They moved the chairs! What do we do? Creatures of habit we are! Well… I wasn’t late tonight and there was still seats beside Tammi! So, I took my place and was able to catch up a bit with Tanner (the Assistant Director) and Thaddeus (the Executive Director). I helped Tanner move the cold drinks from the cart to the table. (I felt a bit guilty, but there was Cherry Pepsi and I grabbed one early.)
Let’s get started:
Tonight, Tanner introduced the agenda for the program and discussed “pioneering your passion” – which means, “test drive your ideas by sitting down and WRITING”! He suggested doing this by:
- Come up with idea
- Accountability partner
- Prospects, customers
- Investors
After reviewing and sharing what we learned from working on our Business Model Canvas, we did recognize that no one had quit yet and went back to their day jobs! So we continued to cover these three pieces of business building:
- What’s a Pitch Deck? It’s a presentation to precisely describe your business and trigger discussion, usually done on slides and 10 minutes in length.
- Why a Business Plan? A business plan allows you to pivot, but to keep you on track.
- Why do you need an Exit Strategy? If you’re going to start, you need to know where you’ll end!
Tonight, I came away a bit overwhelmed with the process of the Business Model Canvas and the Business Plan. [ I’ll share that on Monday.] But, Tanner did say lots of GREAT things that inspired and motivated me! Here are a few of them:
- A business plan should not be a story book!
- If someone asks you about business, tell them about business! Learn to be comfortable and confident talking the language of business because conversations matter – “You are always one person short of a business conversation.” TC
- Business is – finding a problem, finding a solution and getting compensation for solving it.
- Business is about numbers. If I look at a business plan and don’t see numbers, I keep flipping the pages until I see numbers. A small business owner needs to know only have the numbers, but be ready to defend them.
- Understand your industry!! Make your product or service repeatable and scalable.
We also watched an impressive Pitch Deck presentation. At first, it looked a bit like we may have been watching Miami Vice, but it wasn’t. It was a StartUp Bootcamp pitch from Twoodo. And, again, Andrea Williams with Minnie Events and Catering Co. made our break time enjoyable with BBQ and coleslaw sandwiches this time!
It was a good night.
The Social Market LLC 