The most important step in becoming an entrepreneur is writing a business plan. The reason behind this is all aspects of the economic viability of your business adventure will need to be evaluated. After all, the whole idea is to make money! Until you jot down a business plan, there’s no way to know if your initial projections have any chance of becoming successes. In a nutshell, you won’t know your idea’s strengths and weakness.

By definition, a business plan is a formal statement of business goals, a step-by-step plan for reaching those goals, and reasons why they are believed to be attainable. Your business plan might also contain background information about the organization attempting to reach these goals. In addition, business plans can be written for anyone ranging from solo work-from-home entrepreneurs to brick-and-mortar corporations with hundreds of employees.

Depending on your needs, business plans can be written in four formats:

Elevator: A three minute summary of the business plan’s executive summary.

Oral: An oral narrative (usually combined with a visual presentation) that is meant to trigger discussion and draw interest from potential investors.

Written: A well-written plan targeted at external stakeholders.

Internal: A plan describing planning details that are needed for management or internal use only.

No matter the type of venture, a business plan should follow a basic structure:

• Cover Page / Table of Contents

• Executive Summary

• Management Summary

• Business Description

• Business Environment Analysis

•Market Analysis

• Marketing & Operations Plan

• Financial Plan

• Industry Background / Competitor Analysis

• Legal Concerns

At least in your start-up phase, avoid making unreasonable long-term (more than one year) projections. Too often, long-term planning becomes irrelevant because the reality of your business differs from your initial concept.

You can save time and interest on nearly every debt you have. The key is to make your money work smarter. The Money Merge LIVE program calculates some of the fastest ways to pay off your mortgage and consumer debt, and build a substantial savings nest egg based on your specific income, payments, living expenses and financial goals. You never have to guess which loans to pay off first, when to pay or how much extra to send.

Here are other features found in the software:

* Comprehensive Budgeting System
* Enhanced Calculations
* Set How Aggressively to Pay Down Debt & Build Wealth
* Pay Down Multiple Properties
* User Friendly Interface
* Financial Education & Coaching
* Toll Free Client Support

u1stfinancial.com/BillPeters 

Extreme amounts of procrastination can increase personal crisis levels and contribute to severe loss of productivity. Habitual procrastination can impede normal life functioning and could point to an undetected psychological disorder.

Some consider procrastination as a side product of today’s extremely busy schedules. Not necessarily true. In fact, most procrastinators know exactly how to manage their time to complete a project on schedule, but are incapable of coping with the anxiety associated with even getting started.

The medical opinion as to the exact psychological causes of procrastination vary greatly, but generally surround issues of low sense of self-worth and a maintaining a self-defeating mentality. Procrastinators are also thought to have a lower than normal level of conscientiousness based more on wishing they could reach perfection rather than a realistic appreciation of their actual obligations.

Due to the social stigma and profound misunderstanding surrounding extreme forms of procrastination, many with this condition suffer in silence and have great difficulty in ,understanding, seeking help or finding an understanding source of support.

Writing a speech is really not much more difficult than composing a well-written letter to a business partner. But, there are a few rules of the road that must be followed. For example, don’t use words that you are uncomfortable pronouncing or that you don’t normally use in your business dialect.

Next, you must realize that the way people write is somewhat different than the way they speak. After writing your speech, repeat it aloud in front of a mirror to see if the delivery is on track. If you’re given a specific timeline, such as five minutes, use 150 (wpm) words per minute as your guide.

This means that a five minute speech should cover somewhere in the neighborhood of 750 words. In contrast, the average adult reader can cover 250–350 wpm. Also, don’t read your speech’s contents all in one breath. Look for natural breaks to breathe and glance at your audience.

In the digital world, e-mail is probably the easiest way to communicate to a mass group but it is also the easiest way to not get a response. In fact, e-mail is the greatest obstacle to good communication because many senders assume that communication has taken place simply by clicking the “send” button.

As the receiver of a message you have four responsibilities to the sender: read, interpret, evaluate and respond. Although responding to every single e-mail message is totally unnecessary and professionally cumbersome, evaluate each message individually and then decide if it warrants a response.

As UFirst NOW Agents, think about what you’re trying to convey before sending an e-mail. If sending details about an upcoming training session, ensure you have included all the associated information and a way for the recipients to respond with questions, comments and suggestions.

For some messages, follow-up phone calls, texting, face-to-face meetings, and other forms of communication might be necessary to ensure your team is … well, communicating.

We don’t mean you need to stay up late using an old typewriter to write the latest mystery novel. The co-founders of UFirst NOW have done all the work for you. They’ve taken their years of financial experience and combined it into a book titled “Money Momentum – Achieving 20/20 Financial Foresight.”

Using “Money Momentum” while prospecting can bring you instant VIP status. There is nothing like a book to say “Everything I’ve told you has just been confirmed.” Your sales and marketing efforts can be punctuated with “ … authors of the book …” Once your clients see or hear those words, they’ll know they’re dealing with the pros.

Whether they read the entire book or if you’ve dog-eared a chapter for them to review, your client’s objections will be reduced. Plus, you’ll have what all entrepreneurs are looking for: credibility.