So, it cannot be emphasized too strongly the purpose of a business plan is to first and foremost demonstrate you and your management team, Board of Directors and Advisors have the skills, experience and capabilities to start, launch and grow your company.

Through your Business Plan, you demonstrate your business has:

• A robust management team.
• Sufficient demand for our product.
• Sustainable competitive advantage.
• Realistic goals & objectives.
• Well thought out financials.
• The Business Plan also shows investors it has:
• Focus. Too many Business Plans promise too much, too soon.
• A well thought out roadmap to an exit strategy.
• Realistic financial forecasts that show acceptable return to your investors.
• Funding needs that support the forecast.

Some resources:

• Angel Investor Network www.angel-investor-network.com
• Capital Vector (Venture Capital directory) www.capitalvector.com
• Keiretsu Forum SoCal www.keiretsusocal.com
• Los Angeles Venture Association www.lava.org
• Maverick Angels www.maverickangels.com
• Pasadena Angels www.pasadenaangels.com
• Tech Coast Angels www.techcoastangels.com

Mike spent fourteen years in corporate America with Bendix and Allied Signal corporations. Positions he held included divisional chief marketing officer, new product development manager, marketing channel manager, national sales manager, marketing communications manager and acquisition manager, . Since 1989, he has been in the consulting industry. Of Mike’s current clients, three are start up firms. He holds a B.S., Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), and a M.B.A. from Loyola Marymount University, (Los Angeles, CA), and is certified by the Center for Creative Leadership (Greensboro, North Carolina) to conduct 360º leader assessment and development programs.

Utilizing sites like Linkedin and Facebook are other good methods to distribute your news. Your blogs is also an effective way to share your news.

E-mailing your releases, or e-newsletters, to your customer base, prospective customers, employees, agents, distributors, suppliers, strategic alliances, service providers (e.g. – your CPA and lawyer), board members, and investors is recommended to keep them up to date. Don’t forget to notify appropriate members of the press. Constant Contact is one resource to support your e-mail and e-newsletter programs. Encourage all to respond with their comments and suggestions.

Each release should focus on one topic each, so you do not dilute the effect. You can plan a series of releases over time. To be most effective, no less than one release per month is suggested. Typical release topics feature 1) a new product or service, 2)personnel news; e.g. – someone was promoted or hired, and 3) company news, e.g. – a new office was opened in Europe or a new distributor is now representing your company.

Through these efforts, traffic to your website will increase.

About Mike:

Mike spent fourteen years in corporate America with Bendix and Allied Signal corporations. Positions he held included divisional chief marketing officer, new product development manager, marketing channel manager, national sales manager, marketing communications manager and acquisition manager, . Since 1989, he has been in the consulting industry. Of Mike’s current clients, three are start up firms. He holds a B.S., Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), and a M.B.A. from Loyola Marymount University, (Los Angeles, CA), and is certified by the Center for Creative Leadership (Greensboro, North Carolina) to conduct 360º leader assessment and development programs.

“So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss. If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose. If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.”

As it relates to your business, this approach is not enough. The goal of all intelligence is to take what you have learned to make better business decisions. From making your business the sought after organization to buy from, the result will be increased sales.

To do so, you need to track your competitors, and the business environment you are all in. Changes and trends in the economy, technology, laws / regulations, ways of doing business (remember the sweeping changes the Internet brought on), society, and international opportunities, to name a few issues, will change the way you need to do business. Look at the big picture that is affecting everyone to understand what industries and markets you should stay in and which ones you should enter.

To know more about your markets and the customers within, ask the librarian in your local college or town libraries. The resources provided are usually no charge to the user. Other resources include chambers of commerce, industry associations (many who keep track of industry trends), your own suppliers who usually sell to others in your industry – they have a unique grass roots perspective – and your sales people, agents and/or distributors too.

Post Written by:

Mike Miller, Director
www.Symbiocracy.com

About Mike:

Mike spent fourteen years in corporate America with Bendix and Allied Signal corporations. Positions he held included divisional chief marketing officer, new product development manager, marketing channel manager, national sales manager, marketing communications manager and acquisition manager, . Since 1989, he has been in the consulting industry. Of Mike’s current clients, three are start up firms. He holds a B.S., Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), and a M.B.A. from Loyola Marymount University, (Los Angeles, CA), and is certified by the Center for Creative Leadership (Greensboro, North Carolina) to conduct 360º leader assessment and development programs.

Here are some photos from the event:

The Symbiocracy cell phone holders were released, and will be coming soon to a desk near you!

Joseph Sarmiento, Alex Scoble and Moriah Harris-Rodger

Symbiocracy and LAVA: Moriah Harris-Rodger, Michael Miller, John Dmohoswki and Alex Scoble

Symbiocracy with the guy who created the school search tool on MySpace (Moriah expressed her gratitude) and MySpace's technical relationship manager at Schmoozd Event

Symbiocracy.com and its Symbiotic Relationships: Jennifer Oki and Mike Miller

Crowd at the Schmoozd Event at Wokcano

So, in my attempt to return some dignity to all of those who have been harassed about their elevator pitch, I am going to present my top priorities when working on a pitch. What will happen if you forget one of these items when you’re introducing yourself? Nothing. Can you still gain that person as a client? Yes. Which is worse, leaving out a line of your pitch or sounding unsure of yourself? Sounding unsure. I advise you to get comfortable with a good elevator pitch and then work on making it great. When you start off saying something too scripted, you’ll get lost.

Moriah’s 7 tips for a giving a good elevator pitch:
1. Go second so that you can cater your pitch to the person you’re speaking with. Keep in mind that even if they’re not an obvious person to network with that they may know someone who is, and if they like what you have to say that they could introduce you to them.

2. Start with your name and the company your with. Sometimes, the company you’re with is complicated. If that’s the case, put what you do or the type of company it is into a short phrase. For example, sometimes, when I talk to people, it would complicate things to say I work at The FENDER Music Foundation, so I just say I “run a nonprofit that supports music education,” and if even that is too complicated, I say I “run a nonprofit.”

3. Give a few sentences about your business as it pertains to this person. What do they need to know about you from their perspective? What can you do for them? For example, I would say something different to a potential donor, a potential business partner as well as a potential grant recipient.

4. The elevator pitch should be conversational and short. It should use your language. Keep in mind that what you would write in a brochure about your company is very different than how you should say it. What you say is often more casual than what you write.

5. Don’t give your business card to someone unless they ask for it, and feel free to ask for cards from people unless there is no way you would ever do business with them. Everyone else could be a good contact even if you don’t know yet how you’ll use him or her. And, sometimes I even ask for a card so I can make note that they are not someone I would work with.

6. Don’t end the conversation at your elevator pitch. Use this as an opportunity to get to know someone. Get a good idea of who they are and what they do before you go your separate ways.

7. Just because you know how to give an elevator pitch doesn’t mean you should harass those who are less successful. Give them a break! Anything you say will only traumatize them more and make it worse!

Moriah’s tip for a great elevator pitch:
1. There are a billion books that include at least one chapter on elevator pitches. Read a few of them and use the advice you feel comfortable with. It won’t work for you if you are going to feel uneasy doing or saying it. And, don’t trust the interpretations of people who have already read these books; read them on your own.

A profitable business requires a strong foundation.

Product:
I define a weak product as one that does not fulfill a need or want of enough people to make the company sustainable.  As follows are the questions I use to measure the companies’ products with which I work (in 2nd person for your convenience):

• How many people REALLY will use your product?
• How many people will spend the time/money to use your company to purchase your product or use your service?
• Do people need your product? (Review Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)
• If they do, do they know that they need it or will you need to sell them on the fact?
• If not, why do you think they will use it?
• Do they want it enough that they will pay for it or spend enough time on the site to make it worthwhile to your advertisers?
• What are the advantages of using your competitors? Do those advantages outweigh your advantages?
• Is something about your website turning people away?
• Is there a reason for people to use your company more than once or will you have to continually replace your customers?
• How much money will people REALLY spend for your product or service?

or

• How much money will advertisers spend to reach this customer base?

or

• Do you have another knock-your-socks-off revenue stream?

The strongest products are easy sell and go viral. They don’t require much  advertising (if any at all). Not only because of the economy but also because we can easily shop around for products on the internet, we are much more careful to spend money. And, with the current media overload, our attention is pulled in many different directions, so it’s hard to get our attention for long. Sure, companies sell weak products all the time, but it’s a struggle you don’t have to go through. If you start with a strong product and improve it over time, success will come much more easily. And, once you have a strong product, you can move your focus to marketing.

Marketing: If you have a strong product, marketing is the easy part:

• Honestly represent your product
• Determine your most accurate target demographic
• Engage your target demographic where they will feel most positively about your product.

So, there it is – a strong product and how to market it well – it’s definitely a good place to start when you’re writing your business plan. There are so many things to worry about when you have your own business. You don’t want to have to reinvent your product while you’re dealing with accounting and HR and permits. And, you aren’t going to get the revenue you need if you don’t know how to market your product.

One of the first steps is an updated site that speaks more to our business direction and  capabilities. As a preview of things to come, once the partnerships are finalized our services will include all of the following:

• Strategic social enterprise business plans
• Website branding
• Website architecture
• Website user interface
• Website monetization strategies
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Basic and high-level website creation
• Social media strategy and development
• Social media application creation
• Social media implementation coaching
• Email marketing strategy, development and deployment
• Logos and corporate identity
• Display advertisement design
• Contextual advertisement strategy
• iPhone and iPad applications
• Cause marketing strategy
• Brainstorming

Photo by Michael Grunow

Wall Posts
When asking questions, for which you are expecting a response, write a message. Do not ask the question on the person’s wall.

Comments
Use comments to participate in a conversation about a particular wall post. Do not talk about anything else, for two reasons: First, the person who made the initial post did not intend for it to initiate other topics of conversation, and they may find it difficult to politely redirect the conversation back to the original topic. Second, all of the other people who are participating in this particular conversation about this particular comment will receive a notice about your comment, something they may not be interested in.

If you like a post, click the like button, and if you have something constructive to say about it, leave a comment. Otherwise, the person posting will feel like they are talking to him or herself.

Application Requests
Only send application requests (Mafia Wars, FarmVille, etc.) to all of your friends once. Beyond that, only send the requests to people who actually participate in the application. (Most applications indicate which of your friends use the application.)

Group and Page Invitations
When you are inviting people to your group or page, consider that there is a difference between people who support the topic and people who want to get involved in the topic. Some people will feel obligated to join your group or be a fan of your page just because they like you and/or they support what you are doing. Do not, then, annoy those people with incessant messages that they have to delete from their inbox. If you would like to engage both groups, it may require you to create two different groups, for the different levels of involvement.

Messages to Fans
If you control a fan page, do not bombard your fans with messages. Only use messages to communicate very important information. All other information should be communicated in wall posts.

Friend Requests
Only ask people you know personally to be your friend. If you are receiving too many friend requests from people you don’t know, it might be time to create a fan page. And, if this is the reason you are creating a fan page, nobody will think your creating one is arrogant.

Do not take it personally when people don’t accept your friend request. Some people only use Facebook for their close friends and family. There is nothing wrong with this decision.

Photos
If you post an unflattering photo of your friend on Facebook, do not tag them.

General
All offline ettiquette still applies. If you shouldn’t do it in the real world, don’t do it on Facebook either.

At California Lutheran University’s Corporate Leaders Breakfast on January 21, 2010, Donald E. Petersen, former CEO and Chairman of Ford Motor Company, announced that one of the predominant problems in the American car industry is that CEOs continue to try to make their mark on companies without any regard to the long-term success of the company. In other words, they push their respective companies to make drastic changes without considering if those changes will create a stronger company or even if those new items will last. Sometimes companies don’t need big, sexy new products, they just need basic alterations on their already successful products and practices to succeed. (I’ve known numerous executives who have done this when they want a product named after themselves, even when it is clear that the product will fail.)

2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus also pushes the idea of living longer than yourself, but he does it (and encourages others to do it) through social business.  When he spoke on February 26, 2010, at an event for California State University – Channel Islands, he encouraged the students in the university’s new social business program to choose a problem they want to solve, and instead of just improving the state of that issue, actually try to solve that problem, 100%. It is his mission to end poverty by 2030. It is a mission that he holds himself accountable for. He says that if it is possible to cut poverty in half, it must also be possible to eliminate it entirely.

Mike Veny, professional drummer and owner of Funky Music Store, uses his online store to raise funds for The Fender Music Foundation as well as promote general support for music education. He has given about four times more often than any other foundation supporter. And, these funds will go on to get instruments into music education programs, strengthening the leaders and communities of the future. Because he is choosing to support an organization like The Fender Music Foundation, he is making a far larger impact than if he had created his own charity and tried to reinvent the wheel. Sure, it’s less glory, but it’s far more efficient in addressing the difference he is trying to make in the world.

All three of these people have looked outside themselves, in space AND time. Only by acknowledging their infinitesimal presence in this world can they create something that they deserve to be remembered for.

Goodjoe is dedicated to inspiring change through creative design and in the process giving back to the community around us. We really believe that people do great things when they’re inspired. A small change can and will create a big impact. Everyone really does care to make their surrounding world better. That’s why we created the goodjoe site, where hopefully, all kinds of creative and inspiring ideas are made visible and will be seen passing through the streets in many different forms.

Goodjoe will hold an ongoing T-shirt design contest. Everyone is welcome to participate by submitting inspiring T-shirt designs, rating designs, and giving artists positive feedback.

Here is how the process works:
1. Artists submit T-shirt designs with an inspiring message into the contest.
2. Each week, goodjoe selects inspirational designs from the contest to print.
3. Printed tees are sold and everyone involved (artists, schools, and other organizations) shares in the proceeds.

Goodjoe contacted me at The Fender Music Foundation last fall and proposed a t-shirt design contest in its honor. During the contest, we received 138 design submissions, and the winning design was much more stylish than what I would have designed on my own.

Goodjoe’s t-shirt design contests are a great way for nonprofits to engage potential supporters online. The company was established with the intention to make a difference, which they not only accomplish with their t-shirt design contests but also with how they treat their charities, celebrities and partners.

What a world this would be if every company were run like Goodjoe.