Saturday, February 9, 2013

Before Hand...Plan


Daymond John 

Daymond John, an entrepreneur within the fashion industry, young and intelligent has a lot to be thankful for.  Daymond is the founder of the world famous FUBU (For Us By Us) clothing line.  He grew up in Queens, NY and was inspired by fashion from a music video in which someone was wearing a tie-top hat.  Because he was unable to find a tie-top hat for a reasonable price, he began to make his own and the genius within was born.
As anyone would imagine, Daymond believes in planning and preparation.  Daymond suggests that doing YOUR homework is critical and taking the time to know everything you possibly can about the business is extremely important.  Daymond leans on the idea of having a good business plan being key.  Several components are necessary for a business plan; market analysis, balance sheet, and description of the business, product and service.  Why?  A good business plan provides the roadmap of what’s being created and gives others a window seat view into your creation. 
As a future business owner, I'd like to pattern myself after Daymond's methodical approach to business planning and his confidence in knowing how to generate revenue by retaining customers.  






Tim Berry  

            Tim Berry is an entrepreneur, president of Palo Alto Software and founder of bplans.com.  Tim reads and reviews close to 50 business plans per year and participates as a judge in business plan competitions.  Tim is very active and finds time to perform a SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) workshop quarterly on business planning. 
            Tim’s approach to a business plan is realistic and relies heavily on the numbers.  He suggests that cash flow projections are important for your business plan.  Why?  The projection allows not only you, but also your investors to track the planned financial progress versus the actual.  Although the cash flow projection is an educated guess it ultimately provides an investor with insight as to how good or bad their ROI will be. 
            I agree that cash flow is important and knowing where your money is coming from and going to will ultimately determine the success.  Tim is definitely someone I would enjoy learning how to come as close to perfect with projections, even if it may be short a few pennies.




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