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Life Planning

To make sure you create a business that works for you (instead of you working for your business-!), you’ve got to do some life planning. Before the business planning process ever begins, step back for a moment—it’s time to create your own Life Plan. This will help you put everything in perspective. By creating a Life Plan before you create your business plan, you can prioritize, strategize, focus, and move ever closer to your personal definition of success.

Your Life Plan is a dynamic document that should be visited and revisited over time. It will change as you change. Review the sample Life Plan we provide and then download our life planning form so you can create your own Life Plan.

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Super Startup #1 : Gretchen Schauffler

Gretchen Schauffler is one of those dynamos we find incredibly inspiring. She took her passion for color and transformed it into a multi-million dollar business called Devine Color.

Read Gretchen's key move | Gretchen's StartupNation radio interview

Page 94

Ebay

Everyone’s doing it! But it’s not your granddaddy’s startup—it’s an eBay business.

This new business model provides you with templates to create your online store, immediate global presence, and a community of over 400,000 other entrepreneurs doing the same thing.

The beauty with this model is that you can do it part time or full time, weekdays or weekends, from home or from Starbucks on your wireless laptop!

How to start an ebay business

Page 117

Super Startup #2: Frank Messano

In case you were worried that innovation was on the downturn, we’ve got proof that you can put your mind at ease. Enter Frank Messano, inventor supreme, and a shrewd entrepreneur to boot!

Learn about a Key Move Frank made in order to commercialize his invention for a rooftop living room on RVs! Listen to these radio interviews to hear his story in his own words… told only how Frank could tell it!

Read Frank's key move | Frank's StartupNation radio interview

Page 125

Patents

One thing you’ve got to do if you’re onto a big idea is PROTECT IT! That’s what a patent does. Patents also create a lot of value when you’re seeking a lucrative licensing arrangement for your invention.

See our first patent on the Battery Buddy ® and some of our comments on how to read a patent and what the most important parts of a patent are.

Also read our "Get Yourself a Patent" article for additional information.

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Business Planning

A man without a plan can expect a bumpy road ahead. (Of course, this also includes “a woman without a plan,” but it didn’t rhyme as well.)

If you want to chart a course for success in your dream business, and you’ve done a healthy dose of life planning, it’s time to create a business plan.

Sample Business Plans

Page 150

Financials - Cash management report

We’ve developed an important instrument to help you forecast and manage the financial side of your startup today and into the future. It’s something we’ve coined a “cash management report”—a simple but powerful time-tested tool that’s extremely effective in helping you manage your cash.

It looks at how cash moves in and out of your business on a monthly basis. By preparing a cash management report before the launch of your business, you’ll be able to determine if you’ll need to raise outside capital, when you’ll need it, and how much will be required..

Page 156

Elevator Pitches

You step onto an elevator. Standing right there is your dream financier! It’s the opportunity of a lifetime to pitch your great business idea.

A good pitch gets the attention of an investor right away—and leads to a future opportunity to meet in a more formal setting and present your business plan in detail. A good “elevator pitch”—as investor types often refer to it—is a one-minute ride to the financing you need, or perhaps, to rejection.

Are you going up? Or going down?!

To learn how to NAIL your elevator pitch, we’ve provided some great examples of what to do and what NOT to do.

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Super Startup #3: Cheryl Tallman

How does this sound: Move to a resort town. Start a business that solves a significant problem in infant nutrition. Out-source all of the stuff you don’t want to do to, and you focus on the stuff you love, such as marketing, product development, public relations.

If this sounds good to you, you have something to learn from Cheryl Tallman, founder of Fresh Baby. Read about her Key Move—outsourcing. Also, hear her comments on how to do it right on StartupNation radio.

Read Cheryl's key move | Cheryl's StartupNation radio interview

Page 205

Finding Funding: Goldilocks Approach

Once upon a time, there was an entrepreneur who had a great idea. But she didn’t know which kind of funding was just right for her. In fact, she couldn’t even find the house in the woods where all the money sources were.

Building on our advice in StartupNation: Open for Business about what kind of financing is right for your kind of business, we’ve included here some great resources for you to use in researching funding sources. Check out this list—maybe it’s got what you need to make your business live happily ever after!

Funding resource listing

Page 207

Super Startup #4: Dale Klapmeier

The Klapmeier brothers’ business has taken flight! Dale and Alan Klapmeier are smart, passionate, and totally committed to their vision for popularizing flight. Today they sell more airplanes than anyone else—even entrenched manufacturers like Cessna.

Among the Key Moves they made to transform their dream into reality, was their fundraising strategy. They tapped friends and family, angel investors, and venture capitalists as they compiled the tens of millions in financing required to create their amazing success. And it all started as a project in a barn out back. Hear how they did it. Or read about their Key Move.

Read Dale's key move | Dale's StartupNation radio interview

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Super Startup #5: Jack Aronson

It’s only natural. But we mean this in two ways. First, it’s only natural ingredients that Jack Aronson’s Garden Fresh Salsa has inside. And second, it’s only natural that a great idea combined with relentless grassroots marketing has made Garden Fresh Salsa into a multi-million dollar success story and the leader in the fresh salsa food category across the country.

To learn about how this Super Startup went from salsa to “super,” read about Jack’s Key Move or listen to some of his interviews on StartupNation Radio.

Read Jack's key move | Jack's StartupNation radio interview