Wednesday 17 July 2013

Christopher Gardner

Born: February 9, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Company: Christopher Gardner International Holdings
Position: CEO
Industry: Financial Services
Country: United States


The amazing story of Gardner’s life was published as an autobiography, The Pursuit of Happyness, on May 23, 2006, and is the inspiration for the movie of the same title starring Will Smith as Gardner.

A series of circumstances in the early 1980’s left Gardner homeless in San Francisco and the sole guardian of his toddler son. Unwilling to give up Chris Jr. or his dream of financial independence, Gardner started at the bottom. Without connections or a college degree, he earned a spot in the Dean Witter Reynolds training program. Often spending his nights in a church shelter or the bathroom at a Bay Area Rapid Transit station in Oakland, Gardner was the sole trainee offered a job at Dean Witter Reynolds in 1981. He spent 1983-1987 at Bear Stearns & Co., where he became a top earner, and then in 1987, he founded the brokerage firm Gardner Rich & Co in Chicago.
Born February 9, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Gardner never knew his father. He lived with his mother, Bettye Jean Gardner, whom he adored, and, when necessary, in foster homes. Despite a life of hardship and emotional scarring, his mother provided him with strong "spiritual genetics" and taught him some of the greatest lessons of his life, which he follows to this day. Bettye Jean convinced him that in spite of where he came from, he could attain whatever goals he set for himself by saying, "If you want to, one day you could make a million dollars." Gardner believed this to be fact, and knew he would have to find a career he could be passionate about, and one that would allow him to "be world-class at something."

Straight out of high school, Gardner enlisted in the Navy, just like his uncles, his role models, had done. After the military, Gardner went to San Francisco and took a job as a medical supply salesman. Then he reached a turning point in his life. In a parking lot, he met a man driving a red Ferrari. "He was looking for a parking space. I said, 'You can have mine, but I gotta ask you two questions.' The two questions were: What do you do? And how do you do that? Turns out this guy was a stockbroker and he was making $80,000 a month."

That pivotal encounter gave Gardner a clear career goal and he began knocking on doors, applying for training programs at brokerages even though it meant he would have to live on next to nothing while he learned. When he was finally accepted into a program, he left his job in medical sales. But his plans collapsed when the man who offered him the training slot was fired, and Gardner had no job to go back to. Then he was put in jail for $1,200 in parking violations he couldn't pay. Chris Jr.’s mother left and Gardner, despite his circumstances, fought to keep his son because, as he says, "I made up my mind as a young kid that when I had children they were going to know who their father is, and that he isn’t going anywhere."

Finally managing to enter the training program at Dean Witter Reynolds, Gardner’s meager stipend as a trainee meant he, like so many working poor in America, had a job but couldn't make ends meet. Chris’s co-workers never knew he spent his evenings trying to arrange day care, find food and a safe place for him and his son to sleep. After spending nights in a locked bathroom at an Oakland subway station, Gardner persuaded Rev. Cecil Williams, founder of a new shelter program for homeless women at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, to let him and Chris Jr. stay at the shelter.

Gardner passed his licensing exam in 1981 on the first try. He arrived early, stayed late and worked the phones day after day to lure new clients. He and Chris Jr. got an apartment, and in 1983 he joined Bear, Stearns & Company. After becoming a top producer, first in San Francisco and later in New York, Gardner left in 1987 to establish Gardner Rich & Company, Inc., an institutional brokerage firm specializing in the execution of debt, equity and derivative products transactions for some of the nations largest institutions, public pension plans and unions. The company has expanded into Christopher Gardner International Holdings and now has a business project underway in South Africa.

Gardner reaches out to many programs serving the homeless, donating time, assistance, and funds. Foremost among these are the Glide United Methodist Church in San Francisco and The Cara Program in Chicago. At Glide, Gardner assists with fundraising, donates clothes and shoes, and speaks at services and events. He is also involved in a plan to revitalize and provide new housing in the neighborhood around Glide. At Cara, which assists the homeless and at-risk populations in Chicago with comprehensive job training and placement, Gardner speaks at counseling sessions, assists with permanent job placement, and also donates clothing and shoes.

Gardner serves as a board member of the National Fatherhood Initiative, whose mission is to improve the well-being of children by increasing the proportion of children growing up with involved, responsible, and committed fathers. Gardner was the recipient of the group’s Father of the Year Award in 2002.

Gardner is particularly committed to educational organizations. He serves on the board of the National Education Foundation and sponsors two annual awards: the National Education Association’s National Educational Support Personnel Award and the American Federation of Teachers’ Paraprofessionals and School-Related Personnel (PSRP) Award. He is also involved with the Chicago Teachers’ Union, sponsoring activities and outings for Chicago public school kids.

In addition to the father of the Year Award, Gardner has also been honored by the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women (LACAAW) with the 25th Annual Humanitarian Award, and by the Continental Africa Chamber of Commerce with the 2006 Friends of Africa Award.

Chris Gardner’s remarkable story of struggle, faith, entrepreneurialism, and fatherly devotion has catapulted him beyond the notoriety he has found on Wall Street. He has been featured on the "Evening News with Dan Rather," "20/20," "Oprah," "The View," CNN, CNBC as well as being the subject of profiles in numerous newspapers and magazines including USA Today, Associated Press, New York Times, Fortune, Reader’s Digest, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He is also a highly sought after speaker.

Thursday 11 July 2013

business

Elements of a Business Plan
There are seven major sections of a business plan, and each one is a complex document. Read this selection from our business plan tutorial to fully understand these components.
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Now that you understand why you need a business plan and you've spent some time doing your homework gathering the information you need to create one, it's time to roll up your sleeves and get everything down on paper. The following pages will describe in detail the seven essential sections of a business plan: what you should include, what you shouldn't include, how to work the numbers and additional resources you can turn to for help. With that in mind, jump right in.
Executive Summary
Within the overall outline of the business plan, the executive summary will follow the title page. The summary should tell the reader what you want. This is very important. All too often, what the business owner desires is buried on page eight. Clearly state what you're asking for in the summary.
The statement should be kept short and businesslike, probably no more than half a page. It could be longer, depending on how complicated the use of funds may be, but the summary of a business plan, like the summary of a loan application, is generally no longer than one page. Within that space, you'll need to provide a synopsis of your entire business plan. Key elements that should be included are:
1.    Business concept. Describes the business, its product and the market it will serve. It should point out just exactly what will be sold, to whom and why the business will hold a competitive advantage.
2.    Financial features. Highlights the important financial points of the business including sales, profits, cash flows and return on investment.
3.    Financial requirements. Clearly states the capital needed to start the business and to expand. It should detail how the capital will be used, and the equity, if any, that will be provided for funding. If the loan for initial capital will be based on security instead of equity, you should also specify the source of collateral.
4.    Current business position. Furnishes relevant information about the company, its legal form of operation, when it was formed, the principal owners and key personnel.
5.    Major achievements. Details any developments within the company that are essential to the success of the business. Major achievements include items like patents, prototypes, location of a facility, any crucial contracts that need to be in place for product development, or results from any test marketing that has been conducted.
When writing your statement of purpose, don't waste words. If the statement of purpose is eight pages, nobody's going to read it because it'll be very clear that the business, no matter what its merits, won't be a good investment because the principals are indecisive and don't really know what they want. Make it easy for the reader to realize at first glance both your needs and capabilities.

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/38308#ixzz2Y0450dNL
5 Features of Great Business Plan Software
     
Using business plan software might be just what you need to help you write a business plan. It will save you time and the headaches that come with trying to figure it all out yourself. Here are some features of great business plan software that you should look for when making a purchase:
1. Step-by-Step Instructions
Writing a business plan or coming up with a business plan outline can be intimidating for some. It's a lot easier when you're given easy to follow step-by-step instructions, and a great business plan software will do just that. In addition to the instructions, you'll get expert advice to help you think through problems and solutions that your business will face.
2. Large Number of Sample Business Plans
There's nothing like having sample business plans to look at to help craft your own. A good software program will have so many that you're bound to find a company just like yours (or close to it). This will make it easier for you to come up with your own business plan outline, because you can copy it and modify it to fit your business. This will save you time, and it may help generate ideas that you did not think of yourself.
3. Cash Flow Management
One of the most important aspects of writing a business plan are your financial statements. Some business plan software makes it easy for you to create cash flow statements and to see how they're affected by changes to your business plan. For example, after you plug in data concerning your accounts payable and accounts receivable, you might want to test how your cash flow will look if you dropped a particular product or service. Your software should be capable of reflecting the changes in the numbers without having to redo your business plan all over again. It should also have a chart for you to see the effects visually. This makes writing a business plan easier than trying to craft it yourself in Excel or doing the calculations on paper.
4. Customization Tools
You may need to customize the software in order to meet special financing or other requirements. A great feature of a business plan program is the customization tools available. These allow you to insert anything extra that you need, such as tables or fields. If you started your business plan using Excel or another spreadsheet, many good business plan software programs will allow you to import that data into the program. This allows for the flexibility needed in writing a business plan.
5. Plan Versus Reality
Perhaps one of the most helpful features is the ability to compare (at a glance) how your business is really doing versus what your written business plan says. Some will have comparison charts available so that you can readily see if you're meeting your financial, sales, marketing and other goals, or if you're missing the mark. This is important because you want to correct mistakes or change courses quickly, before you suffer unnecessary losses to your business. Without a comparison of your plans versus reality, you might follow a plan that will cause your business to fail.
The beauty of using a business plan software is that as your business grows, you can easily adjust your plans with simple data entry. The software will write your business plan all over again, and you won't need to get bogged down with recalculating everything.
The general headings for any business plan should include the following:
Business Plan Title
•    Executive Summary
o    Objectives
o    Mission
o    Keys to Success
•    Company Summary
o    Company Ownership
o    location(s) and facilities
•    Start-up Summary
o    Start-Up Costs
o    Funding Investment
•    Products and Services
o    Services
o    Service Description
o    Future Services
o    Products
o    Product description
o    Future Products
•    Market Analysis Summary
o    Market Segmentation
o    Target Market Segment Strategy
o    Market Trends
o    Service Business Analysis
o    Competition
o    Buying Patterns
•    Strategy and Implementation Summary
o    Swot Analysis
o    Marketing Strategy
o    Pricing Strategy
o    Promotion Strategy
o    Business Competitive Edge
o    Web Strategy
o    Sales Strategy
•    Management Summary
o    Management Team
o    Organizational Structure
o    Personnel Plan
•    Financial Plan
o    Break Even Analysis
o    Profit and Loss
o    Cash Flow
o    Appendix