Wyospace.com

Just write the business plan for Pete's sake! (Part 2 of 2)

By Cindy Unger, Wyoming SBDC

Once you are convinced that this business is going to be a “winner”, you likely will have to convince the bank and/or private investors that their support of your venture will result in success.  Thus, a business plan is also your sales document to potential sources of financing.  Remember, if your financiers don’t know you personally, then your business plan is your introduction, and they want to know as much as possible about both the individual(s) and the business they are lending money to. 

Business plans are not just for start-up businesses.  Companies at all stages of development need to prepare business plans for various reasons, including planning and financing a specific project, new product introduction, general expansion financing, mergers or acquisitions, and overall improvement of the company’s financial and managerial performance.  Contact the Wyoming Small Business Development Center at 800-348-5194 to take advantage of their free Business Plan Review Service, or e-mail your plan to busplans@uwyo.edu.

Just write the business plan for Pete's sake! (Part 1 of 2)

By Brandon Marshall

Thank goodness for the Wyoming SBDC!  They’ve been bailing me out of making actual contributions to wyospace.com for months now.  So, here they are again, making me look functional and helping entrepreneurs at the same time.  Heck of a deal really. 

At both the Wyoming Business Council and the SBDC, we review literally hundreds of business plans every year.  It sometimes seems like an extraordinary task just to get businesses to realize that they need a very solid plan for the future of their company.   One of the biggest obstacles that people have to overcome in business plan writing is the idea that it needs to be a certain length, like it’s some kind of term paper for your 11th grade English Teacher/local Nazi Party leader.  (My 11th grade English teacher was actually very nice, it just seemed like it would be comedic to put the Nazi line in.)  Nonetheless, today I’m posting part one of “Just write the business plan for Pete's sake!,” with the much anticipated part two to come Monday.  Enjoy!

By Cindy Unger, Business Counselor, Wyoming Small Business Development Center, Region III

The business plan is a written summary of what you hope to accomplish with your business and how you intend to utilize your resources to meet those goals.  The plan is the “roadmap” for operating your business, measuring your progress, and determining when and how to expand.  Ultimately, your business plan must demonstrate that your business concept will generate enough sales to make a satisfactory profit, thus making the business worthwhile for you to start and of interest to potential financial backers. 

First and foremost, the business plan must sell YOU on the business. Researching and writing the plan will help you gain an in-depth knowledge of all aspects of the business.  You will be forced to take an objective, critical, and unemotional look at your planned business in its entirety.  The result may be that this business is not going to earn the profits that you originally anticipated, or that the daily operation of the business is going to be more complex than you planned, or that the initial financial needs are beyond your means.  Making the decision not to go into a business at the planning stage is far better than being forced to make that decision after you have invested large amounts of time and money. 

For any business to achieve success, the management should have a clear understanding of its operating procedures, customers, strengths and weaknesses, and competitive environment.  The business should also have a plan for future expansion and evolution. The business plan should explain how all aspects of operation of the business will be integrated and operate together. Fortunes have been made and lost because one area of a business organization failed and dragged the successful pieces with it. 

Continued tomorrow......

Federal regulation hurting your small business? Here's how to let 'em know!

The Small Business Administration Wyoming Office will be hosting a "Fair Regulatory Enforcement Roundtable", April 17th from 10:00 a.m. to Noon at the JC O'Mahoney Federal Building in Cheyenne.  Registration begins at 9:30 a.m.   If you would like to attend (and who wouldn't?) please RSVP to Steve Lobdell at 307.261.6500 or steven.lobdell@sba.gov. 

Take advantage of this opportunity to be heard by the Federal Government on issues relating to the regulation of small businesses!

When: April 17, 2008

Where: JC O'Mahoney Federal Building, 8th Floor, Room 8005, 2120 Capitol Avenue, Cheyenne

RSVP TO: Steven.Lobdell@sba.gov or 307.261.6500

My website hits stink! How can I make people see me?

By Elizabeth Parks, Researcher, Wyoming Market Research Center

I’m not getting much traffic to my website; it seems to be “lost in space”.  How can I attract new customers through this venue if no one can find it?

There are several things you can do to make your site more visible on the web, first let’s begin with a definition. Web optimization means increasing your chances of having your website found by customers on the Internet. When you purchase a domain, you are competing with millions of other websites to display on the first 3 pages of search engine results.

Search engines use a method of indexing to organize the millions of web pages existing in cyberspace. Simply put, they send out indexing “robots” to scan pages looking for similarities in keywords, URLs, page descriptions, titles and content and then organize pages according to content.

The key to optimizing your website is to build the pages in your site so keywords, page titles and descriptions are picked up by search engines. Behind these elements of your site is HTML source code. Indexing bots scan the source code for these elements and rank web pages according to what they find in the code.

When developing a website, the first thing to consider are keywords or phrases visitors may type into the search box to find you. Each page of your website should have keywords, much like a paragraph is written around a topic sentence.  Keywords should reflect the text on the page and capture the attention of indexing bots, which in turn give you a higher ranking on the results pages of search engines.

Content keywords are becoming increasingly important as businesses compete for customers, as well as search engine visibility. Keywords are your connection to customers on the Internet. Write your content with customers in mind, then go back and insert keywords and phrases into the text you think searchers will type into the search engine box. Customer optimization, or writing for customers, should come before search engine optimization. After all, search engines don’t buy products, customers do.

Page titles work much the same as keywords. They are found at the top of each page and are one of the first things seen by indexing bots; therefore, they should include principle keywords. Titles are a marketing opportunity and should be thought of as a form of advertising. Consumers look for product benefits, so titles should be directed to the benefit derived from the product (or service); for example, “Learn how to ski over the weekend”.

The page description is the two line announcement appearing on search engine result pages. This description is a customer’s first exposure to your business and should be used to “hook” them into clicking on your site. Use compelling text to cause them to explore further. Like titles, your description should include your keywords and read like advertising copy for your business.

If you would like more information on web optimization, the services of WYOMING ENTREPRENUER.BIZ or the Market Research Center contact Elizabeth Parks, eparks@uwyo.edu.