Some rules, a template, and some personal thoughts

I have had a few questions about the business plans:
1) When is the business plan submission deadline? It is May 29. All business plans are to be submitted May, 29 NO LATER THAN 4:00 PM.

2) What do we need to hand in? You need to submit 15 hard copies of your business plan, an electronic copy, and all the paper work (non-disclosure and participant agreement if you have not already, and the checklist).

3) When will the winner be chosen? There will be updates during screening and judging, however, the winner will be decided July 18th.

Some other thoughts and rants...

1) I posted a link to some financial templates but after reviewing what is there I realized there is not an income statement. www.uschamber.com/sb/business/tools/downloads/incstmt.xlt. This is a link to a great income statement if you need one.

2) Make sure you are working through your business plan. Trust me, they are more work than you think. When I was writing my first business plan, I underestimated the workload. It ended up that I had to pull 2 all nighters in a row to finish it on time for my small business management class. Please, for your sake, start early.

My rants...
I have been reading, because I believe reading is important. I read everything that I think might be interesting or is recommended to me. Someone suggested I read a series of books called "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". I thought it would be another book that preaches the same thing that I have learned throughout university; most of which I do not agree with (but that is another discussion). These books are insightful, tie up many loose ends and answer a majority of the questions that were brought about by my university education.
One thing I found interesting in this book is the author, Robert Kiyosaki, said he asks people trying to start a small business, "can you make a better hamburger than McDonald's?" The answer is obviously yes. It doesn't take much to make a better tasting, healthier burger than a fast food restaurant. It would probably also be less expensive. So why then have they sold billions and billions of hamburgers. It is not the product...It is the system. And, it is not just one system, it is a system of systems. The way all the people helping you say, "Welcome to McDonald's", their logistic system, and most of all, their locations (if you look around, McDonald's has some of the best, most expensive, high traffic locations in the world. A prime example of this is the McDonald's in Edmonton at 6104 109 Street NW. I don't know how they did it, but they built it in the middle of an intersection. I'm not joking, its right in the middle of 2 main roads...They built an intersection around it.) are all different systems. Kiyosaki's message was this: Items, gadgets, widgets, toys, computers, etc. are imitable. Too many times I have heard, "nobody else has this" or, "it is the best product ever and everyone needs one". NO! not everyone needs one otherwise they would already have it. They clearly do not know they want it yet. However, if you can build a system that your business feeds off of, that system can be your advantage. Also, with this system you will be working on your business, and it is more likely that you will not have to spend as much time working in your business. That little word is a huge difference. It could give you more free time and increasing your chances of financial freedom.
I know the stigma surrounding these financial self-help books. However, my philosophy is: knowledge is power. The more you know, the better your chances are of succeeding. So instead of judging, read.

A Final Thought
I was listening to a conversation between 2 people at the university the other day. (I know, its rude it eavesdrop, but I couldn't help it, they were being loud.) I was interested in what they were saying, not because I agreed with it, but because I thought it was incredibly shallow. The two were discussing one of their classmates who seemed to disagree with everything their professor said and seemed to voice his/her opinion way to much. My question to them would be: is it wrong or bad to question what people tell you even if they are "experts"? I think the answer should be no. If nobody did, we would never have anything new.
On the other side of that coin, when you do question and do something new, people will outcast and ridicule you. Change always causes doubt in others. Remember the Theory of Relativity, Gravity, the Sun being the center of the solar system, Evolution, even Physics. Ideas we now consider natural laws, once created such a stir that many of the "inventors" of these ideas, were placed under house arrest or excommunicated from the Catholic Church.
I suppose my final word would be don't judge, keep an open mind, think outside the box, and do not take the words of a cynical to heart. Listen to cynics, learn from them, question them, but don't let their words defeat you.

Financials

First things first...The material from the first three seminars is on the website under seminars on the bottom right corner of the page.

Second, this will be the last call to sign up for a mentor. The deadline to sign up is this Friday, April 18th.

O.K. I have had a few questions:
1) If we don't attend all the seminars can we still submit a business plan? The answer is yes! The seminars are highly recommended, but we understand that life happens. If you cannot attend some seminars, we will accept your business plan at the end of May.

2) I have had some questions on where there are some financial templates. There is a great website that goes has pretty much ever financial template you will need for a business plan. The site is http://www.score.org/template_gallery.html. If you can't find what you are looking for there, let me know, I'll try and find one for you.

The last thing I will finish up with is a heads up about the next seminar. We are starting to get into business financials. This is one of the most important part of you business plan. Ultimately you business needs to support itself. If, after calculating your market share, you realize that the business is not going to support itself, that is a success. It is successful in that you have not pumped time, energy, and loads of money into a failing venture. All three - time, energy, and money - are finite, and you need to maximize your use of them all. This business plan will help you do that.

Granted we cannot go through everything in depth regarding the financial aspects of business plans in 2 seminars. However, we will go through the essentials. I encourage you to get a good start so if you have any questions for Craig, you can ask them.

Finally, I cannot attend this next seminar. If you have any questions for me specifically, please email me. I will be checking my email periodically over the next 2 days, so I will respond. Mark Fournier will be there to make things go over smoothly. He can answer any questions you may have as well.

Seminars

Hello everyone.
Welcome to the new year of the Chinook Entrepreneur Challenge.
Seminars have started and the next one is at 6:30 on Thursday at your local Community Futures office. We will be discussing marketing. This topic is widely misunderstood. Most, when they think of marketing the only thing that comes to mind is advertising. This is only a small piece, usually the end result of hours of research and analysis.

The trap many entrepreneurs fall in, especially when making a business plan is, is it realistic? Most think, I have a great product, its nothing like anything else, everyone in town will buy it. Reading it when I say it in a blog, it sounds naive. It sounds worse in a Business Plan.

The first thing you must remember is there are always competitors. Maybe not always direct competitors, but they still take business from you. For example, a family has the afternoon to burn, what options do they have. 1) going to a matinée movie for the afternoon 2)driving to waterton 3)renting a movie 4)go for a bike ride, picnic, go to the lake, swimming pool, or something else active. All these things are now in competition for that families time. Only one will win. Remember this when you are writing about marketing in your business plan.

Finally, traditional marketing is becoming less effective, especially towards new demographics. By traditional marketing I mean that annoying stuff that interrupts our favorite T.V. and radio shows and those overgrown signs that pepper the side of the road and take away the spectacular views of your favourite stretch of highway. If you want to watch a great video on this, its a presentation by Seth Godin. Its called Sliced Bread and Other Marketing Delights. It takes about 20 minutes. He goes over some interesting things that you should take into account for modern marketing. The problem, is that we are bombarded with ads constantly, no matter what we are doing. This is especially true with the younger generations. Think about this and its implications. So...how are you going to get the word out, who are you going to tell, and how will you make it unique enough to get them to listen. If you would like to see it the link is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBIVlM435Zg&feature=related

I recommend it.

Marketing is not just this though.... It is analyzing your business. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? How can you utilize your strengths and counteract your weaknesses? And if you know who will buy it, how often, and where, you can find your market potential.

I hope to see you all Thursday for the seminar. It will be informative.