writing business plans/strategies - help?
 

so i was informed for my online fitness service that i should write up a formal business plan... this is something i have no experience of doing.. but, the guy told me it consists basically of 8 different sections:

1) table of contents
2) executive summary
3) market strategies
4) competitive analysis
5) design and development
6) operations and management plan
7) financial components
8) cash flow statement, planning out 12 months of finances on Excel


for those of you who know about this type of shit, does that look about right?

and are there any other specifics i should know about before trying to research this shit. thanks.

Who are you trying to write it for?

well its for my own service.. i was informed this:

"why dont you try and get a high 5-figure investment, use it to pay me and yourself to work on this full-time, use the rest to market the product, and give the investors equity?"

the idea definitely has a huge potential to make a lot of money... its currently in the process of being built... but im tryin to keep ahead on the business end as well instead of worrying just about the site itself 24/7.

If you are trying to raise money your best bet is to have 2 things

1) Executive summary

2) Detailed business plan

the Executive summary should be about 3 - 5 pages and be to the poiunt on what you plan on doing, how much money you will need, how much money it can make, who you are, how you will get customners, and who will you compete with.

The business plan should be all of the above but way more detail.

First hand the Executive summary to a potential investor, include your card if they are interested then give them a book.

seems like this would be a big job within itself... i assume the smartest idea would be to hire professionals to do this for me? is that what generally most people do? or do they just do it themselves since they know their product the best.

Well first thing is who will you be presenting this too? If you plan on going the bank route you will need fancy stuff in most cases or those bankers wont feel comfortable (in most cases that is)

The private route the best bet is you write it in your own words, sometimes writers of these plans are the reason people cant raise money.

Plain and simple works if you are trying to raise cash from private people.

The complexity of your business plan will obviously depend on who you are presenting it to and how much time and depth you can get into the research.

I can tell that you most angel investors and Venture Capitalists
look for a couple of basic things
1)competative advantage
2)market analysis showing there IS a market for your product/service
3)good management with experience

Who is this guy that is giving you the advice, is it just a friend?

"why dont you try and get a high 5-figure investment, use it to pay me"

If you get a 5 figure investment, depending on what your product is, that money will most likely get burned really fast. Most private start ups that I know of at my university do not pay themselves or the partners at the beginning. Most of the money is invested into development and marketing. Obviously if he is someone that u need to hire to design and develop the product, then that is different.

If u need anymore help just hit me up at danny (at) digitalneurosis.com

No you need to do the business plan yourself. If you don't spend the time to analyze the market and know what the hell you are trying to start, you are gonna have a hard time presenting it to investors.

nice, thnx for the info guys...

see, basically the site is www.bodygain.com (obviously not functional yet) - i believe there are a few other sites out there like it (i've come across 2 so far), but both are not user-friendly at all, and will have no where near as many features as we plan on having..

in short- this site will allow beginners and experts involved in fitness who have goals (losing weight or gaining mass) to help track their goals with a number of different customizable graphical charts and statistics + help them reach their goals quicker based on their body, diet, and workouts.

the idea is to incorporate this site as a service through 3 different means... offer it as a service for gyms to offer their members, offer it for general internet users, and also corporate wellness clients.

Okay, that really doesn't answer my question...

You are better off writing different plans for different audiences.

Most ppl will only read your qualifications (your resume), the executive summary, and your financial analysis. (unless it is for a business competition)

If you are taking it to ppl you know, then they are likely to invest in YOU first. The idea is secondary.

If you are trying to shop it to ppl you don't know, you are best off getting somebody who prepares plans for a living... b/c you can waste your time writing a 100 page plan that really doesn't have much to do with the work you need to do for your company.


Either way, it is best off to start writing an opporating plan, budget and development timeline. That way you can better understand what you hope to do AND accomplish it.

Then once your are sure of your opportunity, do your financials and an exec summary of 1 page, and your resume.

decent market that most can understand so thats a plus when trying to raise money, if you want to raise money quicker here is what you do.

Make the site fuctional, have it generate a few bucks then go out and try to raise money.

Go talk to someone in the small business administration in your area. We got a TON of help from the one near us. They give you an outline of everything you need to write your business plan and they will even help you format it properly once you have it all hashed out.

Good luck with your new venture! :thumbsup

That is an excellent piece of advice - people are a bit more wary these days about investing in anything related to the Internet and if your site isn't functional and shown to be generating income you will probably just waste your time.

Get a business communication book or something at your local bookstore. May aswell study the stuff if it is going to get you 5 figures in start up cash.

Another way is that if you have a local college they will have business programs. In those business programs the business students are sometimes required to go out into industry and write these things as projects. If you go to the schools business faculty you can find out how they do it. Sometimes it is the students problem to find a client and sometimes the school does it for a fee (like you pay them $200-$400, and they assign a student group to your project). Then you just get them write it for you.

Be careful who you hand your plan to. A lot of people steal ideas or they can use your plan to solicit funds and steal the money.

I had this happen to a bplan we had for a healthcare company I'm a shareholder in. A guy took the company's biz plan and setup a company in Texas using our name. Raised money pretending to be our company and vamoosed with it.

Because he did it across state lines and he stole over a million we were able to bring in the FBI to track him down. They found him in Las Vegas. He's going to be doing some serious prison time.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...71314?v=glance

thats a great book

boy thats fucked up

damn, yeah i'd have to make sure i cover my end as much as possible.

whenever I am writing a Business plan I always look for a template that is similar to what I want to write.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...+plan+template

good luck
:thumbsup

ok heres another newbie question, say i write the business plan... how exactly do i go about finding / approaching investors? i imagine there is some kind of organization / service for this?

Issues Forcasting

Tactics and Strategies

Message Composition

Basic Communication Strategies

(consider adding some of these if you want)

Well unless you got some crazy idea and some amazing technology the reliable brokers wont touch it.

Here is a rule, if someone says they can raise you money but they need you to give them even 1 penny upfront WALK AWAY regardless of the story.

Real brokers charge a % of the raise up.

How you find investors yourself?

Well place ads, talk to people etc.

your TOC is perfect, but what matters is the content.

i have done a lot of these, and just sold my last business. Can I help?

hey dream, hardly ssee you online anymore.. dont go on msn? :)