Home business Tips: Write a financial plan

A business plan is an important tool that will help you to focus your home based business, learn more about the competition and be realistic about the profits and expenses. Because many lenders are wary about home based businesses, a properly written plan will also help you to get a needed loan.

You will want to start with a cover page. This will have your business name, your name, address, phone number, email, and web page address. This page introduces you, so it should be exceptionally neat.

The next page is a table of contents, which will tell the page number of each of the important parts of your plan. You can include a small synopsis if you wish.

Start off with a description of the industry you are going to become a part of. Identify some of the competition, including as many as you can find that work from home. You will want to describe the basic procedures for this business and the average income of home workers. Explain how others have started and the areas they market to. This is to show a lender you know what you are getting into and to learn some things about the field yourself.

Next you will want to describe your business. What will be the exact responsibilities? How is it different from the businesses already in this field? Why is yours better? Include your pricing, your market area and any other relevant information. This area will allow you to focus your idea and think about ways you can make it better than the competition.

The next part of your business plan will discuss your goals. Write down all the goals you have for this business in one year and in five years. Make sure these are compatible with your lifestyle and family goals. Your goals should include production, profit, and amount of customers. Be realistic in the expected growth. Think about how you will handle your business if it grows faster than this. What about slower?

Now go into the details of your marketing plan. Will you use salesmen, flyers, direct mailers, TV ads, radio ads, newspaper ads, magazine ads, word of mouth, direct calling or the internet? Which ones will you rely on most? How much will you need to spend for each different type of advertising? Then you will need to discuss the results you have assumed. Do you expect five percent of the people to respond to your direct mailings, and two percent to buy your product? To come up with this number, you can try it on a test market, and interview others in similar businesses. Talk to your potential customers they may tell you of a specific niche you can fill, that will increase your profits. Learning the realistic numbers for expected respondents can be a little depressing, but it’s better to have an estimate now than count on responses that aren’t going to happen. Be creative in your advertising and you can lower your expenses a little. Maybe you will need to lower your rates in the beginning, maybe even doing some work for free just to get your name out there. Expect to put at least the first six months profits back into your business and at least half towards advertising.

The next section of your business plan is about action. This is where you describe specific things that you need to do within the next year to reach your goal. How many customers or projects do you need? According to your marketing plan what will you have to do to get that amount? Write down all the steps. How much of your time will be spent on each. If things go wrong or take longer then expected how will you overcome these minor set backs? With a step by step plan you will know what to do next, this will allow you to see the whole picture and keep your perspective through hard times.

Now you’ll need to discuss your expenses for the next year and for the next five years. Include everything your can think of, like, business license fees, logo and ad design fees, accountant, taxes, lawyers, employee wages, cost of materials, equipment, repairs, gas and driving expenses, copy rights, advertising and any other fees that go along with your specific business. Estimate a little high so that you will always have a little leeway. You can include a statement for the lender about how much you expect to save by operating this business at home rather then a rented office?

The next section will discuss how much money you’ll need to get started and how much to keep it going. Then tell the expected income followed by the gross profits. The final statement will be your net profits which if you are applying for a loan will be one of the most important parts. Now state the amount you have to invest in the business, what other sources your money is coming from and how much you need from a lending institution. Include in this section what you will do if you suddenly need a little more money. Will your business fail? (By the way, this is not an option). What is your back up plan. If you have one the lending institution will know you are prepared for nearly every situation. They should feel confident that their money is safe with you.

The last page should have your references, which can include previous employees, clients, lenders, your lawyer and your accountant. It can include positive statements these people have made showing what a wonderful business person you are.

Now you are armed with the tools you need to get a loan to start your business and the plan that will make it succeed.

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Small Business Tips: Effective marketing plans

When writing effective business correspondence, one must pay great attention to even the minutest of details. However, one must also capture the readers’ attention and that can usually be best accomplished by projecting a specific writing style. Your chosen writing style could fit one of the following descriptive groups: elegance, class, opulence; humor, sincerity, friendliness; humorous, down-to-earth, friendly; blunt, stark, aggressive; to-the-point, professional, no frills; non-traditional, funky, offbeat; pleading, submissive, “hope-you-pick-me” or you could invent one entirely unique.

Obviously one or more styles could be combined, however this is difficult to do and still be straightforwardly effective. It is best to choose a specific style such as one of the above that suits the situation; the potential buyer; and your business as well as your own unique personality. A company that sells business services, for example, would find it inane to attempt to impress their prospective clientele base with a letter that was funky; prospective clients would most certainly shy away. To put it another way, can you imagine a vintage clothing store that would properly convey their image with a no frills, professional approach?

Once you have chosen the style that is suitable to the given situation, you must decide who is your target; who will be reading this information, or rather, who do you want to read it? It will usually be one of the following positional types that will be reading your copy:

1. The decision maker

2. The screener

3. The spouse of the decision maker

4. A partial decision maker

The decision maker is who you obviously want to receive your printed material; however, you must keep in mind that you may initially have to get it beyond the screener, the spouse (who may also act as a screener), or simply a partial decision maker. You want your information to ultimately end up in the hands of your target – the decision maker. Let’s discover how we can effectively attract and hold the attention of one of the intermediary persons involved yet still captivate the decision maker’s attention.

First, ask yourself this question as if you were each of the above recipients, “What is in this for me?” Good question, can you answer it? You must embed an attribute within your copy that is beneficial to each individual who has the good fortune to hold your materials in his/her hands. For the screener, it may be that it offers a lessening of the load of responsibilities from his/her shoulders by providing a viable option of transference to another entity – you. In this case, the screener will ensure the copy makes it to the decision maker and quite possibly will do so with his or her own personal recommendation!

For the spouse, the caveat will free up more time for the spouse (the decision maker) making it possible for the couple to spend quality time together, like more beneficial activities. A partial decision maker is easily pleased, as he/she will be most receptive to the same approach as the decision maker. Therefore, you must make your copy powerful enough so that it can gain impetus through the partial decision maker. In any of these scenarios, the point is to get whoever is the initial and intermediary contact in your corner, on your side, pitching your product or service, for their own gain. This is not as difficult as it sounds and can reap benefits that are well worth the time and effort it may take to put these concepts into practice.

To recap this effective strategy:

1. Define your style

2. Define the possible intermediary contacts

3. Define the benefits for the intermediary contacts

4. Define the benefits for the decision maker

5. Use these definitions to write copy that will capture attention

By implementing these principles you will find that your written copy will literally soar into your prospective buyers’ hands. Remember: Define, define, define, define…and put into action!

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Enhance Your Career: 3 Simple Strategic Tips for Improving Your Career Plan

So you want to enhance your career. You are on a look out for what you can do to greatly impact your career path. Are there simple strategies that you can implement that can immediately have a positive influence on your career? If there are, what are they?

The answer is – yes, there are simple strategies that you can do in order for you to enhance your career. This is a self-reflective strategy. I refer to it as simple because you alone can do this. For as long as you are truthful with yourself then this is as simple as it gets.

However, there is a word of caution. Nothing can enhance your career if you feel that there is not much you can improve on already. And while these strategies are simple, they can only be achieved IF you are willing to make that change.

1. Attitude

When it comes to attitude I have always championed that you can define your attitude as one of pride, passion and belief. In everything that you do, do it with pride, passion and belief. And remember to back these up with skills and knowledge, direction and action.

Let’s take these further. To enhance your career, hardworking, humility and honesty is essential. Hardworking is fairly straightforward. It just means nothing comes easy. There are no rewards in the working world that comes without hard work. In fact, there is nothing in life that comes without hard work.

Humility comes with maturity. When you know you do not know enough then you begin to be a student again. You will want to enhance your skills and knowledge, which will in turn enhance your career.

Do you conduct your work honestly? How do you deal with your colleagues? Is it with integrity? Do you admit to your mistakes and not blame anyone for it? Honesty isn’t just about dealing with others. It is also being honest with yourself. Can you face your own ghost? Are you afraid to face your weaknesses without being defensive? Are you afraid to confront your lack of strengths? Being honest with yourself leads to an awareness. Step one to enhance your career is to define your attitude.

2. Awareness

An awareness of your strengths and weaknesses is a necessary step if you want to enhance your career. This awareness is one that is self-reflective. One that makes you feel a sense of inadequacy. This sense of inadequacy creates an intrinsic need for improvement.

The energy generated from this awareness is a positive energy that propels you with the confidence to improve.

If you want to enhance your career, ask yourself - do you have this awareness? One that is clear about where you are, why are you there, where you can be and how do you get there? An awareness of the need to improve and an awareness of what you truly want is a simple strategy that can enhance your career. But how many of us can truly claim that we have this awareness? And how many can claim, with this awareness there is an action that works on it?

Many sit around all day lamenting why are they not progressing? They feel unappreciated. Hard work is not being rewarded. Let me point out something. According to the Webster’s Universal College Dictionary - appreciate is to be fully conscious of; be aware of. If you want to be appreciated, start appreciating your strengths and weaknesses. Then only can you begin to talk about how to enhance your career.

3. Action

So, you have a positive attitude and a positive awareness of yourself. But do you act upon them? If you do act upon them, do you do it at a pace that is right for you? Knowing the pace that is right for you is all about self-awareness.

There are two parts to this action, one is patience and the other persistence. Patience is about proceeding calmly or moving slowly with zero anticipation. No plans to enhance your career can be successful without solid action from your end. And solid action from your end means hard work.

Which is the other part of action, one that is persistent. One that is doing incessantly or progresses with dogged determination.

As you can see these are truly 3 simple strategic tips you can implement immediately that can positively enhance your career. Each is inter-related to another and feeds upon each other. If you can get it smoothly into motion there is no telling how far you can go.

About The Author

Long as he is popularly known - went through a period of disillusionment many moons ago. 'A slap and a kick' from a good-hearted cousin then woke him. He found himself graduating and having a good career. In his free time he runs www.career-success-for-newbies.com with his wife Dorena as their way of paying it forward. Download these free eBooks - Career Success Recipe for Newbies and SHINE At Work: Your 30-Minute Guide at the website now.

By Long Yun Siang

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