All posts by Dan Boudreau

Dan Boudreau has devoted the last 20 years to coaching and mentoring regular folks into the captivating world of business. He authors and facilitates lively, transformative workshops on the topics of entrepreneurship, business planning, and training for trainers. He has inspired thousands of entrepreneurs to become successful business owners and leaders. Launching into his first venture in 1980 with barely enough knowledge to fill the back of a beer cap, he has embraced (and survived) the wide spectrum of business ownership, from single owner home-based enterprises to ventures employing more than 300 workers. Dan's top mission essentials are: laughing, loving, and learning. Armed with the business planning process as a teaching tool, Dan empowers ordinary women and men to create the financial stability and lifestyle they dream of. He is most proud of being acknowledged and appreciated by peers and friends for his ability to bring entrepreneurial ideas to fruition with a nod towards his warm, engaging personable style. In 2006, Dan compiled his knowledge (and bruises) into his first book, Business Plan or BUST! In writing this book, he combined his practical experience as a business owner with his expertise as a lender for an economic development agency, and tossed in his unique brand of wit. The end result: A refreshing perspective and practical style that makes the time-worn topic of business planning easy, fast and fun! When Dan takes those occasional days off from navigating the business world you might find him stuffed into a floating toothpaste tube sometimes referred to as a kayak (rarely right side up), or perhaps coaxing disturbing sounds from his guitar. His ultimate relaxation always involves fresh air, clean water and beaches—from botched attempts to outsmart fish in the rivers of northern British Columbia to flopping around in the waves or practicing applied inertia on just about any tropical sandy beach…
Business Planning, Writing a Business Plan

Win With a Business Plan

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No matter how small your business idea, a business plan can help you build the confidence you need to get to opening day.  Business planning is not just for large or high-growth ventures, and it really shouldn’t be put off until you need to borrow money.

As healthy as the planning is, many small and micro-business owners will put it off as long as they can. And it’s easy to understand why. Business planning involves the tedious process of organizing your thoughts and getting them onto paper, or more likely, into a word processor. It includes a whole whack of potentially unfamiliar activities, such as researching, writing and building a credible set of financial projections.

Indeed, why would anyone knowingly put themselves through such pain? Thankfully, the benefits far outweigh any negatives. Here 11 ways you will win by taking the time to develop a business plan:

  • You know where you’re going
  • You will have a roadmap or blueprint for your business
  • You will have a document to look back on in order to measure your progress
  • A plan will help protect your investment and equity from loss
  • You will find out if your idea will work
  • You can discover and solve problems before starting the business
  • You will build confidence in your business idea
  • The plan can help you get financing
  • You become the expert for your business
  • You will prove your business case
  • You will have a document to use for communicating with others, family, partners, investors, bankers

Business planning can appear larger than it really is, until you step up and embrace it. Think of it as a cost-effective learning process for anyone aspiring to operate a successful business in today’s complex global work environment. A business plan can be a giant step toward making your dream business a reality.

Planning your business doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time or money. Whether you are thinking of starting, buying or growing a business, I urge you to first develop a business plan. Once you take the plunge, you might just have fun doing it!

After all, it is you who really wins with a business plan.

Writing a Business Plan

Make a Plan to Succeed in Business

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The most important reason to write a business plan is probably to save your house, or grandma’s nest egg, or whatever investment you are putting at risk. A business plan will help you learn more about your business and serve as a tool for communicating with others, such as bankers or investors.

Here are seven things to know about business plans:

1. Most businesses are started without written plans. For the most part, plans only exist on a napkin or in the owner’s mind. Business planning is an unfamiliar trek for most people, and too often the task is avoided until they are urgently needed to get a loan.

2. By the time a business plan is printed, it is probably already out of date. Enterprises continually adapt to their surroundings and the plan is a living document that gets updated at strategic times.

3. Business planning is an organic, non-linear process. At any given time, you will be more knowledgeable in some areas than others. Effective business plans arise from building on strengths, developing strategies to mitigate weaknesses, and innovating as you learn more about your business.

4. The further a business plan projects into the future, the less reliable those projections will be. It’s entirely likely that year five predictions will be less accurate than year one.

5. A professionally prepared plan does not guarantee a business will succeed. A picture-perfect business plan is not worth the paper it’s written on unless the owner understands it thoroughly. The real value of a business plan is the knowledge you gain by doing it.

6. Plans that call for aggressive early stage spending will meet with resistance, especially where the shopping spree is predicated on using borrowed money. It’s usually healthier for a new business owner to solve problems through innovation, ingenuity and frugal investment of available resources.

7. While a business plan will help to increase your knowledge about your business, it will not do much toward helping you develop business trade skills, such as how to handle money, how to buy, sell and pay. Business trade skills are more likely to be learned from managing a paper route or operating a lemonade stand. Owning a business is the best way to learn the basic survival skills like knowing how to read the market, how to learn from it and how to change your mind.

Your business plan is more for you than it is for your banker. It will enable you to prove your business case, and to be reasonably sure that your venture can survive.

Once you’ve debunked your own assumptions and gathered enough evidence to demonstrate viability, you’ll have more confidence in your business idea. Armed with a better understanding of your business and realistic financial projections, you will be much better positioned to discuss your business with those who might help you.

Entrepreneurship

Business Owners Go the Extra Mile

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When it comes to starting or growing your business, the “extra mile” can be the difference between success and failure. Business owners are often compelled to do important tasks after the regular workday and beyond the realm of normal energy outputs and expectations.

A few years ago, my business grew to a point where it needed a catalogue. I mulled this over for a few weeks, the idea perking in my mind. I was working long hours and too many days each week. There didn’t seem to be any extra time to do the job or enough money to pay someone else to do it.

After a period of contemplation I decided the only way the job would be done was if I did it myself during those few hours I’d been cheerfully squandering on sleep. One evening I headed home, with a few catalogue ideas flopping around in my mind, and fired up my computer. After a couple late nights and early morning stints I had three-pound bags under my eyes and a draft of copy of a new catalogue.

I had gone the extra mile to pull off a critical, seemingly impossible job. And the business grew as a result of my effort.

I have seen the extra mile at work many times in my business and in others’ businesses. Anytime you see a remarkable business achievement, some individual or group has probably burned the midnight oil to make it happen.

Do you have a project in front of you that appears too large? Here are some important points to consider:

* Most projects look smaller once we take the time to clarify exactly what is needed.

* We can usually achieve more than we think we can; it’s a choice.

* There is always enough time and energy to get the truly important things done.

You can apply the extra mile to different aspects of your daily business life. Imagine how your business might look if you applied the extra mile to any of the following areas:

1. Starting a business.

2. Serving your customers.

3. Organizing a team to complete a project.

4. Marketing your products and services.

5. Introducing new product or services.

6. Continuous innovation.

7. Writing your business plan.

Many great achievements take place over and above the regular workday. There is always enough time for miracles; it’s a matter of identifying the need, developing a plan, and taking action.

 

Self-Employment, Workshops

Making the Transition to Self-Employment

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Transition to Self-Employment BootCampWith the ever changing demands of the new economy many people are opting to direct and control their careers through self-employment.

There are a number of benefits to being self-employed. You will:

▪  Have more freedom.

▪  Have more control over your work schedule.

▪  Have the choice to work from home.

▪  Be paid more money for the work.

▪  Be able to take on work from different sources.

Here are 8 things you can do to ease the transition to self-employment:

  1. Get Into a Business You Love. At the end of each day, you will have invested another 24 precious hours of your life doing whatever it is your business demands of you, and if you’re work life isn’t jammed full of activities you enjoy, you’ll be wondering why the heck you started the business in the first place.
  2. Surround Yourself with Champions. When you announce your intention to start a business, you’ll find well-meaning friends will discourage you citing notorious business failures and financial shipwrecks.  Old party partners will go to great lengths to get you back into the party game. Others, knowing you just scored a business loan or earned a profit, will try to guilt or coerce you into lending them money. To counteract any negativity, establish your own support team. It’s healthy to interact with positive, supportive people.
  3. Go the Extra Mile. When it comes to starting or growing your business, the “extra mile” can make the difference between success and failure. Business owners are often compelled to do important tasks after the regular workday and beyond the realm of normal energy outputs and expectations. Many great achievements take place over and above the regular workday. There is always enough time for miracles; it’s a matter of identifying the need, developing a plan, and taking action.
  4. Learn all you can about your business idea. Are there competing businesses already selling products and services you’re considering? Is your idea new to the area? Determine if there is demand for your goods by talking to potential customers and competitors. Answering these questions is part of doing market research and proving your business case.
  5. Be curious and coachable! It takes a certain confidence in oneself to brave the chaotic waters of starting a business, but overconfidence is the kiss of death. You can’t go wrong by spending more time listening than talking. Listen to competitors, listen to business owners, and listen to customers. Listen to anyone knowledgeable about the industry, and who will take the time to educate you about the business. Find a mentor.
  6. Set Your Prices High Enough. You’ll never build goodwill by under-charging your customers. Those new to business are prone to undervaluing their products and services. This is one of the common pitfalls made when starting a new business. Be sure to charge enough for your products and services to cover your overhead costs and turn a bit of profit. Decide whether you want to be the cheapest, the fastest, or the best. Pick any two; trying to be all three is a sure recipe for going broke.
  7. Get It in Writing. When you make the transition to self-employment, don’t be afraid to ask for signed agreements from customers, suppliers and other professionals. A signed agreement will go a long way toward eliminating misunderstandings afterward, and conserve your energy for the most important activity of all for the cheerfully self-employed; serving customers.
  8. Become the Expert. Do as much yourself as you realistically can, for as long as you can. Most small enterprises become successful because of the owner’s tireless efforts, particularly in the earlier stages. As long as it doesn’t go on to the point of burnout, wearing many hats is an ideal opportunity for the owner to get to know all aspects of the business and become the expert for the business.

Are you ready to join the world of the self-employed? The Fast-Track to Self-Employment BootCamp will be offered at Sprott-Shaw this June at the Prince George, Kelowna, Victoria and Vancouver campuses. 3 Days in class time are followed by 37 hours of self-directed research, 4 teleseminars and an hour of one-on-one coaching. For more information or to register visit http://www.riskbuster.com/fast-track-to-self-employment-bootcamp/ or email info@riskbuster.com today.