We recently wrote up a new one which you can find here: http://bikeroot.ca/businessplan.pdf (let me know if the link doesn't work for you; I can send it as an attachment). One of the more difficult things we encountered was that those of us that knew how to write a business plan (not me) were used to writing one for 'for-profit' models. When it comes to the non-profit or not-for-profit organization, it became difficult to make a competitive analysis make much sense since we tend to avoid any competition altogether and we embrace having similar organizations in our city. Instead we tried to show that there is a need and a want for such an organization in our area so it came down to looking up cycling stats for our city, and in our case, campus. This also brought me to attempt a survey of shops like ours last year. I somewhat failed at really making the stats make sense since I was pretty limited in time and expertise but you can find a basic breakdown here: http://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/index.php?title=2010_Census. I still have the stats available so if you would like to see a specific breakdown, let me know. We found that bringing real economics into the equation helped we tried to hit home with our campus, showing them that they are lagging behind their competitors (other top Canadian universities) and showing them that supporting us would elevate their status in a measurable way. Make sure you know what the goals and objectives of the business group are and tailor the plan to hit home with them. If the group includes local bike shop, I would make sure that your plan makes it clear that you will not be taking business away from them, but generating more potential customers. Also, these things can take a lot of time and effort if you want to do them well (not to imply that our is all that great). We took a divide and conquer approach where several organizers each took a different section and another volunteer put it all together. All-in-all, not working on it full-time, it probably took us about 8 months to get to where we are but if we worked extremely hard, we probably could have gotten it together in a few weeks or less. .godwin
Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:12:27 -0600 From: joshua@healthykidsinitiative.org To: Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Subject: [TheThinkTank] Business Plans
Hey, I'm new to this list. So I apologize if this has already been covered. The leader of the local business owners group would like to support the founding of a Community Bicycle Co-op in the downtown. When I meet with him I'd like present a cogent plan for business. Do any of you mind sharing your business plans, or the key lessons you learned when putting yours together? I can be reached at joshua@healthykidsinitiative.org if you don't want to reply all.
If there was any questions our Bicycle Co-op will be a not-for-profit. Thanks in advance.