Things to Consider for MIYB Project 3

Helpful Facts and Hints

Flooring: The original flooring of the business space is hardwood everywhere except for the bathroom, which is tiled.


Licensing: List of Licenses that You Must Apply for in New York (if they pertain to your business, that is.)


Inventory: For finding prices of things that you might need for your store, you may want to look up the items in Froogle, Google's comparison shopping search engine.

Contractors: You're probably going to have to call a contracting agency up to get an estimate on the work you need done. (Example: "Hi, yes, I'd like to get a quote on having a wall knocked out. The measurements for the wall are 12' by 12' by 1' thick.")

MIYB Project 3

Financing


Background
According to the United States Small Business Association, successful business planning takes into account several aspects of designing a businsess. An integral stage in the planning phase is financing. According to the website on starting a business, financing is often what makes--or breaks a business:

While poor management is cited most frequently as the reason businesses fail, inadequate or ill-timed financing is a close second. Whether you're starting a business or expanding one, sufficient ready capital is essential. But it is not enough to simply have sufficient financing; knowledge and planning are required to manage it well. These qualities ensure that entrepreneurs avoid common mistakes like securing the wrong type of financing, miscalculating the amount required, or underestimating the cost of borrowing money. (Financing Basics, my emphasis)

The Project
Today's project will ask you to budget out the projects you did for the last four MIYB days. By the end of the day today, you will need to hand in an Excel Spreadsheet that shows the total estimated startup costs for your business and explain any changes to the business plan you make based on budget considerations.

Here are some resources to help you get started and focused:

______Budget Resources_________
Startup Costs Calculator (This is a good place to get ideas for your spreadsheet)
Contractor Listings (They can give you quotes to help estimate your remodeling costs)


_______Floor Layout________

(To print out the floor layout so that it shows correctly, click on the picture, go to File > Page Setup in the new window that opens up, delete the values for Header and Footer, set all margins to zero, click OK, and then print the picture by clicking File > Print > Print.)

MIYB Project 2

(The floorplan that was given to all groups for reconfiguration for their businesses.)

MIYB Project 2

Previously, on Make It Your Business, Project One Contestants did surveys of the East Harlem area to complete a business map of the surroundings. Their task was to put their understanding of the importance of business location to use and apply it to a map of all of the businesses in a six block area stretching from 108th Street to 102nd Street and bordered by Madison and Fifth Avenues to the east and west. They were told to work in two groups and note the business-type and price range of each of the locations on their map, and with the map complete, decide on a hypothetical business and location that would be ideal to start in the area. While neither of the groups completed a map of the entire area they were asked to survey, based on the quality of the maps, it was decided to split the prize pot--100 First Work Clothing Bucks--between both groups. The proposed businesses were a laundromat and a clothing store.

Project Background
* The groups this week competed for a pot of 160 First Work Bucks (20 for each participant involved), and the project was as follows:


The 2-Part MIYB Project last week was as follows:

"THE GOOD NEWS: Your plans for a new business (from Project 1) was approved by Mr. Belvedere Q. Moneybags, and he even went as far as to find you an empty storefront space in the area to start your business.

"THE BAD NEWS: The empty storefront you have is not necessarily ready to be used for your respective businesses. (It used to be a ground floor doctor's office.)

"THE PROJECT: Your job this week is to take the floorplan for the space that Mr. Moneybags has secured and (re)design the space for your business. You can knock out and change any of the inside walls, but you may not change any of the outside walls. (You can't change the shape of the whole building, now, can you?!) Also, you must leave the four dark black square areas intact in your plans. These are support pillars for the building. (If you knock these out, the whole building will come down on your head!)"

Materials
Materials at the students' disposal this week were construction paper, 1000 jumbo popsicle sticks, a large piece of balsa wood, wood clue, scissors, sandpaper, and markers.

Teams
For Project 2, Will, Jonathan, Millie, and Amyra were on "Team Laundromat" and Miriam, Edith, Peggy, Stephanie, and Atenas were on "Team Clothing Store."



Project Development in Action

Make It Your Business Project 2

Make it Your Business--Project 2

Last time in the Make It Your Business project, we focused on location as a key element to any successful business. Today in the Make It Your Business Project, we will be focusing on another aspect of successful businesses--the experience of entering a business's space.

Visit the following websites online and tell me what you think about the experience of being in the space of these restaurants. Take the virtual tours if they are available. Then write a paragraph on each of the businesses.

• World Yacht
• Yamashro Restaurant
• Sky City

From reading your paragraphs, I should be able to understand

• What you see
• What you hear
• What you smell
• What you taste, and
• How you feel

as you sit in each restaurant.