It was very refreshing to hear how he was able to grow his business, and how he utilized his business plan as a working strategic plan, not just something that was collecting dust.  While there have been many successful companies that started without a formal business plan, writing a business plan can help new business owners to determine how much start-up cash they need, how to determine their market, figure out cash flows and identify their strengths and weaknesses.  In today’s economy and tight lending market, a bank or investor is almost certainly going to want to see your plan and you can gain credibility by having a solid business plan.

We are very excited to be offering a half-day workshop, MBA in a Day, on September 15th for Yakima Valley entrepreneurs and business owners.  There will be sessions on legal issues, financial management, marketing and business planning.  The workshop officially kicks off our Enterprise Challenge Business Plan Competition which has been developed to identify and reward innovative new business ideas and solid business plans.  Cash rewards to the winners could provide exactly the kind of seed money that an entrepreneur needs to get their venture off the ground.

Click here for more on the contest or workshop!

Highlighting MBA in a Day is a luncheon keynote address by Rebecca Lovell, Executive Director from the Northwest Entrepreneur Network.  Ms. Lovell has literally reviewed thousands of business plans and will be giving tips on what it takes to be successful entrepreneur and what she looks for in a business plan.

If you are considering starting a business or entering our contest to win $10,000, this workshop will develop your skills as an entrepreneur or business owner.  Stay tuned for any updates and be sure to visit the Enterprise Challenge page.  Send me an email and we’ll add you to the mailing list!

MBA in a Day

Date: Wednesday, September 15th

Time: 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  Registration begins at 9:30 a.m.

Location: Clarion Hotel in Yakima

Cost: $40 per person OR included in $100 Enterprise Challenge contest entry fee (for teams, one participant only).

MBA in a Day Sponsor: Banner Bank

MBA Session Sponsors:

• Financial Management: Martin Holland Peterson, PLLC
• Legal Issues:  Larson Berg Perkins PLLC
• Business Planning Basics:  Wheatland Bank
• Marketing:  Enigma Marketing
• Limited English Track:  UW Foster Business & Economic Development Center and UW Heritage Partnership

During the contest, we are offering contestants numerous opportunities for networking, business development classes, mentoring and more.  Our goal through this competition is to help emerging companies get started in our Valley.  The contest is much more than having a person submit a business plan and get a cash prize.  We have built in some tremendous educational seminars and field trips for our contestants so everyone participating should take home tips and information that will help them develop their business plan to successfully start and sustain their businesses. The competition is open to Yakima County residents and new businesses, less than three years old.

The contest starts off with a half-day workshop, MBA in a Day, on September 15^th at the Clarion Hotel in Yakima.  The event will include sessions on Legal Issues for Business, Financial Management, Marketing and Business Planning Basics and will also offer Limited English tracks on these topics.  The event will include a special luncheon speaker, Rebecca Lovell, Executive Director of the Northwest Entrepreneur Network.  Ms. Lovell has literally reviewed thousands of business plans and will give tips on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.  The workshop will conclude with an informational session on the Enterprise Challenge and how individuals and teams can compete in the contest.

Details for the Enterprise Challenge will be covered at the MBA in a Day event and posted on our website.  We are very excited about this new initiative and looking forward to identifying some of our Valley’s best and brightest entrepreneurs.  Supporting emerging companies is an increasingly important element of economic development and our association feels strongly that this competition will trigger business growth and identify promising new companies throughout the Valley.

Registration will be online for MBA in a Day later this week, but you can call me or email me with any questions!

Exit strategies may include selling your business, paying your investors back, retiring, acquisition by a larger company or the elusive IPO (Initial Public Offering).  I say elusive because according to a recent article, Exit Strategies for Your Business, by Stever Robbins, there are only 7,000 public companies in the U.S. amid millions of companies, so your chances of great fortune are better playing the lottery.  The author goes on to say, “But if you’re a bootstrapper, believing in a fair IPO is a touchingly naïve act of faith. Besides, do you have any idea what’s actually involved in an IPO?” (Entrepreneur).

Here’s another great blog post I ran across:  Strategic business transitions keep communities vibrant.  This article talks about the importance of planning in farms and rural businesses, but the same lessons apply to entrepreneurs and family owned businesses.  Exit plans can also be extremely helpful for family-owned businesses and entrepreneurs.  I’ve heard stories of the patriarch passing away and then the heirs can’t get along and the business ends up failing, or one offspring wants to run the company a different way than his or her sibling(s) and it ends up destroying not only the company but the family.  With the aging workforce, this becomes even more important to get things in place.

Finally, here’s another link with a step-by-step list to plan your exit. Whether it’s business, succession, strategic or exit, there are also plenty of free resources on this topic and other business resources available online at SCORE and the SBA.

One of the most important takeaways about the apple industry was the need for diversification to stay competitive.  Remember Red Delicious?  I remember growing up, there were Red and Yellow Delicious, or Granny Smiths.  There wasn’t anywhere close to the varieties there are now, even compared to five years ago.  Now we’ve got Gala, Fuji, Jonagold, Pink Lady and even more new species coming out now. Today’s consumers want a a wide variety of choices and they want it all available in real time.  Who wants to pre-order Galas at the supermarket?

There is so much that the agriculture industry and farmers have done to stay innovative over the year that is driven by market demand and competition.  As an entrepreneur, you need to be proactive and try to anticipate what your customer needs, before he/she even realizes the need.  It comes down to innovation and sustainability.  Just think over the years about products that are obsolete but the companies have diversified product lines to meet customer demand.  KitchenAid has evolved from mixers into a whole line of kitchen products and gadgets, Hallmark has had to diversify to remain competitive with the onset of do-it-yourself cards or cheaper online alternatives and Apple (the other Apple) Computer is constantly rolling out new, innovative products.

How do you stay ahead of the market?  What type of data do you collect from your customers or how do you anticipate demand?

We have been putting a lot of emphasis on entrepreneurship over the past two years for exactly these reasons.  We want to encourage entrepreneurs to grow their business ventures in Yakima County and remain here as well.  Strengthening the support network for entrepreneurs is also a key factor to our Valley’s Entrepreneur Network.  Part of the success of Fairfield is due to networking, mentoring, and growing companies that are out of the ‘start-up’ phase.  We will continue efforts in these three areas to help ‘grow our own’ entrepreneurs in our area.

We are on the right track.  We have put numerous resources and effort into expanding our Entrepreneur Network.  There are tons of links on our website to business plan assistance, online training, financing your business and more.  Our local SCORE Chapter is also actively seeking new members that are willing to mentor up-and-coming entrepreneurs.  There are also many local resources to help small businesses whether it is the SCORE Chapter, your local Chambers of Commerce, the Small Business Development Center and Rural Community Development Resources.  Give me a call or email me if I can help match you up with a resource to fit your needs.

If you still don’t think you need a business plan, maybe this will convince you… According to a recent study, “those who finished their business plans were about twice as likely to successfully grow their business, get investment, or land a loan than those who didn’t” (Palo Alto Software). Read the full article.  Two times more likely to be successful??? That seems like a pretty good payoff for the investment of time and effort that goes into preparing a business plan.

I’ve had numerous calls from people wanting to start a business who are going to ‘sell everything to everyone’.  That’s a great ambition, but if I were a bank loan officer, I’d be asking for something a little more measurable, like how are you going to really make money?  The general rule for explaining your business is to be able to clearly define what you do in two sentences or less.

There are TONS of free business planning resources out there, and we are fortunate in Yakima County to have local mentors that will work with you on developing a business plan.  Visit our Business Plan Assistance page to get started today!

The contest will kick off on September 15th with an ‘MBA In A Day’ workshop.  The workshop will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and will include sessions on legal and intellectual property issues, accounting basics for business, marketing and entrepreneurship and will include an informative luncheon featuring Rebecca Lovell, Director of the Northwest Entrepreneur Network.  Registrations will begin in August for this workshop so stay tuned for more details.

If you are thinking about starting a business or have a new business, this could be a great opportunity for you.  Not only will developing a business plan help solidify your plans and projections, but the chance to win $10,000 and learn something along the way is invaluable.  Good business plans are not filed on a shelf; they should be utilized as a working document for your strategic plans, cash flows and goals.

If you are reading this now and thinking about competing, you’ve already got a head start against your competition! Contact me, Tammy Everts, Business Development Director, 509-575-1140 or tammy@ycda.com for more information!?

This is the first workshop in the Yakima Valley Entrepreneur Network’s ‘Working Lunch Series’, presented in partnership with SCORE.   Attend one or all of the sessions to learn what you need to get started.  Workshops are taught by professionals with real-world business experience.

• Thinking about starting a business?  Tuesday, May 18, 2010.  11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
• Business Plan Basics, Tuesday, June 1, 2010.  11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
• Financing your Business, Tuesday, June 15, 2010.  11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
• Marketing your Business, Tuesday, June 29, 2010.  11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Held at the Central Washington Business Resource Center, 10 North 9th Street, Yakima 98901.  Classes are $10.00 each if you pre-register or $15.00 at the door and includes the price of lunch.

To register or for more information, call Tammy Everts, Business Development Director at 509.575.1140 or email tammy@ycda.com.

The biggest take-away I got was, “why should I care”?   Whether it’s from a customer, investor or employee, you need to be able to answer this in a clear, precise way.  (Hall recommends two sentences or less.)  Other potential questions you should be prepared to address are, “What is so much better that I would want to buy, use or invest in it, compared to the competition?  What if it costs more, how are you going to convince buyers that it’s so much more superior?  What’s in it for me, the customer?”

Think in terms of real value or why it would be important to a client or customer, for example, it saves time, money, does something better than anything out there.  Just saying it’s cheaper than the competition isn’t necessarily going to change someone’s mind.  But, if it’s cheaper and works better in half the time, now you’ve got my attention.

Here’s an excellent blog from this week’s online Harvard Business Review; the headline mentions ‘trust and customers’ but it’s really about how businesses such as Amazon and Zappos have differentiated themselves from others, gained customers and earned that trust.  What other things make your favorite business or product stand apart from the competition?