10 Billion Dollar Companies that Didn’t Start with Business Plans

I’d like to put an end to the myth that you need a business plan if you want to succeed as an entrepreneur. This should do it.

Here are ten billion dollar companies or corporations that didn’t start with business plans.

Google

2014 Revenue: $65.83 Billion

Google was started as a class project by Sergey Brin and Larry Page while in graduate school at Stanford in January 1996. They simply wanted to create a better search engine that ranked websites based on their relationships to one another rather than the number of times the search term existed on the page.

Google wasn’t even a company until 32 months later when they incorporated in September 1998 so they could hire their first employee.

Yahoo!

2014 Revenue: $4.6 Billion

Yahoo! was started as “David and Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web” by Jerry Yang and David Filo (also Stanford graduate students) in February 1994. Their solution to finding information on the internet was to create a directory of websites, as opposed to a searchable index of pages.

It was just two dudes creating a database of websites they found and liked.

This is a quote about the history of Yahoo! from Yahoo.com:

“Due to the torrent of traffic and enthusiastic reception Yahoo! was receiving, the founders knew they had a potential business on their hands. In March 1995, the pair incorporated the business and met with dozens of Silicon Valley venture capitalists. They eventually came across Sequoia Capital, the well-regarded firm whose most successful investments included Apple Computer, Atari, Oracle and Cisco Systems. They agreed to fund Yahoo! in April 1995 with an initial investment of nearly $2 million.”

Apple

2014 Revenue: $182.35 Billion

Apple got its start in 1976 when Steve Wozniak convinced Steve Jobs to sell the Apple I Computer. So Jobs took the computer to a local computer store and the owner agreed to buy 50 of the machines at $500 apiece.

Then Jobs took the purchase order to a parts distributor to order the parts they needed and proceeded to build 50 computers in 30 days. Just in time to get paid by the retailer and pay their distributor.

Apple Computers started with a few simple transactions of a quality product. Not with a business plan.

Facebook

2014 Estimated Revenue: $12.47 Billion

As most of you probably know, Facebook was started by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004 as a social networking site for his fellow Harvard students. They didn’t incorporate until later that summer.

Like Google and Yahoo!, it wasn’t a business so it didn’t need a business plan. It was just a promising idea that created a growing community with big potential.

General Electric

2014 Revenue: $148.94 Billion

General Electric was founded in 1890 by Thomas Edison as a vehicle to sell his inventions. Edison had been inventing for 14 years prior to founding the company. Some of his 1,000+ inventions included the incandescent light bulb, motion picture camera, and alkaline storage battery.

From an entrepreneurial perspective, Edison created over 1,000 products before he started his company. Maybe he could’ve benefited from a business plan. But maybe that would’ve thwarted his inventing.

This is my favorite Thomas Edison quote and an incredible lesson in entrepreneurship:

“I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others… I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent.”

Disney

2014 Revenue: $48.81 Billion

If you read about the 10 World Famous Companies that Started in Garages, you’ll know that the world’s largest media conglomerate had humble beginnings. Walt Disney started the company with his brother Roy as a creative studio with a character named Alice.

They started filming the Alice Comedies, which was part of Alice’s Wonderland, and sold their short films to a distributor.

No business plan required.

Pepsi

2014 Revenue: $66.68 Billion

What is now PepsiCo started back in 1898 when a pharmacist and drugstore owner named Caleb Bradham invented a fountain drink he called “Brad’s Drink.” He sold the concoction in his store, so he was his own distributor.

Pepsi got its big break in 1909 when automobile racer, Barney Oldfield, endorsed the drink as, “a bully drink…refreshing, invigorating, a fine bracer before a race.”

It took 11 years to hit their big break. Maybe a business plan would’ve expedited that process, but I believe it’s best to let businesses grow naturally rather than trying to rush things.

Nike

2014 Revenue: $27.79 Billion

Nike’s roots started in 1962 when its company’s founder, Philip Knight, graduated from the University of Oregon and decided to travel across Japan. While in school, Knight was a star track athlete. During his visit to Japan, he came across Onitsuka Tiger Co and offered to import their shoes so he could resell them in the US.

To satisfy the Japanese company’s request, he filed a company and named it Blue Ribbon Sports. They didn’t change their name to Nike, Inc. until 1978.

Cisco

2014 Revenue: $47.14 Billion

Cisco started in 1984 when the manager of the Stanford computer science laboratory, Leonard Bosack, wanted to communicate with his wife, Sandra Lerner, from across campus. Bosack devised a way to connect the two local area networks which later became the inspiration for the multi-protocol router.

That year they mortgaged their house, deferred their salaries, and hired their friends so they could sell this internetworking technology. Three years later they were selling $250,000 worth of routers per month.

Walmart

2014 Revenue: $485.65 Billion

After working in retail stores across the country, Sam Walton opened “Walton’s Five and Dime” in Bentonville, Arkansas in 1945 with a $20,000 loan from his father-in-law and another $5,000 of his personal savings.

The first Wal-Mart Discount City store didn’t open until 17 years later in Rogers, Arkansas.

Walmart was successful because of Sam Walton’s experience and disruptive philosophy within the retail industry, not because of a business plan.

What’s the Point?

Just because many of the world’s most successful businesses didn’t start with a business plan doesn’t mean the business plan is an worthless tool. But it does prove that it’s not necessary.

If you want to start a business, start with a simple idea that can help a lot of people. Create something out of that idea and let it grow naturally.

A business plan could and probably would help, but don’t let it get in the way of creating.

http://www.retireat21.com/entrepreneurship/billion-dollars-without-plans

10 Reasons To Use Google+ Hangouts To Grow Your Business

Have you signed up for Google+ yet? If you’re not yet active on Google’s social network, you’re missing out on a powerful business tool. One of Google+’s best features is Hangouts which enable you to host a video chat with one or more people that you have in your Circles. (A Circle is a group of people with something in common. For example, you might set up a Google+ Circle for your favorite tech bloggers, another circle for news sites, another one for influencers you want to know better, and so on).

A “Hangout” could be likened to a Skype video chat, or even a webinar. When we add the face-to-face multi chat LIVE video element to business, it can really deepen relationships. Here are ten reasons why you need to sign up for Google+ and start using Hangouts to enhance your social marketing.

#1: Meet with clients without leaving the office

Business travel takes valuable time out of your day, and is often an inconvenience. By using Hangouts you can get rid of the wasted time in between journeys and keep everything super efficient instead.

#2: Network with Influencers

Many top influencers can be found regularly “hanging out” on Google+. The platform makes it very easy to join Hangouts already under way. Build up your circles with key influencers with whom you’d like to connect and keep a close eye on when they are hosting Hangouts that you can join. (You can even use a Chrome extension like Hangout Canopy to receive alerts when specific people you’re watching are in a public Hangout).

#3: Offer free demos to customers

Why not set up small Hangouts for specific purposes? Say you sell specialized cookware, create Hangouts that show people exactly how to use your product and have your customers submit their questions and creative recipe ideas, too. They’ll appreciate the extra service and you can respond to queries too.

#4: Get feedback fast

Every business can benefit from feedback. This could mean getting feedback from a client on how the last project went. It could mean getting feedback from an team member so they will feel happier about proceeding with their latest task. It might even mean getting feedback from customers on the ordering process you’ve just implemented on your business website. Let your customers talk to you directly in a Hangout. They will respond to good service and a friendly smile, regardless of the nature of their query. You’ll stand out because you’re doing something different – and some would say something brave, too.

#5: Offer additional content you can publish to YouTube

The great thing about Hangouts is that you can also publish the content to YouTube. This means that you can almost instantly populate your YouTube account with fresh content that will get you an even wider audience for your business.

#6: Hangouts enable you to add more people to your Circles

When people get involved in your Hangouts you’ll be able to organize your Circles better, too. If someone attends a Hangout offering advice on widgets, add them to a prospective customer Circle. If they’ve bought something already and they want to know how to clean it, add them to the existing customer Circle. Do whatever works best for you and your business.

#7: Meet with employees that work from home

More and more businesses have employees that work from home for at least part of the time. Of course you might own a business where you outsource some of your workload to freelancers. In either case Hangouts are ideal for getting together in a real sense with your team members. Use Hangouts to hold meetings and to make sure everyone is on task and operating efficiently. (Remember, you can restrict your Hangouts to specific people in your Circles!)

#8: Make business training easier

Some businesses are even using Hangouts as a way to get together for essential business training. It won’t work in all respects but you can certainly enjoy getting together for a lot of different training purposes in this way. Would it work for your business and your employees? Try it and find out.

#9: Stand out as one of the few businesses that knows how to use Google+

More and more businesses are joining Google+ every day. (Google+ already has 100 Million users!) But not too many businesses have discovered the power of Hangouts yet, let alone trying the various methods that I’ve mentioned here. This is the ideal time to get on board and show people what you’re made of. What can you achieve? How can you stand out by using Hangouts to connect with the people in your various Circles?

#10: Use Hangouts on Air to reach more people

You can have just ten people involved in a Hangout, and that includes you. But by using this new “Hangouts on Air” tool you can make sure everyone else on Google+can see the Hangout, giving you a much wider audience as a result. It won’t suit every Hangout but it will work in some situations.

Are you using any of these methods right now?

Which ones are you using? Which ones are you nervous of using? Which ones strike you as being great ideas for building and growing your business in the future?

It takes time to get used to anything new, and while Google+ has been around for over ten months now, the features it has to offer are still unfamiliar to many of businesses. Hopefully, after reading this post, you can start to see how Google+ Hangouts could really enhance the way you get in touch with customers, clients and fellow workers.

http://www.marismith.com/reasons-use-google-hangouts-grow-your-business/