Monday, July 13, 2009

Description of the Business


After working so diligently on those P&L Projections, I fried my brain. But there's still work to be done on getting this Biz Plan completed.

Oh yes, lots of work.

And I still have to fudge around with the numbers a little bit. But to give my Math Mind a break, I've gone back to the narrative portions. Those come much more naturally to me.

NB: Some of you know I recently moved. It usually takes me awhile to completely unpack, but as I unpack, I discover fun and useful stuff I'd forgotten I'd owned, such as the "Small Business For Dummies" book. In it, there's what may be the clearest and most straightforward instructions on how to write a business plan I've ever seen. It was just the thing I needed to get me going again.

Last week I wrote my "Mission Statement" and the "Summary of the Business." Both of those are part of the greater chapter entitled "Description of the Business."

Within that chapter are also the sections "Legal Description" (as in what legal structure my business is: Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, S Corporation, etc. In my case, it's an LLC, a Limited Liability Corporation) and "Competitive Edge."

For me, these parts are pretty easy. The Management Plan will also be relatively easy, but it will get progressively more difficult after that.

My trick is to find a way to simply start writing those hard parts, once I get to them, and not get intimidated by how much I don't know. It doesn't have to be perfect; it has to be good enough to take to the SCORES or SBA people, or maybe even the Jersey City Economic Development people. Their job is to help me make it perfect, or at least good enough to shop around to potential investors.

In other news, I'm always, ALWAYS, thinking up ideas for the store. Not a day goes by that I don't think, "Hmm, [this] would be a good promotional program for my shop." Or some such other thing. I often think of these things when I'm taking a shower, trying to go to sleep, riding the subway, or walking around.

In effect, I never have a day off though I'm not currently in operation, nor am I getting paid. But that's not really the point. A good business owner is always "at work" in some way. This isn't as exhausting as it sounds, nor, in my opinion, is it as exhausting (for me) as it is working for someone else. I like thinking about these things, and I do them while wearing nobody else's collar and leash.

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