Emergency - Business Plan Needed !!!!

[ProInvestor]

Hay guys.... been a long, long while... but I've been too busy... *sigh*

Anyway has anyone had any professional business plans done for them?

And by professional I don't mean 12 page business plan I mean 100+ pages.

Okay perhaps not 100 but a good amount.

And not boiler plate....

It is for a hardware retail (sell tools, nails, hammers, timber - you get the idea).
(Got 3 years of figures, and 249 pages of hardware info - benchmarks against other business, etc).

I am thinking of using elance.

Budget is up to $5,000 If it is good enough.

Any thoughts???

Rgds.
ProInvestor

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

<OFFTOPIC>
Hey Jason welcome back, you all settled in Atlanta now?
</OFFTOPIC>

 

[Russ H]

ProInvestor-

We've done business plans for properties between $1,300,000 to $1,500,000.

We've gotten SBA funding for both-- NOT an easy thing (much easier to get venture cap or hard money).

We've done all of them by starting w/a program called "Biz Plan Builder" (by Jian), and added things that were relevant (for instance, LOTS of custom spreadsheets/projections).

Here's the thing:

Even with all of those custom spreadsheets,
the one thing that most all of the lenders read
was the Executive Summary.

It is 1-3 pages.

Sure, have a 15-40 pp biz plan.

But make damn sure your Exec summary is a barn burner:
Short, to the point, and covering all the important questions.

Our last biz plan
(for getting a $1M refi cash out)
was done on Powerpoint.
We didn't even get to present it
It was just sent to all the lenders.

Even after doing that,
I'd have to say that the
hard copy Biz Plan was more effective.

-Russ H.

 

[australianinvestor]

I've written dozens of custom business plans over the years, including after I finished my MBA last year.

- A good executive summary is nice, but anyone reading it who wants more detail will look in the appropriate section to find more, so the whole plan needs to be sound.
- A number of other things should be considered, like what you'd want to know if you were investing in the business (risk analysis, for example).

I assume you're selling an existing business and this is for the benefit of potential buyers... am I right?

I'd be careful with outsourcing it to e-lance or similar places, as they might not be able to offer enough insight into the Australian conditions you are operating in (assuming it's in Australia), and it's hard to ascertain what kind of quality you'll end up with.

I am in Brisbane, so if you've got any questions, feel free to ask: dl@emcs.com.au . I'm home sick today (lucky my store is a mostly passive investment!), so I should be able to respond fairly quickly, and I could even give you my phone number if you like.

Daniel.

 

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