The Business Plan - Cuban/Greiner Style

            There was no specific part of my business plan that Mark Cuban or Lori Greiner advice helped on. In fact their advice actually helped in a different aspect. You can have an amazing business plan but if you can not present it correctly who will invest? These are things I’ve begun to work on using Cuban and Greiner’s advice. How will I present the business plan? Does each section require a different tone? Who is my target audience during the meeting? Should I be trying to sell them on the plan that it can actually work? Or do I try to sell them on the idea and forget about why the consumer would want this or even need it?

            This leads to the hardest part. Most people think they know everything or can find the information they need. The truth is, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Cuban and Greiner both look for people who put the hours in. They look for people who are willing to admit they don’t know everything and can be humble.

Anything can sell just look at the Pet Rock. There are another hundred examples of things I could list that have no real use in the world but they sell. Why do they sell? It’s all about marketing. I believe that no matter your product or service if you have the right marketing whether it is a video, catch phrase, slogan, or some cheesy mascot, if it can catch on it can almost assuredly sell. It is one thing to stand in front of investors and sell your start up/ business plan. Its another to sell it to the market or is it? They can be one in the same. Capture investors with your marketing plan and you can capture the market as well. That is what I think investors look for. They may think does this product have use, but in the end even if you just have the pet rock and investors look at you like you are crazy, the marketing plan can sell it to them and the consumer.

Entrepreneurs – What the Experts believe it takes

           So I’m taking a step back from sports related themes this week. I’m going to be writing about Entrepreneurs. I try to catch Shark Tank every week. If you haven’t seen the show you should go watch it. On Shark Tank, Lori Greiner and Mark Cuban are two investors on a panel of judges/investors who listen to people’s business plans and ideas and offer to help contestants build up their companies with money and buying shares of ownership. (So I lied, Mark Cuban technically has a sports connection.)

            Lori Greiner has invented over 400 products, and holds 115 U.S. and international patents. She stars on hit entrepreneurial business show, Shark Tank on ABC. Some of her investments from the show are the highest success stories.

            Lori’s number one rule is: Do your homework. She talks about the research involved that someone must do. She emphasizes that this is the first step before anything else in an interview she did one on one with Entrepreneur.com

            The other thing Lori says she looks for in an entrepreneur surprised me. In an interview the cast did with Entrepreneur.com, she was asked what she believes defines an entrepreneur. Her response was “I also think it’s drive. Entrepreneurs are willing to work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week.” By this I think she means people who are willing to sacrifice for their dreams, work hard, and get the job done. That is critical to anyone wanting to start his or her own company. When you start your own company you will be working like a madman for years until the company is solid. All people going into business on their own, they need to understand that investors are looking for that mentality. You could have a great business plan and idea, but investors who don’t see the right attitude could easily turn you away.

            Mark Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, investor on Shark Tank, and entrepreneur.

            Mark Cuban did an interview with YahooSports and gave his 6 tips for success. They are; You don’t know everything, If you don’t know something, seek help, Everyone has ideas, Focus on your plan, Don't invest in sports -- most of the time, and Invest in Diet Mountain Dew, The last one is a joke as he drinks a lot of it.

            At first glance these tips don’t seem to mean much when creating a business plan. They actually do though. When anyone goes to create a plan or come up with an idea for a company, you need all six…well the first five at least.

The Washington Redskins could learn from the Chicago Bulls: RG3

How is that a team can rush a player back into action before they are fully healthy. There have been numerous medical controversies in sports recently when it comes to franchise players. In football the most recent case is Robert Griffin the Third the starting Quarterback for the Washington Redskins.. He tore his ACL last year in the NFC wild card game. Going into the game he was already injured and hurting, but pushed through to help his team. He should have been benched. The coaches made the descion to let him play or was it the teams medical staff, or was it the medical staff being pressured by the coaches to clear him? After all was said and done, the NFL and the fans have no idea.

Flash forward to this football season. The Redskins held RG3 out of the preseason, but RG3 has started every game of the regular season. So far it seems he is a shell of his former self. People were exepcting him to recover and have a Adrian Peterson like recovery, sadly he has not. You can tell that he's ailing, that his accuracy is off, his speed is down. Now questions are coming up on whether he is full healthy, whether he should have been cleared, whether he should be playing at all, or is it all mental?

The NBA went through and is still going through a simliar situation with the Chicago Bulls and their franchise player Derrick Rose. He tore his ACL two years ago, and despite being cleared by the doctors to play, he did not play all last season. Some people said it was mental, some people said it was physical, but the organization left it up to Derrick Rose and his people on whether or not he would play. Either way, Derrick Rose sitting out was the right move.

In both situations the player is the star of the franchise and have big contracts. In both situations it has affected the over all performance of the team. The Bulls made it to the playoffs last year and made it deep into them. The Redskins are 0-2 going into week 2 of football season. The Redskins also drafted Kirk Cousins who is basically the same player as RG3 to back him up. He could start for the Redskins while RG3 sits.

Should the Redskins take a page out of the Bulls book and sit their star until he's %100, or should they continue to allow him to play? Yes, when it comes to RG3 the Redskins should learn from the Chicago Bulls situation with Derrick Rose. Some might say that RG3 is just rusty from lack of preseason play and he will come along just fine as he keeps playing. Sometimes these players don't know what is best for them, and it’s the organizations obligation to see to the health of their players. The Redskins drafted Kirk Cousins just in case a scenario like this would happen. So use the back up plan Redskins.

The Rise of the Undrafted Rookie: Agents new market to tap.

The Jewish New Year begins this week on Thursday and the NFL season starts Thursday as well. As Jew combining the two for me is the ultimate New Years. Sadly I cannot watch the game until after the Sabbath. This is just a side note I wanted to share with my followers.

            Lets talk about the recent change with NFL rookies making the 53-man roster of an NFL team. This change is affecting smaller NFL agents whether they choose to see it or not

            Most teams draft about 8-10 players every year.  It used to be that most of the drafted Rookies made the 53-man roster of the team that drafted them.  Not anymore. There has been a rise of undrafted rookies (UDR) making teams. Rookies drafted in rounds 4-7 are nolonger sure locks to make a team or their practice squad.

“Last year, 37 percent of the 622 undrafted rookies signed by the 32 franchises won Week One jobs, either on the practice squad (131) or the 53-man roster (98).” Per Profootballtalk.com

Flash forward to this year, and lets look at some of the teams that kept undrafted rookies over the drafted ones and veterans. The New England Patriots have 14 rookies ontheir team this year and half of them are undrafted. Six UDR’s made the New Orleans Saints roster. The Houston Texans had four make theirs. These are not lowly teams just trying to find a way to win. These teams are all predicted to make the playoffs this year and are among the most known teams in the NFL.

Here are some names of undrafted players that are in the Hall of fame, still playing or headed there. There is Arian Foster, Vontaz Burfict, Joshua Cribbs, Tony Romo, Jeff Saturday, and London Fletcher.

You can watch a great video of Arian Foster and why he is so amazing. (There is some music used and if its not your taste just mute it.)

Why is this so significant?

            Drafted players sign bigger contracts than undrafted players. Most of them sign about 2 million-dollar contracts for 5 years of their service. Undrafted players sign a league rookie minimum, which is around $375,000 a season. These deals are short term. These UDR’s receive little in signing bonus or guaranteed money; both were between $4000 and $6000. This is one of the contributing factors as to why drafted players made teams over them. A drafted player has way money guaranteed, so the organization rather keep the player they have to pay rather than cut that player and still have to pay him as well as the undrafted player.

            This recent change does not affect big name agents like Drew Rosenhause, but for smaller known agents who have maybe 5-30 clients this is a big deal. A lot of these smaller agents make money on their late round draft picks making the 53-man roster. If a drafted player signs a 2-5 million dollar contract over 3 years and then gets cut and goes to the practice squad the contract changes completely. A practice squad player makes around $5,700 a week. That is a huge drop off for an agent who can only take up to 3% off the top of each month’s salary. When an undrafted player makes the 53-man roster his contract is changed and he is given more money thus the agent benefits from this. There used to be a philosophy in the agents circles about only representing players that were for sure going to get drafted and after that might get drafted. Most undrafted rookies did not have an agent up until recently. Now suddenly the undrafted rookie market has become a new pool for smaller agents to tap into.