »

Did you miss Sabrina Parsons on Friday’s Business Insanity Talk Radio with Barry Moltz?

Not to worry – Listen to it here: Business Planning, Innovation and Your Career

Tags: Barry Moltz, business planning, radio appearance, sabrina parsons
Posted on March 16th, 2009 | 1 Comment »