The Dread and Necessity of Doing a Business Plan

Currently the WOOband team is in the process of putting the final touches on our business plan. And let me tell you right now, there is about 0% fun in doing a business plan. It is a ton of work if you do it properly. It's page after page of endless web research. It's page after page of writing. It's page after page of editing and formatting. And the really fun part is when you change something in one section of the plan; it will affect almost every other section. It is truly a grueling process. But you know what? In the end, having a good plan is a necessity to running a successful business. It forces you to answer the really tough questions in detail. It builds you a living breathing roadmap to follow. And when things get tough in your business, you can target what was wrong with the plan and adjust accordingly.

The pitfalls of people who don't do plans is that they end up jotting down a few cool ideas, then decide who might buy them, figure out one or two really cool ways to reach the customer, and then say Price - Cost = (hopefully) Profit. Anyone can do that. And that is why so many businesses fail and usually fail after committing substantial amounts of money to the idea. Do you really understand the market you are going after or are you just assuming because you are the market that everyone behaves like you? Do you understand the markets buying behavior? How big the actual market is or could be? What about reaching that market (marketing)? Have others done it successfully before you? Do you have something unique to offer the potential customer? I could list question after question that needs to be answered before going forward and building a business. The fact is, you must have a plan or odds of success are highly against you.

Two things to understand:

1. I do believe that actions speak louder than words and that many people can build map after map and never actually take the journey. The same can be true of business planning. I'm not saying plan to death. But would you go on the football field without practicing and planning? Of course not! And hopefully you would put a decent amount of time into practicing and planning before going out on the field. The same should be done for your business.

2. There are exceptions to every rule. I know plenty of successful people who never had a formal business plan. But just think, what if they did have a plan? Could they have been even more successful? Give yourself an extra boost to being successful and build the plan; because trust me, when it comes to building a business you should take any boost you can get.

There are a ton of great resources out there for free that can give you an outline of what should be in a business plan. Just do a quick Google search of “business plans” and see what you get.

Write the plan. Know what you are selling; know who will buy it; know how you will convince them to buy; and most importantly know how your business will actually turn a profit. Once you do that, TAKE ACTION, TAKE MASSIVE ACTION!

Jarrod Schilling

Co-Founder/CEO – WOOband

Dream Big or Die Small

Reformed Broker Turned Entrepreneur

Texas Born, Florida Grown

Great Advice

Click Here to Read the Full Article

Addicted2Success.com offers advice from 20 unstoppable entrepreneurs.. here are some of my favorites for morning inspiration: 


“People tend to think that in order to start a new business they have to come up with something new and dazzling, but that’s a myth – and it’s often propagated by venture capitalists. Find something you love and do it better than everyone else.” –Gurbaksh Chahal – Serial Entrepreneur, Net Worth $200 Million

“There is only hard work and luck, which are really two sides of the same coin. The search for a secret sauce is a futile waste of time. Create something, sell it, make it better, sell it some more and then create something that obsoletes what you used to make.” – Guy Kawasaki – Venture Capitalist & Best Selling Author

“One thing we can all control is effort. Put in the time to become an expert in whatever you’re doing. It will give you an advantage because most people don’t do this. The beauty of success, whether it’s finding the girl of your dreams, the right job or financial success, is that it doesn’t matter how many times you have failed, you only have to be right once.” And, “then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.” – Mark Cuban- Billionaire Investor & Owner of the Dallas Mavericks


“Never stop asking yourself whether you can do things better. Keep testing every aspect of your business to the nth degree, and challenge every one of your assumptions. The tougher you are on yourself now, the tougher your business will be out there in the real world.” - James Caan - BBC’s “Dragons Den” Investor

WOOband getting a rebrand...

Leave comments and tell us what you think!

  

"Start small. Think big. But most importantly, do something."

Logo or No-go

WOOband has yet to find or create a logo that truly excites us and keeps our attention. Some people tell us logos aren't important, but in our minds a logo is how we make our first impression and a nice one builds credibility. As a startup, our logo is something we will have to carry with us everywhere from t-shirts to business cards to company banners to our first office. I think its important to find a logo we can get excited about and more importantly our customers will remember.

I reached out to the University of Tampa graphic design department to see if any students would be interested in trying to create a logo with the potential of being used on a real product. Wellah! Ask and you shall receive, a number of pretty talented students reached out to me saying that wanted to give it a try. 

Currently Lauren Smith & Lexa Donnelly  are scheming with me to create something (hopefully) awesome.

Being a designer of websites myself, I never realized how challenging working and communicating with a designer actually is. I look forward to seeing what they create and watching our visions come to life. 

Genius Is..

Inspiration: Check
Perspiration: In Progress

Making Moves

Today begins the construction of our newest and most exciting prototype. We have run into the issue in the past of two non-technical co-founders creating a wearable tech product. To test concept, we sourced our initial prototypes from China, just to see if people were really into the product before making a bigger investment.

But now its time to make bigger moves. We have partnered with the local engineers at the Florida Tech Toybox to build our product. They will be able to bring our vision to life - give us a fully working, reliable and customizable product.

About 8 months ago when we started all of this - we had no idea organizations like this existed. Countless conversations, networking events and word of mouth finally led us down the right path. We always say you have to be running around in as many thunderstorms as you can if you want to get struck by lightning. So thats what we do - run around as much as we can, meet as many people as possible and talk to everyone who will listen. It seems like lightning is finally striking us for the first time and everything is becoming very very real.

sOOcial Entrepreneurship

Since we began working on the WOOband, we knew our purpose was more than just keeping people attached to their phones. We have a much grander vision, one that impacts hundreds of thousands of people and improves the way they live their lives. In the back of our minds, we quietly considered giving the project a social spin, but we didn't quite know how or for what cause.

We have also always wanted WOOband to be a fashion statement, something people are proud to put on their wrist and show the world. A product people can get excited about. With our removable chip, we envisioned different band colors and styles for all occasions...4th of July patriotic band, music festival neon band, different colors for different outfits...

One day recently these two ideas came crashing together. We realized the additional colored bands could be linked to various causes. Causes our target market cares about, relates to and would be proud to support. This is the first way WOOband can really create a ripple, giving donations back to our society.

With this new social backing, came the decision that manufacturing will occur in the USA where hours, wages and quality can be regulated to US standards.

Passion is crucial in what we do. We wouldn't stay up all night working hard and dreaming of building this company if we didn't love and believe in what we do. Although this switch will increase our costs, I think it just makes both co-founders even more passionate and energized to take us to the next level.

Luckily for us, we are crazy enough to think know we can change the world.

A big move for Team WOOband.

Our Goal

"Be undeniably good."

The Elevator Pitch

Here is Jarrod Schillings famous elevator pitch from SEEC Tampa. He finished with just 2 seconds to spare!

Props to Jarrod... explaining a project you have been working on for the better part of a year in 90 seconds or less is not an easy task...I truly hope we get in an elevator with an investor sometime soon...

SEEC Tampa Adventures

In February we traveled to the Southeast Entrepreneurship Conference at the University of Tampa. We wanted to expand our network, get inspired and of course - pitch in their 90-second elevator pitch competition. We spent hours crafting our elevator pitch with the help of the UF Center for Entrepreneurship and Jarrod delivered with much precision. He took us through the initial round, the semi-finals and was able to pitch in the finals bringing WOOband to the top 5.

Here are some photos from our SEEC Tampa adventure.

We were able to get inspired by the hardworking entrepreneurs we met. The conference was a great lesson in humility as their were tons of entrepreneurs out there with great ideas and great minds. We saw our hard work pay off in real time getting to the finals and it only motivated us to work harder. 

Domain Games

Over the winter break Jarrod & I decided it was time to crack down and start generating some buzz about our product. Since similar products have been created, a patent isn't possible so their was no point in hiding our idea from the public. We realized we might be able to create some barrier to entry for competitors by being first to market and gaining some customer loyalty.

Since the beginning of our journey, we have talked to hundreds of people about our idea -- so we decided it was time to create a physical website. That way instead of just talking to people, we could gather contact info and give information to potential future customers & people who showed genuine interest in WOOband.

When I began building the site I ran into one major problem. www.wooband.com was TAKEN. Apparently there is a band called the WOO band. An actual band. Called the WOO band. Took our domain, and our twitter handle and all our SEO. Not to be dramatic, but we were a bit crushed... or maybe just confused.

Do we change our product name? Do we buy a .co or .me instead? Do we make a different website name and risk people going to the wrong site when looking for our product? We reached out to the band and tried to buy their domian but heard nothing.

The clock is always ticking at a startup, it always feels like the walls are crashing in and if you don't make your next decision progress will be halted. It always feels like their is someone else out there working when you aren't, so we never have time to waste.

In the end we settled for www.theWOOband.com ... It is my hope that customers will be able to remember the "the" in our domain when searching for our product. Or that when they type WOOband into google, our site will just come up.

It's always something in the world of startups...any challenge you don't plan for will emerge, but it's all part of the great adventure.

What is "WOO?"

Have you ever lost your phone and then found it? 
What's the first thing to come out of your mouth? Probably an excited WOO! Hense the name was born: WOOband. Woo to us is excitement, passion and the feeling you get from living your life to the fullest. 

Originally, our idea was to focus on the college student market, however we have been challenged to think bigger and get outside our comfort zone. The WOO allows us to target a broader audience but still keep a focus. Not just college students want to live their life to the fullest, their are people of all ages, from all walks of life with this mindset.

At first glance, the WOOband may simply seem like a device that keeps someone from misplacing their phone. When you delve deeper, I believe it's much more than that. WOOband is about staying connected to the world. Its about being in touch with the people you care about most and making sure you never miss moments. This phone loss wristband is only the beginning of where we will take the WOO. Our vision is to create many products that allow people to live life with a WOO.

What is the WOOblog?

Welcome to the WOOblog. This is blog is dedicated to documenting the trials and tribulations of Jarrod Schilling & Samantha Rosenbaum, the Co-Founders of WOOband as they attempt to bring their startups dreams from intangible idea to physical reality.

This blog will be honest and raw as we tell our story of struggles and successes throughout our startup journey. We look forward to having you along for the ride.

For all the other young entrepreneurs out there, we hope this blog will serve as a tool or an inspiration to you.

Never give up on your dreams, never take no for an answer.

- Team WOOband.