Week 7: Moving On…
Hi guys, and welcome to week 7 of my project! This week was a little more relaxed. I was supposed to have 3 interviews, but there was some miscommunication and one interview ended up getting rescheduled for a different week, so that is all good! My interviews went super good though!
My first interview was with Collette from Moving On AZ. This is a moving company that helps people moving from or to their house. I love the origin behind their name, which is that they see moving houses as moving on from a past life in a way. They have a big emphasis on helping people move on and giving the community a service that is not too popular here. A big similarity that I am seeing is that a lot of small businesses do not start with a business plan. Business plans are typically written in order to get loans, but they are also just handy to have to know how you are going to manage your business and what goals you have for the future. But, since a lot of small business owners do not get loans, they typically just jump right into starting the business, and they end up regretting not having a business plan later on! Collette regrets underestimating how hard starting a business and keeping a business going actually is! Talking about it is so much easier than actually doing it, and you never realize how the business becomes you over time in a way.
My second interview was with my former employers, Sid and Dave from Desert Rehab Physical Therapy! The reason they started this physical therapy office is because Dave had to get physical therapy and wanted to be able to help others and do the same thing! A unique thing about Desert Rehab is that all information is stored on paper, and they mainly use files to organize patients. Dave and Sid do store the basic information on the computer, but all the medical records and everything are kept on files! A little advice that Dave gave about starting a business is that it is smart to work for a competitor for a little to see how they manage and what works best. Weird, huh? He did this with another physical therapist and gives a lot of credit to seeing someone running a similar business before he jumped in and started his own. Their biggest piece of advice for running a business (or really for life to be honest) is that you CAN NOT procrastinate. Never. I feel like this is targeted to me as I am writing this just mere hours from when it is due, but Dave and Sid encourage everybody to stay on top of their load, because as time goes on, the load will pile up and will be too much to handle! Having a business means staying on top of your priorities.
With my business plan, this week I mainly went over everything I have written so far. I also finished the sales strategy section! I read that you should always have a sort of reward system to keep people coming, so I think I will have punch cards! I have seen that these are pretty popular with drink shops, so every 10 drinks you buy, you get a free drink. This will encourage people to keep coming back in order to get a free drink. For the software for my business, I will be using a program named Square! This is a software for general small businesses, and I have seen that this program is very popular among small business owners. A lot of small businesses in the area use this software to manage customers and payments.
The only thing I have left to finish is the financial projections and a little more of the startup costs, which is the part I am dreading the most! I am planning on finishing my business plan next week and perfect it from there! Thank you for checking in and I will see you all next week! Happy Easter Weekend!