​​Here is an outline of a business plan you can use. If you have some trouble, you can ask Tom Gosche, Business Strategist from GLM! tomg@goglm.com and/or 630-675-8971

1. Executive Summary

2. Current Situation

3. Vision

• Mission Statement
• Goals (long range)
• Objectives (short/medium range)

4. Management

5. Product / Service Description

6. Market Analysis

• Customers
• Competition
• Opportunities
• Risks

7. Marketing Strategy

• Personnel
• Facilities / Equipment
• Pricing & Profitability
• Advertising & Promotion
• Public Relations
• Selling Tactics
• Distribution Channels
• Business Relationships

8. Production / Manufacturing Strategy

• Personnel
• Facilities / Equipment
• Intellectual Property
• Regulation / Compliance
• Supply Chain
• Business Relationships

9. Administrative Strategy

• Personnel
• Facilities / Equipment
• Management Information
• Worker Administration & Benefits
• Regulation / Compliance
• Business/Professional Relationships

​10. Financial Information 

• Pro Forma Balance Sheets (for 5 years into the future)
• Pro Forma Income Statement (for 5 years into the future)
• Detailed Budget (for next 12 to 24 months into the future)
• Cash Flow Projection (for next 12 to 24 months into the future)
• Break Even Analysis (show growth steps, if applicable)
• Summary of Existing Resources (people and money)
• Potential Sources of Funding

The Daily Herald had an article in Sunday’s Newspaper about the importance of an Accountant or CPA in advising your business. You can imagine that we at GLM agree with this this. Having an outside look at your business and finances is very important to the growth and stability of your business.

About the Author:
Denice Gierach is an attorney, CPA, Northwestern University business master's graduate, and has owned several businesses including in real estate and manufacturing. She is the lead attorney at Gierach Law Firm in the Chicago area. With more than 30 years of experience, she has been a respected and sought-after resource for businesses looking to grow, sell, solve problems, and succeed long term.
Her insights across business areas gives a fuller lens to business issues and solutions, and helps businesses grow and succeed with less time spent on legal issues and other time-consuming problems
 
Here is a link to the Article:
​ https://www.dailyherald.com/business/20221204/the-importance-of-involving-your-cpa-in-your-business
​

We recently met with Wendy Schulz, Preferred Funding Group based in West Dundee. They help to secure the funding you need to start or grow your business with help from their trusted team of Experts! Whether you’re looking to start a new business or looking to grow your business, a personal or business loan from PFG can make your plans into a reality.

Qualify for up to $500,000 today

FUNDING PROGRAMS

• 5 or 7 year Term Loans
• Business Credit Card Program
• Personal Credit Card Program

​TERM LOAN PROGRAM

• Rates range from 5.49%-14.99%
• No minimum length of time in business
• Fixed monthly payment
• No upfront fees
• Full liquidity Immediately
• Funding in 7-15 business days
• (Dependent on strength of personal credit)

REQUIREMENTS

• 680+ Personal Credit scores in all 3 bureaus
• 2 years personal tax returns showing $50,000 or more of taxable income

​BUSINESS CREDIT CARD PROGRAM

• 0% Interest for 6-12 months
• No minimum length of time in business
• Stated income
• No upfront fees
• Reports only to the business

REQUIREMENTS

• 700+ Personal Credit Scores on all 3 bureaus
• Established Business Entity

Apply today: ​https://preferredfundinggroup.wufoo.com/forms/q1b99q130o9718l/ 

Power Partnerships

• Usually evolve from Networking
• Meeting weekly builds:
• Trust
• Understanding
• Cooperation
• Commitment
• Synergy

Identify Power Partnerships

• People who share similar client universes
• They directly refer clients to you
• You directly refer clients to them
• Who are your competitors?
• Are they really your competitors?
• If you are an expert at one aspect of your field, and they are experts at another aspect you may be able to share clients
• Leads into Powerful Partnerships

The Best Power Partners

• Well Connected People
• Mutual Support of personal & business
• Diverse perspectives key to success
• Your B.R.A.N.D. should be similar
• Adopt each others core values

Key Questions To Ask

• What (Specifically) do you do?
• How do you do it?
• What is something someone might say that would lead me to think of you?
• What is a “Typical Situation” people are in when they realize they need your help?
• How can I introduce you?

Answer These Questions about Yourself (and Share)

Please come to the Schaumburg Business Association Coffee and Contacts. It is a great networking event AND include a presentation from GLM's own, Tom Gosche!

This Thursday October, 27th, 2022 at 7:30am
Coffee & Water Provided by Fairfield Inn & Suites
Breakfast provided by The Bear Family Restaurant, Schaumburg 

Location: Fairfield Inn & Suites, 700 National Parkway Schaumburg IL 60173

Fees/Admission: SBA Member $15, Non-Member $20

Click here for more information and registration:
https://members.schaumburgbusiness.com/events/details/coffee-contacts-build-your-sales-force-with-constant-connections-09-29-2022-3952?calendarMonth=2022-10-01

Topic:
From the bestselling book Masters of Sales, which Tom is a contributing author, he shares 5 secrets to creating dozens of sales volunteers for your company.

You will pick up 5 strategies that will help you grow your business from the inside out. There are ideas for creating and implementing effective business building strategies by developing your personal and business brand.

Speaker Tom Gosche is a Business Strategist dedicated to helping business owners be more profitable through customized business and financial strategy. His BRAND System™ is a process of creating and implementing effective brands, business building strategies, financial insight and business transition success.

Seeing Tom in action quickly impresses upon attendees his skills, knowledge and expertise in a lighthearted, even humorous, presentation.

Tom is a part of GLM, Inc. as a business consultant and business developer. He has formulated the idea of the BASiC Cycle of working with business owners. BASIC was formed with business owners in mind, by combining growth strategies, business planning and financial review on a regular basis.

Direct from Andrea Biwer, Executive Director of the Des Plaines Chamber of Commerce:

I am writing to inform you that the Source Grow Grant, designed to help small businesses who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, application is NOW OPEN.
 
The Cook County Small Business Source Grow Grant provides capital integrated with business advising to small businesses, prioritizing historically excluded businesses – those owned by Black, Latino(a), other people of color, Women, Veterans, and Persons with a Disability – to close racial wealth and other opportunity gaps. http://cookcountysmallbiz.org/growgrant/ 
 
Awarded businesses will receive $10,000 each. The application will only be open from 10/3 – 10/31.
 
To apply for this grant, businesses will need the following:

• Photo ID
• 2019 Tax Returns
• W-9 (signed and dated by owner in 2022)

 
Eligibility Requirements:

• Must have been opened as of 2019
• Must be in Cook County
• Must have made at least $10,000 revenue in 2019
• Must have less than 19 full time employees

 
Our partners at the Berwyn Development Corporation will be leading outreach across west suburban Cook County. They will be hosting informational sessions at their office in Berwyn/ zoom in the coming weeks to share eligibility requirements and for a step-by-step walkthrough of the application.
 
At these sessions, you will also be able to schedule a one-on-one session with someone from their team to help with your application submission. 
 
Register to attend the informational session:
 
Tuesday, October 18th from 4 – 5 PM
 
Can’t attend a session?
Contact Paola at paolag@berwyn.net or (708) 749-6582 to schedule a one-on-one consultation.
 
If you have any questions, please contact Andrea via email (abiwer@dpchamber.com) or at 847-824-4200. If you are ready to apply, see below for links etc. you have until October 29, 2022 to apply.

From Lisa Gilbert, President, Schaumburg Business Association:

The second is through the Comcast Rise program to help small businesses owned by women and/or people of color.  Cook County is one of five locations in the nation participating.  They will be distributing $10,000 grants as well.  You can learn more at www.ComcastRISE.com

​Typical Situation: Our client is complaining their location does not have enough space. They may wish to change their location. They may want to explore buying their own building and want some comparisons.
When you hear a business owner say:
·        “There is just not enough space here anymore.”
·        “The building owner has been neglecting maintenance”
·        “I think it is time explore buying my own building and need some comparisons.”
 
Commercial Real Estate Broker works with businesses that are looking to lease or buy office, industrial, or retail space in the Chicago area. Our process is geared to reduce the pain involved in the business relocation process.

How they Work: Starts with meeting with the client to better understand what his/her real estate needs are. They do an extensive property search to generate a list tailored to our client’s specific needs. Then a tour of the properties that have been further vetted.  Once a property is selected the broker will advise our client during the negotiation process.

Matching Ideas with Resources:

Many of the accounting entries are done behind the scenes in QuickBooks just by carrying out the day to day activities of your business. This week we cover 10- 20 great things about QuickBooks...

10. Keep Questions Organized - If you come across transactions that you are not sure how to handle don't let them stop you from reconciling and closing out your financials.  Use the QuickBooks ask my accountant code on your chart of accounts.  This will allow you to enter the transaction and reconcile all while keeping your questions organized in one spot. 

11. Journal Entries - Journal entries are sometimes necessary to fix issues or create year end entries per your CPA to match your tax return.  Although journal entries are getting more into the "accounting" end of things you should still be familiar with them. 

12. Accept Online Payments - You can turn on the Intuit payment network services which allows customers to pay your invoices easily online.  The best part is it only costs you $0.50 per transaction with no percentage of the invoice being charged as a fee.  So you could send a $50,000 invoice and only pay $0.50 to get that money sent directly to your checking account.  Hard to beat that price given the typical merchant processing fees.

13. Email Invoices and Statements - You should set up all invoices and statements to be emailed directly from QuickBooks.  This will help reduce the amount of time it takes for your customers to pay you, which will increase cash flow.  You can turn on the online payments as discussed in #12 above to help you get paid even faster.  

14. Payroll Management - You can process your payroll directly in QuickBooks or use an outsourced payroll service.  We typically recommend outsourcing your payroll to reduce your liability.  When you use an outsourced payroll it is important to record your outsourced payroll correctly in QuickBooks.  Many payroll companies even offer files that can import your outsourced payroll data into QuickBooks. 
 
15. QuickBooks Class Tracking - QuickBooks class tracking is one of the more powerful functions of the software that often is not utilized.  QuickBooks classes are a way to track your data in a way that is meaningful to your business.  Examples of QuickBooks classes are locations or departments.  I use QuickBooks classes to track sources of income so that I know the source of every penny that our business has ever made.    

16. Financial Reporting - One big mistake I see is small businesses not taking advantage of the reporting that is available in QuickBooks.  Small business financial reporting is a crucial piece of the bookkeeping process.  Without running and analyzing financial reports your bookkeeping system is not performing to its full capability. 

17. Owner Memorized Reports - I develop a custom set of reports for myself to run our business.  We also work with our clients to develop a set of reports that the owner finds particularly useful to run their business.  While many reports are available in QuickBooks it is nice to organize them all in one spot for easy access.  Under Reports/Memorized Reports you can find your memorized report list.  You should create a new list called 'owner reports' and memorize important reports to that list to make them easily accessible.

18. Custom Importing - If your financial institution does not offer import capabilities into QuickBooks you still have some options.  You can use a CSV converter to QuickBooks to make your data importable into QuickBooks.  Additionally you can create Intuit Importable Files also known as IIF files which import into QuickBooks.  You may need to seek a developer or programmer that can create IIF files.   

19. Web Apps - There are a whole lot of apps that work with QuickBooks that may help your business.  It is worth browsing the apps to see how they can help your business.  Be sure to get an app that is approved and supported by Intuit.  One QuickBooks app that we recently started using is Time Tracker by eBillity.  This app allows our employees to track and enter their time from their computer, mobile phone or tablet.  The administrator can then approve the time, which can then be set up to sync with your QuickBooks file. 

20. QuickBooks as a Tool - Lastly, I want to talk about using QuickBooks as a tool to run your small business.  Many small business owners look at bookkeeping as a hassle or as a means to filing their taxes.  I think some small business owners simply don't like bookkeeping, others are intimidated by it and some don't see the value in it.  If your bookkeeping system and QuickBooks file are set up properly and tailored to your specific needs they can help you run your business.  Your QuickBooks file should be a tool that you can use to aid you in making key business decisions.

QuickBooks can be a valuable tool to help you run your small business.  If you look at your bookkeeping as a hassle then you have not been shown how to properly use your bookkeeping system to aid you in making business decisions.