Video Discription |
On this episode of Fun CenterTV were talking about the fun center business plan. I had a chance to get caught up with couple who first came through our website last fall working a project in Indiana. At that time we talked about the project and I offer whatever guidance and resources we could - They went on their way and ended up hiring one of these MBA business writing services to the tune of $3200 for a custom family entertainment center business plan
This week they came back through our website to the Startup Academy program, feeling a little overwhelmed with the plan they received and asked me to take a look at it for them.
http://www.familyentertainmentcenter.com/startup-academy.html
I had a chance to review the plan and although it had a few holes, overall it was well written, and a really good looking plan, but yes - absolutely overwhelming.
Being MBAs they focused heavily on the numbers and obviously numbers are important in your business plan but this was just way over the top. The plan had over a dozen different spreadsheets and 16 charts and bar graphs that all represented the financial data in a wide variety of different ways. Great stuff if you're an MBA sitting in the boardroom with your CFO... but not so great if you're a small business entrepreneur trying to clearly understand the numbers and how they relate to your amusement business.
So this was confusing for these folks.... Even for myself looking through the plan try to find just the basic information; how many customers, who are they, where are they coming from, how often are they going to come, and how much money are they going to spend ... was next to impossible to find. If this is your fun center plan, and you are going to be sitting across from your banker presenting this thing you have to know where that information came from, what it means, and be able to discuss it with some degree of confidence. So I felt for this couple and the $3200 bucks spent, even though it was a good looking plan, but a bit confusing and more information than they knew what to do with.
Chances are they might find a graduate MBA loan officer who will be impressed by all the charts and graphs, but if he asks one question about the plan, about the numbers where they come from, what they mean for your amusement business, and you sit there like a deer in the headlights because you don't understand 12 pages of financial data, what confidence is he going to have in you as a bank customer to loan 500,000 $1 million or even $100,000 not much.
If you can't answer basic questions and converse with him regarding your business plan - no matter how fancy and complete that plan is - they are going to have no confidence in you as an entrepreneur and a loan customer and as soon as you leave the building that plan is marked with a big red x.
So this is the challenge of fun center business planning - on one side you've got this is such a headache... let me just pay a few thousand dollars and take this off my desk, get me a plan that is finished I'll get out there and look for some funding.
On the other hand you need to know where some of that data comes from and you have to be able to present it with confidence or the plan is absolutely useless to you.
This is the beautiful thing about Startup Academy and what makes us such a great choice. We are right here in the middle. We work with you to find all the amusement business information, understand what it means, get into the business plan and know how to present that plan with confidence because you're part of that process and able to demonstrate an understanding about your funding request.
Secondly your business plan should act as a roadmap to success for your business. So in the consultations through the academy program you're learning about your attraction mix, floor plan, layout, design, traffic flow, birthday parties, group marketing how to save money on construction, how to save money on your attractions, your POS system, amusement insurance all those things are in the startup academy program, none of which are included in a custom business plan.
And the third and final great reason for looking at startup academy is we do all of that for less then a quarter of the price of a custom plan.
For more ideas and resources, stop by our website or feel free to call my office direct any time at (604)755-7942 pQQaTPnQeOg |