Business Planning 101

Business Planning 101

Developing a business plan is sometimes a daunting task and hard work by business owners. However, business planning can help advance any company or small business forward. Why write a business plan, you may ask, it provides entrepreneurs a powerful tool for the foundation and goals for their business. There are many reasons to why writing a business plan is essential to any owner. One local business owner in Cape Girardeau Mo., said, “All businesses should have a business plan because this allows entrepreneurs to brainstorm ideas that they would like to implement how to accomplish them.”

Think of a business plan as a blueprint for a home. What can help keep the house up and steady? What makes a blueprint for a house successful? As for a businesses, what can help a business stay steady and up and running? Also, how can a business increase profit? What can help make a business a successful one? The answer is preparation and developing a business plan. Business plans are excellent tools for implementing the company’s vision, mission, and goals to investors, customers, and even employees. Also, to give any business any chance of success, writing a business plan will guarantee that business owners pay attention to financial details, such a budgeting. According to Rieva Lesonksy, author of A Business Plan DoublesYour Chances for Success, says the findings of a new survey, “The study indicated that the type of entrepreneur who completes a business plan is more likely to run a successful business.” Some new business owners can spend two and a half years developing a thorough business plan. Sometimes this helps the person get from concept to design. The business plan will help lay everything out for many business entrepreneurs.

With every company, comes a competitor, and establishing a business plan will provide business owners with strategies to differentiate theirproducts.  This allows them to better market their business to customers better than the competitor can. Also, business planning is a critical time process because it allows entrepreneurs to test “what-if” situations and create back-up plans just incase the first plan turns out a little differently than what was expected. The business plan can show you what your business’s strengths and weaknesses are and this forces the entrepreneurs to create a timeline of events that must happen. Also, plans can help provide organization tactics for business owners. Nonetheless, business plans will help entrepreneurs survive over time and have a constructive impact to their business.

Your local small business technology development center in Jackson, MO is always ready to help any future or present entrepreneur plan for their start up or growth of the business idea.  The Jackson center serves the I-55 corridor from Ste. Genevieve to Pemiscot counties and includes Bollinger, Madison, Iron, St. Francois and Washington counties. The center is also part of a statewide network so the resources extend beyond Southeast Missouri. For assistance just call 573-243-3581 and ask for Richard Proffer. 

 

How to Keep Trade Secrets (Secret)

Small Business Trade Secrets

Every business, whether large or small, has a secret considered vital to success. It could be a family recipe for a meat dish that has a special spice or a new way to create a rubber product cheaper but yet it lasts just as long. Whatever it is, it is of value to the business and is often considered to be one of the most important assets when the business is up for sale.

Unfortunately, trade secrets cannot be easily and universally defined. The real definition comes from the fact the following three tests on the idea: is kept secret, is considered important and necessary for the business’s success and has a value to it. Those three tests must be met for a court to protect the trade secret in a legal issue.

A trade secret can be almost anything used in the business or created by the business as long as it is not generally known in the industry. For example, if a business owner creates a new recipe using pinto beans for a homemade chili, it will not probably be considered a trade secret because 1) chili is common, 2) pinto beans are common, and 3) most importantly, it is common knowledge you can use pinto beans in chili. What a trade secret does is provide the business owner with a competitive advantage and allows it operate a higher profit margin usually.

Trade secrets are treated differently than copyright or patents. As long as they are kept secret they remain valuable to the business. But that value can diminish when a competitor has figured out how to duplicate the process. Once discovered independently, the once trade secret can be used without any legal action being able to be taken unlike the copyright or patent. If obtained illegally, then the owner has the right to take legal action and claim damages.

How can a business protect its secrets? The first step is to determine what in your processes create a trade secret. Unfortunately, the information gathered in creating a product cannot be labeled as one as it usually represents skill or industry practices. Courts also protect an employee’s rights to carry with him his experience from one employer to another or her own business.

The second step is to write them down in a log and indicate who knows the secret. The business owner needs to make sure all the people on the log understand the importance of the secret to the business and they are not to disclose the information.

While no protection plan is entirely safe, the starting of one should indicate to the staff the owners are serious about protecting the secret and its importance to the business.

Your local University of Missouri Extension Small Business Technology Development Center can assist you in identifying and classifying trade secrets through its programs. For such assistance, please call 573-243-3581 and ask for Richard Proffer.