******************************************************
BOOTSTRAPPING Meeting Wheaton Illinois Monday January 28
6-9 P.M.
******************************************************
All the seminars are FREE, but you must register by emailing to: bootstrapping@jerryRmitchellandassoc.com put attending in subject line.
To ensure you receive this e-mail in the future, please add bootstrappingjrm@mail-list.com to your list of approved senders.
This newsletter is provided free of charge to the Entrepreneurial
community, courtesy of Bootstrappingejrm This document may be
freely redistributed by e-mail. We encourage you to share it with
your friends. To get back issues visit www.jerryRmitchell.com
To
subscribe, send a blank message to bootstrappingjrm-on@mail-list.com
The meetings will be in Room 166 of the Dan and Ada Rice Campus
of the Illinois Institute of Technology, located at 201 East
Loop Road, Wheaton,Il (directions below.)
Time: 6-9 PM
For the last five years we have brought you seminars on bootstrapping, in
our continuing effort to bring entrepreneurs new ideas and ways of teaching
we are changing the format for the next six months.We are very excited to be
able to bring this proven program to our community as a free service.
For the next six months we will be teaching people through a proven program
developed as part of a program for MBA students about entrepreneurship at a
leading university. Now this same program is being offered through our
bootstrapping program as a free program.This program is teaching you how to
build a business and is not only about writing a business plan to raise
outside funding though this will be covered during the classes.
There will be take home assignments each week!
Sessions will be held the last Monday of each month, January-June, 2008
Schedule 2008
Calendar:
January 28: The Idea: What business do you want to be in? Why are you
qualified to operate this business? What will make this business the best in
the world, for you and for your customers?
February 25: The Market: Who will pay for your product or service? Who are
your competitors? How can you convince people to buy from you, instead of
your competitors?
March 31: The Team: Who do you need to sell, produce, and get paid for this
product or service? What will you have to pay them? When can you afford
them? How will they be better than any other teams in the world at building
and operating this business?
April 28: The Plan: What do you have to do in each of the next 12 months to
move this business from $0 to $1 million in sales, and what will each
project cost? How will you measure success in your sales, product or service
delivery, billing and accounting, and investor relations projects?
May 26: The Presentation: Who are the investors, bankers, customers, and
other partners you need to present to? How do you present your plan to such
potential investors, customers, and other partners? What do you do to
complete negotiations if they're interested in working with you?
June 30: The Competition: Which plan will win?
In-class exercise: Present your plan to a panel of business leaders bankers
and investors.
The course leads to a business plan contest and presentation at
the June
session, where we and our invited outside investors, banks, and business
leaders will review and comment on the plans. Attendees can come for one or
all sessions, and all plans submitted two weeks before the last session
will be considered for the competition. We believe that the more classes
you attend the better you will understand how to build your business and
understand how to present your plan/ideas to other people.
Read below to determine if this program is right for you.
Are you being bypassed for promotions or interesting new assignments or are
your subordinates getting promoted and getting these new assignments?
Is the handwriting on the wall and you just can not see it? Do you feel like
your no longer contributing?
If you're not learning every day, if you're not doing new things, and if
you're not improving then maybe its time to move on to a new opportunity.
Have you been relegated to a commodity type role in your company that offers
little value to your company?
The belief that stable jobs would deliver steadily improving living
standards has long been one of the major cycles of the American dream. But
today a queasy sense of insecurity haunts many working people. From neatly
coifed executives to aproned production workers, once secure futures now
seem threatened. Wave after wave of corporate restructurings has knocked
away the underpinnings of career- long employment that sustained workers'
confidence in their future.
We believe that people need a new mental model for the new, less predictable
workplace, one that leads them to rely less on employers for career
direction and advancement. They also need more knowledge of the
opportunities and support services available beyond their primary employer.
Most important, people need to assume more responsibility for their
finances-the reliance upon their employer for guarantees of a secure
retirement is a comfortable but dangerously outdated notion.
Many of these changes are already being forced upon us. There are estimates
that of the eight jobs Americans can expect to hold over the course of their
working lives, half will terminate involuntarily. Companies no longer offer
people careers. People create their own careers.
Launching a startup company is probably the biggest challenge you will ever
take on. It is risky, expensive and the fact is that more than 90% of
companies will not survive. One of the biggest reasons is that entrepreneurs
do not get enough help and guidance from people who have done it before. The
fact is it always takes longer and costs more to start your company than you
think it will and so you always have to bootstrap.
Detailed directions to the Rice Campus:
The campus is just North of Butterfield Road (Rt 56) and a half-mile East of
Naperville Road. You can take East-West toll road (I-88) West to the
Naperville Road exit. Go North on Naperville Road to Butterfield Road (Rt
56) and turn right [East]. Turn left [North] at East Loop Road, the first
stoplight on Butterfield Road. The IIT building is a short distance ahead
on your right.