Business is all about taking risks. Smart business people understand that life is a risky business. A finite (but small) percentage of people slip as they get out of bed and bruise themselves on the floor. Does this mean that you shouldn’t get up? Of course not. The risk is small and the rewards are high…breakfast!

When you start a business, you are risking your time and probably your start-up financing. You are gambling that you will make enough profit to cover your money and your effort. Your business plan (You do have a business plan, don’t you?) shows you that your investment should pay off. The important word in the previous sentence is “should“. You are taking a risk, but it’s a calculated risk.

No matter what your business, you have at least one thing in common with every successful entrepreneur. You both have exactly 168 hours every week to sleep, work, and have a life. My observations, over 30 years of business, have shown me that the successful entrepreneur usually accomplishes a lot more in their work week than the average business person. They tend to work smarter, not harder.

Most business start-ups rely on the founder’s existing computer equipment. You probably have a one or two year old laptop, maybe with a 15″ screen. In fact, based on my analysis of my readers’ screen resolutions (courtesy of Google Analytics), over 80% of the people reading this blog in the last 30 days, almost certainly had screen sizes of 17″ or less. So what? Well, if you only work with small spreadsheets and one-page documents, and don’t use the web, then it doesn’t really matter. However, if you’re with the majority of business people, you are spending a lot of time scrolling both horizontally and vertically through your documents and web sites. If you use your computer for three hours a day, you could be wasting five or six minutes a day in additional scrolling due to your small(ish) screen.

Assuming that there’s one day a week, when you’re not using your computer (really?), that 5 minutes a day adds up to 26 hours a year in lost productivity. What is your time worth? At just $25 an hour, you could be wasting $650 a year. You can buy a 24″ monitor for around $200 and a keyboard, that is probably way better than your laptop’s keyboard, for about $50.  So for an investment of $250, you could be saving $650 a year. That’s a pretty good return on your investment. Plus, you’ll have a more enjoyable computing experience AND give your local retailer a sales boost.

That sounds like a low-risk investment with a win/win/win solution. I hope you have a successful and prosperous 2012.

Canada is a nation that has depended and is still dependent on immigrants. One avenue from immigration to Canada is to apply as a business immigrant. Some of the business immigration requirements for British Columbia (BC) are for the person to either create or invest in a business that will add value to our society by creating employment.

There seem to be more and more of our potential immigrants starting businesses. They are buying equipment, leasing space and using their creativity and business knowledge to build a business with lasting value. Obviously, they need a business plan; not only for their business to succeed, but also to demonstrate that the business will be successful.

We have written a number of business plans for the various Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP) in the past, but we are now finding that quite a lot of the plans we write are PNP business plans. A PNP business plan is similar in content and design to a regular business plan. However, there are some critical differences. The requirements for the nominee programs vary from province to province and each province continually changes their requirements, so we have to stay on top of the changes.

I follow my own advice in this area, so I have a lot of different domain names. I bought a “set” of domain names a year ago, all related to a business venture that I was working on. With all of the geographic variations, I had about 50 domains related to the new business. Like most things, you can often  get a discount if you buy in bulk; and I got a screaming good deal from a different registrar than my usual one. Unfortunately, in business, cheap is not a very good adjective.

The domains were coming up for renewal, so I wanted to transfer them from the cheap registrar to my usual domain service. I started the process on July 23 and it is now a week later and I still have not yet succeeded in the move.

Step 1 – Send the domain list to my preferred supplier, asking them to initiate the transfer.
Discover that I had requested “Private” registration when I originally registered the domains.
Step 2 – Have to set up an account with the “Private” registration service.
Step 3 – “Bulk” unprivatize the domains.
Step 4 – Ask my preferred supplier to try again.
Discover that I have to unlock each of the domains before they can be transferred.
Step 5 – Unlock each of the 50 domains, one at a time.
Step 6 – Ask my preferred supplier to try again.
Discover that I cannot transfer “private” domains
Step 7 – Unprivatize each individual domain.
Step 8 – Ask my preferred supplier to try again.
Discover that all of the domains are still (again) locked.
Step 9 – Call the “discount” supplier and am told that they have a software problem and will notify me when it is fixed.
Receive notification that the software problem has been fixed.
Step 10 – repeat Step 5
Step 11 – repeat Step 7
Step 12 – repeat Step 8
Now I am waiting for it all to happen…..

Moral of the story:  In business, don’t be cheap. You’ll get what you pay for.

That’s not a bad definition of a business plan. Probably the first question you should ask yourself is “Do I need a Business Plan?” Here’s a quick business plan quiz that will give you a quick answer.

If you need a business plan because you want to borrow money for your business, or you want to attract equity investors, or you want to get a government grant, then your business plan is a marketing document.  Obviously, a business plan designed to attract government grants will have a different slant than a business plan that needs to appeal to a banker.

If the intent of the plan is to obtain financing for your business, then the business plan’s primary purpose is to convince the reader to invest money in your business. What is going to compel them to invest their money in your business? It’s the joint themes  of convincing and compelling that makes your business plan a marketing document.

This morning, I co-facilitated a sales and customer service training session in Vancouver that the Better Business Bureau put on for its accredited members. My co-facilitator was caught in traffic (code for “late”), so I started the session by telling the small business owners that I was presently reading a few business books. One of the books was

“Pow! Right Between the Eyes: Profiting from the Power of Surprise” by Andy Nulman

so I asked the audience, when they had last surprised a customer.

I explained that customers expect you to do a great job and provide first class customer service at a reasonable price. Doing all of that gets you a passing grade…say a C. So, how do you get an A or A+ ?  I used the example of a limo driver, who always gives female passengers a rose after each trip. It’s that extra “Wow, I didn’t expect that” that gets customers talking about you and spreading the word on their social network.

After some discussion, we came up with some marketing tips that almost any small business could use to generate some excitement from their customers.

Partner with a compatible business to give customers something extra.

A bathroom installer gave his customers a 50% off coupon for a local spa. (His price – minimal)

An exterminator company partnered with a cleaning service. They each referred the other and gave the customers a good discount.

A roofing company gave their re-roofed customers a landscaping cleanup. If the landscaper got a regular contract from the homeowner, there was no cost to the roofer.

Have the boss follow up by phone the day after the customer has received the product or service to find out if they rated an A+ and if not, what they had to do to make the experience an A+ experience.

Randomly, give a gift to 10% of the smaller customers, who you would not normally treat.

Marketing, like customer service is the gift that keeps on giving.

It depends.

The cost of a business plan bears a strong relationship to the amount of work that’s necessary to produce the business plan.

Many business plan writers use business planning software to help them. They basically ask you a load of questions, plug the answers that you give them into the software and voila – there’s your business plan…$1,500 please.

My approach is different. I’ll find out how much you know about your business and what you have written down and explained. I’ll find out about your overall market and its potential; I’ll find out about your capabilities to service that market. We’ll talk about pricing strategy and marketing tactics. We’ll discuss your operational and staffing requirements. And that’s just the beginning of the business plan process.

We’ll go through numerous iterations and we’ll discuss the changes needed. The financial statements, cash flow analyses and balance sheets will make sense. There won’t be a lot of charts and graphs that don’t really explain much.

Your business plan will be realistic and suitable for you, your investors and your banker. You will get a business plan that works for you. Isn’t that why you wanted a business plan in the first place?

RFPs?

“Who needs them?”

“They are complicated and way too much work.”

“I don’t have the time to reply to them.”

If this sounds like you, then you really need to keep reading.

Do you bring in $1,000 per hour in sales for your business? Would you like to land a really big customer? Someone who writes cheques for over $100,000 without worrying about it? Would you like more business from a company that always pays its bills?

You owe it to yourself and to your small business to check into RFPS. The Federal, Provincial and municipal governments issue RFPs totalling billions of dollars each year. Not interested in doing work for any layer of government? How about doing work for or selling goods or equipment to your electric or water utility? Still too big? Would you want to do business with your local school or hospital?

Maybe you’re more interested in working with sporting events, like the FIFA World Women’s Cup,  Canada Games, Provincial Summer games?

As you’ve probably guessed, all of these “businesses” use RFPs to get the goods and services they need. If you’re thinking that “RFPs always go to the lowest bidder”, you are wrong! In  most of the thousands of RFPs that I’ve reviewed, the price is usually a fairly small component of the evaluation process, Generally, most government agencies want to know that you are an expert in your field and that you can do the job without causing any problems,

That’s why you got into business, wasn’t it? To do the job right, the first time, at a fair price. So, use RFPs to get business. We would be pleased to help you as we have helped other small businesses gain sales and profits from RFPs.

I was talking about the value of of using Social Media as part of their marketing mix and I asked how many of the audience used Twitter. About 10% of the people raised their hands…mainly younger audience members. I was asked if I had a Twitter account and said “Yes.”  Then I was asked the name of my account and I replied “@bestbizplans”. I carried on with the seminar and thought no more about it. The next day, I discovered that over 50% of the audience with Twitter accounts had decided to follow me….That’s powerful.

The reason I asked about Twitter accounts was because golfers are an ageing demographic and most businesses need a constant inflow of customers. As a golfer, one of my biggest frustrations is that I can’t often get good tee-times. A tee-time is a highly perishable commodity. A 3:00 pm time is worth precisely zero at 3:15.  At 3:00 it may be worth $60 – $100 and they are usually sold in groups of 4, so an unsold tee-time is worth $240 – $400 plus all of the add-ons. Virtually all of this lost revenue is lost profit, due to the very low variable costs. So an unsold tee-time costs the golf course between $200 and $500 in profits.

Twitter is an ideal medium for selling perishable commodities, like tee-times, restaurant table reservations, theatre tickets, seats at sporting events, concerts etc. If I got a tweet at 11:00 am from a golf course that I like to play, and it told me that they had a 2:00 pm tee-time available, I might phone a few friends and grab it…especially if it was a sunny day and I wasn’t committed that afternoon.

The probability is that I wouldn’t phone to reserve that particular time, but if the golf club had a few hundred followers, it’s almost certain that they would sell that previously unsold time.  And they would get full price. WoW! the power of instant, free messaging to a receptive audience.

To accept credit cards you will need to open a merchant account with a credit card processing service. Your bank is almost certainly involved with one of the large payment processing companies, but in most cases, you are free to choose your own service provider. There are numerous fees that you will be charged, so be prepared with a list of questions to ask the company that you interview.

That’s right; interview! You are the buyer and they are the seller (provider) of the service. You are in the driver’s seat, so ask questions until you are satisfied.

The first question is always, “What’s the rate?” You want to know the base rate for “Qualified Transactions.”  This is often a percentage of the amount charged, plus a specific transaction fee.
Then, add the credit card company “Assessment Fee”.
If you will not be swiping the card, there will be an additional “Non Qualified Transaction or Card Holder Not Present” fee.
If the card is a “Premium” card, you will be charged an additional “Premium Card” fee.  By the way, you won’t know if it’s classified as a “Premium” card until the credit card company bills you!
Ask the sales person if there are any other fees payable on individual transactions.

There is almost certainly a monthly fee for using either a POS (Point of Sale) terminal or even for using your own computer or phone as a method of submitting the credit card information.
You will, of course, have to pay for any equipment that the company provides.
You will also be charged a monthly “Administration” fee.
Ask if there are any other monthly or annual fees.

There will probably be a minimum monthly charge for transaction fees, and this minimum fee will be payable for each type  of credit card that you accept…Visa, MasterCard or American Express. Find out the length of the contract and make sure that you have a written record of every type of cancellation fee that may be payable.

You will usually pay an application fee, just to be considered for a merchant account and you will have to pass a credit check and possibly submit financial statements and maybe a business plan. The whole process from start to finish could easily take a month, so planning , like timing is really important. Make sure that your business plan timetable allows sufficient time for you to apply and be approved and set up for a merchant account.

One place that you’ll very rarely see them is turning left at a traffic light…or in fact…turning left anywhere! Is that a coincidence? No; it’s business planning in action. After a great deal of technical analysis, business analysts at UPS determined that turning left wastes gas, increases polluting emissions, and wastes time.

There are other benefits in planning to reduce the number of left turns that a driver makes. If a driver turns left to deliver a package, they have to cross lanes of oncoming traffic. That’s a safety issue. After the business of delivery, the driver has to make another left turn across the traffic to get back in their route.

UPS estimates that their business operations save over 10 million litres of fuel each year by planning their routes to minimize left turns. They save most of this fuel by not having to wait to turn left with their engines idling. By planning their routes, they pick up and deliver on the right; drive to the furthest point; then pick up and deliver on the other side of the road on their return trip.

Planning their routes to reduce the number of left turns is in their Operations Manual. It’s written down, so it’s a plan!

Is your Business Plan written down?