Critique my Business Plan

[Grits]

I have been working on a business plan. This is it thus far. I would like input. Thanks.

[jazak]

What about how you will grow with your equipment purchases? Accounts, ext?

[lawnjockey56]

If you don't want your image to be that of a guy with a lawnmower......then why an image of a guy with a lawnmower to represent you amongst your peers???

[ed2hess]

What are you goals for how much money you hope to generate the first year and how much money are you going to invest in the business? What is the size of yards that you are going to target....this drives the kind and size of equipment. How many accounts are you going to need to meet your break even in first half?

[Grits]

If you don't want your image to be that of a guy with a lawnmower......then why an image of a guy with a lawnmower to represent you amongst your peers???

:laugh: I bet you probably don't like his uniform either.
I hope you were making a joke because that pic is nothing but FUNNY!

[Grits]

What about how you will grow with your equipment purchases? Accounts, ext?

Didn't think about this. Good points to work on. Thanks.

[Grits]

What are you goals for how much money you hope to generate the first year and how much money are you going to invest in the business? What is the size of yards that you are going to target....this drives the kind and size of equipment. How many accounts are you going to need to meet your break even in first half?

I have thought about this, but then my brain started cramping and I quit.:) Great points. This is just the beginning of my business plan. A lot will be added and consistently updated. I just want to make sure i am on the right track.
Keep the advice coming. I'm like a sponge, trying to soak it all up.

[Classified]

looks ok but then again im not the best is business managment and projections.

Thats why i bought business plan pro 2007. It takes you step by step to make a really professional looking plan. it will guide you through the financials and virtually every aspect of business you could think of. and then some.

But doing it from scratch like you have id say its a hell of a lot better than i could come up with.

[PMLAWN]

I always like to start at the end,
What do you want / need to put in your pocket?
Now go backwards from there to figure everything else. You will need to do a lot of research to get the #'s.
Lets say--
You need $3000.00
You figure the tools and equipment you need to do the work and the cost of all of it for a year. You plan to work 40 hours a week for 30 weeks or 1200 hours. So total cost is divided by the 1200 to know the cost per hour
Do the same for all office and admin. Costs. And advertising
lets say it adds up to $6 an hour, you will get paid $3 and hour and you want 10% profit for the company---so you will sell work for $10 an hour and we already said about 1200 hours of it so total of $12000 for the year of which $3000- $3600 is you pay.
What do you need to get there?
If a job takes 1/2 an hour and you plan to work 40 hours a week to reach your goal, you need 80 jobs, all your advertising will be with flyers. And we know flyers get about a 1% response and than about 1/3 of those can be converted into jobs-- so you figure about 24000 flyers out to get the work, now figure the time and cost to do that, those figures help to figure the cost in the first stuff you did (job cost).

This is a very simple example of what is involved. (And the numbers are very made up) You will go in circles as you get more figures and keep changing numbers but you should start to see all of what you will need to do and what it will cost to get there. The idea is to plan all the money out before you do it so that you know where you will end up.
Think of it this way-- 5 years from now you will have a CD of your Quick Books to give you tax guy-- The plan you are working on now should try to forecast that CD. And the plan should tell all you need and time put in to get there. Do not rush it; it will change over time also. It can develop over time while you are working the business but try to get a base to start with.
Hope this helps.

[martinfan06]

A little broad for me, sounds like an extended version of a mission statement. Need to focus more on $$,equipment,# of accounts goal,time frame for each stage of growth of the business. example 1st month>1 48" w/b,2000 flyers printed and delivered, servicing 5 residential accounts,2 yearly contracts, list all equipment, list projected cost of eqip. maintenance and repair, so on and so on, many more factors to list than what you have now, but good start now just keep adding to it.

[djsp24]

I agree, its a good start, but looks like an extended mission statement, if your doing this business plan for YOU then your on the right track, if your doing this business plan to help you get funding (from a bank) then it needs a lot more work. All business plans should have 7 main sections to them and 99% of lenders want to see them this way......

Executive summary ( a 2 page multiy paragrapgh that sums up the other 6 sections)
Product/Services ( an indepth look at what services you offer and a full menu of pricing)
Market Analysis (a sqaure mile range break down of your primary, total, and target market with competition listed in this area)
Facilities & Operations (this section is a break down of your physical building size and work area along with a capital equipment list and current area emploment ratios)
Management sect (this is like a resume section, tell who you are, what qualkifies you, what do YOU bring to the table to run this successfully)
Sales Section (how are you gonna advertise, with what type of media, what strategy will you employee with marketing, Skimming? Comparable? etc)
Financial section( this is a 3 year projection of a profit & loss report, a cash flow analysis, a break even and a balance sheet.

hope this helps, I use to read & write business plans and help clients recieve loans, grants, and subsidies from Uncle Sam, so I have a good idea of what all lenders are looking for! Hope this helps a little!

[lawnjockey56]

definitely i was just kidding-here in florida for a while there was a group of guys who all used 21 inch mowers-and i think there were 4 of them-they'd all pull up to a yard and jump out of a van dressed in elvis costumes-the mowing elvises-it was a gimmick but damn they had local news and all.

[LindblomRJ]

Good summary.

Now some numbers, accounts, revenue, and expenses and a budget. If you need to borrow money, bank or investors (family) whatever it is, some numbers will help your cause.

How are you going to obtain your goals should be addressed. That is where the numbers help out.

[Grits]

definitely i was just kidding-here in florida for a while there was a group of guys who all used 21 inch mowers-and i think there were 4 of them-they'd all pull up to a yard and jump out of a van dressed in elvis costumes-the mowing elvises-it was a gimmick but damn they had local news and all.

:laugh: The Mowing Elvises!! that's awesome!:laugh: What a funny concept. I don't have the nads nor the desire to do something like that, but it is funny as hell!:laugh:

[Grits]

A LOT of great info here!! I know I need to start the numbers now...it is just so tedious...but a necessary evil, and I understand that. Thanks everyone that has responded thus far....all of this helps tremendously!

[topsites]

Looks ok to me, it's about how I started...

Only thing I found funny is at least half my plan flew right out the door in my first 2 years.
You may not find humour in that, but I did at the time, and even now.

Which is to say, plan or not, it wasn't as easy as it looks.

But you're ok, you have a vision, a solid idea of how you feel it should be done.
You can expand and tweak it a little, take some advice into consideration, but you've got your mind set in a direction, that's the hard part anyway and you having faced this is good because the road ahead is a bit rough like that, see a lot of folks don't even have a plan.

So, good luck.