Say YES! to SUCCESS 

in Business

A Guidebook for Entrepreneurs Who PLAN to Succeed

by

Sara Probasco

published by

The National Publishing Company

1533 Burgundy Parkway

Streamwood IL 60107

All electronic rights reserved

© 2008 SAGP

TABLE OF CONTENTS

                                      Part 1 - So You Want To Be An Entrepreneur                  Page

Chapter One                                  What is an Entrepreneur?   ……………………. 4

Chapter Two                                  Typical Work Habits          ………………….… 7

Chapter Three                                The Psycho-Socio Picture   ………………..….13

Chapter Four                                  What to Believe (& Un-Believe) ………….….19

                                                                  False myths worth un-learning 

                                                                  Problem people worth identifying

Chapter Five                                  Your Business Style           …………………..  26

                                                                  What kind of business do you want?

                                                                  Mistakes that can kill

PART II – The Business Plan

Chapter Six                                    What IS a Business Plan?   ……………………32

Chapter Seven                                What to Include, Part 1  ……………………….37

          About the company

Chapter Eight                                 What to Include, Part 2    …..………………….44

          Outside influences

                                                                      Issues and problems

Chapter Nine                                  Mining for Gold             ………..…………….. 51

PART III – Working Your Plan

Chapter Ten                                   Fitting the Pieces Together     …………………57

                                                                      Keep good records  

                                                                      Ask yourself questions

Chapter Eleven                              Finding Your Financial Niche   ……………….67

Chapter Twelve                              Increasing Your Cash Flow   ………………….72

Chapter Thirteen                            Cost, Differentiation, and

the Competitive Advantage  ……………….78

(TABLE OF CONTENTS,  continued)               Page                         

PART IV – The Marketplace

Chapter Fourteen                           Customers and the Marketplace  ……………. 83

Chapter Fifteen                              Competitors and the Marketplace  ………….. 89

Chapter Sixteen                             The Marketing Plan   …………………………93

Chapter Seventeen                         Targeting Your Market   ……………………. 100

                                                                      Factors that attract customers

                                                                      Determining your share

PART V – Getting the Word Out

Chapter Eighteen                           Charting Your Advertising Course..………….107

Chapter Nineteen                           Long-term “Outside” Advertising  …..……….111

                                                                      Purpose

                                                                      Types

Chapter Twenty                             Short-term “Outside” Advertising   ……..……118

Chapter Twenty-One                     “Inside” Advertising :

    Marketing vs. Promoting   …………..… 123

PART VI – Launching Your Business

Chapter Twenty-Two                     The Storefront Location  ..…………………… 129

Three questions                                               Planning your store

Chapter Twenty-Thee                    About Employees    …….……………………. 138

Chapter Twenty-Four                    First Impressions   ……….……………………144

Chapter Twenty-Five                     Saying YES! to Success  …..…………..….…..148

Table of Contents for APPENDIX…………………………………………………153

PART  I

SO YOU WANT TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR

CHAPTER ONE

What is an Entrepreneur?

It‘s been said that an entrepreneur is a person who works for himself eighty hours a week for half the pay he could make if working forty hours a week for somebody else. It‘s also been said the two happiest times in a person’s life are when he buys a business and when he sells it. Both statements contain a large degree of truth.

Actually “entrepreneur” (pronounced “on-tra-pra new’-er) is just a fancy word for “independent businessperson.” It’s used a lot in the business world, so if you’re thinking about becoming one, you may as well get used to it. The New World Dictionary describes an entrepreneur as “a person who organizes and undertakes a business operation, assuming the risks for the sake of the profits.” Nothing wrong in that.

Surf your late night TV channels, and you’ll probably run across at least a half dozen

infomercials that will tell you how you can go into business for yourself and make a million before the end of the week. All you need to do is order their foolproof plan. Their secret directions, enclosed along with a bonus freebee you probably don’t want, will start you on the road to success for only $19.95, plus shipping and handling. Their pitch obviously appeals to thousands of folks who think they want to be entrepreneurs, or they wouldn’t keep advertising.

But wait a minute—what about all the things we hear about the failure rate of the self-employed? Business statistics show that three out of every ten businesses fail within the first two years of operation. Half will go under within five years. Seventy per cent will declare bankruptcy by the end of the tenth year.

These are not encouraging figures for someone thinking about going into business for himself. But we must realize that every business in existence today, no matter how large or small, began with one person or a group of individuals investing in a speculative venture with hopes of turning a profit. Wal*Mart, Apple, Microsoft, J.C. Penny, Starbucks, Neiman Marcus, Mary Kay makeup, Lillian Vernon mail order, Amazon.com, your little neighborhood grocery store, the dress boutique down the street, your favorite barber shop—they all started with a dream, an investment, and a person or persons willing to work hard to make their business succeed.

The scary side of this is, we can drive down the streets of virtually any town in the country and see empty buildings with business signs still hanging there, mute testimony of failures that started out as somebody’s dream and became a nightmare.

Why do so many businesses fail?

If you ask the owners what went wrong, you’d almost always hear the same old song: “We ran out of money!”

Well, of course they ran out of money. If they hadn’t they’d probably still be in business, right? The real question is why did they run out of money? In the beginning, they thought they had enough. What changed? Why weren’t they able to market their products and services in time to build business momentum before their start-up money ran out? More important, how can we make sure we don’t make the same mistakes? The answer to that isn’t quite so simple.

Failure comes as a rude shock to a lot of business owners. They have the idea that if they can just beg or borrow enough start-up capital, they’ll have it made. They don’t realize that running out of money is the result of business problems, not the cause. They jump in with no clue as to how to control cash flow and profits. Then later, they wonder why they have neither one in adequate supply.

All right, then. Because we want to be among the minority who succeed, we’re going to take a close look at the classic causes of business failure, examine the characteristics present in successful businesses, and then chart a course that will have us following in the footsteps of entrepreneurs who have succeeded. So get some paper and a pen or pencil, find a quiet, comfortable place to sit, and roll up your sleeves. We have our work cut out for us.

 $ $ $

            Oh, by the way, I’ll be using the masculine pronouns “he” “his” “him” and such throughout, purely as a matter of convenience. I sincerely hope no one takes offense at this form. I recognize there are many women out there who own and operate businesses—myself among them—but it gets awfully complicated when you try to go the “he/she” route in writing.