Planning and the Entrepreneur

So, what do we mean by 'planning' in the business sense. Well we can define four separate aspects of the business planning process.

The business plan itself, a process, usually formalised, considering all aspects of your proposed business and designed to:

• Clarify your own objectives;
• Impress would-be investors or funders
• Focus the minds of the principals as an on-going process.
• The marketing plan, establishing that a market exists for your products, that it is accessible and deep enough to keep your business afloat.
• A budget and cash flow forecast showing that the business can be profitable, and predicting the depth and duration of the inevitable cash-flow hole as your business rises off the launch pad
• A project plan showing
• The sequence and duration of the activities associated with your start up
• Predicting the dates at which the various milestones in the start-up process will be achieved
• Identifying the 'critical path' activities where your activity and resources need to be focussed.

You note that we talk of the business planning process rather than the business plan as a document.

It is inevitably better to have a document to refer to, and your bankers and backers will want to see documents, but it is the process that is important to you.

Though we talk of the four plans as if they are separate things, they are in fact inter-dependant. Your marketing plan could almost be considered as a chapter in your business plan and your project plan will be key to your cash flow projections.

Think of them as four stones cast in a square pattern into a still pond. As the waves radiate out from the spots where the stones hit, the water will only be disturbed by the ripples from the nearest. At this point each plan is separate and distinct, but soon as the ripples spread, the water will be disturbed by two, then three, then eventually four sets of ripples merge.

As you start your plans you will soon find that each needs input from one, then two and eventually all of the others.

Here lies both the strength and the danger of the process.

The interaction between the plans means that each plan is improved by the existence of the others, whilst the temptation to constantly revisit each plan can lead to paralysis.

There is a truism about medical record keeping, it can often tell us why the patient died rather than how to keep the patient alive.

So how much time should an entrepreneur invest in the planning process?

Perhaps you are asking the wrong question. Why not try:

• Did my last reworking result in significant changes to my start-up project?
• Did it expose important issues I had not considered before
• Will another reworking result in a significantly different plan?

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7193274

Bigger Fund Managers Are Not Necessarily Better

When it comes to selecting top-performing investment funds and unit trusts the bigger brand is not necessarily better. Choosing the wrong fund by investing with big brand fund managers could cost investors dearly.

Many investors are deluded into thinking that buying from a big brand fund manager will in some way protect them against selecting a poorly performing fund. The big brand managers offer many great funds, but they're also marketing plenty of duds. Just because one fund is a top performer, doesn't mean it applies across that fund manager's range. Investors need to look beyond the brand and more closely at the underlying fund.

Over recent years, the UK market has seen a rise in popularity for boutique investment houses, and, given their track record of consistent positive performance, it's hardly surprising. There are many ways to classify a boutique, but generally speaking, boutique fund managers are independently-owned or employee-owned, and relatively small in size. They often invest in specialist areas of expertise, rather than attempt to be all things to all men and run funds across each and every sector.

Recently, boutiques have even been stepping on large firms' toes when it comes to servicing retail clients. Last year boutiques outshone their larger counterparts in the UK, taking the top four places in the 'best overall fund manager rankings'. Big brands such as UBS and Standard Life slipped down the rankings, while boutiques Rathbone, Neptune, Dalton and Artemis took the top spots.

The last quarter of 2006 was hair-raising for investors, as millions were wiped off share prices and markets. However, the boutique fund management houses continued to outperform their larger rivals.

The disappointing reality for most private investors is that neither they, nor in some cases their financial advisers, would have heard of some of these relatively unknown smaller investment houses, and are therefore missing out on great business opportunities.

The same caution applied to big brands should also be applied to big names - or the so called 'star fund managers'. Is it wise to stake your money on the reputation of an individual big-name fund manager when there's no guarantee they will stick around?

Research shows that just 15% of managers have run the same fund for over six years, 43% for four to six years, and 39% for two to four years. Similarly, 80% of fund managers at the top 50 UK fund providers have left their funds in the last three years. Around 60% of managers move because of offers from competitors.

In investment terms, familiarity doesn't always necessarily breed content. Investors should monitor their investments very closely and ensure that they have the tools to hand to spot strong investment opportunities that would otherwise pass them by.

What's Your Social Media Marketing Plan?

If you are a marketer you'll already be familiar with a marketing strategy and plan. Social Media Marketing is no different - to succeed you must have a strategy.

Whether you want to use Social Media Marketing to launch a new product, promote an existing one, improve customer loyalty or improve brand awareness, a social media strategy is crucial for knowing where you are going, what you want to achieve from your Social Media Marketing efforts and what resources you will need. As with most things in business, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

So what should your Social Media strategy contain?

I recommend that you include details of these 9 important areas and add as many more as you need for your particular business. Use this article as a checklist and brainstorming tool.

1. Your target audience - who are they and how do they prefer to network? What Social Media tools do they currently use?

2. Your goals - what are they and how do you plan to achieve them? Do you want to attract more prospects? Improve customer loyalty? Attract a new audience? Get buzz for your project? You must know the answers to these questions.

3. Your success measures - how will you know you've succeeded? Will it be through product downloads or trials? The number of people clicking through to your site? Or the number of qualified leads you gain?

4. Your competitors - Do they have a large Social Media presence or none at all? What type of campaigns are they doing? If they are doing nothing, you could grab the advantage. Google your competitors and see what you find.

5. Your Social Media content - are you planning to use video, audio, or written content? See what your audience likes and use what they like to use.

6. What's "your soft offer?" - How will you convert your prospects into sales or customers? What's your lead capture/nurturing plan? It could be a free whitepaper or a case study or a report. Whatever it is, outline it in your plan

7. Your Social Media Tools - Will you use YouTube, a blog, Twitter, Facebook? Community forums? Not every tool will work for you, some will work better than others. Often the only way to find out is to try them and see. Having a strategy makes it easier because you can make a decision as to what to try and why. You can track the results of each tool you try.

8. Your resources - Most Social Media tools cost little or nothing to set up and run. However, there is a considerable investment of time required for any Social Media effort to have long term success. For example, who will keep your blog updated? How will you address comments so that the blog is truly interactive and conversational? How many people do you need to allocate? What's your plan for tracking - and acting on what your stats tell you?

Most people don't consider these questions until after they've started. If you can answer these questions early on you will be prepared and more likely to avoid frustration and failure. You should also carefully consider the time you can afford to invest compared to what's actually needed.

9. Last, but certainly not least, how will you encourage word of mouth marketing and the viral nature of Social Media? How do you plan to get people talking about you without "you talking about you?" This is a significant advantage of using Social Media, however it doesn't simply happen.

The sheer volume of social media tools and opportunity can be overwhelming. A Social Media strategy will help you cut through the noise, make better choices and select what works for your audience, your company and your objectives. It will position you to meet many of the seemingly huge hurdles to getting started and will almost certainly make you more successful in your Social Media efforts.

Think of it as your road map to success.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1581231