Good to Go
Covering Note to Ted and Ross:
The following is an explanation to why certain aspects of your business plan were unrealistic and were changed. These changes were all done in order to make the plan more attractive to Sam Hall and his associates and help you get the financial backing you need. A business plan should focus on People, Opportunity, Context and Risk & Reward. This is how we’ve structured the plan. Figures take a secondary role to the aspects above. They are outlined in the appendices.
In your plan, you were undecided of a long term strategy after year 6. I feel both your ideas are viable but not mutually exclusive the way you feel they are. For the business to succeed at all, we think you will need to look beyond schools. You need to be expanding your product range and market into colleges, workplaces etc. by year 4. If this is done and is successful, expansion after year 6 into the UK market will be a formality. Thus, your long term strategy must be to have a diversified product range and market in Ireland and plans to expand into the UK market and beyond.
Secondly, your expectations are far too unrealistic. Optimism is great but your plans are delusional. Selling 2.4 million units in year one is simply not possible due to the certain factors: you are operating in the Greater Dublin area, you are a new product, you’re only selling to school children and the amount of dispensers you require to achieve this figure in not realistic. At €25,000 per dispenser you will not receive the necessary backing to purchase 200 dispensers in year one. We feel a more realistic target is 50 dispensers in year 1, adding another 25 in year 2. We’ve also scaled back the amount of franchisees we feel you will acquire in years 3-6.
Finally, your salaries are too high. It gives the impression you are not willing to sacrifice everything in the start-up years to make the firm a success. You want to show these investors that you believe “Good to Go” is going to be a
The following is an explanation to why certain aspects of your business plan were unrealistic and were changed. These changes were all done in order to make the plan more attractive to Sam Hall and his associates and help you get the financial backing you need. A business plan should focus on People, Opportunity, Context and Risk & Reward. This is how we’ve structured the plan. Figures take a secondary role to the aspects above. They are outlined in the appendices.
In your plan, you were undecided of a long term strategy after year 6. I feel both your ideas are viable but not mutually exclusive the way you feel they are. For the business to succeed at all, we think you will need to look beyond schools. You need to be expanding your product range and market into colleges, workplaces etc. by year 4. If this is done and is successful, expansion after year 6 into the UK market will be a formality. Thus, your long term strategy must be to have a diversified product range and market in Ireland and plans to expand into the UK market and beyond.
Secondly, your expectations are far too unrealistic. Optimism is great but your plans are delusional. Selling 2.4 million units in year one is simply not possible due to the certain factors: you are operating in the Greater Dublin area, you are a new product, you’re only selling to school children and the amount of dispensers you require to achieve this figure in not realistic. At €25,000 per dispenser you will not receive the necessary backing to purchase 200 dispensers in year one. We feel a more realistic target is 50 dispensers in year 1, adding another 25 in year 2. We’ve also scaled back the amount of franchisees we feel you will acquire in years 3-6.
Finally, your salaries are too high. It gives the impression you are not willing to sacrifice everything in the start-up years to make the firm a success. You want to show these investors that you believe “Good to Go” is going to be a