Our keynote speaker this year is Tom McMakin, President of Profitable Ideas Exchange. He was previously the COO of Great Harvest Bread Company, a multi-unit operator of bread stores based in Dillon, Montana. Tom is the author of Bread and Butter, a book that describes his work at Great Harvest and how he and his team created a nationally recognized corporate learning community and culture of best practices using collaborative networks. He serves on the boards of The Rush Fitness Centers and Peerless Chain Company and is a graduate of Oberlin College.
Invest in Success Conference Brochure

The most successful businesses have found that the key to long-term success revolves around effective financial management. Through case studies and a down-to-earth style, experience this remarkably powerful program:

* Understand why and how to
benchmark your company
performance

* Establish the difference between
“making a profit” and “having cash”
and how to do more of both

* Create effective, practical plans to
improve the financial health of your
business

Quotes from past attendees:
“Good common sense approach, I was already asking the questions, now I can find the answers.” Rich Walker, Replay Sports

“A practical hands on approach.”
Richard Newbury, Complete Restoration

“I got so much out of this course, excellent!” Kristin Voisin, Truby’s

Tuesday & Wednesday
April 10 & April 11
8:30 a.m-5:30 p.m. Fee: $255
Fee includes participant manual and continental breakfast and lunch both days.

We have all been told that a business plan is required for the business to fly. But how much attention do we really pay to it? And do all business owners really need one? You have customers, you have a niche, and you don’t need bank funding. You know what you know. Who will even read it? In this article, we will discuss why a business plan is quite often a necessary evil, and then we’ll go into the basic mechanics of a business plan.

Case Study of Peter and Joe: How you can be on the same starting block together, but run a different race entirely.
Peter and Joe are both plumbers. They work together at the same company before deciding they can do better on their own as self-employed professionals. They each have enough contacts and are more than qualified to do a variety of plumbing-related jobs — both residential and industrial. However despite starting in the same place, their businesses evolve very differently.

Why Peter Fails

No Forward Planning: Peter likes to fly by the seat of his pants, and runs his business the same way. He figures his casual attitude will be easy for customers to work with.

No Administrative or Business Skills: Peter is not good with computers, generating invoices, and analytical tasks (and no effort made to develop or outsource them), but he believes he has enough residential contacts who will want plumbing-related jobs and will pay cash that he’ll be okay.

No Target Market or Specialization: Despite Peter’s preference for working with residential contacts (because they largely pay with cash), he’s also incredibly talented with industrial plumbing, so if jobs of that nature come his way, he takes them too. He’s basically ready for any and every job that comes his way, rather than deciding to specialize. (The problem is that jobs don’t seem to come Peter’s way.)

No Market Research: Peter has great ideas for new niches of business, but when he throws everything he has at those niches without researching them first, he consistently underestimates the competition or logistical requirements and suffers for it.

No Polished Elevator Speech: Peter’s casual attitude doesn’t bode as well for his customers as it did when he was just an employee; he doesn’t come off as taking his own business seriously. When you ask him what he does for a living, he does no credit to his talents by simply saying something crude about toilets (even when the person asking is an industrial property manager who could potentially be a good customer).

No Purchasing Plan: Peter regularly puts the cart in front of the horse by insisting he needs some new equipment or an elaborate website in order for his business to turn the corner.

No Marketing Plan: Pursuant to the above point, Peter’s purchases fail because he can’t even identify how to get the necessary clients to pay off the new equipment that put him in the red, or how to attract potential customers to his website and convert them into paying clients.

Peter’s Results: So despite the fact that Peter has the initial contacts and ability to generate enough business to support himself, he ends up going broke and asking for his old job back.

Why Joe Succeeds Specialization

Although Joe can perform any number of plumbing tasks, he decides to specialize in commercial kitchen work.

Research: Joe researches exactly what his costs will be to get set up with equipment and determines how long it will take to pay it back using industry-based estimates.

Know the Competition: Joe knows the competition, and even takes some time to introduce himself to them (in the hopes that they may provide a referral if they have too much work on their plate, as well as to chat about business in the area for his own research purposes).

Outsourcing: Joe recognizes his weakness for accounts receivable and hires a virtual assistant to help him with this and other administrative tasks.

Targeted Marketing: In knowing who his ideal customer is, Joe targets his marketing efforts to them and when asked what he does by a stranger, his “elevator speech” (a 10 second pitch for his business) is polished and concise.

Joe’s Results: Joe has a more structured approach to his business and ends up not only supporting himself successfully, but in his second year he revises his business plan and hires employees to help him with the workload and increase his profits.

Business Plan Basics

We have all heard that the business plan is the foundation for every business, and we may try to do one by going through the motions. But until we truly embrace the business plan as our roadmap to entrepreneurial success, we may flounder in a sea of incompetence. Having this roadmap keeps your goals aligned with your progress. It can be easy to survive with a fly by the seat of your pants model, but to truly succeed and grow a real business, you need something to let you know if you’ve veered off track.

Your business plan doesn’t have to be over-involved or full of statistics that are meaningless to you. But it should be on paper, and incorporate the following components:

Description of Your Business:

• What do you do?
• What is your product or service?
• How is your business run?

Industry Outlook:

• What is your industry?
• What state is the industry currently in (ie: economics, supply, and demand)?
• Where is the industry going in the future?
• Are there any unfilled niches, and if so – how can you fill in those gaps?

Your Market:

• Exactly who is your customer?
• Where do you find them?
• How does your customer like to shop for your services (ie: how will you market to them)?
• How are you the perfect candidate for your customers?

Competitors:

• Who is your competitor?
• How much do they charge?
• How are they regarded in the industry?
• How are your services (or customers) different from theirs?
• Can the market bear the increased supply?

Marketing:

• Exactly how will you market your services?
• How much will it cost?
• How will this help you get new business?
• What is your return on investment?

Industry Experience:

What is your story? Ultimately it is your personal experience and approach to the business that will determine your success.

Financials:

This is where many business plans fall apart at the seams, especially in the first year of development, when most of the numbers are estimates. But as the years roll by, having year-over-year figures are the best barometer for your business. Annual financial reports tend to include the following:

• Profit & Loss Statements
• Operating Revenue
• Cash Flow Analysis

Your business plan does not have to be a daunting or insurmountable task, nor a chore to produce. The next crucial step is to review and revise the plan, at least once per year (or more frequently depending on industry changes). With the exception of the financials, much of it can remain similar to previous years.

proving your business is critical to staying afloat and growing. Here are some resources out there that will sharpen your skills, improve your offerings and allow you to grow your business.

(This article was written in collaboration with Glen Stansberry, who writes about personal development at LifeDev.net and tweets as @glenstansberry.)

1. Great Business Minds

There are some incredible business minds out on the ‘Net, and some of them already write on OPENForum.

AllBusinessBlogger Lynette DeNike shares her take on why personal business blogs are such an important resource for her, and shares a few of her favorites.

“Because I read continually, looking for fresh small business ideas, I find they turn up on many sites. I often prefer to search for thinking from an overflowing handful of specific people: Meredith Whitney, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, Liz Pulliam Weston, Paul Krugman, Tim Berry, John Doerr. That’s my stable of ongoing favorites because they cut through blathering clutter to mental clarity; they lead into uncharted territories; and they have the guts to defend what’s right in the face of naysayers.”

Michael McLaughlin adds his favorite marketing thinker: OPENForum writer John Jantsch.

“One of my favorite small business resources is the Duct Tape Marketing Blog by John Jantsch. The no-BS content is comprehensive and imminently practical, and Jantsch has a knack for bringing just the right information to his readers at exactly the right time. Definitely a go-to resource.

2. Twitter

Twitter has taken the entire online world by storm. News outlets quote people from their Twitter accounts, business track other business, you can even get scoops on stocks with the microblogging service. And be sure to check out ExecTweets, where the tweets of top CEOs are aggregated and discussed.

It’s no surprise that Twitter is a major resource for small business leaders. Liz Strauss shares how Twitter and Google can combine to make a powerful source of information.

“Though it may not sound inspired to folks already on the Internet, the truth is that the combined power of Twitter and Google have had an incredible impact on my success. I can get any question answered quickly with confidence. Twitter takes me to new ideas and new people I could never reach otherwise. Google takes me to more information about both. For a small business person, it’s nice to have both to check my instincts and fill in the gaps of what I don’t know.”

Andrea Learned has also been blown away by the potential power Twitter can have on a small business.

“I learn about the very latest thanks to Twitter. I went in kicking and screaming (like so many others), but have been blown away by its power in exploring new topics and connecting with a much broader network on any specific issue.”

Steve Brooks knows that Twitter’s search functionality is quite powerful as well.

“As a research company, information discovery is key to our success. Twitter search allows us to locate relevant information and contact and establish relationships with knowledgeable people in most any field.”

3. Web Alerts

Instead of searching for news, why not let the news come to you? You can set up Google Alerts to notify you when new Google results in news and the web are updated. TweetBeep does the same thing, except for Twitter.

With the help of these services you can monitor things like your brand and competitors, without having to continually search for news. Here’s how Tom Marquardt uses these services to find new clients.

“Using Social Marketing Tools to bring in new prospects like TweetBeeps and Google Reader and Alerts. These three tools bring tweets and feeds of items of interest of the web and Twitter. By using these tools you can target clients that have a want and/or a need for your product/service line and in turn, you can then contact them and introduce them to you and your business. I have also found that by using TweetDeck to organize my Twitter account, my time of using all of the capabilities that Twitter has available to me, has been streamlined.”

4. Alltop

OPENForum blogger Guy Kawasaki has build a hand-picked news aggregator called Alltop. Alltop keeps you updated on any topic in an easy-to-scan format, and even allows you to create your own channel to quickly return to find and track the sites you love.

Here are a few pre-made channels to whet your appetite:

• marketing
• innovation
• advertising
• business intelligence
• career

5. Tipd

What’s the biggest reason 99% of us own or run a small business? For most of us, the answer is money.

While we may cringe at the thought of learning about taxes and other trending topics in the financial world, knowledge in these areas is critical to the success of our businesses. Tipd is a social news site centered around finance and money news, showing the latest blog posts and news around the web that other financially-savvy readers find interesting and helpful.

6. Sphinn

Needing some fresh marketing ideas, or just wanting to keep up on the latest marketing trends? Sphinn can help.

Sphinn is an Internet marketing news aggregator. Like other social news sites, Sphinn shows the most popular marketing articles as voted by the Sphinn community.

7. The Business Section of the Library

It turns out the public library hasn’t gone anywhere. in fact, it’s something that many of us are quick to dismiss. But the library can be a gold mine of information.

Most public libraries have good-sized business sections, but more importantly many participate in an inter-library loan system, allowing you to request nearly any book known to man. For free. And for those on a tight budget, that can be just the ticket.

8. Stock Photo Sites

Professional design is essential to any business, as design gives trust to your business. Stock photo site allow you to purchase stock photography to improve the design of your site at a nominal cost.

Marketing expert Andy Wibbels weighs in on his favorite stock photo site, iStockphoto.

“iStockphoto has a massive catalog of royalty-free images that will make any small business look professional. plus, if you can’t find what you need they have forums for special requests where photographers and illustrators are more than happy to help you out.”

9. Online Business Resources

Here are a few handy resources that can save your business time and money.

SCORE-SCORE is a free small business mentoring service. There are over 12,000 volunteers nationwide to serve small businesses in online mentoring, face-to-face counseling and online workshops.

Nolo-Nolo is a legal resource for small businesses. Buy legal resources, find lawyers, and use their legal encyclopedia. The legal encyclopedia is full of helpful how-to articles on virtually any legal topic that small businesses might run in to.

EchoSign-If you send and receive lots of contracts and other things that need signatures on a daily basis, then EchoSign can help you. instead of following the painstaking process of printing a contract, signing and faxing back, EchoSign allows you to sign the contract digitally, without having to print or fax anything.

10. Delicious

Delicious is a social bookmarking site that shows the Internet’s most bookmarked sites. not only is it a great way to keep up on business topics and resources, it’s sometimes a much more accurate search engine than Google. Because the search relies on human votes to determine ranking instead of an algorithm, the results tend to be more relevant and of a higher quality than a typical Google search.

Here are some of the business channels you can stay on top of in Delicious:

• business
• marketing
• advertising
• social media
• entrepreneurship

An excellent use of Delicious is to find the best-in-class software or service. For example, I was recently looking for flowcharting software, and searching for “flowchart” on Delicious led me to Gliffy, a fantastic online flowcharting tool. Rather than evaluating several products, spending hours (or days) on trial and error, I was quickly able to find what the web thought was the best software available.

11. Print Magazines

While there are signs that the traditional magazine may become the way of the dodo, there are still some amazing small business magazines out there. Steve Brooks of Flyte Blog weighs in on his favorite print magazines.

“Although there are countless blogs, videos, and web sites out there, may go-to small business resources are the print versions of Inc, and Entrepreneur magazine. Inc. continues to be one of the best written magazines out there, especially the columns by Norm Brodsky, and Entrepreneur gets stronger with every issue.”

12. Socially Responsible Business Sites

With 17 million readers tuning in to Blog Action Day last Thursday, it’s apparent that the online world is starting to become more socially aware. Socially responsible business practices are a great thing to keep up on, and fortunately there are some great sites out there like:

• TriplePundit
• 3BL Media

Andrea Learned has this to say about the importance of online resources dealing with socially responsible business practices.

“Small businesses are no doubt aware of the consumer trend toward higher expectations of corporate social responsibility and sustainable business practices. This is incredibly important from my gender in marketing perspective, as well, so I look for comprehensive online publications/resources to keep me current.”

13. Pew internet & American Life Project

Needing some hard data on the impact of the Internet? Look no further than the Pew Internet & American Life Project. David Meerman Scott informed us that pew is one of his most-used resources online.

“The Pew Internet & American Life Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit ‘fact tank’ that provides tons of great free information on the impact of the internet on families, communities, work and home. The data in the free reports made available by The Pew Internet & American Life Project provides business owners with background on how your potential customers us the Web to find information. This is a site I turn to again and again.”

14. Productivity and Lifehack Blogs

Efficiency is key to running a business, and there are lots of blogs that can help improve your personal or business productivity. Dominic Basulto credits lifehacking blogs for his success:

“My favorite small business resources re the productivity and ‘life hack’ blogs like Web Worker Daily and Lifehacker.

For any small business owner, these productivity blogs provide daily, relevant updates on how to make their personal and professional lives easier and more productive. The tips and suggestions are delivered in digestible, bite-sized clips, making it easy-and even fun- to browse and find new solutions for everyday tasks. They help small business owners cut through the clutter and information overload of the Web.”

LifeRemix is a productivity and lifehack blog network that aggregates many of the top blogs in that niche for easier reading.

15. Intranets

Intranets are a great way to share and store information without using social networks or email attachments. Anita Campbell utilizes a private intranet to organize her team’s documents.

“My favorite small business resource is my team intranet that we set up through Google Apps for business. My team is spread out all over (we work virtually). Communicating and sharing files is challenging. With our private team space we have central files for our operating manual, logos, business requirements, customer information, calendars, etc. Without it, we’d be ‘blind’ and spend a lot more time hunting for information.”

You can also create an internal Twitter-like microblogging system for your company using services like Yammer or Present.ly.

16. Connections

How often are you working on building connections? Jeff Cornwall believes that connections are some of the most important resources you can have to help your small business.

“An often overlooked resource for small business owners – and particularly aspiring small business owners- is entrepreneurs in the same industry whose businesses are further along in their development. Entrepreneurs are surprisingly willing to ‘pay it forward’ and help other entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs are usually very willing to offer information, advice and even mentoring because someone probably did the same for them when they were first starting up. And more often than not, all you have to do is ask.”

Create an account on LinkedIn, the professional businessperson’s social networking site (think “Facebook for business”), to help you find and develop new connections.

17. Yourself

While the resources listed above are all fantastic, how often do we try to find outside solutions when we have the resources to do it ourselves? Jonathan Salem Baskin thinks that we are the most important resources our businesses have.

“My best small business resource is myself, because I’m available and willing to solve any problem without having to worry about whether I’m best able or even qualified to do so. This means i’m empowered to take action, which is the hardest, most inhibiting quality for larger organizations (and one that small businesses need to preserve at all costs). Think small and act huge!”