Tuesday, October 12, 2010

October 1 meeting(Final Approval of business Proposals)

What we did for this meeting was supposed to be finalizing the proposals before we will conduct our major field trip at Manila.

Everyone was so nervous, the pressure was getting higher as we see and hear good proposals from our fellow classmates and the evening students. Though their proposals were good, some of them was not able to please Mr. Randy. Most of the denied proposals were already existing.

Most of us got stuck from thinking of innovations based on our capability now as a student. We thought that this will be our final project proposal for IT Elective 2. Luckily, we had someone like Irwin Rod Adesna as a groupmate. He was the one who thought of our so-called "All-In-One" product. This project proposes a multipurpose product where the consumer can play PS games, do some paper works, sing videoke songs, play music, and many more. It may sound very impossible for us students. But hey! This is just a proposal and we are still enrolled in IT Elective1! We are not required to do the application of our proposed projects. XD

By the time that Irwin was about to discuss what our proposed project was all about, we already have thought of back-up plans. But luckily, our project proposal was approved without presenting our back-up plans! Finally the "thinking for project proposal" is out of my list! Yahoooooo!

The presentation of project proposal continued. There was this one group whose proposal was quite weird but was able to pass Mr. Randy's requirement. By then, many of my fellow students thought of weird, strange, impossible, and useless innovations just to pass the requirement of having an approved project proposal.

Time passed by, and we already spent more than 3hrs at the lab1. Mr. Randy gave chances for those group who was not able to propose a good project. He gave them until the time of the major field trip at Manila.

My Business Proposal for our Technopreneurship subject

Prior to this assignment, last meeting, we had an activity in which we were asked to form a group and create a business proposal out of the things that we love, things that we were best at, and our irritants. The name of our proposed business was “PixelWorks Media”. The nature of our proposed business was lay - outing, customizing, designing and printing t - shirts, identification cards and other stuffs. And our target clients were students, schools, organizations, and others. Our business proposal had created so many criticisms from our instructor, Mr. Randy S. Gamboa, and from our classmates. Mr. Gamboa even called our business proposal as “manok”, which he referred as to a copied idea from a very common business. In my opinion, our business proposal deserves such criticisms. It is because our business proposal was not planned very well.
My groupmates and I relied on the capacity and capability of our fellow groupmate Irwin. He was the one who thought of having such business proposal because he already had an experience and enough knowledge in designing and even in printing. We did not think of creating any innovation or slight changes in the nature of our business that made Mr. Gamboa called our proposal as “manok”.
If I am going to base my own techno business with the “ business proposal ” that my group mates ( namely Nesscel Ann Marie Calara, Irwin Rod Adesna, Ruchan Alangilan, and Jonalyn Sanchez ) had, my techno business might not be as successful as I wanted it to be. It is because I do not have the skills nor knowledge or even partner or partners to make the business successful. Competing with the other better, bigger, and more reliable printing companies will be the next problem if ever I am going to pursue this business proposal. It might end as a waste of time, effort, and money. Since business involves money, I would rather opt for another business than printing and designing.
I had a very hard time thinking of a possible business that would fit my capabilities, capacity, and strengths. It might be because I have not yet found the things that I am best at not even the things that I love. But since, the explosion of the Internet and e-commerce had opened up a new wave of opportunities for all types of businesses; I have decided to make use of it.
Before starting any business, one must consider several things before jumping into a conclusion. One wrong move might become a big mistake that will pull you down into the pit of failure. As I was thinking of an idea for a techno business, I asked myself the following things:
- Are my ideas good enough?
- What should the price range be?
- Can my target clients / customers afford it?
- How to reach out?
- Can it grow in this slow economy?
- Can it become profitable, and return on any investment it requires?
One of the hardest stages in starting up any business is the planning stage since it is like a road map to long – term success. The business plan will give us a clear direction where the business is heading. Many business owners just jump into creating a business without researching and making concrete plan. Inevitably, they soon find that they are out of money, time, and clear strategies as to how to market their business. I have read an article from the internet ( the website is stated at the bottom ) about simple steps to create a business plan. I quoted the following statements / phrases are from the said article:
“ Here are 8 simple steps to creating your own business plan
( this is by no means a comprehensive plan but a primer to get you started ):

1. NAME OF YOUR BUSINESS – create a name or reevaluate the name of your business. Does it integrate well with what you are selling? Is it easy to spell and remember? Is it a name that can be well branded over time?
2. VISION – what will your business look like 5 years from now? Think of how you may want to expand it to include other branches or extra employees.
3. MISSION STATEMENT – this defines what your business really does, what activities it performs and what is unique about it that stands out from your competitors.
4. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES – clearly define what you want to achieve with your business. Make sure they are quantifiable and set to specific time lines. Set specific goals for each of your products or services.
5. STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, AND THREATS ( SWOT ) – by analyzing these characteristics in your business, you will get clearer idea of what it will take for you to not only survive but also to prosper.
This could include such factors as:
- Your companies’ own changing industry
- The marketplace which may change due to social and economic conditions.
- Competition which may create new threats and / or opportunities.
- Ne technologies which may cause you to change products or the processes in how you do things.
Evaluating your SWOT will help you to:
- Build on your strengths
- Resolve your weaknesses
- Exploit opportunities
- Avoid threats
By doing this analysis will help you create more realistic strategic action plan.
6. STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN – this is the most critical step of your business plan, because without it, your business will not get off the ground. This should include your sales and marketing strategies.
7. FINANCIAL PLAN – a business can operate without budgets, but it is clearly good business practice to include it. With budgets, you will be more likely to achieve your business objectives, you will make more – reasoned decisions and you will have better control of your cash flow.
For any period, a cash flow statement would include:
- The cash and credit sales ( or accounts receivable ) expected to be received during the period.
- The anticipated cash payments ( for example, expenses for purchases, salaries, utility charges, taxes, office expenses and others )
- A description of the other incoming and outgoing cash, with a calculation of the overall cash balance.
This will assess how much money is on hand to meet your financial obligations – what cash has been paid out. Knowledge of this cash flow cycle will help you predict when you will receive funds and when you will be required to make a payment.
8. MEASURING AND EVALUATION – you wrote your business plan and set the goals with the intent of achieving them. So now break them down into measurable pieces and monitor the results regularly. A plan that cannot be measured is almost always destined for failure. Celebrate your wins and recharge yourself to accomplish your next goal.
Decide beforehand what constitutes a real serious loss and what loss will be acceptable.
If you find your goals are unrealistic and unattainable, adjust them, but realize that it takes hard work to achieve them, so don’t give up easily.
CONCLUSION:
Now that you have a business plan, make it a part of you by knowing and understanding it clearly. Build upon it continuously and refer to it often, so you remain on track to building a profitable business.”
Planning our group’s business proposal was the lacking key in our previous activity. We automatically jumped into a conclusion without understanding fully the nature of our proposed business.

If given a chance to have a technology – based business, I would like to base the whole thing with the things I love, the things I am best at, and Irritants.
Since I am fond reading articles in the internet and, I think, I am good at doing some researches, I thought, accepting researches via online would fit me. It will be a pay – per – request system which can be paid online via credit cards and other related paying system or do some meet ups with the client. Possible target clients are students or anybody who needed to do some research but has no time to do it. But unfortunately, as I was browsing the forum, it was already proposed by Juvilyn Consejo. I do not want to post the same concept because she might think that I was stealing or copying her idea because she posted in the forum first. So I decided to think of other possible business. Thinking of a back – up plan for my business proposal gave me more and more headaches.

My back – up business plan will make use of the internet and mobile phones. Since surfing through the internet has become a trend. It is now our need, and at the same time, our want. We browse in the internet to do researches, play games, watch videos, downloading and uploading stuffs, and many more. Nowadays, Internet is the biggest and the best information source for everybody. We even prefer to surf through the internet with the aid of different search engines than going to the library. Almost everybody has an access through the internet. Web browsing does not limit itself as to its accessibility. One can access the internet via personal computers / laptops, PSP, mobile phones, iPods, and others. In my case, I was able to browse through the internet for almost 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with the use of my mobile phone.

Before, parents do not allow children to have mobile phones because they are afraid that their children’s safety might be at risk. Parents are scared that the mobiles phone might attract unwanted attentions from other people. But now, things have changed. Parents allow their children to have mobile phones for communication and safety purposes. On the other hand, kids use their mobile devices mainly for social interaction with friends.
My business plan focuses on the children’s internet browsing via mobile phones.

By the time kids reach middle school, they are likely having much or more knowledge about the internet than their parents do. They use the internet for school works, playing games, email, instant messaging, downloading music, and others. But although they already know their way around the internet, they may lack the judgment and emotional maturity to steer clear of trouble. That is where parents come in and guide their children with web browsing.
Mobile phones come with new things for parents to worry about aside from thefts. Nowadays, mobile phones are essentially handheld computers, so worries about your child stumbling across the pornographic or violent contents, or being groomed in chatrooms, via personal computer or laptops now apply equally to their mobile phones. No matter how clued up you are about the internet safety of your home computer, you need to get similarly clued up about your child’s mobile phone if you want to keep them safe in the cyber – world as you try to in the real one.
The virtual world is probably more dangerous and unsafe than the real world.

" The Internet has risks. However its threat of physical danger is rare. But this new playground does host a small population that spreads hatred, pornographic material, and it seeks to commercially prey.

Our young ones are not always the prime targets of these nefarious activities. But an innocent child is easily ensnared within these amoral webs during a first unsupervised encounter. Unfortunately, such an encounter may prove to be life altering. "

NATURE OF BUSINESS

There are a lot of dodgy internet material which can be accessed easily by children and those who are under 18, yet there is no responsible policing and censoring. Several computer software for blocking unwanted internet sites ( like those that have pornographic or violent content ) are already available in the market. But, mobile phones do not have that same kind of software for the safe browsing of your children via mobile. This gave me an idea for my business plan.
My business plan is to create“spy” software in the mobile devices. The name of the software will be “MOBInet spy”. If the lack of control over the whole internet – on – mobile devices malarkey scares you as a parent or as an elder brother or sister, this is the best software for you. This software will give you a report of every websites and URLs visited from your child’s mobile phone. Though this might sound like you are invading the privacy of your children, this will become the best way to keep your children safe in the cyber and mobile world.

FEATURES:

This software works like the Opera Link that is also available with their mobile browser ( Opera Mini ). The difference with this software from the available Opera Link is that, this software spy will not be logged out or turned off easily. To use the service of this software, one must first create an account from my proposed website ( mobinet.com ).
This software enables data sharing between your child’s mobile phone and your computer. It synchronizes the following browser components, so you can monitor your child’s web browsing via mobile:
-bookmarks
-searches
-typed history
-downloaded files, pictures, and other stuffs
-saved pages

Once you are signed in to mobinet.com, synchronization occurs. You can also activate / deactivate MOBInet spy through the proposed website. Activation / Deactivation of MOBInet spy would only be possible if you enter the correct activation and deactivation keys. Deactivation and Activation keys will be sent through your email after you have purchased the software.
Once you have installed MOBInet spy from your son’s / daughter’s / sister’s / brother’s mobile phone, it will work like stealth. Since he / she will not be able to see the software, he / she will not be able to uninstall the software from his/ her phone.
The best feature of MOBInet spy is the restriction and blocking system. Once you have activated the MOBInet spy, you can block several unwanted sites and restrict

HOW TO PURCHASE MOBInet spy?
MOBInet will be available at mobinet.com. And the paying system will be via credit / debit cards, paypal, or by doing some meet ups ( if possible ).

TARGET CLIENTS
In my business plan, my target clients are concerned parents / brothers / sister.
My first client/s for this business would be my aunts and my cousins. And if ever, with God’s grace, it will profit, I would like to extend my clients in the cyber world.

Having this as a business plan is a good idea since there is an existing demand for this kind of software. Though it might seem unethical, at least you will be able to protect your child from unwanted information that your child can get through the internet.
I wanted to help those parents who are too busy to check their children’s cyber life especially, those parents who work abroad. Kids with parent or parents working abroad would likely seek attention in the cyber world or in real one.
Kids, in their nature, love to explore anything and everything in this world. Nowadays, they are more exposed to the technology. As early as 5 years old, they already have a cyber life. A great example is my niece Anya. As soon as they had their own internet connection, she had already explored many things and had her own cyber life. Unfortunately, she had also explored the unnecessary and unwanted sites like porn. Now that she has her own mobile phone, and her phone is capable of connecting through the internet, I thought this software might help us restrict her from those pornographic sites.
Though this will help parents resolve their problem with the exposure of their children with pornographic materials, I think it would also be better if you talk to your children and create a better relationship with them.
Putting up a business is good, but creating a service that would benefit both client and the business man would be better.
I know that having this as a business plan is too risky. But, the fact that I will be able to help parents is more than enough.

Resource: www.isitebuild.com/simplebusinessplan.htm
http://www.bukisa.com/articles/52567_risks-and-dangers-of-the-internet-to-your-child#ixzz0zkw2hjTb