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By Britta, on April 18th, 2012  With the ever changing demands of the new economy many individuals are opting to direct and control their careers through self-employment.
There are several benefits to being self-employed. You will:
▪ Have more freedom.
▪ Have more control over your work schedule.
▪ Have the choice to work from home.
▪ Be paid more money for the work.
▪ Be able to take on work from different sources.
Making the transition from employee to running your own business can be overwhelming. As the business owner or self-employed contractor, you will need to figure out how much to charge for your services, learn to ride or avoid the feast or famine trap, be responsible for 100% of the finances (both personal and business), find a balance between paid and unpaid tasks, stay on top of small business legal and regulatory requirements, and get paid last. Yes, your financial advisor is right about paying yourself first – however, that advice is for people who get pay cheques. When you’re self-employed, your own cheque will be the last one you write; after all other expenses have been paid. The silver lining in this is that, if you work hard and do things right, your pay cheques should be more than when working for someone else. And that is just one of the joys of being self-employed. If you’re prepared to reach out for what you want, the world of business is a playground awaiting your participation.
If you dream of working for yourself, mark your calendar for June 2012. The upcoming Fast-Track to Self-Employment BootCamp will provide you the opportunity to make your dream a reality.
This workshop will help you make the transition from employee to self-employed business owner safely and with confidence. The workshop will cover such topics as market research, understanding industries, identifying opportunities in learner-specific fields of interest, developing and describing a business concept, marketing for self-employed, navigating legal and regulatory requirements, assessing the competition, knowing what customers want, bookkeeping, accounting, taxation, social network marketing, business communications, and understanding labour markets.
Participants will leave the workshop with a basic understanding of what it means to own and operate a small business in the 21st century, how to start a small business, and how to get contracts and keep busy as an independent, self-employed contractor.
Fast-Track to Self-Employment BootCamp
Upcoming Workshop Dates and Locations
| City |
Location |
Workshop Dates |
Instructor |
| Prince George, BC |
Sprott-Shaw Campus
1575 2nd Ave |
June 5, 6, 7, 2012 |
Dan Boudreau |
| Kelowna, BC |
Sprott-Shaw Campus
#200-546 Leon Ave. |
June 11, 12, 13, 2012 |
Dan Boudreau |
| Victoria, BC |
Sprott-Shaw Campus
2621 Douglas St. |
June 20, 21, 22, 2012 |
Dan Boudreau |
| Vancouver, BC |
Sprott-Shaw Campus
2750 Rupert Street |
June 25, 26, 27, 2012 |
Dan Boudreau |
 This workshop includes:
- 18 hours of in-class time
- 37 hours of individual guided research, business planning and set-up time,
- 4 – 1 Hour Teleseminars
After attending the workshops and starting your through your individual guided research you will have an opportunity to ask questions and discuss successes, speedbumps and any other issues you have encountered.
Teleseminar 1: July 3 at 10:00pm PST
Teleseminar 2: July 24 at 10:00pm PST
Teleseminar 3: August 07 at 10:00pm PST
Teleseminar 4: August 21 at 10:00pm PST
If for any reason, you are unable to attend any of the 1-hour teleseminars, you will be provided a link to a recording of the phone call so you can listen on your own time.
- 1 hour per participant individual one-on-one business coaching time.
- Unlimited Access to the RiskBuster Business Plan Oasis Membership Website.
For more information visit Fast-Track to Self Employment BootCamp Course Description
Or Contact Workshop Facilitator Dan Boudreau
By Dan Boudreau, on April 17th, 2012  Running a small business can be a lonely trek. Isolation can be a challenge for new business owners working alone. This can come as a shock to anyone who gives up their day job to run their own business. Isolation can be powerful enough to send some early-stage owners scurrying back to work for someone else. Here are a few suggestions for dealing with isolation:
1. Write your goals and post them in a visible location in your work area. Annual sales targets are wonderful and necessary, but too broad to be useful on a daily basis. To gain maximum motivation, break your long-term targets into weekly or daily goals.
2. Foster a healthy sense of urgency. Cultivate a bias for getting things done. Ask yourself, “What am I doing right now to move me closer to achieving my goals.” Most of us can achieve much more than we think we can by adopting a “do-it-now” attitude.
3. Establish a support network. It’s healthy to interact with positive, supportive people. Your support team can be arranged formally, or be completely unstructured. My support network is an eclectic assortment of special souls that I occasionally have coffee or lunch with. To battle isolation, try having at least one power-lunch or meeting per week.
4. Make your customers your number one focus. You are not really in business until you are serving customers. If you’re short of customers, get busy marketing to bring in more customers. More time invested in your customers will leave less time to be idle, and less time to dwell on isolation.
5. Get a part-time job. Seriously. I have not yet owned a business that was able to support me during its infancy. Many thriving businesses get their foothold while the owner works for someone else. A full or part-time job can help you bring in some needed cash, as well as providing the human contact that might be missing from your business life. Besides, working for someone else might just remind you why you started your business in the first place. Dancing to someone else’s tune for a time may be the nudge needed to rekindle your passion to be your own boss.
In spite of the downside, isolation has its benefits. If you’re the sort of person who thrives on freedom, the autonomous workspace is more likely a welcome friend than a downer. If you enjoy independence and prefer to work without someone looking over your shoulder, small business ownership might be ideal for you!
This is one of the topics that will be discussed in the Fast-Track to Self-Employment BootCamp coming up June, 2012 in Prince George, Kelowna, Vancouver and Victoria. Navigate the transition from employee to being your own boss with finesse.
By Dan Boudreau, on April 16th, 2012  As a business plan coach and a small business lender, I think I’ve heard all of the objections to business planning—it takes too long, it’s wasting valuable marketing time, it’s difficult, it’s complicated, the opportunity will pass me by if I take time to plan, I know a successful business owner who never wrote a plan, nobody reads business plans anyway, the minute you write a business plan it changes—the list goes on. All of these rationales arise from a lack of understanding about what a business plan is and how it can stack the cards in the entrepreneur’s favour.
When tackled in a practical way, the business planning process builds confidence, saves houses, and changes lives. The true value is found in the process of business planning; it enables a person to step back and take a sober look at what they’re about to invest, the risks, the rewards, and how to get where they want to be. If you’ve ever lost a major investment, like a vehicle or a house, you’ll understand how challenging it is to acquire money, and how senseless it is to throw it away.
The reason so many people leap into business without business plans it that it’s confusing. From my observation of thousands of entrepreneurs starting out in the under $100,000 business arena, here are what I see as the main areas of confusion about business planning.
- What is the purpose of a business plan? Those objecting to doing a formal business plan miss the main point of it, which is to educate the one doing the business plan. Anyone that thinks they can bypass a week or two of business planning will invariably end up investing that time and much more in some other way—for some the lessons will be jammed into their cluttered day-to-day business life, others will pay for their learning through the school of hard knocks, and far too many end up broke or bankrupt. Of course there are a number of other great reasons to develop a business plan; and don’t miss the critical importance of proving your business case.
- What is a business plan? There’s confusion out there about what constitutes a business plan. There are a myriad of viewpoints thrown into the market – from the elevator pitch to the one-page business plan, all the way up to the 200-page missive that even the most chronically detailed of bankers and economists resist reading. Of course the average person seeking to start a business will lean toward the easier sounding business planning options—what they don’t realize is that you have to go through the very same process to research and write a 1, 2, 8, 20, or 200-page business plan, if that plan is to do its real job, which is to educate the business owner. To state this differently, once you go through the process of researching and writing a business plan, you will be positioned perfectly to shape it into the various formats needed to navigate the business world—the elevator pitch, the one-page business plan, the 20-page business plan, a simple loan application, and detailed operational versions of action planning such as start-up, marketing, operational, and financial action plans.
- What is market research and how does it differ from feasibility? There’s confusion about market research and feasibility. The first bit of grey is in the question of whether market research is considered to be a part of business planning or separate from it. I consider market research to be the early part of the business planning process. It includes the researching of your business opportunity, the market, and the industry you’ll be competing in once you get into business. Market research includes the determination of whether or not your business idea will be feasible. It involves pulling together the lion’s share of the business, market and industry information; it is an objective look at everything that might stop the business from succeeding. It also entails taking a close look at the person or people who are initiating the business and whether or not the people fit the venture and vice versa.
- Who is the business plan for? The business plan is, first and foremost, for the entrepreneur who’s starting or growing an enterprise. Yes, the plan is key to approaching lenders, investors, or potential partners—and there are a smattering of other ways to use a business plan—but make no mistake about it, it’s the writer of the plan that benefits most by researching and writing the plan. Read more about shaping your business plan for different audiences at http://ow.ly/ahwlT
- How long will it take to write a business plan? The answer to this question will be different for each person. If you come to the business planning experience with knowledge about the business you’re starting, great computer and keyboarding skills, writing skills, knowledge of forecasting, and a window of time to do the work – your business plan shouldn’t take more than 50 to 100 hours, providing your personal life, your health, and your energy level allow room for the business planning project. For any of these things that are missing or complicated, add more time. As a couple of starkly different examples: the fastest business plan I’ve seen took a weekend to pull together (2 people working on it, and not including previous research done by both), and the longest took 2 years (after health issues, a blistering divorce battle and a few other issues along the way).
Those who proudly proclaim they do not have a plan send a very important message to lenders like me—they are either lazy or uncoachable—neither of which sets the climate for an enjoyable lender-borrower relationship. When a business gets into trouble, the lazy and uncoachable types are nowhere to be found, which means the lender is left to tidy up a costly mess.
If you’re starting or growing a small business, you’ll be further ahead if you do a business plan. It’s not easy to run a small business. The information you gather, the education you gain, the contacts you make—all add up to a huge win for anyone heading into a start-up or expansion.
If you’re starting or expanding a business, do the right thing for you and your family—take the time to research and write a business plan.
By Dan Boudreau, on April 10th, 2012 Fast-Track to Self-Employment BootCamp
Upcoming Workshop Dates and Locations
| City |
Location |
Workshop Dates |
Instructor |
| Prince George, BC |
Sprott-Shaw Campus
1575 2nd Ave |
June 5, 6, 7, 2012 |
Dan Boudreau |
| Kelowna, BC |
Sprott-Shaw Campus
#200-546 Leon Ave. |
June 11, 12, 13, 2012 |
Dan Boudreau |
| Victoria, BC |
Sprott-Shaw Campus
2621 Douglas St. |
June 20, 21, 22, 2012 |
Dan Boudreau |
| Vancouver, BC |
Sprott-Shaw Campus
2750 Rupert Street |
June 25, 26, 27, 2012 |
Dan Boudreau |
Course Description
This workshop is designed to take individuals from working as employees to working as a self- employed contractors and business owners. With the ever changing demands of the new economy many individuals are opting to direct and control their careers through self-employment. The course will assist in bridging to self-employment and fully understand what is necessary. The program will cover such topics as market research, understanding industries, identifying opportunities in learner-specific fields of interest, developing and describing a business concept, marketing for self-employed, navigating legal and regulatory requirements, assessing the competition, knowing what customers want, bookkeeping, accounting, taxation, social network marketing, business communications, and understanding labour markets.
Participants will leave the workshop with a basic understanding of what it means to own and operate a small business in the 21st century, how to start a small business, and how to get contracts and keep busy as an independent, self-employed contractor.
Training Goals
At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:
- Discover the differences between owning a business and being an employee.
- Determine if a business idea is feasible.
- Identify the key components and structure of business plans.
- Use effective business writing and communications techniques.
- Discuss small business legal and regulatory requirements and deadlines.
- Locate sources of assistance and information for entrepreneurs.
- Recognize and discuss sources of labour market information.
- List and prioritize products and services.
- Identify potential customers and competition.
- Ease fear of financials and develop a 3-year forecast.
- Review proposal formats and writing techniques.
- Recognize affordable marketing methods, including printed media, the internet, websites, email, and social network marketing options.
- Identify professional support, including bookkeeping, accounting and legal counsel.
- Develop a strategy and action plan to transition to self-employment.
- Research and write a business plan.
View the complete course description and/or register
By Dan Boudreau, on March 29th, 2012 
Financial concerns are front and centre for most people when deciding whether or not to start or buy a business. While money and profit are critical to the success of any business, there are a few other things to think about before taking the plunge.
Depending on your priorities, family, fun, health and life style can be far more important criteria to consider before setting that grand opening date. Here are a few questions to help you determine if you’re cozying up to the right business..
- What impact will the business have on your family? Whether you like it or not, your family will be involved and affected by what goes on in your business. At the outset, you will want to assess how supportive your family is of your decision to start a business. You might also discuss with your family the effect of you working long, possibly erratic hours. A business will usually find a way to extract its pound of flesh from a family.
- Will the business allow you to live the way you want? Many small businesses are far more about life style than profit. Business ownership will always entail risk and stress and a number of unwanted tasks, but these things are made more bearable if you enjoy the bulk of the work you’re doing each day.
- What impact will your health have on the business? Make sure you’re healthy enough to give the business the energy it needs. On the flip side, the ideal business will have a positive impact on your health as well.
- Has it been a life-long dream that will preoccupy you until you do it? Studies have shown that a high percentage of adults dream of owning a business. If the business has long haunted your thoughts and you can’t rest until you give it a try, this might be the critical factor in your decision.
- Will the business enable you to live in a desirable area? Is your goal is to relocate to a different community or neighbourhood? If owning the business makes it possible for you to achieve your goal, this might be the most important factor.
- Are there more attractive opportunities for your investment? Whatever business you tackle will require an investment. If the amount you’re investing could bring a higher return with less risk, perhaps you’d prefer to place your money there instead.
- Will the business pay you enough to survive? Start with your personal expenses to determine how much the business needs to pay you each month, and then calculate the amount of profit you want the business to earn after all expenses have been paid.
Once you get into business, it will insist on devouring as much of your time, energy and life as you allow. You’ll devote many waking hours, including quite a few that might have been spent sleeping, to its success.
If you’re going to shoulder the responsibility of owning a small business, you will want to consider all of the items above—money, family, fun, health and life style. If you’re going to invite an elephant to share your life, it may as well be one whose company you enjoy.
By Dan Boudreau, on March 28th, 2012 
Are you considering an exciting new lifestyle business idea and wondering if it will work?
Perhaps you’ve been to visit your banker, accountant or lawyer. Maybe you’ve wandered into a couple of the agencies that help new business owners get started. Hopefully, you have learned that you will need to do some market research and that you may need a business plan.
In researching your business idea, you need to prove there is demand for your products or services and that you can supply them at costs that leave enough money for you and your fledgling business to survive and hopefully, to thrive.
If you hope to shepherd your concept from mild curiosity to the action stage, here are some points to consider.
Evaluate whether you are ready to own a business.
Do you have the knowledge and skills? Do you have the financial muscle to nurture the business until it can support you? Are you motivated to get yourself to work each day without a big bad boss cracking the whip? Are you ready to be your own boss?
Learn all you can about your business idea.
Are there competing businesses already selling products and services you’re considering? Is your idea new to the area? How is your idea different from the existing businesses? Why would people buy from you instead of the competition?
Determine if there is demand for your goods.
Can you sell enough products and services to sustain your business? Learn about demand by talking to potential customers and competitors. Talk to anyone knowledgeable about the industry and who will take the time to educate you about the business.
Identify your supply costs.
If you’re buying and selling products, this means communicating with suppliers, learning their prices, their terms and shipping costs. If you’re providing services and doing the work yourself, you will need to set your rates high enough to sustain you. If you’re hiring others to provide the services, you will need to know how much they will charge you.
Decide what you need the business to provide for you.
Will it be money, lifestyle, or the pleasure of working at something you love to do? If money is a motivator, the starting point is to list your personal expenses and calculate how much you need to earn each month. Once you know that amount, you can then determine whether your hot new business idea will pay enable you to sleep nights without worrying about where the next meal will come from.
Market research is an opportunity to learn about your business. Be curious, ask lots of questions, and evaluate the answers. If you can prove there’s enough demand, and if you can provide your goods at prices that leave enough money to meet your needs, you might well be on your way to making a living doing something you truly enjoy.
Are you starting a lifestyle business? What lifestyle business would you like to start?
Do you have any helpful hints on lifestyle business?
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