Business Plan

Steps To Empowering Your Business Growth Creating business growth takes consistent planning and strategy. Educational webinars are a great source of information and can help you and your business grow.  This can be achieved through business education, regular professional business development and presentations of business events. Check out these top 5 resources for Educational WEBINARs: Education For Business Sake Business education doesn’t end with an MBA. Education should be accepted as a lifelong opportunity for focusing on business trends and curves. By maintaining an attitude of continuous education, opportunities to seek out the most advantageous additional courses provide the extra edge for business growth. Professional Development Along with additional education enhancements, professional business development ranks among the necessary elements for business growth. Professional development requires marketing, sales, management, staffing and executive skills. Achieving the rank of professional isn’t just a matter of title. Development at each phase of business determines the quality of professionalism of the individual. Business Events That Affect Business Growth The business professional seeking optimum business growth employs a give and take attitude toward events that help their businesses. It’s as important to present an event as it is to take part in events. This is the basic structure of networking. Surrounding your business with a beneficial network helps grow business stature. To Grow Your Business Today’s webinars and seminars fill a particular gap that links direct offline events and business presentations with the internet world. For businesses, this is an unparalleled opportunity for growth. The hi-tech world can be a catalyst for advancing business image as well as name recognition, branding and ranking. Creating linked business webinars and seminars produces a well-structured microcosm of vested target markets. The links between webinars and seminars should be seamlessly woven to create an overlapping flow of interest and awareness of the specific business. This is also true for patrons attending webinars and seminars. Thus, the “give and take” attitude becomes the operative for giving patrons a direct link online and off while the business takes in a higher rate of growth. Educate, Develop, Grow Present webinars and seminars with a professional style and content. Contrast this by attending webinars and seminars that focus on educating, developing and growing your business. These may contain new ideas for management structure, creating cohesive team embodiment and financial and economic guidelines as well as current compliance regulations relating to business operations. A tightly knit program of webinars and seminars for patrons and businesses offering them are essential for business...

If you haven’t already set your 2015 business goals, here is a quick check list for you. Here are the top 5 you should look at for immediate impact. 1. Set Your Business Goals Set your business goals for the next 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Be specific, and determine what you see as success. Measure results and track everything on a monthly or quarterly basis. 2. Revisit Your Business Plan If it has been a while since you examined your plan, now’s the time to get to it. There are many great free plan sources for online preparation. One to take a look at www.enloop.com to develop one online for free. 3. Consider Your Hiring Needs If your business is getting increasingly too busy for you to run with a small crew, start planning your hiring strategy for 2015. Consider interns, temps, freelancers, virtual assistants, and part-timers as alternatives to full-time employees if your budget is tight. 4. Invest in Technology Take a look at computer or software purchases. Determine a leader in your field and see what technical resources they are using. There are great programs out there. We even found one that uses AI to send emails and do all the follow-up to set appointments saving us tons of time. 5. Reassess Your Online Brand Take a look at online branding and marketing experts. Many offer low cost webinars that may be just the thing for an online re-boot. What worked for you in terms of marketing this year? This is a great time to adjust your online strategy so that you identify the tools that helped your business grow, and cut back on those that...

Once I start getting a #cashflow, how can I continue to grow? Once again, you need a plan. How can you reinvest that cash flow in the best way to get you to next level? It might be in hiring the right people. Every business needs great team to grow. What skills augment yours? Hire someone who brings added value to the biz so U can focus on what you do best. It’s what I call the mytop theory. Mytop stands for multiply yourself through other people. In addition to people need to invest in technology. Technology gives smallbiz a competitive advantage; and it levels the playing field. What are some ways I can get to know my customers better? Customer surveys are an excellent way to understand and connect to your customers to learn what they are thinking. There are survey resources online. Some free, but my favorite is MailChimp. Customer advisory councils also good way to learn what customers think & how you can enhance service even add new products. I think face-to-face contact is important. Lunch, coffee, Make it about building rapport not selling and build a bond. E-newsletters that are informative are a good way to keep connected and once again Social media keeps communication open. Don’t forget customer loyalty programs – reward customers for their...

The Program U can B is an in school program that provides career exposure and awareness in the Pittsburgh region. Part of the Building Bridges program, founded in 2010, the U can B program provides • Proprietary curriculum • Educational Film series Coffee With ™ now on CBS/KDKA digital • In school in person interactive discussions with business and region leaders • Power Trips to locations – Google Pittsburgh, City Hall, Energy Innovation Center and CBS • Virtual Career Coaching Schools and educational entities may either engage their own school faculty or work with Building Bridges to teach 9th – 12th graders on topics of • Career choices • Entrepreneurship • Business • Finance • Politics This program has resulted in students • Learning about career options that were not presented previously. • Having a clearly defined career they want to pursue. • Gaining experience and being exposed to curriculum and opportunities they would not have been exposed to. Curriculum Overview The 2013/2014 school year pilot was launched at Keystone Oaks School. The program is a 24 week program. Classes are taught on a weekly basis. Subject matter includes entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial passion exercise, components of business plans, and ways to create a business. This curriculum was augmented with Coffee With videos and in school in person discussions with experts focused on arts and music, business, and politics. The school year concluded with a Power Trip to City Hall to meet the Mayor of Pittsburgh and two city council members....

Social media is best way 2 promote you and your business – just like traditional networking build relationships. You can become a celebrity in your industry with social media. You must make commitment to social media to succeed. Engage with people. Start and participate in conversations. Don’t use it to sell. People will block you. Build trust. Provide helpful information. Become the go to person for advice in your business via social media. There are many success stories. How do I get on track to become a #milliondollar business? Most small biz fail because think too small. Think big & decide what you want your business to be. What’s your vision ? With vision in mind, think about the building blocks you’ll need to get there. Then start to build. Like a blue print. There is a big difference between a self-employed job with income stream and a business. Business has value without you. Think first about your exit strategy. Start with big vision and build your legacy. How can I position myself as an expert in my marketplace? You can become a celebrity – a 3rd party expert brand. Create a blog, fan page, etc. Also define your value so you stand out from competition. Leverage the media. use http://www.helpareporter.com and respond to reporter queries. Don’t sell – be expert. If you blog, make sure you commit to regular posts. Build your following and people with see you as the expert. And in some cases podcasts and blog talk radio shows can be a good marketing tool too. Watch for another blog with more great...

Starting a new Business – The best places to start a new business Starting a new business requires many factors to be in place, but the most important element is living in a state that has a business friendly environment. How easy your state makes it to become licensed is an important factor in determining your state’s friendliness to small business. Other factors are involved: economic growth, educated workforce, reasonable business costs, and effective training programs. New business owners, however, determined that the key to a pro-growth environment was business friendly government policies and strong incentive offerings. In a recent survey conducted by Thumbtack and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 12,000 small-business owners across 38 states responded on topics concerning how easy it was for them to start a new small business. Utah topped the list while Pennsylvania placed 33 in the overall rankings. As you are planning your business, start with an online search of Federal, State and Local licensing procedures. Each will have different requirements to follow. Know what is expected of you before you make your way to your local government office to file paperwork. Knowing what to expect up front and doing the legwork will make it easier on...