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1.) EDITORIAL
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A "Warm" Welcome to All our New Subscribers.
 

For those of you who are celebrating a holiday today,
be safe, stay healthy and the best to all of you.  For
those of you who just celebrated a holiday, or who are
about to, the same to you all. 

 

Lets all come up with the ultimate New Years resolution
for our businesses this coming year.  I want to hear from
you!  Tell me what your resolution is and HOW you are going
to achieve it.  Mine will be announced on New Years Day, along
with all of you who reply and tell me what your resolution is, and for
those dead heads who cannot come up with anything, maybe you will
get some good ideas from your fellow marketers:
editor@online-exchange.com

  

Have a GREAT Weekend!

Please forward this e-zine to all your friends and co-workers who might be interested!

Until Next time,
 
Debbie Solomon
editor of The OnLine Exchange Ezine

 

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2.) HEADLINE ARTICLE
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8 Steps to Creating a Simple Business Plan for 2004
by Herman Drost

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Your business plan is like a road map to long-term success.

 

Have you ever been in a situation where you didn't have a map
to find your destination and got lost wasting precious time and
money? Well, the same can happen to your business if you
don't plan out your business strategies.

 

Why you need a business plan.

 

It gives you a clear direction where your business is heading.
Many business owners just jump into creating a business
without researching and making a concrete plan.

 

Inevitably, they soon find that they are out of money and
have no time or clear strategies how to market their business.

 

Here are 8 simple steps to creating your own business plan
(this is by no means a comprehensive plan but a primer to get you
started):

 

1. Name of your business - create a name or reevaluate the name
of your business. Does it integrate well with what you are
selling? Is it easy to spell and remember? Is it a name that can
be well branded over time?

 

2. Vision - what will your business look like 5 years from now?
Think of how you may want to expand it to include other branches
or extra employees.

 

3. Mission statement - this defines what your business really
does, what activities it performs and what is unique about it
that stands out from your competitors.

 

4. Goals and objectives - clearly define what you want to
achieve with your business. Make sure they are quantifiable and
set to specific time lines. Set specific goals for each of your
products or services.
 
5. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) - by
analyzing these characteristics in your business, you will get a
clearer idea of what it will take for you to survive, but to but
also prosper.

 

This could include such factors as:

 

- your companies changing industry
- the marketplace which may change due to social and economic conditions.
- competition which may create new threats and/or opportunities.
- new technologies which may cause you to change products or the process
in how you do things.

 

Evaluating your SWOT will help you to:

 

- build on your strengths
- resolve your weaknesses
- exploit opportunities
- avoid threats

 

Doing this analysis will help you create a more realistic
strategic action plan.

 

6. Strategic action plan - this is the most critical step of
your business plan, because without it, your business will not
get off the ground. This should include your sales and marketing
strategies.

 

(read my article "How to create your web site marketing plan"
http://www.isitebuild.com/websitemarketingplan)

 

7. Financial plan - a business can operate without budgets, but
it is clearly good business practice to include it. With budgets, you will be
more likely to achieve your business objectives, you will make
more-reasoned decisions and you will have better control of your
cash flow.

 

For any period, a cash flow statement would include:
- The cash and credit sales (or accounts receivable) expected to be
received during the period.

 

- The anticipated cash payments (for example, expenses for purchases,
salaries, utility charges, taxes, office expenses etc.)

 

- A description of other incoming and outgoing cash, with a calculation
of the overall cash balance.

 

This will assess how much money is on hand to meet your
financial obligations - what cash has been received and what has
been paid out. Knowledge of this cash flow cycle will help you
predict when you will receive funds and when you will be
required to make a payment.

 

8. Measuring and evaluation - you wrote your business plan and
set the goals with the intent of achieving them. So now break
them down into measurable pieces and monitor the results
regularly. A plan that cannot be measured is almost always
destined for failure. Celebrate your wins and recharge yourself
to accomplish your next goal.

 

Decide beforehand what constitutes a real serious loss and what
loss will be acceptable.

 

If you find your goals are unrealistic and unattainable, adjust
them, but realize that it takes hard work to achieve them, so
don't give up easily.

 

Conclusion:

 

Now that you have a business plan, make it a part of
you by knowing and understanding it clearly. Build upon it
continuously and refer to it often, so you remain on track to
building a profitable business.

 

Resources

 

Small business association -
http://www.sba.gov/starting/indexbusplans.html

 

Download a free business plan template:
http://www.business-planware.com/freepln7.zip

 

Sample business plans
http://www.mplans.com/spm

 

Online business planner -
http://www.planware.org/strategicplanner.htm

 

============================================

 

Herman Drost is the author of the popular ebook
"101 Highly Effective Strategies to Promote Your Web Site"
a powerful guide for attracting 1000s of visitors to your web site.

 

Subscribe to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original
articles at: subscribe@isitebuild.com. Read more of his
in-depth articles at: www.isitebuild.com/articles

 

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ARE YOU TIRED OF THE GURU-SPIN? Follow as we create a
business step-by-step from scratch in the next year.
Follow along with someone who has done sports leagues,
publishing, radio, video, software, more from scratch.
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subscribe-956606898@ezinedirector.net

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4.) PARENTS TIME-OUT
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Time Out for Parents

Welcome Parents. It is time for a little Time-Out. Running an online business or working outside of the home takes much time and effort away from your family.
This weekly feature is committed to helping parents take back that quality time and devote it more fully to spending it with their children.

Check out this week's features:

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Time Out for the Week -  Ice & Snow Castles
What's for Dinner? - Potato chowder
Just for You - Is Your Home Child Proof?
Site of the Week - Astronomy for Kids!
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Follow the link below to see what it is all about!  You owe it to yourself and your children!

http://www.parentstime-out.com

This page is designed to be simple and easy to follow.  Our goal is to keep it short and simple each week, allowing you to maximize your family time.

You can find all of our Time Out editions archived at http://www.parentstime-out.com/archives.htm
 

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5.) HOT BIZ*TIP
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Auto-Save

 

Some programs such as "Word for Windows" can be set to
automatically save your work after a specified time. Mine is set
for 10 minutes. That means that every 10 minutes, the program
will save what I have done. If Windows crashes, I'll only lose
what has been done since the last save.

 

Unfortunately all programs do not have this "auto-save" feature,
and if the system crashes, you will have lost everything you have
done.

 

It is a good idea, to save your work periodically. That way, if
you do have a crash, you won't lose hours of work. But if you're
like me, you get so wrapped up in what you're doing, you lose
track of time.

 

Got an egg timer? Why not set it for 10-15 minutes or so, and
when it goes off, it will be a reminder to save what you have
done.

 

 

 

Did you know that subscribers to Bob Osgoodby's Free Ezine the
"Tip of the Day" get a Free Ad for their Business at his Web
Site? Great Business and Computer Tips - Monday thru Friday.
Instructions on how to place your ad are in the Newsletter.
Subscribe at: http://adv-marketing.com/business/subscribe2.htm

 

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EZINE BUSINESS DIRECTORY
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ONLINE EXCHANGE INFORMATION DATA
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ONLY subscribers who have personally and voluntarily subscribed to this Ezine will Receive it. We are 100% Opt-In. We will NEVER provide our subscriber list to ANYONE. We respect the privacy of our readers.

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CONTACT INFORMATION-

Editor: Debbie Solomon
Publisher: Sara Hardy
http://www.marketingtrendz.com
MarketingTrendz
1640 West Sandpiper Circle
Pembroke Pines, FL 33026
support@marketingtrendz.com

_______________________


DISCLAIMER-

THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.
The information contained in this document represents the current view of MarketingTrendz on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because MarketingTrendz must respond to change in market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of MarketingTrendz and MarketingTrendz cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. Information provided in this document is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and freedom from infringement. The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document.

All opinions and viewpoints in each editorial of The OnLine Exchange Ezine is expressed solely by the editor and writer, Debbie Solomon. The opinions set forth by the editor is not necessarily an interpretation of viewpoints made by the company.

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