Modish Biz Tips

Monthly Goal Meetup- August

I seriously cannot believe it's the end of July already. Time for our monthly meet-up post already?!? But I didn't even have a chance to do a mid-month reminder, can we go back to mid-month? Please? ;)

I fared poorly on my goal completion last month, but this month has been even worse! Between traveling for a few days (to the Renegade SF show) to coming home sick to now buying a house (holy cow!) I haven't even had time to blog here as usual (notice all the nice guest posts that have been taking center stage?) let alone work on my goals, oi!

But this is not a day for excuses, right? This a day for acknowledging what hasn't been done yet, focusing on what needs to get done and making a plan to do it. So, let's do it.

Here's how I fared for July:

July Business Goals

1. Inbox zero! Email management would = a much (much much) happier life
   
2. Get consulting services list with pricing ready for clients
3. Make consulting page and banner for biztips
4. Announce consulting services on the blogs by end of July

Retail: Brick by Brick - Executive Summary

{Photo by Wowzzaa. Your business is all about balance.}

The last and final piece to complete the Business Plan Challenge is the Executive Summary. The Executive Summary is the last part of the Business Plan you will write, but is the very first part of the Plan that is read. It is similar to an introduction and gives an overview of the business concept and Business Plan.

Some Executive Summary pointers:
- Only one page in length
- Focus on the highlights and should attract attention to your business idea
- Be positive, don't give the reader any reason to question your idea
- Be creative
- Consider opening with a thought provoking question or statistic

Your Executive Summary must:
- Be clear about the name of your business, and what it does
- Highlight your market research and your business' competitive advantages
- Describe the skills and experience the owner has that adds to business' success
- Use Financial Projections. Describe sales and profits for first and second year
- Describe how much funding is required and the financing source

As you can see, with only one page to cover all this information, each topic must be addressed succinctly and only the most important information included.

There you have it! From here, you have all the information you need to write a Business Plan! If you've been working along with us, you are very close to completing your plan! Congrats!

Next time we'll answer any of your questions and discuss putting your plan all together.

Lili Nedved and Henry Sinha are opening a brick and mortar retail store in Vancouver, Canada. With lots experience staying up late and working on Lili’s handbag business, iglubu, Henry was recently promoted from an Electrical Engineer to Director of Fabric Organization. Lili hopes her Finance degree will give her the edge in the competition for Employee of the Month.

Giving it away for free: How to know when it's good for business

The following is a guest post by Meredith Keller

{photo by Staura. Feel like everyone just wants a free hand-out?}

How to Evaluate and Sample Request or Giveaway Sponsorship Request

You'll know your business is starting to grow when bloggers begin taking notice. There's nothing like a little publicity to introduce your brand to new customers. As your brand grows you're sure to begin getting requests from blogs that either want to review your products or give your products away in a contest to their readers.

Before you head to the post office with your valuable merchandise, you may want to ask yourself "what's in this for me?" On the face of it, the opportunity to get a blogger to review your products sounds good. The opportunity to sponsor a giveaway practically for free also sounds like a pretty good deal. All it's going to cost you is your product and postage. 

The trouble is saying yes to every request that comes in starts to cost money and you may never see any returns. That's why it's important to carefully evaluate every request for free products and make sure that before merchandise goes out the door, odds favor that there will be some return on your investment.

Not all blogs are created equal and unfortunately a lot of so-called bloggers are simply interested in free products and they really have nothing to offer you in return. So how can you tell the difference between a scam and a golden opportunity?

Retail: Brick by Brick- Balance Sheet

{Photo by flowers & machinery}

Another tool that a business owner can use to measure the success of their business is the Balance Sheet. The Balance Sheet is also the final financial projection required for the Business Plan Challenge! Like the Income Statement, the Balance Sheet is based on the Cash Flow Statement and presents the financial picture of a business in a different way.

As obvious as it may sound, the Balance Sheet is intended to show how "balanced" your business really is. Its based on a simple equation that you may have seen before:

Total Assets = Total Liabilities + Owner's Equity

What does this really mean? Well, an asset is anything with monetary value that is owned by the business. A Liability is a debt or obligation of the business. Owner's Equity is whatever value is left after the debts are paid. In short, after paying off the business' debt, the only value that remains for the owner is the balance of the assets. The three must balance.

We've found another template for you to use to create your Balance Sheet. You can download it here from SCORE. The template has 2 columns: Beginning and End.  We recommend amending your template to reflect the traditional 3 column format. The first column would be Opening or Day One of your business, then a column for the End of Year One, and finally the End of Year Two.

The template is very straight forward and the information comes from your Income Statement or Cash Flow Projections. One important note, when you complete your spreadsheet the Total Assets line must equal the Total Liabilities and Equity!

That is it for the Financial Statements! Next week we will talk about the Executive Summary and after that our Challenge and your Business Plan will be complete.

Lili Nedved and Henry Sinha are opening a brick and mortar retail store in Vancouver, Canada. With lots experience staying up late and working on Lili’s handbag business, iglubu, Henry was recently promoted from an Electrical Engineer to Director of Fabric Organization. Lili hopes her Finance degree will give her the edge in the competition for Employee of the Month.

Do What You Love: An interview with Wendy Downs of Moop

I'm so excited with our Do What You Love interview today! It's with a lady that I've been admiring for a few years now who I've featured on Modish many times in the past. The maker of the bags we all know and love, some of the most simply stylish and durable handmade bags on the market. It's Wendy Downs of Moop! Wendy just recently added her hubby Jeremy onto the Moop team full time, and now they're working together, around their daughters schedule, moving to a new city and trying to renovate a new home at the same time, to make Moop better than ever. Read on!

What do you do for a living?

We design and manufacture bags for men, women and children.

How long have you been self-employed? What made you decide to take the leap?

I started Moop about 2 1/2 years ago. For the first 6 months I worked my regular job as well to build things and reach a point that I could work on Moop full time. I was really unhappy at my job so it was easy to make the decision to leave it, but it was also a big risk. Moop was not making enough money to support us yet, but I was confident we would get there.

For two years, we worked tirelessly building the business (we still do this.) My husband is a university professor. One of our goals for this year was to have Moop in a place where Jeremy could join me full time... and we've just decided to make this leap.

In June we moved from Massachusetts to Pittsburgh to be closer to his family and to live in a city that we would be proud to have our business located in. We have BIG plans for the future and feel so fortunate to have such prospects ahead of us. Just as it was a risk for me to leave my job to work on Moop, the same is true for us now (i.e. a tenure track university position certainly offers a more comfortable security), but we are excited about the challenges and opportunities looking forward.

Do you work from home or have a studio/office elsewhere?

7 Ways to Get Your Shop Noticed by Etsy Admin

{The Watcher, photo by Alice Lily.}

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the three most high profile spots for sellers on Etsy.com are the Featured Seller, Front Page, and Gift Guides. These are high visibility parcels of Etsy real estate where you are guaranteed to get a few hundred views over the course of a very short time (and possibly a few hundred sales if you’re a Featured Seller.)

Though there is no guaranteed method of getting featured in one of these desirable spots, you can take some steps to improve your chances. What do all of these things have in common? They’re all curated by Etsy staff members (with the exception of the Front Page which is sometimes chosen by other Etsy members.)

To get exposure, you need to make your shop known to the taste-makers on the Etsy staff who are in the position to raise you to front page status. A spot in one of these curated sections means more eyes will see your work and potentially make a purchase, heart you or consider adding you to a Treasury. In the Etsy game, it’s all about raising the visibility of your shop, so listen up and I’ll tell you 7 ways to get the Etsy Admins to take note: