1. Business Time
Vol. 12 Newsletter October 8, 2014
The Person Behind
Mcdonalds: The
Ray Kroc Story
Tips on Investing and
Using your Money Wisely
Diid yyoou kknoow??
Choosing Your Business
Major
2. 7 Top Tips from Investment Experts
By Nelly Nyagah
Valuable tips that can help to build your business and get you
ready for
investment.
1) Business plan
ownership. Write the business plan yourself;
don’t get advisers to do it – and make sure the
senior team contributes and takes ownership of
the document.
2) Size matters. Is the market you are addressing
large enough? And are you targeting a niche
within that market?
3) Know your audience. The first thing you need to
understand when starting a business is your
customer market. What is their problem and
what is your solution to that problem?
4) Revenue counts most. In business plans the
revenue number is the hardest to get right but by
far the most important; spend 90% of your effort
on the aspects that lead to the revenue number:
market size and growth, competitor offerings and
your competitive advantage, pricing, marketing,
converting prospects into customers, routes to
market etc.
5) Start-ups: simplicity is the key. When planning
your new business, you need to focus on a simple
product or service that has a clear value
proposition and business model.
6) Validation. To be successful, you must validate
your offering with real customers before
launch. This is an iterative process that takes
time, and cash preservation is key during this
phase.
7) Don’t try and do everything yourself. Surround
yourself with people with experience of the
industry you are focused on – you don’t have to
agree with them but they can often have helpful
insights or contacts, which could grow your
business more rapidly than you can.
Here are some tips to be budget wise:
a) For one month, keep track of all your
expenses. You don't have to limit yourself; just
get an idea of what you spend money on
during any given month.
b) After the first month, take stock of what you
spent. Don't write down what you wished you
had spent; write down what you actually spent
c) Now, write down your actual budget. Based
on the month of actual expenses — and your
own knowledge of your spending history —
budget out how much of your income you
want to allocate to each category every month.
d) Be honest with yourself about your budget.
It's your money — there's really no sense in
lying to yourself about how much you're going
to spend when making a budget
e) Keep track of your budget over time. The hard
part of a budget is that your expenses may
change from month to month. The great part
of a budget is that you'll have kept track of
those changes, giving you an accurate idea of
where your money went during the year.
“If today were the last day of your life, would you want to do what you are
about to do today?” – Steve Jobs
3. “If I had a brick for every time I’ve repeated the phrase Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value, I think I’d
probably be able to bridge the Atlantic Ocean with them.” – Ray Kroc
How do you create a restaurant
empire and become an
overnight success at the age of
52? As Ray Kroc said, “I was an
overnight success all right, but
30 years is a long, long night.”
In 1917, 15-year-old Ray Kroc
lied about his age to join the
Red Cross as an ambulance
driver, but the war ended
before his training finished. He
then worked as a piano player,
a paper cup salesman and a
multi-mixer salesman.
In 1954 he was surprised by a
huge order for 8 multi-mixers
from a restaurant in San
Bernardino, California. There he
found a small but successful
restaurant run by brothers Dick
and Mac McDonald, and was
stunned by the effectiveness of
their operation. They produced
a limited menu, concentrating
on just a few items—burgers,
fries and beverages—which
allowed them to focus on
quality at every step.
Kroc pitched his vision of
creating McDonald’s
restaurants all over the U.S. to
the brothers. In 1955 he
founded the McDonald’s
Corporation, and 5 years later
bought the exclusive rights to
the McDonald’s name. By 1958,
McDonald’s had sold its 100
millionth hamburger.
Ray Kroc wanted to build a
restaurant system that would
be famous for food of
consistently high quality and
uniform methods of
preparation. He wanted to
serve burgers, buns, fries and
beverages that tasted just same
in Alaska as they did in
Alabama.
To achieve this, he chose a
unique path: persuading both
franchisees and suppliers to
buy into his vision, working not
for McDonald’s, but for
themselves, together with
McDonald’s. He promoted the
slogan, “In business for
yourself, but not by yourself.”
His philosophy was based on
the simple principle of a 3-
legged stool: one leg was
McDonald’s, the second, the
franchisees, and the third,
McDonald’s suppliers. The stool
was only as strong as the 3 legs.
4. I am not going to tell you that
one major is better than
another — that’s for you to
decide. But, I can tell you the
job opportunities you can
expect to have if you perform
well in your business studies,
and how much each of those
job opportunities pay.
1. Accounting – If you like to
keep track of things, have
strong attention to detail, and
enjoy following the rules, being
an accounting major may be a
good choice for you.
2. Economics – If you like to
understand theories behind
how things work, look at the
big picture and narrow it down,
and enjoy math and statistics,
being an economics major may
be the way to go.
3. Finance – If you are a jack of
all trades, like the stock market
or investing, and putting all of
the pieces together, you may
want to be a finance major.
4. Marketing - If you are
creative, like to think outside
the box, but are also
interested in business, being a
marketing major may be a
good choice for you.
5. Management – If you are
good with people, like to be in
charge, and like fixing
problems, management may
be a good fit for you
6. Real Estate - If you like
marketing, management,
finance, and accounting, real
estate could be a good option
for you to explore.
“The biggest risk is not taking any risk…in a world that is changing
really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking
any risks” – Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook, one of the most popular social networking sites
of our time, was started in 2004 by Harvard sophomore
Mark Zuckerberg and funded by his Harvard colleague,
Eduardo Saverin. Who was the Official Spokesperson for
Facebook when it was started?
Chris Hughes. Chris Hughes was Mark Zuckerberg's
roommate at Harvard. Dustin Moskowitz was in charge
of maintenance of the website when it was started, and
Sean Parker was initially the Vice-President of the
Company.
Apple Inc., known for their Mac OS, I-Pad, Ipod and
Iphone, was started by three people: Steve Jobs, Steve
Wozniack and which other individual?
Ronald Wayne. Ronald Wayne was the lesser known
Apple Founder. He unfortunately sold his shares for
$2300. Steve Jobs retired through illness in August
2011 (and died two months later), having been
succeeded by Cook.
Nokia, a major telecom company, was started
in Finland in 1871. They introduced their mini
Laptop in 2009. What is it called?
Booklet 3G. Nokia was started in Finland
in 1871, by Fredrik Idestam and Leo
Mechelin. They introduced their mini
laptop Booklet 3G, which runs on
Windows 7.