Mind Your Own Business – Are you planning for business?

I attended a 4 hour event on Saturday with my daughter and her Girl Scout troop. It was at the Young American’s Bank, and it was on starting up your own business.

We started by going over the profile of an entrepreneur – what it takes to be successful at running your own business. Each girl had to fill out a profile to find out if they had what it takes to run their own business. There were dozens of questions like:

• I enjoy making presentations and know how to give a professional presentation
• I like selling an idea or product to people I don’t know
• I regularly meet the goals I set for myself
• I manage my time well
• I have a high energy level
• I want to be able to determine when and where I work

They also gave us a number of chances to brainstorm ideas for businesses, how to build a brand and a logo for these businesses, and even a four page fill-in-the-blank business plan to help them get their business ideas in place.

They made it so easy that even 12-14 year old girls had no trouble putting together some pretty amazing ideas.

I also realized during these four hours that the key to everything they were talking about is planning and goal setting. In four hours, they taught exactly how to plan for success. The problem with most small business owners is they never plan for success. You have to spend the time to write down what you hope to achieve and how you will achieve it.

Make your plan today. Start with these ideas:

• Make a list of 3 to 5 services/products you could sell
• Define your potential customers
• Why do people need to buy your product?
• What price will people be willing to pay for your products/services?
• How much will it cost to produce your products/services?
• How much profit do you choose to make?
• Do you need employees?
• How will you gain customers?
• Where will you get funding to get this idea started?
• Who is your competition?
• How much time do you anticipate running your business at the beginning?

You’ll soon be on the road to success.

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