Category Archives: Business Planning

Business Planning, Entrepreneurship

What’s New At The RiskBuster Business Plan Oasis?

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Here are a few new developments at the Business Plan Oasis for your consideration.

  1. The blog has moved to the its new home The blog has lived at the home page while we jossle things into place at the Oasis. You may want to bookmark it or click on the RSS feed link in the upper right sidepanel to receive our updates.
  2. A dynamic new home page is under construction at RiskBuster.com. Very soon we plan to have some compelling flash and a warm welcoming video to greet visitors.
  3. We’re proud to announce the launch of the Business Plan Forum at the Oasis. One thread is for registered member Coaches only; all others are open to the world. We hope you’ll visit and ask your questions, collaborate with other business planners and contribute wherever you can to help others. We’ve started with a number of small and micro business categories, including Entrepreneurship, Owning a Business, Marketing and Advertising, eBusiness, Products and Pricing, Cash Flow and Financials, Self-Employment, Business Planning, Starting a Business, Funding and Financing, and Market Research. We look forward to your comments.
Business Planning, Entrepreneurship

The Sad Truth about the Illustrious Uncoachable Duckweed

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After 20 years in the business development arena, it’s fair to say that 98 percent of the men and women I coach are learners and a joy to deal with. They make my job easy. But there is one personality type that makes me sweat, one that I know causes stress to other professionals as well. The type I refer to possesses a few annoying traits; he usually has an inflated ego, is completely self-centered and aggressive, and spends far more time talking than listening. For this article let’s roll these traits into one character called the Uncoachable Duckweed (Spellchecker preferred this over my first choice).

Duckweed usually wants to get into business because he apparently “doesn’t want to work for anyone else.” There are several great reasons why anyone might prefer not to be employed by others: financial independence, lifestyle, or simply to have the freedom to design one’s own job. But anyone too ornery to work for others will be in for a harsh awakening as a business owner.

Once in business, Duckweed will soon find that the normally helpful folks are going to be invisible when it comes to getting help along the business development path. But there’s another part of the picture that really negates the uncoachable’s chances of success, and it’s this—nobody is obliged to tell him about his shortcomings. Instead of saying why they don’t want to deal with him, they just quietly deal somewhere else. There’s no benefit for anyone to tell Duckweed that he has the personality of a mutant gnat. Nobody likes confrontation.

So, the sad truth is that you might be a raving Duckweed and not even know it. If you think you might fit the profile, here are a few things to watch for.

1. If you’re continually spouting off about how smart you are compared to the other 6.9 billion people on the planet, share some of the oxygen and know that you might be a Duckweed.

2. If your business coach has repeated for the 23rd time that you need to validate your sales forecast, kiss your chances of getting a loan goodbye and entertain the possibility that you might be uncoachable.

3. If, in any given calendar year, you make more a dozen trips to your lawyer’s or MLA’s office for nefarious reasons, accept that you’re too busy fighting the world to have time to run a business, and know that you might be a Duckweed.

4. If you find that folks are screening your calls and texts and emails, including your therapist and your mother, say goodbye to network building and know that you might be uncoachable.

5. If you already own a business, you think all employees are bottom-dwellers, and you’re on a first name basis with the entire Employment Standards staff, say no to any thoughts of growing a business and know that you might be a Duckweed.

6. Finally, if more than 3 people suggest you read this blog, I rest my case.

Business is all about networking. An ability to be somewhat of an independent thinker is necessary to take the helm of your own business. But on digging deeper, we soon realize that entrepreneurs build true momentum by leveraging through other people. Duckweed’s ability to scale a business up will be severely restricted without a solid network to help.

Businesses succeed because their owners have an amazing ability to attract and motivate the right people to become part of their team. If you don’t have the ability to inspire followers, don’t go into business.

Business Planning, Entrepreneurship, General, Market Research

eZine Search Reveals Black Hole

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One of the most agravating aspects of the business planning process is the black hole. As I hope we do a lot to eliminate black holes for our customers, I’m always amused when I discover ones I’ve created myself. So here goes…  Last week while coaching a business planning group, Jerry asked the following question “How do I find free ezines to help me self-educate about my business?” I realized then that my simple (I thought) recommendation to “use free ezines to self-educate” was in fact generating one of the dreaded “black holes,” which usually means further explanation needed.

There are millions of ezines available via the Internet today, most of them free. It is easier than most people think to locate ezines. You are just a couple clicks away as you read this blog.

For example, suppose you are starting a dog training business and you wish to become more knowledgeable about the dog training business and the industry.

We suggest beginning your search at http://www.google.ca/ with simple keyword search. For this example, we’ve chosen to use dog training business ezine, but you can apply a similar string of words for your own business or industry category.

For us the top ranking link was to an ezine article at http://ezinearticles.com/?Start-a-Dog-Training-Business&id=2284650 To a probing mind, there’s a great deal to be learned from this page.

• The article itself offers information on starting a dog training business. The article might lead us to a dog training business ezine.

• A glance at the resource box (author’s link at the bottom of the article) tells us the author of the article and links to the authors website. A search of the author’s website might bring other dog training articles or links to ezines. At a minimum, if you happen to be a mom working from home, this link might be useful.

• The article lives at ezinearticles.com which is one of the oldest and most successful ezine websites on the web. Further searches of the EzineArticles website is sure to bring all kinds of dog training articles and links.

• The ads by Google link to several other articles and websites pertaining to the dog training business and industry. These ads are placed by entrepreneurs who are in business and obviously serious about marketing their products and services in the dog training business and industry. Many of them most likely publish ezines for both marketing and customer service purposes. Although the ‘ads’ scenario changes, at this viewing we count 5 ads/links at the top of the page, 8 ads to the right of the article, and another 11 ads in the left side panel.

• Toward the bottom of the page are a number of links to other potential articles – the “Other Related Articles” category appears particularly relevant to the dog training business.

Hitting the back button takes us back to the Google search results, where the first page shows links to Free Dog Training Video Newsletter and Waggin’ Tails Ezine, either one of which might be the publication you need to learn more about your business or industry. At a minimum, they will enable you to peek into your competitor’s world and learn how he or she is doing things.

Another search to try is dog training business newsletter. Search engines have made it easy to find information. You are never more than a few clicks away from whatever information you need to succeed!

Happy learning!