A South American Quest

13 Mar

It began as a flitting idea, something that sounded great but rather outlandish.  Isn’t it every adventure-seekers dream to backpack through South America? Then I started to tell people- “Hey, I would really like to do this.” They replied with ”That sounds great!” or “Yea!!” or “Isn’t that dangerous?” After saying my dream out loud, it almost became tangible, so I started saving. Little by little, year by year. Enter 2012.  It was finally time. I couldnt stall anymore, and doubting myself would only lead to failure. I had to do this.   And so one week ago, I left my city of Chicago and ventured into the Brazilian life.  I landed in Sao Paulo, a mega city home to 20 million people.  There was a lot to do, but I needed some time away from cars and skyscrapers.  So, I headed to Paraty, a picturesque town on the ocean 6 hours away. It was there that I finally realized I was actually in Brazil and all the other worries just melted into the sand with me.  Alas, the days went too quickly and I was due to leave for Rio de Janeiro.  A sad parting entailed, and now I am in Rio for a few more days.  The time goes so quickly here.  I ignorantly wrote down that I would spend three or four, sometimes two or three days in each city… In reality a week would have been better to see everything and not rush as much.  The Brazilian culture is fascinating-they are (purposely) never on time, obsessed with fresh juice, soccer (futbol), and soap operas (novelas).  However, the divide between the rich and poor  is alarming-most easily perceived through the conditions in the favelas versus the electric fenced houses and modern apartment buildings.  More about my South American adventure to come!

Shelby

Follow Shelby’s blog at:  www.theroadbestraveled.com

 

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Focus on a Cool Girl: Think Pink

6 Jan

This is my new friend, Kimi Vandyk  with a headline on LinkedIn that reads: Marketing.Social Media.GamePlay.Events.Trade Shows.Webinars.Logo Products.Mobile Local.QR Codes.SMS.Project Management. She lives in Santa Barbara and loves the color pink. Obviously we love it too here at this cool girls website.

Kimi is all about creative collaboration and loves working with her clients to find the best promotional items to fit their marketing goals. I found her on LinkedIn and in reply to my email, she sent me a video hello back. Kimi art directs  and loves to help others achieve their visions through design. I found her on on linkedin, connected and she immediately sent me a video hello. I was so touched by it as it was very clever and warm, I immediately contacted her and we chatted on Skype. Since then she has referred me to some amazing people and, in exchange, I have been coaching her on focusing on the one thing she should put her efforts toward accomplishing this year.
She refers people to  www.sidekickcreative.com for design. She is also focusing  on promotional items as per her website, www.kimivandyk.com.

I know this will be her breakthrough year. Please reach out to her and connect. I am sure you will find she is awesome!

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Strategies for Securing a Business Loan

16 Sep

From “How to Grow a Great Business and Power Network,” by Melissa Giovagnoli and David Stover.

Strategies for Securing a Business Loan

For those who think their business would be successful if only they had an infusion of capital, here are the strategies that can boost your chances for success:

Create an Excellent Business Plan

All funding sources will want to see a comprehensive, concise, and realistic business plan. Your plan will be the primary key for getting funding and, if used as a basis for daily business decisions, will help you reach your goals and give you continued opportunities for funding.

Create a File on Contacts

Whether you have a computerized data base or keep a notebook of the many contacts you make with potential investors, it’s important to keep track. Once you’ve completed your business plan, mail it with a cover letter to the investors you have prescreened. Prescreening is important because you shouldn’t waste money copying or mailing to unscreened individuals. Take the time to make the phone calls, and see if at this time (because things change constantly with every business), the bank, angel network, venture capital firm, etc., is accepting applications for your type of investment request. Time taken to target market is the best time you can spend.

Continue to Periodically Follow Up on Your Contacts

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” is an excellent motto when applying for funding. Just as you must constantly sell your product or service, you must also sell the opportunity to others to invest in your company. Make regular phone follow-ups (monthly or every other month) even to contacts who were noncommittal or negative.

Your initial negative contact with a representative of a bank or investment firm might have involved just a bad day for the person with whom you had spoken. As long as there was an initial interest in your company, keep trying. Ask for suggestions on how to improve your plan. The advice you get could mean the difference between wishing for an opportunity and making one happen.

For more strategies, visit melissagwilson.com and download the free e-book!

Buying a Franchise

16 Sep

Following is an excerpt about buying a franchise, from “How to Grow a Great Business and Power Network,” by Melissa Giovagnoli and David Stover.

Buying a Franchise

Buying a franchise is a popular, and potentially a relatively safe way to become a business owner. Instead of reinventing the wheel, adopt a business model that has been proven to be successful. In theory, the answer to nearly every operational question is either in your franchisee manual or at the other end of the phone line.

Franchises are available for many kinds of businesses, ranging from sandwich shops to automobile dealerships, from quick printers to hotels. When you buy a franchise, you become a franchisee and pay the franchisor (the company that grants the franchise) an initial fee plus a royalty, typically a percentage of revenues. If the franchisor also owns the property in which your business is located, you’ll also pay rent to the franchisor, and this too may be a percentage of revenues. In return, you get the right use the name of the business, typically on an exclusive basis in a specific geographic area, and sell its standardized service or products.

The franchisor usually will provide market research, site selection, construction supervision or lease negotiation as appropriate, and equipment and furnishings. In addition, the franchisor may be obligated to conduct regional or national advertising (paid for by contributions from you and other franchisees), furnish sales promotional material, and provide the actual products for resale to customers.

Visit melissagwilson.com to learn more about the pros and cons of buying a franchise.

 

Minimize the Risk of Being an Entrepreneur

14 Sep

A quick excerpt from Melissa Giovagnoli and David Stover’s “How to Grow a Great Business and Power Network.”  Enjoy!

Entrepreneurs are known to be risk takers—but they aren’t reckless. Some of the techniques they use to minimize their risks include:

Asking the right questions: Starting with, “What if…” and “If I take this risk, what is the worst that can happen?” Pre-planning and groundwork are essential to taking calculated risks that help entrepreneurs address the issues and avoid worst case scenarios.

Researching the market: Entrepreneurs realize that customers, competitors and suppliers are integral to their success. They evaluate choices by identifying the range of outcomes from worst-case to best-case scenarios. Entrepreneurs may use a schematic number line from -5 to +5, the Ben Franklin model; listing pros and cons for each choice, case histories, gut feelings or some other method of comparison and evaluation to keep them on track.

Looking beyond costs: Examining how easy or difficult a startup would be; understanding user perceptions, timing and other crucial factors, entrepreneurs realize that numbers aren’t the whole picture.

Evaluate all risks in terms of overall goals and objectives: Since many entrepreneurs start their business with personal savings or angel round capital, and function on the financial edge, risk-taking skills are critical. Even those who start with solid financial backing will be confronted with risks—and calculated risks can offer the opportunity to grow and move forward. Whether starting a new business or growing an existing one, an entrepreneur needs to be armed with every available resource in order to overcome the challenges ahead.

Visit melissagwilson.com  to read more!

Time Management

12 Sep

Below is an informative piece about time management when opening a business from Melissa Giovagnoli and David R. Stover’s “How to Grow a Great Business and Power Network.”

An important thing to remember about time management or self- management is that priorities can change often, even daily. You must be flexible, allowing change when new opportunities arise. Many business owners feel as though they are always busy, working long hours but not necessarily accomplishing what they wanted to do. Poulos refers to this experience as the “barrenness of business taking over.”

Being “gold-minded” together with “time-minded” is the key to getting out of this time trap. There are many scheduling and organizing tools on the market, some of them quite expensive. There is no way to recommend one over another because every business and every person has particular needs and styles. Be sure that the system you choose is easy to maintain and does what you want it to do.

The fine art of delegation is an extremely important skill for you to learn regardless of whether you manage a business with several employees or just manage yourself. No one can function effectively alone; those who attempt to do so fall prey to burnout. Although delegation can be a difficult process for anyone accustomed to keeping tight controls over their business operations, it can greatly improve efficiency.

The best way to strengthen a small business is to delegate to outside experts. Consider asking a banker, an accountant, a management consultant, an attorney or another local business owner to serve on an informal board of directors. A monthly meeting of such a board can yield good advice and become an ongoing source of business development. The group can also be used as a sounding board for future business decisions.

To read more visit melissagwilson.com and download the free e-book!

Networking Through Associations

9 Sep

Another awesome excerpt about networking from “How to Grow a Great Business and Power Network,” by Melissa Giovagnoli and David R. Stover.

One of the best ways to meet people in business is through associations. In these organizations, industry professionals meet, share information and develop new business opportunities. Regular meetings present the opportunity to learn while establishing contacts. For a comprehensive listing of associations, check the Encyclopedia of Associations at your local library. There are literally thousands of organizations around the country most of you can join, especially those of you living in larger cities. And we believe there will be no end to the start up of more organizations, even online organizations that will connect people to other people and opportunities all over the world.

Many associations publish newsletters and magazines that will help you stay abreast of the current state of your industry. There are many national associations than can be of benefit to your business. Those lacking local chapters can still provide you with opportunities to network with professionals in other parts of the United States. Contacting other business owners long distance can be an invaluable networking tool. These professionals are often invaluable sources of information about successful marketing strategies and sales techniques. Another benefit is that these long-distance telephone conversations tend to be short and concise.

The individual on the other end of the line is usually flattered that you took the time to call long distance and therefore answers your questions as quickly and precisely as possible. You should also utilize email to keep in touch with these long-distance contacts.

We recommend regularly keeping in touch with your long distance business network. These professionals can become great sources for new information, as well as new business in the future. Long-distance networking can be extremely advantageous for business owners who have a national or international market potential.

Read more about how to join associations by downloading the free e-book at melissagwilson.com

Tips for Marketing a New Business

7 Sep

Interesting excerpt regarding the importance of marketing and a business website from “How to Grow a Great Business and Power Network,” by Melissa Giovagnoli and David R. Stover.

One of the primary problems that many business owners have is a lack of understanding of the difference between marketing and sales. Marketing is getting people to know you exist. Sales is having people buy something from you. Further, networking is a process that weaves the two profitably together. It’s amazing how often, in the flurry of activities that surround us day to day when running our businesses, that even seasoned veterans of business mistakenly mix the two concepts and waste precious capital, not obtaining their objectives and not understanding the third and perhaps most important strategy of networking in this ongoing Age of the Network.

It’s imperative that you establish a web presence for your business, starting with your website and migrating into social media, which is discussed more in Chapter 9. Every business needs a website—it’s the best way for many people to find you these days. You have several options when it comes to setting up a website. If you’re not comfortable striking out on your own, then by all means hire a website designer to help you. But if you have some degree of technical literacy and want to save money, there are plenty of companies online that offer easy to set up templates and instructions. The following steps can make this process easier:

1. Register your domain – this is your website address, which should align closely with your business name. 2. Find a reputable host for your site. Look at some online review sites, such as PC World or Cnet for recommendations. 3. Many hosts offer templates, or you can use WordPress, which is a free service with many different designs. You can download the WordPress software and then upload to your selected host’s server. 4. SEO – Search Engine Optimization, the process of getting your site into the annals of the search engines. You may want to outsource at least this portion of the site; otherwise, there is a great deal of information available to help you do it yourself.

Learn more about marketing and download the free e-book at melissagwilson.com

Getting Investors and Other Financing

5 Sep

Great excerpt from “How to Grow a Great Business and Power Network,” by Melissa Giovagnoli and David R. Stover.

Barry Molz is an entrepreneur who has co-founded three startup companies. He has many years of experience, both on the funding and the granting of funds, in which he gained insight into this difficult, but critical process.

The last company he founded was SciTech where he served as the CEO of this direct mail catalog and e-commerce reseller of scientific, engineering and technical software.

Moving from the role of entrepreneur to angel investor, he co-founded Prairie Angels, a group of private investors committed to investing in and mentoring early stage companies and their entrepreneurs. Prairie Angels is recognized and supported by Chicago Mayor’s Office, and Price Waterhouse Coopers

Venture capital funding, the most expensive of funding resources, usually looks for a minimum 20 percent equity position in a company and often a share of far more than 50 percent. Most entrepreneurs consider this funding as an alternative only after they have exhausted the possibility of self financing.

However, there are businesses, such as high technology companies, that need a great deal of money to position themselves quickly and effectively in market niches. When it’s of the essence and the business has a diverse team of seasoned professionals coming together to build a business, venture capital might be just the right form of financing.

For a services business, venture capital is one of the more appropriate resources for a second/round investment in a company in order to ensure continued expansion. The company, initially funded with the owner’s finances, has grown to the point where it clearly demonstrates success and a growth curve that shows reasonable chance of creating an open-ended market. By the time the company needs a second round of financing, the niche should be clearly defined. Again, a business plan is required with sound projections based on a two-year to five-year financial track record.

It could take up to a year or more to get funding once a firm is interested in your proposal. Venture firms receive 100 or more funding proposals weekly. Most firms have a board that reviews applicants. It they are interested in you, they can continue to request new information and hold meetings until they are ready to make a decision.

Learn more about investing by reading the free e-book at melissagwilson.com.

Creating a Business Plan

1 Sep

Below is another excerpt from Melissa Giovagnoli and David Stover’s new book, “How to Grow a Great Business and Power Network.” Enjoy!

A business plan can open doors for you. It creates, perhaps, the only solid evidence that you can do what you say you can do. How do you create such a plan? You can use one of the numerous books available, buy a software program designed to aid in the creation of business plans, or find an individual or firm that specializes in writing plans.

Rhonda Abrams, in her book, The Successful Business Plan (Oasis Press), sets forth her five fundamental steps to the business plan process:

1. Lay out your basic business concept. 2. Gather data on the feasibility and specifics of your concept. 3. Focus and refine the concept based on your data. 4. Outline the specifics of your business. 5. Put your plan into compelling form.

Research and develop all the components of your plan. Take the time to know your market. These steps will greatly improve the quality and success of your plan. This is the basic marketing research that will help you better understand your industry and how your business fits in.

Continue reading and download the free e-book at melissagwilson.com!

 

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