Blog 2 Final Project:  Business Plan

According to Phil Breman of About.com, getting starting in the film or television business is one of the hardest things to do, but if you follow certain steps it will not be as difficult, and knowing the right information is key to making the ride less bumpy.  (Breman, 2012)  For starters you must narrow down the areas of business that you want to enter, because there are so many different careers in the entertainment industry, it can be very overwhelming.  Breman states you should know what you are looking for before you start looking.  (Breman, 2012)  The next steps is to assess your skills, and determine what type of skill this particular job requires in comparison to what you are good at doing.  Next you should make a list of places to start looking for jobs, and Breman feels the Internet is a good place to start.  He states, “it used to be that the only way to find a job in the biz was through word of mouth, but now most production companies have more work than they can handle.  (Breman, 2012)  This is where search engines come into play, when looking for entry-level positions in the industry.  He suggested the Hollywood Reporter Job Classified and Major Media Company Job boards like Disney, University, NBC, and other networking companies.  Next is to prepare a good resume, or employ an agency to do one for you.  “Build a solid resume, that will help you get your feet in the door.”  (Breman, 2012)  Being honest and including all of your accomplishments is key in effective resume writing, and because most people in the entertainment industry have no or little experience when the enter the business, therefore being patient is one of the most important characteristics that you can have.  Breman states, to remember the three P’s:  stay passionate, persistent, and patient is essential, and it will help dramatically to increase your odds of succeeding in the entertainment industry.  (Breman, 2012)

http://filmtvcareers.about.com/od/gettingthejob/p/Get_Started_HUB.htm

FBPD Professional Blog Post 1 Assignment

The Coalition Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) is a network of public and private lending organizations that provide funding to individuals or businesses in low-income communities across the country.  They have over 950 different representatives in all 50 states that are their promoting development loan funds, community under development banks, community development credit unions, microenterprises lenders, community development corporations, and community development venture capital funds.  (CDFI, 2012)  Their mission is “to unify national voice of community development financial institutions.  Our mission is to encourage fair access to financial resources for America’s undeserved people, and communities.” (CDFI, 2012)  Today the 950 public and private organizations are certified by the CDFI funding operations, in the effort of upgrading rural and urban communities.  They also get a lot of their money to distribute for the US government, via religious, corporate, individual organizations that help low income people obtain better housing, start or rebuild businesses within their own communities.  It states CDFI measures success by focusing on the “double bottom line”, economic gains, and the contributions they make to the local communities.  (CDFI, 2012)  In the effort to help people and/or businesses to become self-sufficient in their communities, they can also get training, technical assistance services, loans, grants, and etc.  The ultimate goal is to rebuild their credit, and their community, get educated, increase jobs, and some the opportunity to become entrepreneurs. 

The other website I found very informative was the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) and their mission is “to develop and establish a foundation for sustainable job growth and to rebuild durable regional economics throughout the US.”  They use two main economic components, innovation and regional collaboration.  “Innovations are the key to global competitiveness, new and/or better jobs, resilient economy, and to attain the national economic goals. EDA encourages initiatives that advance new ideas and create approaches to address rapidly evolving economic conditions.”  (EDA, 2012)  They offer grants to public and private sectors, as long as they meet certain guidelines that are associated with global competitiveness, create jobs, and other priorities listed below:

•       Collaborative Regional Innovation
•     Public/ Private Partnership
•     National Strategic Priorities
•     Environmentally Sustainable Development

    Economically Distressed and Undeserved Communities your idea falls under one of these categories, than you have a good chance of receiving a grant, and/or loan to establish your business.  The EDA also offers different opportunities news about federal funding grant opportunities for example:

•        FY 2012 Disaster Relief Opportunity
•        FY 2012 University Center Economics
•        Development Program Competition
•        Announcements of Federal Funding
•        Opportunity for the 2012 16 Challenge
•       Latest Approved Grants, and etc.

Overall I found EDA very informative because it gives you information on how to, as well as a list of the different type of grants, organization, and how much was granted, to encourage you more to apply.

http://www.cdfi.org/

http://www.eda.gov/about/

Expert View On the Value of Business Plans

Expert View On the Value of Business Plans

Experts:  Oprah Winfrey & Donald Trump

The two experts that I chose to research for my blog post are Oprah Winfrey & Donald Trump mainly because I admire both of them, have been following both throughout their careers, now on Facebook, Twitter, and because I have listened to them speak on different subjects, I respect their thoughts and opinions.  

Oprah Winfrey: 

Oprah was not born into a privileged family and had limited support doing some parts of her life.  According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography, Oprah had a difficult childhood, because she was born to unmarried parents that soon separated after she was born in 1954.  After coming in to a dysfunctional environment, she was left with her grandmother on an isolated farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi.  She showed early signs of being “special” it stated, “ as a child, she played like she was in front of an audience of farm animals and by age 21/2 she was reading.  She skipped Kindergarten after writing her teacher a note on the first day of school saying that she belonged in the first grade and after that year she was skipped to the third grade.  Excelling early in life, Oprah became a excellent student while living with her father, she started giving speeches at church and at events, she even made $500 to give a speech and right than she knew she wan to get paid to talk.  Because Oprah had to move back with her dysfunctional mother to Nashville, she became rebellious, and was abused.  But once reunited with her father, where her lifestyle became safe and normal again and because of his strict child rearing methods, it provided guidance, structure, rules, and books.  But due to the negative experiences, and impact that her mother put on her, Oprah came to the realization that having a business plan would “force her to consider the what-ifs and tiny cost you might overlook” while putting a business together.  Furthermore she stated that a “business plan would force you to see what you need to change to finally start making money with your business.”  She considers “a business plan as a living thing because it grows and changes just like we do and the economy.” 

Donald Trump:

According to the Encyclopedia of the World Biography, Donald was born into a privileged family in Queens New York, in 1946 he was the forth of five children of Frederick and Mary Macleod Trump.  Donald’s parents enrolled him into the New York Military Academy at age thirteen so that he would learn self-discipline, and how to stay focused at an early age in his life.  Following his father’s footsteps, into the Building and Real Estate Development business, in the summertime he would work onsite with his father doing construction work and learning the family business.  At the military school he excelled academically, athletically, and socially where he became a positive role model for others.  He graduated in 1964.  Donald than entered Fordham University but transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Finance where he graduated in 1968, with a degree in Economics.  After graduating Donald became a big part of the Trump Organization and in 1971 he moved to Manhattan where he began to network with influential people.  Trump stated that “stance on business plans are simple:  with a business plan there is a direction and focus, not having a business plan, you are bound to fail because there is no focus.  A plan gives you direction to know where you are going, what you are doing, and how you will get where you want to be.”  He stated in terms of obtaining an investor, its very important to have a good detailed business plan because the investor will want to see it before they agree to invest any money, Donald also stated “without a plan, any entrepreneur would not be able to get their feet off the ground.”

 According to Rhonda Abrams author of Successful Business Plan, she states “Investors are sensitive to issues of the industry health, because it is harder to raise money if the industry is facing a crisis”, employing capable management is key also when you are seeking funding because they realize that you can’t run a business totally alone and if you don’t employ experienced, real, flexible, and work well with people team of managers it can cause you business to be unsuccessful.  Lastly is having the ability to control money, by having a full understanding of the anticipated cost to start up your business at the beginning in order to eliminate unwanted pressure doing the honeymoon stage of the partnership.  (Abrams, 2010)

      In closing, each of these people is great examples of successful business owners, and because of their experiences, planning and professional techniques of not deviating from their ultimate goal, they were able to reach the top.  Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump had two totally different starts in life, but due to their level of success, they both have developed businesses plans that have turned into successful businesses.  Because of Donald’s drive and determination, focus and direction that he inherited, he was able to associate his business plan to how the military structures the life of a soldier in combat training.   He stated, “if there is no business plan there is no focus, and you are bound to fail” which I means, staying focus in life will lead to success.  And because Oprah’s experienced heartaches and challenges early on in her life, and she developed her plan around the concept of learning as much as possible, and with experience it is essential to change.  Her plan was “ writing a business plan to help stay focused and having the ability consider the what-ifs, tiny cost that you might overlook, and force you to see what you need to change to finally start making money in your business.”  In my opinion, Oprah went through major transformations throughout her life and because she realized that if she didn’t force herself to, and didn’t have a plan she would have missed out on some important aspects that needed to be addressed, whereas Donald learned what he needed to know early and stayed on course throughout his life. 

  

References

Abrams, R.  “Successful Business Plan” Secrets & Strategies.  5^th Edition

Encyclopedia of World Biography.  “Oprah Winfrey Biography.” 

     http://www.notablebiographies.com/We-Z/Winfrey-Oprah.html#b

Encyclopedia of World Biography.  “Donald Trump Biography” 

     http://www.notablebiographies.com/St-Tr/Trump-Donald.html#b

Expert Views on Business Plans.  “Donald Trumps and Oprah Winfrey

     (N Gerecitano)  http://bpexpertviews.blogspot.com

Cleveland Indians Social Media Suite

According to Sports Business Journal Staff Writer, Eric Fisher states that social media usage has proven its credibility of being an “effective tool to boost fan interaction, forge connections between teams, leagues and their fans, sell tickets, merchandise, and help drive TV viewership.”  (Fisher, 2011) 

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/journal/issues/2011/08/01/in-depth/social-media.aspx.   Because social media has become such a broad leveraging approach to a new line of communication with consumers, it will never be considered a “one-size-fit-all” method of pursuing sports properties in order to exceed traditional media strategies. Fisher states that there are 20 top social media tactics that have utilized over the past few years, but the one that I feel is the most creative, is how the Cleveland Indians have took Social Media to a another level by adding a social media suite to their list of communicating with their fans, and consumers.  The Indians wanted to do something out of the norm to reach their fans and to relieve the attention off of their challenging season of losses in recent years.  So they “opened the social media desk the bleachers of Progressive Fields.  Seating 10 outfitted with wireless internet access, that were sponsored by Time Warner Cable, helped to build good will for the club”.  (Fisher, 2011) http://technorati.com/sports/baseball/article/cleveland-indians-taking-social-networking-to/   The new effort allowed the Indians to expand “The Social Media Desk” into a luxury 12-seat suite in the park.  Because of the success, the social media suite has acquired a large waiting list that extended for almost the rest of the season.  According to Author John Basso, the team’s president Mark Shapiro was in total agreement to the new idea and spoke highly of the idea on his twitter page and Sr. Director, Curtis Danbury for the Indians stated, “This has given us a tangible platform to show our commitment to the social media space.  We are creating new brand ambassadors who are then going out and talking about the Indians experiences and are in essence of spreading our message.”  (Basso, 2011)  Their new social media direction has allowed the Indians to build a “stronger relationship with their fans” (Basso, 2011) and develop a new strategy that has helped to ease the negative media comments, and open the line of communication with their fan base.  Their goal is to keep their new program and social media network strong and refreshing by having onsite coverage at every event during their season, for now on. 

References

Basso, J. “Cleveland Indians Taking Social Networking to A Whole New Level.  Technorati. 

     March 24, 2011.

      http://technorati.com/sports/baseball/article/cleveland-indians-taking-social-networking-to/

Fisher, E.   “20 Great Uses of Social Media in Sports” Sports Business Journal Daily.  August, 1 2011. 

     Page 14.

     http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2011/08/01/In-Depth/Social-media.aspx.

Nike’s New Marketing Mojo

According to Scott Cendrowski, writer-reporter of CNN Money states “The legendary brand blew up its single-slogan approach and drafted a new playbook for the digital era.”  (Cendrowski, 2012)  In a highly secured area of the company’s 192-acre office space located in Beaverton Ore,  Nike’s team of highly qualified engineers, and marketing executives along side Apple ‘s development team have launched a “New Home of Nike Digital Sports” in 2010.  (Cendrowski, 2012) These new marketing gadgets consist of a device that lets the user track their own personal performance level, while participating in their sport of choice.  Its called the “Nike+ Running Sensor” which is in the form of a watch, but has a sensor installed, you may purchase the sensor alone, or with an IPod connected w/o the watch, and Nike just added another gadget to the list, which is another high tech piece of technology; it’s called the Fuel Band.  This gadget allows the user to monitor their energy output level just by wearing this wristband, while doing their activity.  

http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/13/nike-digital-marketing/

Videos Explaining Nike’s New Digital Era: http://www.fluffylinks.com/nike-digital-marketing

According to Sir Lucas Leftfoot, Nike’s goal is to get closer to their target market by building new and improved lines of communication via Facebook, twitter, and any other social media avenue, he states “Nike has been running its marketing from a different playbook lately.  Rather than the ubiquitous TV and Print Ads of the past, a new focus has been placed on digital marketing.  That means not only pouring more and more time and effort into Twitter and Facebook but also playing a new priority on the quality of online advertising, making video commercials that provide enough value through entertainment or education that Nike consumers feel compelled to share them across numerous platforms.”  (Sir Lucas Leftfoot, 2012)  Below is a diagram of Nike’s advertising expense budget.

http://www.nikeblog.com/2012/02/13/nikes-new-marketing-strategy-the-shift-to-digital-fortune-mag-article/.

Cendrowski states, “Its part of a bigger broader effort to shift the bulk of Nike’s marketing efforts into the digital realm, and it marks the biggest change in Beaverton since the great one of ‘Just do it’.  Nike’s strategy is to eventually eliminate the use of marketing via television commercials and because TV and Print advertising in the U.S. has dropped by 40% in just three years, with a marketing budget still climbing upward to hit a record $2.4 billion last year.  (Cendrowski, 2012)  And by changing their marketing techniques for advertising to their consumers, using social media networks, and online advertising to reach a broader rim of consumers who will purchase their products, see figures above.   Because of the high cost of advertisement, and the additional staff for their new project, Nike projects their expense budget will continue to grow, but so will their revenue.  Their logic is to go to their customers instead of them waiting for the customers to come to them.  Cendrowski states “its core customer is a 17-year-old who spends 20% more on shoes than his adult counterpart, has given up television to skip across myriads online communities.”  (Cendrowski, 2012) Nike feels that the television campaign is old, but the digital marketing era allows brands to market and communicate with their targeted market at a up, closer and personal level like in the yester years.   Fluffy Link article have sum up Nike’s New Digital Marketing focus and new project for the future: 

·      For the first time in its history Nike isn’t wholly reliant on a handful of superstars to move merchandise.

·      After perfecting the art of big branding, it’s moving on to a world in which its consumers want to be told less and just do more.

·      Nike Digital Sports is a new division the company launched in 2010.

·      Its hired scores of new engineers to make technology for digital communities.  (Fluffy Links, 2012)

In closing, in my opinion Nike’s New Digital Marketing Era is well off to a good start, and because of their pro qualities of marketing I feel that we have just seen an introduction of the advance level of technology in sports and there is plenty more to come. 

References

Cendrowski, S.  “Nike’s New Marketing Mojo.”  CNN Money.  February 13, 2012.

      http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/13/nike-digital-marketing/

Fluffy Links.  “How Nike’s Marketing Revolution has resulted in a 40% reduction in TV and Print

      Advertising in the U.S”.  Marketing & Advertising Fluff.   Best of Fluffy Links, Branding Strategy.

       February 19, 2012.  http://www.fluffylinks.com/nike-digital-marketing.

Leftfoot, L.  “Nike’s New Marketing Strategy- The Shift to Digital (Fortune Mag Article)”.  Nike Blog.com

     February 13, 2013. 

     http://www.nikeblog.com/2012/02/13/nikes-new-marketing-strategy-the-shift-to-digital-fortune-

     mag-article/