Archive for September, 2010

You’ve most likely heard people say, “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.” Well,  the same is true for your school fundraiser, which is why you should set a goal before you begin.  Since it is not unusual for fundraising coordinators to be new from year to year, many schools simply don’t put forth the right strategy when it comes to fundraising because they don’t set a S.M.A.R.T. goal.

For those that  haven’t heard of it, a S.M.A.R.T. goal is an acronym that helps shape the goal.  Here are what the letters mean:

• S = Specific
• M = Measurable
• A = Agreed Upon
• R = Realistic
• T = Time Bound

If your school’s goal doesn’t contain these components, then it is goingto fail. Several schools simply hold a fundraiser and just expect it to work. However, if you do not set specific goals that are measurable how do people know whether they have been successful? Additionally, if you just set some ambiguous number and it is not agreed upon and realistic, then you won’t have the volunteer turnout that you need. 

For the last letter in the S.M.A.R.T. goal, you need to make sure that the fundraiser is time bound so that it doesn’t drag on.  You want to have focused energy for the fundraiser.  The longer the fundraiser goes, the more chance you will have for burn-out and fatigue.

For some schools raising a few hundred dollars would be a specific and a realistic goal, while others raising $75,000 is standard every year. A couple of points to remember will influence what your school fundraiser needs to shoot for.

A good starting point is to settle on what the money is being raised for.  By doing this, your school should come up with a financial plan.  If the volunteers understand that they are trying to raise $20,000 so the school can build a new playground, they will be much more inclined to participate.  On the other hand, if you tell them you want to raise the same amount of money because it’s time for the annual fall fundraiser, then you are far less likely to hit your goal.

Finally, you’ll want to make goal realistic to the individual kid.  If you tell them as a group they need to raise $20,000; most student’s eyes will roll back in their heads.  They have no concept of how much money that is.  Alternatively, if you tell them that they each need to sell 10 items, say of a discount card fundraiser, then you will make the fundraiser something they can swallow.

These days, you can usually find good fundraising companies to help you understand these things.

If you don’t know where you are going (i.e. have a roadmap), then how do you expect to get there?  Do you want to leave to chance? To sheer luck? Running, expanding or starting a business without a business plan is like trying to drive from New York to Chicago for the first time without a roadmap or MapQuest!  Business planning gives you a path to follow, otherwise, you are just guessing.  In running or starting a business, the learning curve is short before you run out of resources and are forced to close.  Therefore, a business plan helps you set up a sound framework, model and strategy ahead of time, as well as, address potential problems and threats, so that you can capably run a business.  If you don’t have a system in place to deal with problems and you don’t have a sound strategic plan in place, you will find yourself needlessly sidetracked by working “in” the business instead of “on” the business. Moreover, you will miss a lot of opportunities that may come your way if you don’t have a system in place to identify them! 

A Business Plan will save you a lot of time and money.  Careful planning ahead of time will help you wisely budget your resources and significantly minimize the time you spend assessing threats, problems, obstacles and opportunities.

A business plan actually creates the future you want it to be.  It gives you the process to develop the future business you want, whether it is to successfully start, expand, acquire or build.  Granted, a business planning process can’t predict everything and markets change very quickly; yet, a business plan puts a solid process model in place to deal with such unpredictability.  Otherwise, you will become even more lost in the unpredictable nature of future market changes without a system in place to deal with and predict these changes. 

A business plan is an actual guide to starting, acquiring, expanding, building and managing a business.  It is a step by step process that will guide you through the complexities and intricacies of building a successful company. Business school will teach you something about business planning, an MBA will teach you a little more, but most good business planning experience comes from doing and learning from others who have gone before you.  As a Business Plan Writer, I know this all too well. Be sure to find a good business plan mentor!

If you need to raise funds for your business venture or project, a well thought out business plan is the very best tool useable to reach the mix and amount of funds your business requires.  A good business planning process will actually determine and design financial structures which specifically address your funding requirements. Utilize a planning process to develop and design a financial structure customized to your particular company’s requirements.  When times are tough in your business, industry or loaning market, a good funding plan will give you a fighting chance of obtaining the badly needed funding.

A business plan is a fantastic communication tool.  It establishes a companywide system so that you can effectively communicate with your executives, managers, employees, shareholders, investors, lenders, customers, potential customers, markets, suppliers, on down the line.  So many companies fail because effective communication was significantly hampered by assets and people doing contrary things.  Effective strategic planning within the business planning process establishes strong communication ties, links and systems so that all the fore mentioned human variables can come together in a directional, well coordinated strategy for success.

Nothing stays the same from one day to the next in this global, fast tracked business world.  Because of this constant change, your business will quickly fall behind and suffer without having a good business plan in place.  A plan puts a system in place to identify and address changes in the market place so you can proactively seize and turn them into opportunities.  Without a forward thinking system in place, changes in your market place can quickly become insurmountable problems and obstacles.  A business plan empowers you to deepen these changes into opportunities and increased profitability.

Operating a company without a well developed business plan is just like operating a car blindfolded, driving down an expressway in LA.  You wouldn’t blindfold yourself and drive down a busy expressway would you?  Why would you do that with your business, future and money?

About the Writer

This article is written by Frank Goley, business consultant for ABC Business Consulting. Frank is an expert in writing, developing and implementing business plans, business turnaround plans, business funding plans, marketing plans and strategic plans. Frank offers comprehensive business consulting, business coaching and business turnaround consulting to small and medium size companies. Frank is author of the business plan book, The Comprehensive Business Plan Workbook – A Step by Step Guide to Effective Business Planning, and he has over 40 published articles on business success strategies. He also writes the Business Success Strategies blog.

A strong sense of personal motivation is required for success in life. When building a business, this becomes even more important. It doesn’t matter if you’re building a real estate business, a dry cleaning business, an Internet business, or a network marketing MLM leads business.

Challenges will come up in your business…challenges that must be met and overcome. Whether or not you’re a positive and motivated individual will go a long way in determining whether you’re successful with overcoming all obstacles you face.

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is to create a business plan, open their business, get the day-to-day activities going, but to never develop an overall life game plan. They have business goals without personal life goals.

If you really want to have a strong sense of personal motivation, you’ll need to have a life plan mapped out. First of all, without a sense of direction or focus, how can you expect to achieve abundance in any area of your life?

Secondly, without a written plan, how do you expect to stay motivated long enough to keep working toward your goals when challenges meet you and your business? A written reminder is much stronger than thoughts that are wandering around in your mind, right?

Half the battle in personal and business motivation is always reminding yourself what you’re fighting for.

There are two factors most responsible for a lack of personal motivation that affect people in all businesses. You’ve got to be honest with yourself and consider whether you need help in these areas of your life.

What is it that you want out of life overall? What goal in life burns deep within you and keeps you going no matter the personal or business challenge you’re currently working through? If you don’t know, then this is the first thing you are encouraged to figure out.

You will continue to have a hard time regarding your business and personal motivation until you understand exactly what you want out of life. When challenges get to be too much, you’ll end up quitting your business pursuits without a deep, burning desire to achieve something far greater than making some money in business.

The second factor responsible for a lack of personal motivation is a lack of thoughtful planning and visualization. You can’t just determine what you want out of life without developing a solid written plan of action.

Your goals and dreams will be much more real and “alive” to you when they are down on a piece of paper. The more you see your goal on physical paper, the more your subconscious mind begins to “see” it as already accomplished.

What happens next is that your mind forces you to act in such a manner as to make happen what it already believes to be true. As you visualize in this manner, you will attract all the situations, circumstances and people into your life that help you attain your business goals, they are to have the best MLM company or the best car dealership.

Developing an indestructible sense of personal motivation comes from knowing intensely your dreams, committing them to paper, and visualizing them so strongly that you send out the life energy that attracts your dreams to you.

Do the above and watch your business and financial success take off on the wings of your newfound strength you have developed inside.

Owning a small company is really a massive dream of several individuals from the planet.  There’s a thing that’s quite exhilirating about opening up your personal business and marketing items to the earth

The most exhilirating thing about owning your own company is that you get to become your own boss.  You never ought to worry about someone else telling you what to accomplish.  If youre business enterprise is successful then you possibly can eventually hire persons to complete the function you will not need to do for you.

It’s a risky point to accomplish though due to the fact you tend not to get a steady paycheck, you only get what profits the organization makes.  But you actually do not even get that either simply because a smart businessman knows that he/she need to take some in the profits that the organization makes and put it back into the business to make it far better.  This really is in which most businesses and businessmen fail.

To perform this correctly you must learn very good dollars management skills.  The weird point about the school systems is which they teach a kid about science and mathmatics and even how to create a check, but they don’t teach the students how to manage their funds.

It ought to be a top priority to teach students in schools tips on how to manage their dollars.  It can be one thing that they’re going to need to do just about every day for that rest of their lives, so it is best that we go ahead and prepare them for what’s to occur. Check out forex robot for more information.

Consumers are being advised about a recent surge in a certain credit card offer. The latest sneaky ploy by credit card companies comes in the form of a business  card offer.  The only problem is that these cards are being offered to all sorts of people, not just business customers.  You see  credit card companies  do not have to meet certain criteria of the new Credit Card Accountability and Disclosure Act. Banks can go back to their old tricks with this type of credit card.  They still have the power to raise your interest rates at will, charge you extra fees, and even change terms and conditions on you whenever they want . ï»¿The new Credit Card Disclosure act prevents credit card companies from abruptly changing interest rates Edit=f  with your payment or charging you absurd fees. It does not protect business credit cards .    

According to the article an 87 year old woman  who had long been retired received a business credit card offer in the mail. This lady was never a business owner, nor was she ever even a career woman. The lady in question was a housewife for years.  The credit card companies should realize that this person has absoulutely no need for a small business credit card  . A low interest credit card would have suited her just fine.  A business credit card offers should go to the appropriate individual.  Always  read the fine print before applying for any kind of credit card offer.  The same goes to offers that are online as well.  A knowledgable consumer is less likely to make an unnecessary purchase, or in this case fill out an unnecessary credit card application .

Business credit card offers are on an up swing . There has been a 256% increase in business credit card offers in the first quarter of 2010 alone. This can actually be seen as a positive economic indicator as well. Businesses and consumers alike do need credit in order to survive.  Regardless , credit card companies will continue to do anything and everything in their power to capitalize off of consumer misinformation . That is unfortunately the American way at the moment.