Three Important Websites for Business Planning, Back Log Full Sail discussion board post

From (http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/tips) can many great ideas. One of those ideas is to stay informed. In this sense, there are two types of information. The first being the information you need in order to run a business (i.e. laws, tax breaks, new laws, etc.). The second type is development (i.e. market news, new markets, and tech, etc.)

What are some other types of information available on these sites that may be helpful?

From (http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/tips) can many great ideas. One of those ideas is to stay informed. In this sense, there are two types of information. The first being the information you need in order to run a business (i.e. laws, tax breaks, new laws, etc.). The second type is development (i.e. market news, new markets, and tech, etc. In this sense, http://www.sba.gov/, leans more to information about how to fund a business and what legal laws effect taxes and registration.

Although it has many articles on starting business similar to SBA; Inc.com on the other hand, helps with more of the general information to news that effects business in relation to tech; moreover, it give articles that show what investors and markets are thinking as far as trends. Here, I can also find how to pitch to angle investors or venture capitalists.

http://www.nvca.org/, on the other hand, focuses more on venture capitalism and new and trends that effect larger scale businesses. Even a small business would benefit more from this site when it is consider seeking larger investors for a larger operation. Upon my searches, I did not find “Angel Investors”. This would be a third stop after viewing SBA and Inc.com and having gathered enough rescores for VCs to take a plan seriously.   

How might the information on these sites help you in obtaining financing for your business?

The idea is that these three sites should be treated in an order. SBA, Inc.com, then NVCA because it makes the most logical sense. The SBA would be what you would need to get the basis of what laws and grants could help you. One should also research the city, count, and state grants that link to the SBA as mention in previous classes. Inc.com is a great for “How to articles”, but I find other news sites like This Week in Start-Ups and other site can help spot trends. Still Inc.com can help shape how a person uses news to their advantage by showing how to structure it into a plan. Finally, after both the SBA, INC, and initial resources from additional sources like Angle Investors, NVCA is the last stop to convince adventure capitalists to move forwards with additional resources.

http://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/starting-managing-business/starting-business/loans-grants-funding/finding-loans-grants

http://www.inc.com/financing-a-small-business

http://www.nvca.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=330&Itemid=582

Blog 2 Assignment for BPD

Blog 2 Assignment for BPD

Here’s a link to blog 1…

Full Sail Instructor Steven Burhoe has comprised an great list of investors comparing their like and dislikes when it comes to business plans on his blog http://bpexpertviews.blogspot.com/.


Questions for this assignment…
1.)Describe how you intend to incorporate what you have learned from your own research on the experts profiled in the first posting into your own plan. What specific changes to your plan have you made based on the information provided by the experts.

2.)Which sections of your plan do you consider to be the most important to the investor reading your plan?


Answer for 1
I think the biggest thing we can learn from the Johnny Cupcakes' story is do not undersell a way to make money (http://shop.johnnycupcakes.com/story/). Of course, he had a band he was touring with, but in any case selling shirts out of a van doesn’t sound like the most common way to break in for aspiring fashion designers.


Moreover when considering Guy Kawasaki’s “focus on making meaning not money” and his related blogs, we can see that what sold Jonny Cupcakes was not simply t-shirts, but the idea that t-shirts meant something. (http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/04/the_art_of_the_.html#ixzz1R6nwHMBi)
For Johnny Cupcake’s that meaning may simply be categorized as form of expression.

“Our society relies on fashion as a form of expression; this is why designer clothing is so popular nowadays.”_Nigel M.

(http://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/2/153/designer-clothing-makes-you-look-and-feel-confident1.asp)

In this sense, Johnny Cupcake took advantage of a normal trend, people want to express them selves. This being a need of a large demographic lead to sales. If the focus had been on money instead, I don’t think the brand itself would be as popular as it is today.

Expression is the base for all things related to art. To understand this is to understand why people buy art. Because of the Internet, “Art” is the easiest to disturb and build leads on. The Johnny Cupcake story will always leave me with this moral, “start small go big.




Answer for 2...

Well when I was fortunate to split a Cab with an entrepreneur from www.avantibp.com, I talked to about a month ago, stressed the importance of a SWOT analysis. Interested in what we were doing, he wanted to know more about the business. However, without a solid SWOT, we could not further the relationship. On the other hand, it showed having a SWOT ready at all times is more important than having a business card because it can send a clear message of what your trying to do and get you funding.

If not a SWOT, you should have at least a 3-4 page skeleton showing what your start-up can do and what you have to offer. In this sense, you can show off the idea, but not all the parts of the plan for someone else to just take.

The most important thing for our angel investor is the financials. In our initial talks it’s not how much, but more how will it be spent.

My Full Sail Discussion Board for 12082010

The blog I decided to cover from Ries is “How Left-Brain Management got us into this Recession”. The article is interesting because it explains five concepts that businesses did not adhered to that caused issues with their branding and led to poor sales.

1. Management is focused on reality, when the real problem is perception.

2. Management is focused on expansion when the real opportunity is contraction.

3. Management demands "better" products when the real opportunity is "different" products.

4. Management expects rapid growth when the real opportunity lies in the opposite direction.

5. Management values "creativity" when the real opportunity lies in "credentials."

After reading the blog, I wanted to take a look at Mascots and how they adhere to these five concepts in relation to Law 8 The law of the category . We should also consider the mascot as part of our branding. A Mascot can be anything related to a cartoon or a rapper. Mascots, but logos silently speak for our brand. For example, GEICO’s Gecko speaks on behalf of the company better than their logo itself.



Law 8 The law of the category ­ a leading brand should promote the product or service category, not the brand

Disney helped create the category Family Entertainment with the lunched of cartoons such as Mickey Mouse. As the Reis (2002) suggests McDonalds entering this category was beneficial commercially for McDonalds at the same time helped developed the category as part of US and eventual Global culture (Schlosser,2002).

However, Disney comparatively started to lose its ability to make smart decisions because it’s leaders didn’t know wither to pursue new types of products and service or develop products and services that reflected it’s past successes. Mickey Mouse for example represents the times that founder Walt Disney took his brand to a new national level (History of Disney). Walt designed a mascot to represent his company that took elements from the current culture and market trends. The animated shorts that Mickey Mouse stared in

Although Mickey’s character design had changed throughout the years to reflect popular trends, Mickey started to loose it’s simple lovable roots. New forms of Family Entertainment from companies such as Pixar, developed new modern characters that represented a new category of family film, Digital Animation. A new question now faced Mickey could he contend in the category of modern digital entertainment?

1. Management is focused on reality, when the real problem is perception.

It seems that Disney’s leader’s considered that Mickey by himself was not sellable because the reality is the Mickey Mouse Franchise may not be something that the general public would buy. If this was the case, the problem was not the public but the public perception. This would mean that Mickey had to be repackaged; in turn, Disney would have to rebrand itself because Mickey represented so much of the Disney’s brand.

3. Management demands "better" products when the real opportunity is "different" products.

Mickey Mouse would venture into Japanese Video games with Square Enix called Kingdom Hearts. The game did more for Disney because it showed that Disney’s worlds and History could be made interesting for Video gamers. Of course Mickey Mouse had been in video game before, but with the imposed corporate ideas on developers, no one real had the creative freedom to rebrand Mickey for Digital Entrainment.

Rebranding Mickey Mouse to be Epic. Epic Mickey is now attempt to make a new Disney product that represents their ability to adapt the old for today’s markets. It’s based on the success of Kingdom Heart observably because it has element from Kingdom Hearts, so it’s safe to assume they want to keep that market from Kingdom Hearts.



Disney is attempting to rebrand again. Epic Mickey represents the Disney Brand trying to sell Mickey Mouse in today’s market. However, Mickey Mouse may not be more than a mascot. Because when Christmas comes, the sales of Epic Mickey will demonstrate if Disney can successfully rebrand itself in the market place.



What we can learn from this is how a brand represents the time it comes from?

How mascots represent the company’s brand, and its history?

How issues in effective decision making affect a company’s ability to effectively represent its brand and products?


Ries, Luara (2009, March 6) How Left-Brain Management got us into this Recession
Retrieved from http://ries.typepad.com/ries_blog/2009/03/how-leftbrain-management-got-us-into-this-recession.html

Ries, Al., and Laura Ries. The 22 immutable laws of branding: how to build a product or service into a world-class brand. 1. ed. New York: Harperbusiness, 2002. Print.