11.29.06
Business Plan Help
If you are trying to develop a business plan, then libraries are a great place to start this process. To get you started you can browse through the library’s collection of resources – lots have sample business plans. Many financial institutions provide advice for the entrepreneur looking to start a business. For example the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) provides business plan templates that can be used in MS Word and Excel, as well as sample plans. Similarly the Royal Bank has a Business Planning Guide that includes a step-by-step procedure for creating a business plan, along with examples of completed plans. Don’t forget about all of the services that government offers to business startups. The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) has an online document, Planning for Success – Your Guide to Preparing a Business Plan, that covers the key elements of a business plan – this is also available at your campus’ library. If you like online tools, then you may want to use the Interactive Business Planner. It is a free service from the Government of Canada and you need to register to use it. Registering allows you to create, store, print, download, etc. your business plan using the web.
Gale’s Business Plans Handbook is available online – all 11 volumes!! – and can be browsed or searched. Entrepreneur.com provides a number of startup kits for a variety of business senarios – from starting a child care service to opening a restaurant to starting a retail business and more.
Finally, don’t forget our very own “Best of the Web” guide for Business. It’s a great place to get your business started. Visit your local library to get help locating demographic information, finding out about your competition, using databases to dig for data, and more.
11.10.06
How has the Internet changed retail buying patterns?
An item in today’s (November 10th) Stats Can Daily, Our lives in digital times, notes that while private sector Internet sales have quadrupled between 2001 and 2004, those sales still only account for 1% of total retail sales. Meanwhile, the number of retailers, retail space and retail employment have all increased.
So how deep an impact has e-commerce actually made in our consumer society? Has the Internet changed the way we do business? And what do the theories of bestselling authors Chris Anderson (The long tail) and Robert Scoble and Shel Israel (Naked conversations) add to the argument? In brief, Anderson says that the future of e-commerce lies in selling more of the product backlist (not just a few blockbuster items), and that the Internet demonstrates the value of this type of commerce. Scoble and Israel, on the other hand, argue that blogs, and the phenomenon of Internet word of mouth and customer feedback, will forever change the way we do (online and other) business. (Both books are available in Holland College libraries, by the way).
What do you think?
