Godshall and 17 others will pitch their business plans during the annual symposium in its 13th year that brings together investors and technology companies looking for money to fuel their growth.
This year's participants include companies with products that make plastic biodegradable, reduce the cost of solar power components and, in the case of Godshall's Albuquerque company Altela Inc., clean water polluted in the course of mining for oil, gas and minerals.
]]>"The journey is like a roller coaster," Barry Moltz said. "And part of what's going to say whether you succeed or not is how you transition from the more difficult times to the better times."
Moltz is the featured speaker today at the Northeast Wisconsin Entrepreneur Networking Day, which runs from 3 to 9 p.m. at the Meyer Theater in downtown Green Bay.
]]>Participants in the Price-Babson Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators program are exploring the entrepreneurial process, the "art and craft" of teaching and learning entrepreneurship. The program provides an introduction to case-method teaching and live, venture-based teaching methodologies.
The attendees, from 29 institutions in countries around the world including the Pacific Rim, Europe, and Latin America, are encouraged to identify, plan, and personalize their own entry (or reentry) strategy into academia, and to improve as teachers, entrepreneurs, learners, researchers, and colleagues.
• Being informed: You have to be aware of what is going on around you. In some cases you will need to perform risk assessment to determine whether your company is in the mode to recover from any kind of disaster or disruption.
• Operations planning: You need to develop a well thought out plan of action just in case something should happen. Would you prepared to act on a situation that threatened your business? Would you know what to do? Important factors to know.
• Emergency planning: Here you need to know exactly what is involved. Your employees and co-workers must know how to handle themselves under any type of circumstances. After all, they are your most important asset. Without them it would be hard to run your business full time for a long extended time.
• Emergency supplies: Do you have supplies on hand in case of emergencies? For example, do you have a first aid kit, or fresh water available?
• Decision making: One thing about being a manager of a company is you have to make decisions regarding your company's future. One of these is would you need to shut your company down and move to another area if an emergency occurred to prevent you from carrying on with your business?
• Fire safety: Are you prepared in case of a major fire? Do you have a fire extinguisher or other safety features built into the building where your business is located? Most businesses have automatic sprinkler systems. Do you?
• Medical emergencies: Are you prepared for medical emergencies. What if you had a disaster and you have people who were wounded, would you know how to care for them? Do you a policies in place that you follow to deal with sort of situation?
This is why it is so important for a business to plan for emergencies, disasters, other situations that could disrupt their business. What steps you take will make a determining factor as to whether you succeed at your business or not. Here are some steps you will need to take if you are going to plan on such an eventuality:
• Careful analysis: One thing you can do is carefully analyze your business functions, both from an internal and external perspective, and determine which operation, staff, materials, procedures, or equipment is vital to keeping the business going should such a difficult situation occur.
• Business relationships: Look at all your business relationships to see who you may need to discontinue working with. You may find that you will need more than one supplier, shipper, or resource of some type when the need arises. So it would be good to establish a good professional working relationship with more than one so you'll have the right amount of coverage if needed.
• Plan ahead: What if you are in a situation where your building is damaged and you can't work there anymore. Do you have a plan for relocation? Or do you have a plan set aside or procedures in place to work on restoring the building so you can continue business as usual. This vital to the continued operation of your business.
• Who is involved: Who do you have involved in helping create your plan? One of the members should be the executive in charge of the company. He is outright responsible for the company and its welfare. Other people that may need to be included would be those who understand the business structures and people, this way any kind of action could be undertaken without any problems.
• Principles: Any kind of plan should center around a business continuity plan (BCP). This plan, once it is instituted, should be endorsed by upper management and rigorously tested. The main point with BCP is understanding the business and knowing what it vital to keep the organization going no matter what happens. You should therefore involve any personnel that may need to help in case of emergencies. This may include IT systems and manufacturing personnel.
• Process: When creating your plan, you need to look at various stages of the BCM. These stages may include understanding your business and what it is supposed to do, developing strategic plans to continue the business processes, developing some kind of response, and putting your plan in place when it is required. Also, you need to continue to test, maintain, and audit the plan on a regular basis to make sure it works and there are no loopholes.
• Being informed: You should know what kind of emergencies or disasters that may affect your company and learn how to plan for them.
• Operations planning: To properly plan ahead, you must assess your company's functions from both an internal and external perspective so you'll know what to do in any situation.
• Emergency planning: You must make sure your employees and co-workers are in the know and are prepared. Provide drills every so often to keep it fresh in their minds. This way hopefully, they'll be prepared.
• Emergency supplies: Make sure to have plenty of emergency supplies available in case something does happen. This should include first aid, water, and certain food items.
• Decision making: The biggest decision a business owner will make is whether to stay or go when a disaster strikes. The only way to know this is by accessing the situation, see how serious it is, and act on it. The bottom line is keeping the business going.
• Fire safety: Make sure you are prepared in case of a fire. Have the proper equipment available just in case a fire does break out.
• Medical emergencies: Prepare yourself for any emergency that happens whether it is a medical emergency or not. Have plans and procedures in place to deal with one if it should arise.
• Sole proprietorship: With this type of business, only one person runs it. This one person furnishes all the capital required to run the business along with accepting responsibility for everything that is involved with running the business. If the person running the business dies, the business dies to.
• Partnership: With a partnership, two people share responsibilities in running a business. There could be just two or more people involved. All people involved in a partnership are liable for the debt of the business. As with a sole proprietorship, if one partner dies, the business can close, unless the existing partner desires to bring another partner onboard.
• Corporation: With a corporation the liability of the owners is limited only by the amount of money they invest in the company's stock. The one difference between a sole proprietorship and partnership as compared to a corporation is that the corporation does not die or close because the owner may die. Another disadvantage of corporations is they are tax twice: once for profits and the other for dividends sent to shareholders.
• Limited Liability Company (LLC): In order for someone to form an LLC, that person must complete a Certificate of Formation and file it with the Division of Revenue. Once established, the LLC operates under what is called an "operating agreement" that sets forth rules regarding membership, rights, powers, and duties.
• Getting started: Before you get started, write down every goal you plan to attain for your business. This way you can stay centered and focused on your business.
• Income outlook: What are you planning to make per week, month, or year. By knowing approximately what you plan on making this will help you to determine what you will have to charge your customers for your products or service.
• Expenses: While you are looking at your business plan, also decide on what expenses you will need, not just for start up, but on a regular daily, monthly, or yearly basis.
• Doing the work: How will you perform the services you offer? Are you going to hire people to help you do the work or are you going to do the work yourself? You can't spread yourself too thin, so make sure you are prepared.
• Time: Budget how much time you will spend on house calls, meetings, or creating the product you are selling. You need to do this to bill your clients appropriately.
• Legal matters: The one important part of starting a business is to know what is involved legally. You may need to talk to an attorney regarding what paperwork you will need to fill out to get your business working.
• Research: Before you even start a business, it would be good to know what your demographics will be. This way you will be able to target the right market.
• Pricing: The most important feature of any business is how much you will charge your customers or how much you will price your product. In order to do this you just need to do research and find out what the market can bare.
By developing a business plan, doing research, and knowing what your market is and what your customers are looking for, will help you determine what to sell or what service to offer.
• Reasons for the business: Take a look at the business you want to start and try to understand the reasons behind your choice. Why do you want to start that kind of business? Maybe you like self-management, financial independence, creative freedom, or your use of personal skills and knowledge.
• The right business: Here is where you have to get particular about what you want to do. You can find out what kind of business you want to get involved with by simply looking at yourself and know what you are passionate about. Perhaps what you love to do there is a big need for it. Whatever you decide to do make sure you have plenty of support. This is vitally important. Without support, you may be able to achieve greatness, but you'll find life easier if you do have support.
• Business niche: What is it people want or are looking for? Do you create something that people keep asking for? Do you provide a need? Do you have a product or provide a service that people are desperate for? How much competition do you have? If you do have competition, do you have a product or service that is unique or that is different from anyone else's?
The biggest part of trying to establish any kind of business is to know what your customer wants or needs. If you have a niche and can fill it, whatever it is you love to make or do, will sell well as long as there is a market for it. Just do research before you start so you won't waste time starting a business that won't work.
• Sole Proprietorship: One of the three most popular types of businesses to start is the sole proprietorship. A sole proprietorship is a great business to get started with if you can handle being a loner. Here are the advantages to starting this type of business:
o Low start-up costs
o Freedom
o Direct control
o Tax advantage
o You get all the profits
The disadvantages are:
o Liability
o You quit or die business closes
o Difficult to raise capital
• Partnership: With a partnership you have someone to share the business with you. Here are the advantages to this type of business:
o Ease of formation
o Low start-up costs
o Venture capital
Here are the disadvantages:
o Liability
o Divided authority
o Difficult to raise capital
o Hard to find good partners
• Corporation: Of all the business types, this one provides more advantages and also disadvantages. Here are the advantages:
o Limited liability
o Ownership is transferable
o Business doesn't close because people quit business
o Business becomes a legal entity
o Easier to raise capital
The disadvantages are:
o Closely regulated
o Most expensive to organize
o Some restrictions
o Extensive record-keeping
o Double taxation
Every business has its pros and cons. You just have to decide what the best type is for you and go with it.