Social entrepreneurship 2

Social entrepreneurship

Opara Ebenezer Chukwuka

Today’s topics

• How to become an entrepreneur• How to create business name• How to write a business plan

How to be an entrepreneur

Step 1

Think of a great idea. Most businesses start with one compelling idea — whether it's a service people need, a product that would make life easier, or something that combines both.Ideas don't matter, it's what you do with them that counts. If a great idea comes to you, evaluate if it is realistic. Think of cost, manufacturing time, and popularity.Always be open to different ideas. Ask and record if people would actually buy the product.If you don't have an idea yet, it is a good start to think of your target market first

How to be an entrepreneur Step 2

Write a business plan. Include details and descriptions, and plan everything out. Take your time and evaluate your product at each section. The sections of a good business plan include: •Product description: develop your product. What will it look like? What materials will you need? Make your product eye-catching.•Market Analysis: Who is your market? Where do they shop? Where are they located?•Competition: Who is your competition? What are their strengths? How will you beat them?•Marketing: How will you market your product? What kind of image do you want to display? Where will you advertise? What is your packaging like?•Sales: Where will you sell? How will you get your customers to buy? When will you sell? What is your estimated sales forecast?•Manufacturing: How do you make your product? Explain this in detailed steps. What materials do you need to make your product? When and where will you manufacture? What is your cost?•Finance: how much money do you need to start your business? What is your gross profit?


Or, don't write a business plan. A business plan is a work of fiction, anyway. If you don't have much experience in

business, or the market is new and unknown, a business plan might be a waste of time

How to be an entrepreneur Step 3

Get investors. Present your idea to any potential investor to get money to start your company. If you have a good idea, they will love to invest their money in your company.Make a presentation explaining why your product is the best, including each part of your business plan in the presentation.Tell them how much your estimated gross profit is and how much percentage of that they will earn in interest. Starting small and pleasing a small number of customers at first is a high-probability way to get there. A VC (Venture Capitalist) may not allow you to start small. If you can get the business started without spending a lot of money, that might be your best route.


Step 4

Sell. Sell and distribute your product. •If you're getting revenue, then you're in business. You're testing your theories about the market, you're finding out what really works and what doesn't, and you're getting fuel for more ideas and improvements. •If you're not getting revenue, then it's all in your head.


Step 5

Network. Hang out with entrepreneurs. By meeting entrepreneurs socially, you gain contacts and hear about opportunities.More importantly, you learn how entrepreneurs think. You pick up their attitudes, their nose for opportunity, their willingness to explore every idea.

Creativity- how to create a business name

Brand yourself. Define your goals in your business plan and mission statement. A software company might want to emphasize the quality and simplicity of its products (hence, Apple) while an accounting firm might want to emphasize its accuracy.


Address your customer baseYou need an understanding of both what your prospective customers are like and what they're looking for when they come to you. If your target customers are wealthy, you might want to have a name that sounds luxurious. If your target customers are working mothers who don't have time to clean house, you'll want to consider a name that either recognizes their busy schedules, their desire for cleanliness and order, or both.


Make lists of words that represent the qualities you want to market

•In one column, list the qualities you want to pass to your customers. What are you "about"? •In another column, list things you think your customers are looking for. •Try a simple one-word name. Restaurants will often have short names that emphasize simplicity and quality. .• Come up with some simple adjective-noun phrase like “North Face”.• Use a proper name like “McDonald’s”• Make a new word, through combining two words for example “Microsoft”• Make a historical, literary or mythological reference, for example “Starbucks” is named after a character in Moby-Dick


Evaluate Names in the list

• Look for a short name that’s easy to spell and pronounce, for example before Yahoo was named “Yahoo” it was named “Jerry’s guide to the World Wide Web”Even if you're using words that are made-up or use creative spellings, make sure they make some level of sense for the product or service• Go universal so everyone can get your name• Avoid cliché • Pick names that can work anywhere. Geographically-specific names will lock your business into a particular location that will require changing the company name if it grows outside that location. "Kentucky Fried Chicken" officially changed its name to "KFC" recently for this reason.• Pick the most accurate name. Everyone called Bob Dylan's backup band "The Band." One day, it just stuck and they would be "The Band" forever


Trademarking your name• Make sure no one else in your line of business has trademarked the name you're considering. Once you have a list of favorites, you need to make sure no one else has trademarked any of them.• Prepare the necessary materials. It's more than just a name you'll be registering--it's your whole concept and model for your business. You'll need to provide a clear representation of what you want to register.

Creativity- how to write a business planWhy we need a successful business plan?

Creating a business plan will help you achieve your entrepreneurial goals. A clear and compelling business plan provides you with a guide for building a successful enterprise focused on achieving your financial goals. It is also a document that can persuade others, including banks, to invest in what you're creating and running

Creativity- how to write a business planAnalyze the potential markets for your businessConsider the following areas of inquiry: •Is there a viable market for the product or service you want to sell?•How old are your potential customers?•What do they do for a living?•Is your product or service attractive to a particular ethnic or economic population?•Will only wealthy people be able to afford it?•Does your ideal customer live in a certain type of neighborhood or area?

Creativity- how to write a business planEstablish the size of your potential marketIt's important to be as specific as possible in regard to your market and your product. If you want to start a soap business, for example, you may believe that every dirty body needs your product, but you can’t start with the entire world as your initial market. Even if you’ve developed such a universally needed item as soap, you need to identify a smaller, more targeted customer group first, such as children under eight or soap for mechanics

Creativity- how to write a business plan Identify your company’s initial needsWhat will you require to get started? Whether you want to buy an existing company with 300 employees or start your own by adding an extra phone line to your home office desk, you need to make a list of the materials you’ll need. •Some may be specific, such as five hundred file folders and a large cabinet in which to store them all. •Other requirements may not be specific, such as time to create a product design or to do market research on potential customersPrepare product samples Research possible locations for your businessCall a real estate broker and look at actual retail spaces in the neighborhood where you’d like to open your restaurant. Make a chart of the most expensive and least expensive sites by location and square footage. Then estimate how much space you require and how much money you’ll need to allow for rent.

Creativity- how to write a business plan Determine your start-up costMake a list of all the tangible and intangible resources you need to get your business going Put yourself in the shoes of potential investorsAsk yourself, “If I were going to invest X amount of dollars into a concept or idea, or even a product, what would I want to know?” Gather as much helpful and credible information as you can. Depending on your product, you may need to search long and hard for relevant information.

Creativity- how to write a business plan Structure your business• Define your company. A business plan won't be useful until you're certain what your company exists for. What will you accomplish for others? Write down all the specific needs your company will satisfy. • Choose a winning strategy. Once you’ve established the competitive advantage your business offers, you will be able to select the best strategy to reach your goal. How will you distinguish your product or service from others?Your competitive advantage may include designing special features not found in rival products.• Design your company. Consider how will you hire and organize your workforce. By the time you’ve reached this stage of thinking about your potential business concept, you’ll probably have a good idea of the number of people you’ll need and the skills they’ll require to get your enterprise up and running.

Creativity- how to write a business plan• Consider the practical issues of running a business. Think about your role as leader or boss of the business. As you think about hiring personnel and organizing your workforce, you must also confront your desire and ability to be a good boss. Decide how you will handle your employees' entitlements. For example, salaries and wages, their insurance and retirement benefits, as well as analyzing the extent of your knowledge of tax related issues. • Decide on a marketing plan. One of the most common mistakes in plans is the entrepreneur’s failure to describe exactly how customers will be reached and how products will be presented to them. Consider how will you reach your customers. What will you say to persuade and convince customers that your product or service is better value, more timely, more useful, etc. to the consumer than the rival product or service? If it currently has no rival, how will you properly explain the purpose of and the consumer's need for the product?What advertising and promotional efforts will you employ? For example, two for the price of one specials or free coupons inside the boxes?

Creativity- writing the business plan Organize all the relevant information about your businessEffectively separating your business' unique approach to each of these headings will organize your plan in a way investors find useful•Title Page and Table of Contents•Executive Summary, in which you summarize your vision for the company•General Company Description, in which you provide an overview of your company and the service it provides to its market•Products and Services, in which you describe, in detail, your unique product or service•Marketing Plan, in which you describe how you'll bring your product to its consumers•Operational Plan, in which you describe how the business will be operated on a day-to-day basis•Management and Organization, in which you describe the structure of your organization and the philosophy that governs it•Financial Plan, in which you illustrate your working model for finances and your need from investors

Creativity- writing the business planWrite the executive summary lastThe executive summary is basically your big appeal to investors, or really anyone who reads your business plan, that should summarize and articulate what it is that's great about your business model and product. It should be less about the details of operations and more about your grand vision for the company and where it is headed.Gather all the information together and prepare multiple drafts. You've done all of the hard work researching, deciding what your business is about, targeting it accurately and selling it. It's time to put the business plan together and articulate all your thinking, research, and hard work into a comprehensive description of your structure and service.

Creativity- writing the business plan Sell yourself and your business. The idea of the business plan is to present yourself in the best light. The talents, experience and enthusiasm you bring to your enterprise are unique. Keep in mind that investors invest in people more than ideas. Even if your potential business has many competitors or is not on the cutting edge of an industry, the qualifications and commitment you demonstrate in your plan can convince others to proffer their support.Your resume will be included at the end of the plan, so this is not the place to list every job you’ve ever had. Focus on group experiences, leadership opportunities, and successes at all levels.

Creativity- writing the business plan

Present and explain your financial data.

How will you convince others to invest in your endeavor? By having clear, transparent and realistic financial information that shows you know what you're talking about and that you're not hiding anything. •The accuracy of your financial figures and projections is absolutely critical in convincing investors, loan sources, and partners that your business concept is worthy of support. •The data must also be honest and extremely clear.

Colleagues, I don’t think it’s any secret that business is floundering at Brooksbridge. Kids just aren’t attending sock hops these days, and so our sales are naturally down. As your Director of Product Development, a large part of my job is analyzing markets and seeing what directions we’d be best suited to move in. I think I’ve found the answer: the Internet. We need to start a Web site. While some of you have expressed some concern over this, I firmly believe the Internet will become way more than a fad in the next 20 years. As such, our Web portal would allow us to sell our goods from a centralized location, cut down on retail overhead, and give us the hip, young vibe today’s kids are looking for. With your approval, I would hire a Web team capable of putting our products on the Internet. I expect this to cost no more than $8,000 and I’d be surprised if it took over a month to recoup that. The site could help revitalize the bopping sock as a fashion and leisure trend, something kids these days don’t really have. I, of course, would be heading the Web team under the existing proposal. I would not ask for a raise or extra title for this responsibility, as I only really want this company to survive into the next millennium as well. Let me take a moment to address a few specific concerns I’ve overheard from the board during these discussions: First, the Internet is not, by default, evil. Despite Mr. Montgomery’s complaints, it is not a place you “go to put your credit card in so they can steal all your money.” Second, almost every single teenager in the US uses it. Think about the potential here: Millions of teens, all looking at our site, all buying bopping socks—or at least talking about bopping socks on social media sites like the Myspace. Third, and maybe most important, you will not lose your jobs as a result of this site. If anything, we’re verging on being bankrupt now, which is a much more immediate unemployment threat. Thank you all for your consideration. I hope you take some time to think things over. Let’s right this ship before it is too far gone to fix. Sincerely,

Most common business mistakes

• Waiting to long to fix a problem (Over-thinking or avoiding instead of doing)

• Failure to understand the need to constantly execute marketing and sales plans for NEW customers (Profitable Growth)

• Failure to hire the right type of person for the job (Hiring Smart)• Failure to delegate; owners do too much, failing to leverage their time

(Time)• Unwillingness to professionally resolve family business issues (Family)• Failure to set aside non-working hours to plan and set goals for the

future. (Planning and goals)• Failure to engaging in relationships and activities outside the business

(Get A Life)

Thank you!!

Social entrepreneurship 2

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