Billionaires From the Frozen North
Any annual listing of the world’s richest people invariably conjures up many of the same names from one year to the next.  Yes, Warren Buffet is on there, and so is Bill Gates.  Ho hum.  But the average American-centric observer usually fails to recognize the wealth and entrepreneurial spirit that continues to thrive in our Neighbor to the North - Canada.  That country has its share of wealthy people, and successful people, and successfully wealthy people.  And even though the recent economic downturn has had some negative effects on those Billionaire Balance Sheets - comparing 2009 to 2008, the world’s billionaires shed approximately $2 trillion in asset valuation - none of these people is expected to show up in a bread line anytime soon.  According to Forbes, the magazine nearly everyone reads when it comes to exploring entrepreneurs and their successes, here are the ten richest Canadians for 2009, along with a brief description as to how they got there in the first place.  Unless otherwise noted, all figures are [not ironically] in U.S. dollars.

1. David Thomson and family ($13.0 billion); media conglomerate
Thomson is the grandson of Roy Thomson, who founded Thomson Corp. in 1934.  The company began as a book publisher, and today it continues to be one of the world’s prominent providers of textbooks for higher education.  But the corporation really took off once it got involved in electronic media and information technology, dominating such sectors as healthcare, financial services, law, and science.  The company acquired the Reuters news service in 2007 and is now formally known as Thomson Reuters.

2.

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What Is an Entrepreneur?
The conventional definition of “entrepreneur” goes something like this: “A person who innovates while taking a risk in developing a product, service, or business.”  Another definition, a bit less precise but equally effective: “Someone who identifies an opportunity and creates a means to pursue it.”  Either way you look at it, the concept of entrepreneurship encompasses several traits.  Entrepreneurs want to create something of their own to bolster their feeling of personal achievement, and they do so with the knowledge that risk can sometimes equal failure.  For the new entrepreneur, he or she should concentrate on minimizing risk while maximizing opportunity.  How is this done?  The best way for new entrepreneurs to succeed is by following the life lessons laid out by those who have gone before.

Are You a New Business Entrepreneur?
Running your own business imparts great responsibility.  You will have employees who rely on you to provide a stable work environment.  You will have customers who expect you to deliver exactly as promised.  Suppliers want to be paid on time, and investors look to you as a source of profit for the money they have put into your company.  The successful entrepreneur takes calculated risks, not crazy ones.  By following the fifteen lessons below, you will have a leg up on the competition.

Fifteen Dynamic New Entrepreneur Ideas

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Personalities and Entrepreneurship
As any business owner knows, it takes a certain type of person to operate a successful business.  But did you know that experts have identified as many as nine different kinds of personalities that apply to entrepreneurship?  By looking at any list of entrepreneurs - business owners who have built successful companies from scratch - you can match at least one of the following traits to each of them.

Nine Types of Entrepreneurs
By knowing which kind of an entrepreneur you are, you will find greater success by knowing what kind of business you should operate.

1. The Developer
Your intention to run your own company involves using it as a means for improving the planet, helping humanity, or simply making life easier for the general populace.  This field runs the gamut from healthcare to creating new personal products (healthier food or a soothing body spray), and it is your belief that morally upstanding companies will reap great rewards for working on worthwhile causes.

2. The Advisor
By offering a high level of customer service in the form of outstanding assistance and advice, no matter what kind of product or service you sell, you will satisfy people’s need and build a great company.  Any business founded by this type of personality invariably ends up as a customer-focused enterprise.

3. The Magnetic Personality
Individuals with immense levels of high energy and charisma have the ability to attract equally committed workers who help them build important businesses.  Although there is a “workaholic” element to this type that can be detrimental if left unchecked, some of the world’s greatest companies have been founded by superstar entrepreneurs.

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What is the SBA?

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is a federal agency, created in 1953, responsible for assisting and protecting the interests of American small business.  The agency operates through a series of field offices around the country - as well as in partnership with public and private organizations - to offer such things as technical assistance (how to do business overseas; how to teach your workers new skills), contracting assistance (how to bid on government jobs), and other areas of importance to small business owners.  These might include recovering from natural disasters, complying with civil rights laws, or helping young entrepreneurs get a business off the ground.  But the main reason most people approach this agency is to obtain an SBA business loan - either as start-up funding or for financial assistance to expand an existing business.

What Are SBA Loans?

With no sense of irony whatsoever, it is not possible to obtain an SBA business loan unless you have been rejected in your application for a conventional loan.  In order to keep this government agency from unfairly competing with commercial lending institutions - banks, credit unions, and so on - the law states that the SBA may not guarantee a loan if the customer can secure one “on reasonable terms” from some private source.  There are a number of different types of SBA loans available to the business owner, depending upon the size of the loan, the use to which it will be put, and other factors.  Here are some examples:

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Americans are obsessed with Top Ten lists as well as with money.  What better way to satisfy their cravings than to combine the two?  While fortunes may rise and fall from one year to the next, the list of the ten richest Americans—as measured by Forbes magazine—has remained fairly stable for quite some time.  No matter what sort of business may have caused them to reach this state of extreme financial well being—technology, retail sales, manufacturing, or energy—the common denominator is entrepreneurship.  Other than inheriting money from your relatives, there is no better way to accumulate personal wealth than by starting a business, making it successful, and watching it grow beyond all expectations.  Here are the rankings for 2009:

1) Bill Gates — $40.0 billion
As one of the founders of the personal computer age, the Gates story has been retold so many times that it has almost become a cliché.  At the age of thirteen he was already programming computers, and he continued his interest in technology while a student at Harvard.  Before this, most computers were mainframe dinosaurs whose memory banks took up entire rooms.  Prior to graduation, Gates left college to found Microsoft along with Paul Allen (who was on the Top Ten list as recently as 2006), which eventually struck a terrific deal with IBM.  Gates convinced the computer giant to allow him to keep the licensing rights for the MS-DOS operating system Microsoft had designed to run IBM’s first foray into personal computing.  Every PC loaded with MS-DOS—in other words, every PC on the market—put a licensing fee into the Gates coffers.  This generated millions of dollars a year for the company and its owners.  Once the Windows operating system came to the market, the riches poured in at an even faster rate.

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The number of resources available to help write a business plan is virtually infinite.  With the aim of narrowing down the list to a helpful few, here are a few of my favorites:

Business Plan Website

The Small Business Administration (SBA) at www.sba.gov.  The specific link for business plans is:

www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/plan/writeabusinessplan/index.html.

Business Plan Book

My favorite book is The Business Planning Guide by David H. Bangs, Jr.  It explains each part of a business plan in clear, concise language without too much jargon.  Examples can be found throughout.

In-Person Assistance

These wonderful organizations offer literature, seminars, workshops and consulting services at little or no cost:

• SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives):  www.score.org

• SBDCs (Small Business Development Centers):  www.sba.gov/sbdc

Legal Issues

Nolo Press (www.nolo.com) is the resource for legal information for consumers and small businesses.  Their legal self-help publications address a wide variety of topics, and can be purchased online or found in local bookstores and libraries.  More importantly, their information is trustworthy and easy to understand.  Topics include patents, trademarks as well as how to decide on the best legal entity for your company (LLC, incorporate, etc.).

Creative Financing

In their own words, “Prosper (www.prosper.com) enables borrowers to request loans of up to $25,000 by posting listings indicating the amount they want to borrow and the maximum interest rate they wish to pay.  In other words, people who need money request it, and other people bid for the privilege of lending it to them.”

Venture Capital Due Diligence

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Attracting an investor is like attracting a mate—you want to pique the investor’s interest without showing all your cards at the outset.  The perfect vehicle for achieving this delicate balance is the Executive Summary.

The goal of an Executive Summary is to whet the appetite of the investor by presenting a compelling premise, an irresistible hook.  Your short (5 pages or less) document is meant to give a potential investor every reason to say “yes” and little reason to say “no” to a face-to-face meeting.

While it’s typically included as part of the business plan, the Executive Summary should ideally function as a stand-alone document.  Its function is to build enough interest to get you meetings with potential investors.  Once you’re at the meeting, then you can dazzle them with your presentation and ready answers.  Ideally your Executive Summary should include the following 10 ingredients:

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Okay, you’re finally writing your business plan.  But will it help you secure the funding you need?  Will it be your road map to success—helping you to build a successful business?

Most entrepreneurs write their business plans with one goal in mind:  to raise money.  Even so, a business plan is a double-edged sword.  While it allows you to introduce and sell your business to the reader, it also gives the reader the opportunity to say “No, thanks.”

Don’t blow your big chance.   Now more than ever, you only get one chance to make a good first impression.  Below are 7 mistakes to avoid—7 sure-fire ways to shoot yourself in the foot.

Note:  If you are writing your business plan for the purpose of developing an operating blueprint, it is just as important that you avoid these 7  mistakes.

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