BusinessWorks Inc.- A dotcom in making

BusinessWorks is a would-be entrepreneur's blog. Today I would like to share with my readers other great blogs which are on FORBES-Best of Web list under Small Business Blog Category . These blogs have contributed towards business in general, marketing and entrepreneurship with their excellent posts and informational material. I am honored to find my blog in the elite company of these blogs. Visit them and find out for yourself: Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch (rated Forbes Favorite) All Business Blog Center Church of the Customer by Ben Mcconnel and Jackie Huba Fresh Inc. by Inc.com Small Business Trends by Anita Campbell Entrepreneurial Mind by Jeff Cornwall Small Business Brief by Linda Riley Thank-you Forbes!

My last post must have left you thinking, whether you are made for business and entrepreneurship? Today's post will make sure if you are ready for the most exciting, sometimes hardest, time of your life. So let us begin that journey towards that realization. Gaining Real World Knowledge There is a modern saying by yours truly, if you want to be in the business of RFID, you have to work in the field of RFID and gain some valuable experience or going by an older saying, you must learn to walk before you run. On serious note, if you already have the expertise in the area of technology on which your business will be based on, gain some sales and marketing experience. This experience will help you gain valuable insight to develop products with marketability value. Finding Seed Capital If there is a need for $1 million for your business, your options are to approach venture capitalist, maybe an angel investor or to the bank. Irrespective of which path you choose to raise capital, each ...

In my past posts, I have stated, Phase I grants can range from $70,000 to $100,000. If you think this amount is enough to get started and and sustain your business for a period of six months (time provided by federal agencies for completion of Phase I), then you have severely underestimated your budget. What I am getting at is, once you sit down to write a financial plan, you will realize Phase I Amount won't even last you for three months. When I sat down to write a proposal for a RFID based project, I was shocked to see calculated capital requirements. Please read my post about Cost of business and subsequent post about Capital and Expense Projection , there is a minimum outlay of $2 million! There is a big gap to be filled and the question is, how do you bridge this gap? Let us go back to basics of business to find the answer. Basic Business Requirements You must have : - a feasible and marketable idea, product or service. - knowledge (or some one knowledgeable) of the produc...

My 15 minutes of fame! BusinessWorks is featured on Forbes.com, Best of Web under the Small Business Blogs category. Read the complete review here . Lea Goldman of Forbes has pointed out a couple of things, that I definitely need to work on. First is " big gaps between posts ". I am guilty as charged. I agree, I was busy developing my other weblog about Business Blog Process Outsourcing . Lea also says " while Keshwani is exceedingly detailed about the nuances of starting a business, where's the heart? You don't get a sense of the blood, sweat and tears involved in the start-up process. ". While it is true online, real life is different. Nothing is achieved without blood, sweat and tears.

Your proposal is the first and one of the most important step towards SBIR/STTR Funding. So it better be effective. Today I will write about components of a SBIR/STTR funding proposal. 1. Title - This is self-explanatory, but extremely important. 1.1 Project Summary - Write one page of summary to provide overview of your idea and the project. 1.2 Project Description 1.2.1 Identification and Importance of the Innovation - Identify and explain the significance of your innovation and how it improves existing environment or the current process. No more than 1.5 pages. 1.2.2 Background and Technical Objectives - Describe the background and define technical objectives of your innovation. Upto 3 pages 1.2.3 Research Plan - Details of hardware/software you plan to use for the research. Can be upto 2-3 pages. 1.2.4 Company Information - Describe in a page about your company, its past achievements etc. 1.2.5 Commercial Potential and Feasibility - Provide commercial potential and most imp...

A proposal is a response to SBIR/STTR grant or solicitation, which may either result in funding of your project or a rejection. This underscores the importance of the proposal for an enterprenuer. In a way, a proposal is no different from creating a Business Plan , except that it is more focussed on the solicitation. Here are few tips in creating a winner proposal (These tips apply to all three phases) 1. Search for the solicitation that best suits your skills on SBIRWorld . Download the solicitation from the Agency's website. Thoroughly read the solicitation. If you do not meet the requirements, do not submit the proposal until you fully meet the requirements of the solicitation. You may lose out on one solicitation, but there are many more opportunities from various agencies with many of them releasing solicitations every three months. 2. Never go for creating a proposal alone. There are financial and technical components involved. Involve your qualified personnel to help you cr...

My last post, was about SBIR funding. Today, I will write about funding opportunities available in the area of RFID and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), but first let me mention few resources available for SBIR. One of the most comprehensive resource is SBIRWorld . It is a warehouse of SBIR/STTR related conferences, open and past solicitations and federal agencies. Search feature helps in searching open and past solicitations for projects of special interests. For example, I searched for "RFID" and found 14 past solicitations in near past. Second resource is a regular E-mail alert received roughly every three weeks with open solicitations and due dates for the solicitations. Send an email to lyris-at-lyris-dot-pnl-dot-gov (replace -at- with @ and -dot- with .) with words "Subscribe sbir-alert" in Subject of E-mail. Federal agencies like National Science Foundation , Department of Defence - Army and Department of Defence - Navy are major funding agencies for RFID ...