Planning Your Business

TeenBiz – Planning Your Business
Turning Your Idea Into A Working Company

Play Now
(or right click here and select "save target as..." to download)

The software I use is called “Free Mind” and allows me to create an unlimited web of ideas and thoughts.

I start with my business idea in the middle and then add sub-points.

I usually start with just four simple points.
Name – simple yet descriptive, logo, sub title
Advertising – how, where, when, how much cost, flyer ideas, slogans
Service – how, selling points, steps required, time required, how much to charge
Equipment – tools or equipment needed, maintenance costs

From there I can see if I can actually accomplish what I am going after.

There is a simple formula you must remember when planning your business…

People Who See You Ad x Conversion Rate x Cost Per Job = Income

If you want to make money with your business you need to…
Get Your Ad in Front of Lots of People
Get Those People To Act
Get Them to Pay the Highest Amount Possible For Your Service

If your service isn’t worth a lot, and few people need it, it just won’t work…period.
If your service is worth a lot and a lot of people need it, you make money….period.

Planning your business and looking at all the aspects, especially COST and TIME will help you see if your business idea is worth it.

Working in Groups

Working in Groups
The benefits of a partner

Play Now
(or right click here and select "save target as..." to download)

New Bonus Content For This Episode on Wednesday! Sign up for the Newsletter So You Don't Miss It!

There is great benefit to working in groups or pairs.
-Bounce ideas off each other
-Share the work load
-Get different talents
-Get different points of view on new ideas
You will resist the urge because you want to fly solo and make all the money yourself, but experience has shown that often you can benefit from working with someone else.

Tips
You are an entrepreneur, find someone who is not
Your partner will have a very different perspective, resist the urge to close up and ignore them
Find someone that has a different work background from you
Look for someone that is very reserved, managerial, and cautious; you don’t necessarily have to use their ideas but they will point out potential flaws and weaknesses in your plan because they can see all of them.

Refurb Inc.

TeenBiz – Idea #14
Refurb Inc.

Play Now
(or right click here and select "save target as..." to download)

New Bonus Content For This Episode on Wednesday! Sign up for the Newsletter So You Don't Miss It!

Idea
Buy old wooden furniture, fix it up, and resell it. You can also simply do “wood repair”, pick up the piece from customer’s home, fix it up, return it.

Where To Buy
-Thrift Stores
-Yard Sales
-Moving Sales

What to Do
With wood, you can easily restore the original look using a few simple tools. Sand paper (easiest if you have a disc or belt sander), stain, paint brushes and polyurethane finish. First you will want to clean the entire piece by removing old stuck on boogers, food, etc. While you can restain anything without sanding, sometimes it is good if there are faded or darker areas to sand them a bit to match the rest of the piece. You can only go to a darker or brighter color without sanding. If you sand the whole thing down to the original bare wood you can go with any color you would like. One its ready, use a couple coats of stain over the entire piece with the color of your choice. Let dry between coats, slap on a couple coats of polyurethane after you are done to protect the surface and give it a glossy sheen.

Where to Work
If you do not have a garage or shed to work in, try a storage unit, a decent sized one is only $25 a month and will give you plenty of room to work and get your business started.

Where to Sell
Find a family with a house on a prominent corner and ask them if you can have a furniture sale on their lawn if you give them a cut of the profits.

You may also want to pass out flyers when left without anything to do for wood furniture refurbishing. Pick the piece up at their house, fix it up, bring it back a couple days later (it may only take you a few hours but keep it for a couple days so it seems like it took a lot of time and work)

ValPak is perfect for this. In the bonus content we will talk about how much to charge so make sure you sign up for the newsletter so you don’t miss that.

Walking Ads

TeenBiz – Idea #13
Walking Advertisements

Play Now
(or right click here and select "save target as..." to download)

New Bonus Content For This Episode on Wednesday! Sign up for the Newsletter So You Don't Miss It!

Concept
Rounding up a group of 25-50 people in your school/university that are willing to wear a T shirt one day a week that features an cleverly design (disguised) ad.

To Do List
Do some research; find out how much local Banks, CC Companies, Companies that Hire A Lot spend on advertising.
Find a few friends to help you get it started, maybe start with a ground of 10-15
Create a proposal, “For $XX a month 15 students in my HS or College Campus will wear a T shirt featuring your ad one a week to school.
Create the ad tshirts

Benefits for the Advertisers
Kids notice what others wear, they will notice when many people are wearing the same thing and they will take that as “they shopped there, so should I”

Other
You will need a way to have your partners “check-in” when they wear the shirt
If it is done with college students, you may want to work out a deal with the advertisers where they can get their textbooks for free if they wear two shirts a week all semester
A contract will be needed in the event that “employees” don’t wear their shirt so there are rules/consequences attached