Week Four/Five

by Heather Gurewitz

WBC Director

It is getting more difficult to write my blogs during session, there are so many important questions to answer.  Everyone is making progress, well, at least everyone who is left. Writing a business plan is hard. It takes a lot of thought, effort, and persistence. We are down to five participants. Considering we started with 10, I am really proud of the writers who are sticking it out. This is a rigorous program.  Everyone is getting close to finishing, but considering we have only 2 weeks left after this, there is a lot of work to do!  Tonight we started on financials. Luckily most people have already been working on this so it isn't too treacherous.  I see a lot of progress being made, I just hope we can beat the clock!

Business Plan Writer's Group, Week 2

by Heather Gurewitz

WBC Director for West Company

This week's major challenge is the flu bug that is sweeping the country by storm.  I was "lucky" to have got hit hard Friday night and "conveniently" had Monday off for the holiday. So I haven't had to miss any work. But we are definitely missing a few tonight because of this virulent flu that's going around.  However, unlike last week where there was a lot of confusion and fear about putting the pen to the paper this week there is not much but the quiet sound of key tapping as those of us that have made it type away! Questions this week seem to be much more specific, revolving around specifics of business operations, in particular, billing policies, type of business, etc.   I try my best to answer through a film of cotton in my head. I am also working to get people to really start thinking about numbers in their plans. Putting numbers to the plan is essential and it is best to do it as soon as possible. It is a struggle, but it makes things easier in the long run.

The Business Plan Challenge - Week 1

by Heather Gurewitz
Women's Business Center Director for West Company

This week marks the first week of West Company's Business Plan Writer's Group. 10 women, 6 weeks, 9 plans being written simultaneously. A challenge for who? The women in the group? Me the facilitator? Both.  I love the Writer's Group.  I love helping people actually move their plans forward in a supportive and fun environment.  Unfortunately it is also my job to sometimes be the whip-cracker and our two volunteers from Soroptimists of Fort Bragg (our financial sponsor for the program)  were  both down with the nasty flu and unable to attend.  The biggest challenge for me: making sure everyone had what they needed and knew what they were supposed to be doing.  The biggest challenge for the participants: getting started.  I saw a lot of analysis paralysis and found myself saying over and over again "just get started, you can always change it later, if you don't know what to write, skip it and move to something that you do know. You can always go back." This is good advice for anyone writing a plan. Just remember, one drop starts the waterfall! Biggest Accomplishment for the night: Everyone who attended got something written, including me!