Idea Wichita Falls

Three Weeks And Counting — How to Estimate Revenue

jeff — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:15:38 +0000

There are three weeks until the 20 February deadline to submit your plan to the SBDC if you want them to provide feedback on your plan (the deadline to submit your plan to the Lalani Center is March 7^th). Sounds like a long time, but the time will pass quickly so I hope you are making good progress with your plan.

As I mentioned in the seminars, the financial projections are often a weakness in business plans. The SBDC can be of great help as you develop the financials so I encourage you to work with them (before Feb 20) on your financials.

The trickiest part for many is estimating the revenue, which requires you to estimate how much you’ll sell and at what price. The marketing portions of the business plan should help you with these topics. How much will you sell? It depends (among many other things too) on how large your market is, how you intend to attract customers, and your competitors. Pick a number for how much you’ll sell and then explain it to others. If you can convince people that your sales projection is reasonable then you are off to a good start.

The other component is how much you’ll charge. Pricing, too, can be tricky but if there are established competitors selling the same or similar products, adjusting off of their price points is a logical starting point. Is yours a premium product, then you should be charging more. Again, explain how you priced your product to someone else and see what they think.

Having decided on a number for how much you’ll sell (and this is typically done month-by-month for the first 2 years) and at what price computing revenue is straightforward. Computing revenue is usually harder than projecting costs, so developing the financials moves along quickly after you’ve projected your revenue.

Several teams have not yet picked up their copies of the executive summaries—they are missing out on potentially important feedback from the judges. Swing by the Lalani Center to pick up those executive summaries.

Good luck going forward!

Last Chance — How to write a business plan this evening at 5:30

jeff — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:56:04 +0000

This evening is the last session for “how to write a business plan” taught by our experts in the SBDC. The session kicks off at 5:30 and should last about an hour. Hope to see you there!

Important Training Tonight

jeff — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:54:02 +0000

Come one, come all. We have another “How to Write a Business Plan” session this evening from 7-8:30 pm in Room 189 at the Dillard College. I’ll be there to hand back executive summaries for those IdeaWF entrants that haven’t yet picked up their copies.

Hope to see you tonight!

First “How to Write a Business Plan” Session Next Week

jeff — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:08:53 +0000

I hope everyone is relaxing a bit over the holidays. IdeaWF cranks up immediately after the New Year arrives. Please plan to attend one of our “How to Write a Business Plan” sessions, which are: Wednesday, January 4th, 11:30-1pm; Tuesday, January 10th, 7-8:30 pm; and Thursday, January 12th, 5:30-7 pm. All sessions are in room 189 of the Dillard College of Business.

The Top 15 Move On

jeff — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:57:56 +0000

Congratulations to these 15 teams for being invited to submit full business plans to IdeaWF. The competition this year was extremely tough – this was the best group of executive summaries I’ve seen in the three years of IdeaWF. Several of the teams not invited to submit a full business plan have great ideas – they simply weren’t one of the top 15.

I encourage those selected to submit a full plan to take a few weeks to celebrate their accomplishment and enjoy the holiday season before they turn their full attention to writing the business plan. We start quickly in 2012, though. Here is the schedule for the SBDC-led sessions on how to write a business plan:

Wednesday, Jan 4 11:30 am – 1 pm
Tuesday, Jan 10^th 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Thursday, Jan 12^th 5:30 – 7 pm

Those teams not selected to submit a full business plan are also very welcome to attend these sessions.

All entrants can come by the Lalani Center at their convenience to pick up their executive summaries and see what advice our judges have for them.

The 15 teams invited to submit a full plan are (with some words deleted when necessary to protect the details of their business idea):

Buy Smart

Eco Tex

Francis’ Soap

Horses In Art

Martin Co.

Little League of America, Inc.

Midwest Services

NET Audio

Red Shark

Rocking M Ranch

The Taxidermists’

Texas Flavors

Throw Lifeline

Trigger Time

Wardrobe 9

Enrty Deadline is Tomorrow!

jeff — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:47:09 +0000

By now you should have all eaten all the leftover turkey you can stand (for a few weeks at least). So, it’s time to finish tweaking and turn in those executive summaries for IdeaWF. Here is a reminder of exactly what you need to turn in by tomorrow’s (Wednesday, November 30^th) 5 PM IdeaWF entry deadline.

Six copies of your executive summary
Completed and signed application forms (you can print them from this website)
$100 (check made to “Lalani Center” preferred, but we’ll take cash)

Please bring them to the Lalani Center office. Someone will be there all day to take your package. The Center is located on the second floor of the Dillard College of Business (room 257). The office is not located in one of the major hallways so it can be tough to find. Don’t hesitate to ask for directions once you get into the building (faculty and staff know where it is, students may not). If you are familiar with the SBDC’s location in the college, the Lalani Center is located directly above the SBDC. See you tomorrow!

SBDC is working hard on your summaries

jeff — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:57:47 +0000

For those 12 wise folks that submitted their executive summary to the SBDC for an informal review, expect to have your comments from the SBDC by late Tuesday (Nov 22^nd) afternoon. If you haven’t sent your summary to the SBDC yet you can still send it to them (via email to lo.nelson@mwsu.edu). The SBDC will do it’s best to get you some comments before the November 30^th submission deadline but can’t make any guarantees.

Get those summaries to the SBDC ASAP

jeff — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:24:41 +0000

Today (Nov 14^th) is the deadline for submitting your executive summary to our Small Business Development Center (email the file directly to lo.nelson@mwsu.edu) for their informal review. If you can’t get the summary to them today, you can submit it slightly late to the SBDC. Don’t delay, though, because they can’t guarantee you’ll get their comments back in time for multiple revisions if they don’t have your summary soonest. The SBDC services are awesome – I can’t think of a single good reason not to use their help to get your executive summary into great shape.

Missed the Orientation Sessions – No Problem!

jeff — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:54:00 +0000

If you weren’t able to attend any of the orientation sessions here is some information that should help you get up to speed quickly. By clicking on this url http://youtu.be/WUMdBSAj2_g you’ll be led to a short video that discusses the competition. This link http://youtu.be/Ydc14pQtR-c recaps the highlights of how to write an executive summary. You can also contact the Small Business Development Center at (940) 397-4373 to speak with one of their experts about how to write an executive summary. Good luck!

Come to the final orientation session– tonight, 7 PM

jeff — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:46:16 +0000

Tonight’s the final orientation session for IdeaWF 2012. See you at 7 PM in the Dillard College of Business, Room 189. We’ll discuss the rules of the contest and then talk about how to craft an effective executive summary. See you in a few hours!