You know you should do it, you want to do it, but you just can’t spend the time. Can you really afford not to have a business plan? Whether you are seeking financing or just planning for growth, a business plan will help ensure your success.
At the chamber’s first Business Plan Workshop, presented by Joe Molina, SBDC small business consultant and MiraCosta business professor, a small group of business owners completed three sessions, attending one a week for three weeks, and learned how to develop their business plan.
Pam Bovaird, of TechReq (pam@rechreq.net), a staffing agency providing temporary and full-time computer and engineering professionals, started her business in 2005. She decided to take part in the three-session workshop because she wanted to get control of her financing and plan for growth over the next few years. She had already started to write a plan and wrote down some dollar and personal goals, but she wanted expert advice on what she was missing. She also wanted to know what the banks would be looking for should she decide to seek financing.
“The workshop provided the things I was looking for and gave me a map of what to do and how to organize my plan. (Molina) stressed organizing the plan in a short, concise fashion. The marketing portion helped me get down on paper how to market myself versus my competitors. He also helped me identify how to develop my website from a marketing perspective and how to tie all my marketing efforts together. Jeff provided lots of great additional information on press releases, resources available, how to use census information and tricks of the trade. I definitely got more out of the workshop than just how to develop a business plan. I never learned how to properly organize my finances and the financing portion of the workshop was invaluable. I learned how to figure profit/loss, categorizing, and what a bank will look for when evaluating the viability of my business,” Bovaird said.
Bovaird said some of the best advice came from Susan Lamping of CDC Finance, who spoke to the group.
“Lamping … said, ‘Don’t spend your own money and then try to borrow. Borrow when you have the money and use your money when you can’t borrow anymore.’ Use other people’s credit, not yours. When you buy something like a computer, have them bill you so that you can use your money, let them wait for their money,” Bovaird said.
For more information on our next Business Plan Workshop, contact Andrea at akorogi@carlsbad.org.