Calculated Risk:  A risk that has been given thoughtful consideration and for which the potential costs and potential benefits have been weighed and considered. Dedication:  Selfless devotion to a purpose, cause or project. Feedback:  A reaction or response to a particular process or activity. Perseverance:  Steadily pursuing a course of action or a purpose in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement. Reward:  Benefit resulting from some event or action. Risk:  Exposure to a chance of loss or damage.

1. Calculated Risks
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Definitions:
Calculated Risk:
 A risk that has been given thoughtful consideration and for which the
potential costs and potential benefits have been weighed and
considered.
Dedication:
 Selfless devotion to a purpose, cause or project.
Feedback:
 A reaction or response to a particular process or activity.
Perseverance:
 Steadily pursuing a course of action or a purpose in spite of difficulties,
obstacles, or discouragement.
Reward:
 Benefit resulting from some event or action.
Risk:
 Exposure to a chance of loss or damage.

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Time Risk
 It is suggested that you minimize the financial
risk when starting a business venture.
However
 take ‘time risk’
 Time risk is when you put time and effort into
a business and risk losing that time that you
invested if the business doesn’t go as
planned.
 The good thing about ‘time risk’ is that you
often gain valuable skills.

4. “There is no failure, only feedback.”
 If you’re getting feedback that something you’re
doing isn’t working, that isn’t failure, that’s valuable
information that you should look at as a learning
experience.
 The only failure would come from not listening to
and learning from any and all feedback that you
receive.
 The less risk you are willing to take, the less chance
you have of being successful.
 If you aim at nothing, you will hit it; therefore if you
want a chance at realizing your dreams, you will
actually have to reach for them.
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5. Keys to being a Successful Risk
Taker:
Don’t be too critical:
 Perfectionism has its place, but if you consistently wait to take
any risks until you feel like all the pieces are in place, then you’ll
never get anywhere because it’s up to you to put the pieces of
the puzzle together as you go.
Don’t give in to fear:
 Fear is a very real thing, but it should never have a place in your
decision-making as fear can give you false signals that keep you
from taking any risks at all.
Go for it:
 Look around at other successful people and think about the risks
they took to become successful.
 Like them, you must be willing to do whatever it takes to make
your business work.
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Risk Takers:
 Anytime you take a risk there is a chance of failure.
 The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is
how they deal with failure and mistakes.
 Successful people look at mistakes and missteps as learning
experiences, and they take
 them as opportunities to grow and evolve. If you keep making
the same mistakes over and over, or if your instinct is to just give
up, then you will never achieve success.
 It is easy to get discouraged, to fear rejection, and focus on
negatives, especially if the people around you don’t share your
vision, but it is up to you to decide if you would rather be a talker
or a doer.
 The future is unknown therefore by definition it is risky, but you
can reduce your fear and your chances of failure by learning to
take calculated risks.

7. Risk Takers: Cont…
 People told the Wright brothers that human flight was impossible
but now you can get from New York to London in about eight
hours.
 Prior to the popularity of the fax machine in the 1980s, most
people would never have dreamt that you could instantly
transport a copy of a document from one place to another.
 Alexander Graham Bell probably never imagined being able to
drive down the road while talking on the phone.
 Never let anyone tell you that you can’t do something because
you can do anything you set your mind to when you have vision
and determination.
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8. Business Plan:
Business Plan:
 A summary of how a business owner, manager, or entrepreneur intends
to organize an entrepreneurial endeavor and implement activities
necessary for the venture to succeed.
Market Research:
 An organized effort to gather information about markets or customers.
Marketing Plan:
 A written document that details the necessary steps to achieve one or
more marketing objectives for a product or service, a brand, or a
product line.
Strategic Plan:
 A written document that describes an organization’s short, mid and
long-term goals or objectives, and priority actions to take.
Strategic Planning:
 A organization’s process of defining its strategy, or direction, and
making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy.
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9. Action Steps for Starting or Growing
Your Business:
 Conduct market research
 Develop some financial projections and a timeline for
your business
 Identify what you need to get started
 Using the outline provided, write up a business plan for
your venture
 Develop a marketing plan
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10. Action Steps for Starting or Growing
Your Business: Cont...
 Participate in seminars, trade shows, and classes that
would be beneficial for your business
 Review your progress each week
 Update and revise your goals, strategies and business
plan as needed
 Keep it simple – pick 2–3 tasks to complete each day
 Stay focused!
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11. Market Research:
 Analyzing the market and the competition for your
products is one of the most critical elements of
creating a marketing plan.
 Market research can provide you with alternative
approaches to the market, help you develop short
and mid-term goals, and allow for more accurate
profit estimates
 Once they have a product or service, market
research is the next step so that you can determine
whether there is a market, how profitable the market
could be, and what your position is within that
market.
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12. Conducting Market Research:
 Is my product or service constantly in demand?
 Can I create demand for my product or service?
 Is there much competition for my product or
service?
 Can I compete effectively in terms of quality, price
and delivery?
 Can my product or service be priced to support
projected profits?
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13. What you should know about your
market:
 Whether there is constant or seasonal demand for your products
or services, how much competition there is, and whether current
market prices will give you the profits you need to meet your
goals.
 Once all of the questions have been answered, the company will
be better able to perform the necessary market research and
prepared to use the information you gather to increase your
profit potential.
 Keep the data collection and analysis process organized, you
should maintain a notebook or a folder of data and information
on your computer, so that you can organize and refer back to the
information as needed.
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14. Do the research necessary to answer
the following questions:
 Who are my customers and where are they
located?
 What need could I fill for my customers?
 Is my product or service affordable?
 Is my market growing or declining?
 What is the economy like in my product or
service area?
**Market data research doesn’t have to be
difficult, time consuming or expensive.**
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15. Information Sources:
 Trade associations and journals
 Regional planning organizations
 Chambers of Commerce
 Local banks and Realtors
 U.S. Government publications
 Customer surveys
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16. Parts of a Business Plan:
Executive Summary:
 This is a summary of the key elements of your plan. It is
basically like an introductory paragraph of a long book
report. It summarizes the key points of the plan.
Company Summary:
 This gives you clarity on what your business is about,
your history and where you want to go.
Products and Services:
 This is what your business will generate revenue.
Market Analysis Summary
 Explain who your customers may be and who your
competitors are. This also covers the packaging, pricing
and how you will get the message out.
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17. Parts of a Business Plan:Cont...
Web Plan Summary:
 Explain how you will use the web to enhance your
business.
Management Team:
 Explain how the business will be run and who the
members will be.
Financial Analysis:
 This is the budget for your business. It tells how much to
start it and how much to run it.
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Costs:
Start-up costs:
 These include any supplies or equipment needs,
initial marketing costs, and other expenses you will
face before you sell to your first customer.
 It is important to keep your start-up costs minimal,
as it is a learning experience to run your own
company.
Operating costs:
 These are the day-to-day expenses of running your
business