Creating a Business Plan

For my MGMT 190 and STS 201 courses, I had to create a business plan with fellow classmates as part of our grade. It gave me a background understanding of how businesses were created. For me, it was a fun project to do. When we had to present to the class, it felt like we were in the Shark Tank t.v. show environment.

An important thing to note in our job industry is that there are close to 28 million small businesses operating in the U.S. However, a more unfortunate fact is that more than 50% of small businesses fail in their first year. The reasons why small businesses tend to fail so easily is explained clearly by the Small Business Administration (SBA) on this page.

Before establishing a start-up, it is great to have a blueprint of how you will manage your business. A business plan identifies the business’s missions and goals and demonstrates its understanding of operating and managing successfully. The plan is an essential roadmap for success if you want to start your own business. Business plans tell potential investors and other audience that the business has a set and stable framework that they will be working with. It also gives the organization a sense of purpose.

A strong business plan has the following sections included, as shown in the picture below:

The failure rate mentioned above should not stop you from establishing your dream business! Through the use of an effective business plan, it is not impossible to start one. Visit the SBA page. It will help you clear questions in your head and make the entrance into the small business world easier.

“A nation that …

“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.”

Franklin D. Rooseevelt

“Earth provides…

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Business Ethics

This entails my 4th blog post and it will be (as the post title suggests) about business ethics!

First off, kudos to my Management 190 textbook: Contemporary Business (Entrepreneurship Ed.) for giving me the idea of this post and for giving me some first-hand information and knowledge.

Business Ethics
Simply put, business ethics is defined as the standard principles of moral and conduct values regarding right and wrong actions in a business setting. Business ethics also offer a simple framework that businesses can follow in order to gain public trust. Firms, corporations, and small businesses all have difficult decisions to make when considering social issues. Within a business, individuals can make an effect on the overall conduct of the environment. A simple code of ethics or code of conduct assists individuals when they are making a decision.

Importance of Business Ethics

So the image above shows  the question, “How important are ethics in today’s society?” We can see that the people in the image are not paying attention to the blackboard and the unseen instructor.

Corporate Social Responsibility

 

For engaging business news, follow the WSJ, Businessweek or any other great business newspaper/magazine.

Let’s all be careful and protect our earth. Let’s be eco-friendly! Join in on all the action with these engaging organizations: Take Part and be informed! This good site gives a great list of environmental organizations in NJ. 

‘thinkactdogreen’

Conservation is…

“Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land.”

Aldo Leopold

It’s the new way to recycle.

reverse vending machines

Hmm…these look like ordinary vending machines don’t they? But a little different? These are not just regular vending machines, rather they are reverse vending machines (hereon referred to as RVMs), a very genius invention.

Do you remember back in middle  school or high school where you had to buy snacks from vending machines if you didn’t have enough money to buy a good lunch meal? Or you Just wanted to get a drink? Vending machines are still in good use today too. Well, these RVMs give the same feel. I got the opportunity to use one of these back in senior year of high school (which was also the first year they added them to our cafeterias), and I think whoever invented them is very brilliant. It’s a new and easy way to recycle. Just as getting snacks from vending machines was easy, using the RVM is easy.

The process:

1. You feed the RVM any plastic bottle, aluminum can, or glass bottle. (Just like you feed a vending machine money or coins.)
2. First, it scans the UPC (barcode) to see if it is acceptable.
3. If it is acceptable, it crushes the product and processes it so that the machine can hold as much as it can.
4. You are payed for recycling! (The one back in my high school gave me some coins back.)

Key players in the RVM industry:

• Envirobank
• Envipco
• Greenbean
• Reverse Vending (UK distributor)
• many more!

Instead of throwing cans and bottles in the trash can or the poor ground, why not use the RVM, get some tokens back, and feel great for recycling! We can reduce the ever-rising mountains of waste landfills.

I do hope to see more of these unique RVMs around campuses, grocery stores, and wherever else they will be useful!

Let’s all be careful and protect our earth. Let’s be eco-friendly! Join in on all the action with these engaging organizations: Take Part and be informed! This good site gives a great list of environmental organizations in NJ. 

‘thinkactdogreen’

‘Green State of Mind’

So who here has not heard of ‘green?’ No not the color green! I mean ‘green’ as in buying green products or maybe living a sustainable life or businesses going green.

i can say that you have been living under a rock.

 (no pun intended…if you get it)

Now, you should be living under a GREEN rock!

Many consumers (well….from what i saw and heard) and businesses are having what I call a ‘green mentality or a green state of mind‘ these past few decades. In search of the right product to purchase, most consumers today look to see if the product in their hands are an environmental-friendly product. Many businesses are consumer-oriented; driven to constantly bring out products that consumers would love to buy and use and driven to satisfy the endless needs and wants of consumers. In this day and age (I say this in the same way one would say,”It’s 2013!! How do you not have an IPhone?!”), there is not a company or product I see that does not include in their vision that they are an eco-friendly company. Even if a bag of chips does not directly say, “this is an environmental product,” it still has a small logo that indicates that it is recyclable.

In order for businesses to attract green consumers, they must use green marketing. I will try to explain in my own words to explain what green marketing means. Green marketing is the marketing tactics and practices a company uses to grab the attention and satisfy the needs of consumers by  focusing on environmental concerns and aspects.

P.S!!! The dark force (Star Wars) behind green marketing! Be extra careful that you are not an innocent victim of false claims! Because of the growing demand of greener products, many companies take advantage of the green revolution by intentionally establishing false or exaggerated “green” claims. As this is a big and thriving industry, they see the clear benefits of green marketing. A business futurist, Erica Orange provides us with a nifty quote: “The primary objective of greenwashing is to provide consumers with the feeling that the organization is taking the necessary steps to responsibly manage its ecological footprint. In reality, the company may be doing very little that is environmentally beneficial.” And so behold! This unmoral practice is named greenwashing.

Let’s all be careful and protect our earth. Let’s be eco-friendly! Join in on all the action with these engaging organizations: Take Part and be informed! This good site gives a great list of environmental organizations in NJ. 

‘thinkactdogreen’

Fracking

First off, take a few seconds and take quick glances at these photos.

What strikes you most when viewing these pictures?
Would you drink that dirty and contaminated water? I hope not.
Now how about the flaming water? How in the world does that happen?
And what are you thinking and feeling when you see that the fracking facility is close by to an elementary school?

This is my first content post and I start by posting about hydraulic fracturing, or better known to the public as fracking. As stated by the EPA, “hydraulic fracturing is a well stimulation process used to maximize the extraction of underground resources; including oil, natural gas, geothermal energy, and even water.”

According to these provided pictures, it doesn’t seem like fracking should be considered a sustainable technology. So why would I post about this? Is it or is it not a sustainable technology?

The answer is…well, there can be no correct answer! This is hard to say owing to the fact that the use of the hydraulic fracturing technique is one of the most controversial and debated issues in today’s society!

Why is the procedure so disputed among people? Well, the pictures above tell all that there is needed to be said! The pictures show of visual rhetoric, explaining the common saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” In the argument of environmental activists, they claim that fracking is detrimental to the people, the quality of water, and the environment. The three images strike the readers different emotions and feelings.

Any public issue, thought, idea, you name it comes with it two differing sides. Even a tomato sparks a small debate amongst friends. Is it a vegetable or a fruit? With fracking though, it becomes more complicated. Proponents believe fracking is safe and essential for our economy and job growth. While, opponents, on the other hand, refute that idea and argue that it is in fact not safe. They also believe that fracking contaminates drinking water and affects human health because the use of harmful chemicals.

I try to be neutral on this topic. As I have always thought that the environment is very important to consider in our everyday lives, I have to say I am sided more towards with the environmental activists.  But I also have to agree with proponents in that the technique has opened to economic and job growth. While the unemployment rate in America is still high, energy production has contributed to economic growth: the Yale Graduates Energy Study Group calculated that in 2010 alone, the consumer surplus (the consumer savings or gain from reductions in price) from shale gas production was worth over $100 billion (View the pdf). The National Center for Policy Analysis says, “The abundance of natural gas also attracts business to the United States. For example, Royal Dutch Shell announced plans to build a $2 billion plant in Pennsylvania that would create 10,000 new construction jobs and thousands of other permanent jobs.”

In more recent terms, it is now the seventh day (as I’m writing this) as the government shutdown has affected citizens and government employees. How does the shutdown affect hydraulic fracturing? The EPA has stated that they would be conducting an in-depth analysis of the impacts of fracking. Now that several agencies and national attractions are closed, including the EPA, will analysis and the final report take longer to complete?

What do you think? Is the technique beneficial or harmful? Or maybe you can’t really take a side like me. Read more about the debate and comment your opinions down below.

Let’s all be careful and protect our earth. Let’s be eco-friendly! Join in on all the action with these engaging organizations: Take Part and be informed! This good site gives a great list of environmental organizations in NJ. 

‘thinkactdogreen’