Session 6: SUMMARY
February 20, 2009***QUIZ BULLETS**** Post your team’s suiz bullets here, at summary page sometime before next class.
1. Market Analysis Plan Draft – revised
DUE 9 am, Funger 315, WEDS!! 3 pg max. including financial sneak preview All else = appendix
http://welgwu.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/session-6-assmt-market-analysis-plan-draft/
2. Reading:
Read, then Post: What type of financing would you choose?
http://welgwu.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/session-6-assmt-reading/
3. Skill Building: Financial Literacy
Read, Analyze, then Post: Start up costs case study
http://welgwu.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/session-6-assmt-skill-building-financial-literacy/
4. Review: Speaker bios
http://welgwu.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/session-6-assmt-read-speaker-bios-post-quiz-bullets/
5. Provide online feedback: Peer forum
http://welgwu.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/session-6-assmt-peer-forum/
Negotiation
• Negotiation is an attempt to reach to some outcome that serves a mutual interest
• The process is not only done in professional settings: it is done every day in our lives. The process is used to solve disputes (could be between family, roommates, classmates, etc), bargain for a particular goal (i.e. in a flea market, grades for an assignment), or agree upon a course of action (in groups, teams, etc.).
• Like networking, negotiation may not come naturally. The best way to gain confidence in it is through practice.
My section for my group was about the importance of knowing and understanding your target market.
Knowing who your market allows you with all your initial steps and keeps you efficient.
- what price they’d be willing to pay.
- how much they need/want your product.
- locations where they would be most likely to buy it.
- how to better market to these specific people (out of all your target market, which people are going to make you the most money?)
- watch shopping trends so you can become a ‘just-in-time’ product (allows people to buy upgrades or new versions, colours, specialty items, etc. when they want them)
Basically I talked about how I was having trouble with my market research paper, and how once I decided to work backwards and find who I would eventually be marketing to, it made it so much easier to come up with my start-up costs and discover who was really my competition, etc.
Negotiation
-Men and Women
Women are more likey to negotiate for others than themselves.
-People who start the negotiation, are most likey to get what they want.
-Self-Awareness is the first step to self-correction.
-People often negotiate with themselves, for example in a work-life balance situation, in order to get more free time.
-Some people think its easier to negotiate with family rather than their boss.
Pitching:
The most important “take-aways” in this topic are
A: Realizing that “investors are people too” — relate to them on a human level. If your pitch is very dry and over complicated, for example, they are probably not going to take an interest in your business idea.
B: Remember the 1-2 punch!
1-Make your pitch likeable, interesting, and easy to understand.
2-Have the numbers to back up what your saying. The raw data is important here. Do your research before you pitch an idea, having facts to back up what your saying will go a long way in convincing your audience that your idea is a valid one.
Finally, remember that pitching is a form of Marketing. All of the elements we spent time researching for our marketing plan are relevant in your pitch. Use the information you found to help focus your pitch.
A sole proprietorship is a business owned and managed by one individual and is the most popular form of ownership.
Sole proprietorships offer these advantages: They are simple to create; they are the least costly form to begin; the owner has total decision-making authority; there are no special legal restrictions; and they are easy to discontinue.
They also suffer from these disadvantages: unlimited personal liability of the owner; limited managerial skills and capabilities; limited access to capital; lack of continuity.
A partnership is an association of two or more people who co-own a business for the purpose of making a profit. Partnerships offer these advantages: ease of establishing; complementary skills of partners; division of profits; larger pool of capital available; ability to attract limited partners; little government regulation flexibility; and tax advantages.
Partnerships suffer from these disadvantages: unlimited liability of at least one partner; difficulty in disposing of partnership interest; lack of continuity; potential for personality and authority conflicts; and partners bound by the law of agency.
Negotiation:
-have an excel sheet or something that documents your measured value that you have brought to your business/organization, ex: increased profit margin, sales, or team batting average
-initiate the negotiation in order to land closer to your desired salary increase
-don’t sit back and wait to be recognized, out-work, out-smart competition and let them know why you are worth more.
-when you are accepting a job you are selling your labor, so make sure you are asking for the right price
We discussed Value/proposition model for our part of the quiz. We focused on the nine steps for strategic management process.
- Develop a clear vision and translate into a mission statement
- Assess the company’s strengths and weaknesses
- Scan the environment for significant opportunities and threats facing the business
- Identify the key factors for success in the business
- Analyze the competition
- Create company goals and objectives
- Formulate strategic options and select the appropriate strategies
- Translate strategic plans into action plans
- Establish accurate controls.
EX of mission statement: Chick-fil-A
Bethany, Erika and Evalina
Doing Research:
-Looking directly at competitor’s websites, calling competitors (example: I went into Lululemon store and inquired about who buys the aluminum water bottles, how many are sold, if the employees would buy my product)
-Surveying people who you think would buy your product is very helpful
-Recommended Information Sources given to us by Professor Frey is very easy to use; especially the Business and Industry Database–highlights your search terms making it easy to navigate your way around the database
-Must make phone calls to people in the industry relevant
-Necessary to look at the consumers–>demographics, psychographics, etc.
peer forum
- newsflash: “I’m not alone”- there are other people out there with the same problems
- writing the case was a good way to reflect on past experiences
- great to get personalized feedback
- possible downside- as a commenter, I found myself repeating advice/stories to different people
- overall, a great tool for learning about yourself and others and for self-assessment/awareness (which is the first step towards self-correction)
miscellaneous
- e-commerce is extremely important
- while there are some downsides and difficulties to selling on the web, it is a great resource that can be used to increase profits, expand to global markets, provide services 24/7, improve customer service, etc
- many different approaches to e-commerce, so you have to pick one that fits in with your business model
Other Forms of Ownership/Structure:
- Limited Liability Corporation: Combination of partnership and corporation, but without S Corporation limitations
- Professional Corporation: Designed to offer professionals (accountants, doctors) the advantages of a corporate form of ownership, has specific requirements dealing with licensing boards, etc.
- Joint Venture: formed for a specific purpose and usually for a set period of time, the book used an example of a company which was formed specifically to buy the land to hold a summer concert and then disbanded after it was held
Our group spoke about peer network and off the grid. I specifically spoke about e-commerce from “off the grid”.
Importance/benefits of e-commerce:
*The opportunity to increase revenues
*The ability to expand into global markets
*Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week
*Enhance customer service by using interactive tools like blogs
*Ability to educate and inform about goods and services
*Ability to track sales results.
Even though e-commerce has many benefits, business’s owners should remember that it is not easy and inexpensive, and that costumers will come on their own. E-commerce is a business like any other, that requires a lot of dedication, strategy, and good management.
Negotiation:
- The individual who anchors the negotiation will usually end up with the results closest to what they wanted
- Personal negotiation exercises proved this to be true: ended up with intended results after approaching both my roommate and my employer
- Find it easier to approach family + friends because they will be more willing to forgive you if the negotiation ends in an argument. However, other students found that it was easier to approach individuals in a professional setting since there are less personal feelings involved
- Women are less likely to initiate negotiation
Peer Forum:
Writing: there is a certain liberation to getting it out. Organizing your story into a clear piece and knowing that it is for others to read in a safe, non-judgmental space.
Reading: this step tells you that you are not alone. You get to understand the experiences of others and comment on their stories. When you provide feedback you are making your connection to the other writer.
Getting the feedback: (my personal fav!) these comments are especially for you. So many people sat down and gave you their time and brain power to your case. And they wrote specific comments about your case. I think is the real power of the forum; where it all comes together and the writer sees her piece being related to and she is connecting further to the other forum members.
Sometimes it may feel repetitive but the comments you make will be special to the person to whom you are writing. And remember! your day to have comments will come.