Business Plannig

Businesses do not open from one day to the other, and decisions are not made from one week to the other. It takes a long time to open a business; it can take months, even years to make the idea a reality. Entrepreneurs might hire a person to do research, the first step in opening a business, to know what competition, what type of customers, what environment, what risks and benefits are there among other type of research. When planning a business the owner has to apply the four P’s of marketing in order to research the segmented target market that lives around, if the product is a want and need of these future customers, the price they are willing to pay, and the ways the product will be promoted in a certain place.

After the research it is time to put everything on paper, this helps the owner to visualize and have a written idea and goal for the business. A Business Plan is a planning of a business. As simple as it may sound it is a lot of work and dedication. This is the bottom line of the starting point for a business, and as buildings, the base has to be well structured to stand high. A business plan will also provide support to ask a bank for a loan. Now a day, there are many opportunities for entrepreneurs, but not all are able to survive after a year, planning for a business is more than planning for a project, because many risks are involved.

Bank of America

Working for Bank of America has always been one of my goals since I was a little girl. I have always wanted to work in an area dealing with business and money. It has always been and interest to me, because Bank of America provides a service where customers ask for financial support for their businesses or simply take care of their accounts, and what a better place than a bank where you are handling business matters and financial accounts while providing customer service.

            BofA Chief Executive, Mr. Moynihan, has planned a strategy to resist the clampdowns, “by squeezing more out of what it has.” His new, hard working vision involves cross-selling to customers, companies, and investors. His plan is divided in three parts: sell, reshape, and invest.  An “appropriate operating model” will be very helpful for the company. Every company needs to learn how to invest and take risks in strategies and productivity, so that, in the long run, it will have a return in assets and/or profit to the company.

Retrieved from BofA Chief Shares His Vision, Finally.

"BofA Chief Shares His Vision, Finally. " Wall Street Journal (Online) 14 Sep. 2010, Wall

Street Journal, ProQuest. Web.  27 Sep. 2010.

Marketing

Marketing is the production, promotion, and distribution of a product to satisfy customers’ wants and needs. This is the base line of marketing, where the 4Ps of marketing come in place. The first thing before going in to the business world is to research everything from the costs of production, competition. A product is created based on a target group; a product for women, men, youth, seniors, skaters, preps, etc. The price of a product is set based on competing prices, and financial analysis. The fourth P is place (distribution) this includes the location where the product will be sold. Research done before will be very helpful when deciding the locations of the business.

               Marketing is mainly about getting the product out in the market and selling it. Promotion is very important in marketing because this is what will be attracting the target customers. How will a business advertise and sell its product? Promotion is publicizing and advertising the product with the goal of selling it. A promotional plan has four elements: personal selling, advertising, publicity, and sales promotion. Communication is part of marketing promotion; it is how the business will communicate with the customer to convince them that their product will satisfy their wants and needs.

Finance

Finance is no simple math, financing for a business starts with the acknowledgment that a person starting a business will need financial support. There are different ways of collecting the money such as 1) Personal Capital, how much the owner will give, 2) Friend and Family, or 3) Bank loans, the most common ones. After deciding to apply for a loan, the next step is to prepare a loan request proposal, where specifications of the financial statements, purpose of the loan, amount, time of payback, and supporting documents among other things are explained under the loan request proposal. Certain loans apply to certain small businesses; some bank loans may not apply to all businesses. These loans can be applied to a business’s financial support when purchasing a business, equipment, paying debts, etc.

Accounting and finance go hand-on-hand, because finance is the analysis of a business’s money, while accounting is the actual numbers. Accounting is very important because based on its calculations, an entrepreneur makes business decisions. Bookkeeping is one of the ‘tabs’ which means having accurate records of a business, financial statements, spreadsheets with the expenses, cash flow, income, etc. over some time these records will show the company’s assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, expenses, and most importantly if there is a profit or loss. Accounting and Finance are the strong base pillars that a company must have well structured.

College so Far

Time sure passes by pretty quickly, this was already our third week in school! College is definitely very different from High School, here we have more freedom, but at the same time more responsibilities. We are responsible for learning some of the material by reading the lectures, knowing when the next assignment is due, when we have a quiz or a test that we have to be prepared for, as well as for having all the materials necessary. Teachers here do not provide you with scantrons or pencils, you have to go and buy them yourself.
As far as in experience, it has been alright for me, I am still trying to adjust to the change. I still miss high school because it was a little simpler and I would see my friends more often. Now, we only worry about ourselves, if we have to do homework, or running late to class. This goes back to what I was saying about responsibility, no teacher or friend will tell you what to do. It has not been bad so far, I like my classes and teachers, sure classes are bigger and there might be less interaction with some teachers, but with the groups I have created a closer environment in the class.
My goal for all my classes is to maintain more of an A average than B, definitely attend all of the classes, keep up with assignments and readings, and always try my best in everything that I do! I know there will be some but along the road, but I just have to be strong and ready for those obstacles in life.

“Business Management”

After watching the videos on SBA (www.sba.gov), I became more aware and conscience about different things that a person has to do before opening a business. There is a long list of questions that we have to ask ourselves about our future business such as: what type of business you want to open, its potential, its organization, its outreach, global or local, loans, payments, communication, and the list goes on and on.

These online training videos are very helpful, because it tells you in simple, but detailed slides what is necessary to make your business global, the technology needed, if you want to open your own business or a franchise. One of the most important things for a successful business is the Business Plan; this is the hard copy structure of the business everything is in here. It is important to know how to deal with international and global businesses, your buyers, payment transactions. Another important tip that they provide in one of the videos is crime protection. Now a day there are many ways to be secured with the help of technology such as cameras, censors, firewalls, among others.

These videos did not really provide much information about business management, or what I was expecting, but it sure gives many interesting tips, questions, information and help to those interested in opening a business.

"Who moved my cheese?"

As in right now, I can apply this to my life in my transition from high school to college. This is definitely a whole new thing and experience, a big step in life. I will have to adapt to a change that, I believe, I was not ready for.  During the summer I had a difficult situation that made my transition even more difficult, confusing, and terrifying.  I found out that I was not going to be able to attend the college of my choice, and I had two options after that, option one: work through a semester and apply to other school during that time, or option two: attend UTEP. I knew I didn’t want to fall behind so I decided to go with option two.

I did not submit all my papers to UTEP, I had only done the application, and I had been accepted, but that’s where I had stopped because I thought I was going to leave out of town. I began to move as quickly as I could to find out about registration, my financial aid, scholarships, classes workshops, and everything else I needed before it was too late. I did this all by myself; no one told me where to go or who to call. This was when I knew that the cheese was not going to come to me; I had to go in the maze and look for that cheese myself. It was somewhat tiring going back and forth, making calls all day, leaving messages, getting transferred from one office to the other especially when I didn’t have a lot of time left.

I was very fortunate to get everything in order on time, but know I know that in college you have to be aware and  look for your way through the maze by yourself, because no teacher or counselor will be over your shoulder telling you what to do and where to go.