Business Plan Development

1. Business Plan Development • “Individuals must, and can, now ask: where do I fit into the global competition and opportunities of the day, and how can I, on my own, collaborate with others globally?”

2. Play Big

3. What Leads People To Start New Ventures? • Trait Perspective • The View of Nature: entrepreneurs born, not bred • The search for a set of stable personality characteristics that distinguish entrepreneurs from other persons, • Cognitive Perspective • The View of Nurture: entrepreneurs may be born, but they can also be bred given prevailing circumstances • Focus shifts to what the entrepreneur does, not who the entrepreneur is

4. Key Traits of Entrepreneurs • Neuroticism • The compulsive focus on day-to-day details • Conscientiousness • The inclination to plan for the future • Agreeableness • The willingness and capacity to build external social networks • Extroversion • The basis of initiating and sustaining social network-building • Openness • The value that new ideas are crucial to spur the leap into creating a new venture

5. Key Features of New Ventures: Most Likely to Survive • A College-Educated Owner • Education gives an entrepreneur more ingenuity and resources to keep a business going • education is the key predictor of business formation--people with more education are more likely to start a business • Capital Reserves • Many companies fail because founders don't start with enough to cover expenses while they build revenue. • Bricks and Mortar Platform: 50,000 • Web Platform: 2,500 to 10,000 • Home-Based • Companies begun at home engage lower start-up costs • Creates the economics to keep a struggling business going longer. • Global Consciousness • The Department of Commerce estimates the number of small companies that export tripled between 1995 and 2005, and small-business experts expect the trend to continue. • Personality • Certain principles of personality seem endemic to succeed, from high discipline, intuitive sense, ability to deal with connections, and capacity to learn from mistakes

6. Play Big • Historically, in GP2, big companies had access to more capital, diverse markets, better systems, and economies of scale. • Small exporters had to make do with shoestring budgets, getting by with whatever they could afford. • Now, in GP3, improving technologies create solutions and platforms that blur distinction between the big company and the small company. • The no-name, one-person exporter down the street from you, because of big name tools has many of the capabilities commanded by a large MNE. • Ever improving tech tools let SMEs play big, jumping hurdles to capture the opportunities of international trade. • Observed the CEO of China Manufacturing, “Our customers can’t really tell how big we are. In a way, it’s irrelevant. What matters is that we can get the job done.” • Blazona* , South West Trading

7. Play Big Play Globally Play Virtually Play Together Play Lean ----- One can then… Play Fast Play Flexibly Play Differently

8. Play Globally Mission to provide a global trading platform where practically anyone anywhere can trade practically anything anytime. • Born Global: A small business that compete internationally from its earliest stages. Typically, only a few employees and resources and a shoestring budget comprise the company. • Identify a platform to gain market development and access

9. Play Virtually • Web design, Web analytics, web platforms, etc. are increasingly more capable and less expensive. • GOOGLE Apps • functions like a company's internal computer network. • Businesses can run basic office functions, such as document and calendar sharing among employees, Web-site hosting, online voice chatting, email and instant messaging via Google on the Web. • For instance, multiple people can be working on the same document or spreadsheet simultaneously, eliminating the need to email revisions back and forth. • This traffic tracker provides an array of data; interfaces with Google AdWords. • Microsoft Office Live Web-hosted suite of services (www.office.microsoft.com/officelive)

10. Play Together • Outsourcing activities and coordinating relationships worldwide given that overseas your company has no locations or consultants abroad, • Web design, web analytics, web platforms, web scripts etc. are increasingly more capable and less expensive. • IT setups, offshore vendor gateways, and collaborative software to work with employees and contractors anywhere around the world. Collaboration and Organization Platforms • VOIP : A digital network that can be upgrade and used for multiple purposes • ELANCE: Leading edge person to person business outsourcing/off shoring function • NETSUITE: A Web-based enterprise program that requires no expensive servers. netsuite.com • CITRIX: Offers GoToAssist, designed for technical support staff, allowing them to access - and make changes to - an employee's or customer's computer. • GROOVE NETWORKS: Provides an asynchronous collaboration program that allows multiple employees in multiple locations to work on the same document, with all changes saved on a master copy. Acquired by Microsoft. • WEBEX: Allows employees in remote locations to share computer documents and make alterations in real time. • Microsoft Office Live Web-hosted suite of services

12. Play Lean • Logistics: 3PL; 4PL* • Firm that provides outsourced or "third party" logistics services to companies for part, or sometimes all of their supply chain management function requirements for their products and materials • 3PL providers figure out a custom solution for each customer Solutions • FEDEX: Offers new program to let entrepreneurs store high-demand parts at FedEx Kinko's. • UPS SUPPLY CHAIN SOLUTIONS: Aggressive in courting small business;, mainly uses its own fleet of mobility to expedite shipping • Many more.

13. Play Big Play Globally Play Virtually Play Together Play Lean ----- One can then… Play Fast Play Flexibly Play Differently