Micro Business for Teens » business plan

At least you tried!

Carol Topp, CPA — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:00:12 +0000

In the book 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs, the authors, Nick Tart and Nick Scheidies interviewed Savannah Britt, who runs GirlPez.com, an online fashion magazine. She shares some great advice about managing your time while running a business.

On Time Management and Business Plans:

Savannah Britt is in high school,plays basketball and runs a magazine. She works on her mag on Saturday mornings and keeps a calendar in front of her. She also planned her business: “Basically, I wrote an outline. It was pretty brief, but it covered everything about the magazine: who I want to serve, who it will circulate to, and where I see myself in ten years.”

On learning:

“There is no reason to be hesitant. I know they might be nervous, they might be shy, and they might want to give up after their first try – but becoming an entrepreneur is a learning experience. You are going to use a lot of the things that you learn now as an entrepreneur when you’re an adult. Just try it. If you don’t like it, then you can stop – but at least you will be able to say that you tried. And it’s fun.”

I highly recommend Nick & Nick’s book. You’ll find more great stories of teenagers, like Savannah, who have started their own business. You can learn a lot from them!

Carol Topp, CPA

Free ebook on creating a business plan

Carol Topp, CPA — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:50:32 +0000

Beginning this Friday, October 1, 2010, my book, Starting a Micro Business will be featured on Homeschool Freebie of the day.

I am offering a free ebook which is a chapter excerpt from my book Starting a Micro Business on writing a business plan. The ebook is titled Creating a Business Plan.

Free ebook available starting Friday Oct 1, 2010

Does your teenager (or you, their parent) want to earn some money by starting a micro business? Start by creating a business plan. A business plan will help you anticipate anything that might go wrong. By thinking through issues like who will buy your product and how to reach them, you will save time and money as well as avoid frustration.

This ebook, Starting a Micro Business: Creating a Business Plan, is an excerpt from the Micro Business for Teen book series. It will help you put your thoughts on paper and covers the important issues in starting a micro business such as marketing, your potential customers, your competition, start up costs, pricing and sales.

This is a business plan for a micro business, so you won’t get bogged down in tons of details or fancy financial projections. It is designed for the teenage micro business owner, although it can be helpful to anyone.

“I wish I had seen the systematic business plan template thatyou have in the book when I started my businesses in the past”

-Noah W., homeschool graduate and micro business owner.

How can you get this free ebook? Visit Homeschool Freebie of the Day on Friday October 1, 2010. The offer will be left up all weekend, but not forever, so download your copy as soon as possible!

10 Micro Tips for Micro Businesses: Make a Plan

Carol Topp, CPA — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:20:01 +0000

10 Micro Tips for Micro Businesses

Countdown to Starting a Micro Business ebook launch

Day 6: 4 days until the release of Starting a Micro Business ebook by Carol Topp, CPA

Saturday, May 1, 2010

As we count down to the launch of Starting a Micro Business, I am going to share tips on starting a micro business.

Today’s tip: Create a plan

After you have an idea for you micro business, you should make a plan on paper to help you anticipate anything that might go wrong. By thinking through issues like who will buy your product and to reach them, you will save time, your money and avoid frustration.

A business plan can be kept short and simple for most micro businesses.

A simple business plan should have three main sections

Business Plan Sections

1. Business Concept

Description of the product or service
Description of the industry
How to measure success

2. Marketing Plan

Potential customers
The competition
How will you be unique?

3. Financial Plan

Cost of your product or service
Price you will charge customers
Break even analysis

Starting a Micro Business will walk you through each of these sections and help you plan a successful micro business.

Visit MicroBusinessForTeens.com on Saturday, May 1, 2010 to order your copy of Starting a Micro Business.

For one week, May 3-10, 2010, I will be offering a special bundle package. For the price of the ebook , $9.95, you will also receive a copy of my Teens and Taxes: A Guide for Parents and Teenagers ebook and my audio Starting a Micro Business. This offer is only good for one week. It expires Monday May 10.

Carol Topp, CPA

http://MicroBusinessForTeens.com

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Vanessa’s Business Plan

Carol Topp, CPA — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:23:56 +0000

Vanessa Van Petten of Radical Parenting.com shares her business plan for her website and writing business. Her plan is pretty formal, but I like how she spells out in detail her business development ideas (at the end of her post).

My Business Plan and Mission Statement

by Vanessa Van Petten

I have talked about what it means to be an entrepreneur, the pros and cons of starting a business and why I decided to write a book, the next chapter in my Business Start-Up Kit book is about mission statements. I am in the process of becoming incorporated and trademarking my business name (my next post). While this is happening, I need to write my business plan. I have no idea how to do this, so, I did what I always do when I have no idea what I am doing:

1. Look-up business plan in Wikipedia:

“A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals”

2. Try to find free resource websites:

Oh, how I do love free templates, bplan.com has every kind of free business template you can imagine (including but not limited to: “template for tarot card reading business plan”…yes, seriously. There are 10 basic parts to any business plan, and I realized I would have to tackle them in steps with the tips included in the free template download:

Read the rest here.

Reading sample business plans can give you a ton of ideas for your micro business.

Carol Topp, CPA