The Most Important Things to Include in a Business Plan

Many people have been asking me about writing business plans and grants. I have outlined a sample of some of the work I completed . This format has been funded before.

Your success in being funded will ultimately be determined by your ability to create a vision, demonstrate passion, and structure a plan that is easy to understand and follow.

You may ask for some help when putting together all the numbers.


1. Executive Summary
2. Business Description
3. Business History
4. Statement of Impact (to the community)
5. Business Highlights
5a Product
5b Market
5b Customer Base
6. Sales/ Marketing Strategy
6a Advertising
6b Competition
6c Direct Competition
7. Management Structure
7a. Key Management
8. Goals and Objectives
9. Financial Budget
10. Terms and Conditions

Appendix
Sample marketing materials
Sample of Systems (such as inventory control methods)
Contracts (agreements with customers)
Vision for the future

Nathan Bush © 2006

Advertising in Unlikely Places

Today in between sales calls I went to the book store to do some research. While I was there something interesting happened. I ran into a gentleman whom I happened to know from a while back.

He asked me what I was doing these days and I responded with a power packed phrase, “at Hometown Family Savings, we help companies increases opportunities for specific industries such as home & garden, restaurant, children & teen activities, and holiday gifts!”

I asked if he had a minuet and he did. I went into my presentation at the Barnes and Noble off Midrivers mall drive. (Thank you for the good coffee Sam).

By the end of that encounter I was able to help another business owner increase his opportunities and increase his exposure to 130,000+ homes.

Always be ready for anything.

Advertising morale: Like my encounter at the book store, nonprofits can find customers/funders in unlikely places. Remember to keep 3 things in mind when advertising:

1. Target your message – Like I did. I was able to use the book store to build common points of interest.
2. Use powerful wording – The words you choose move people to action whether they are written or spoken.
3. Be in front of the customer when they are ready to buy- the customer was obviously in the mood to spend money, it just so happened our publication appealed to him and he was ready to make a purchase/decision.

Branding For Nonprofits

Today, I woke up and ate a bowl of frosted flakes (Tony the Tiger). Next I took a shower and scrubbed my head with dove shampoo (White Dove), and as I drove to work in my Ford F150 (Built Ford Tough), I thought about the meeting I had coming up at subway (Jared) for Lunch.

It seems to me that these companies have a direct influence in my life and they have also built a strong Brand Name, or influence in other peoples lives as well. Branding is not something new to the corporate world, but to the not-for-profits, branding has yet to be implemented as part of major marketing plans.

Brand, what is a Brand? The term originated in the days of the Cowboys and the Wild West. A Brand or an iron rod shaped into a recognizable image was used to mark cattle. The Cowboys would heat up the rod until it was red hot and literally burn the shape into the cow’s hide. Now, that cow was forever known as branded, marked, or identifiable. If a cow was to wonder astray or become mixed in with the other cows, the Cowboy could easily spot his cow and separate out the rest.

This concept applies in the same way to not-for-profit branding. Who are your company’s cows? How can you mark the people who should be reached by your organization? Which clients, donors, or volunteers do you mark and claim as yours?

Every time your organization is able to brand the correct cows, then your advertising dollars are more effectively spent, it is easier to target you market (because you know your customers are the ones with the brand), and your organization has the ability to reach more people and influence more lives.

Herman in his book The Jossey-Bass Handbook if Nonprofit Leadership & Management states marketing for nonprofits unlike the private sector marketing, which defines the market solely in terms of customer, is always focused on two major constituencies, namely, the resource provision market (volunteers, donors, funders, government grantors) and the resource allocation market (clients, patients, students, legislators, general public).

Further more he goes on to say, a brand will embody a set of organization or program characteristics that the market believes will be delivered consistently…. It can position and organization, builds trust, raise an organization’s profile, and provide insulation from competition.

4 easy steps to remember when branding:

The 4 R’s of branding
Recognize – how your organization is positioned in the marketplace
Remember- your brand is your company’s image
Remind- markets of your brand
Reevaluate- how your brand fits into the marketplace

10 things that payoff when fundraising or selling

1. People don’t care about your company they care about theirs
2. The less information the better
3. Every technique you learned in school is theory and not reality
4. Giving up is not a good idea because persistence pays off
5. Get the amount of the money out of the way first
6. Show up on time
7. Call before appointments (gas is expensive)
8. Try to be good at what you do but not too good
9. Invite people to do things with you
10. Ask for payments not lump sums

Ten Things to Keep in Mind When Working with Mentally Challenged

Working with the Mentally Challenged can be a tough job. If you are considering a job within that specific field there are 10 things to keep in mind:

1. The people you care for, care even more for you
2. Losing someone is hard
3. Some people can get you to do things for them that they could do themselves
4. Give options
5. Let them try to do things on their own (you are there to assist them with living not live for them)
6. Take good care of yourself (including personal hygiene)
7. Introduce them to everyone
8. Smile even when things are rough
9. Don’t encourage negative behavior, reward positive behavior
10. Be ready for anything.

P.S. Mentally Challenged people are the most loving people on this earth. It is best to approach a job working with the MC from a best friend’s point of view. Treat them as though they are your best friend and they will be.

Case Study & Team Leadership

1. Michael is a coworker and he has been assigned to your team. You have no choices, but to work with him and his abilities. Michael is a worker with a MBA in Marketing and is the Vice President of the St. Louis region of Core Express, a company that builds telephone networks and sells them to Southwestern Bell and other telephone companies. Michael always does just satisfactory work but that’s all.

When projects fall behind Michael’s work is slower or less accurate, the other associates/technicians have to help him catch up when confronted work speeds up, but then slowly reverts to mediocre performance. What type of trouble maker is this? What can you do as the team leader when assigned to a project with this team member?

1. Low self esteem
2. A Member Who Does Not Carry Thier Load
3. Overly sensitive
4. Can’t keep their cool
5. Information hoarder
6. The Naysayer
7. The know it all
8. The prima donna

You can respond to this question: bignatelu@hotmail.com

What First Money or Mission?

Continue to be money driven and be out of business in a year’s time; and with only mission an organization cannot continue to sever the very people they are trying to help. One good example to understand this principal comes in a story. The story of the little boy who was on a mission to find his dad a father’s day gift:

There was a little boy on a mission to find his dad a father’s day present. The little boy only had a small savings of $5 but it was important for him to go look. He went to the shoe store to look for shoes, but they were too expensive. Next he went to the bakery, but the goods would have molded quickly. He went to the tackle shop, but the fishing lures did not seem to be the perfect gift for his dad.

It was getting late and dark outside. The boy had to be home by dark. He stopped at a watchmakers store on his way home. Out side he ran into a gentleman to whom he told his story about the father’s day gift. The man bent down and handed him $100. The little boy took that $105 into the watchmaker’s store. The kind gentleman was sitting on the bench when he came out of the store.

The man asked the kid, “So, what did you get him?”

The kid responded, “nothing from the watch shop that’s were my dad works!”

“What are you going to get him?” The man asked with a confused look on his face.

The kid responded, “I think I’ll give him an awesome rock I found and a kiss for father’s day. I’ll spend the $105 on candy for my friends and me.”

The moral of the story: the kid’s mission was to find his dad a father’s day gift and the man thought it was money that was important to the kid. Without money organizations can not possibly continue to operate, but without the right mission they would not exist.

Advertising & Not-for-Profit Organizations

There are two different types of Advertising: Image (Brand) advertising and Retail advertising. Image advertising is a way to change the life styles we live, and the items of importance to a society. Retail advertising is a way to move people to buy a specific product from a specific place.

One good example of Image advertising is a full page advertisement for the YMCA; it may show some kids in the daycare while the parents work out in the gym, the advertisement might read: we build strong kids, strong families, and strong communities. A good example of retail advertising might be the advertisement of ¼ a page for the YMCA, with a coupon for one month’s free membership if you sign up before the following month.

Nonprofit image advertising could be thought of as a way to change the way people think, feel, or act about their organization. Not only that, but image advertising can help people become informed of ways to: donate, volunteer, or participate in a program or service that they wanted to, had the desired to, but never knew, that such a/an program or organization existed.

Marketing a Good or Bad Mindset for Not- for-profit Organizations?

Few nonprofits have marketing departments and even fewer embrace marketing as an important part of operations. Throughout the history of the nonprofit sector marketing has almost been a bad word, but there are many reasons these ideas are changing. Most nonprofit organizations now, recognize the need to broaden their activities beyond the production of services or advocacy to focus on the clienteles they are trying to reach.

One definition for the term marketing includes: any action, process, or situation implemented for the purpose of selling a product, service, or idea. The word selling is where most people have a problem. In a Non-profit organization there is no such thing as selling. There is programming, fundraising, recruitment, accounting, grant writing, but absolutely no selling. Or do non-profit organizations sell?

Selling is nothing but a way to make products, services, or ideas desirable to another person so that they try to obtain those products, services, or ideas. An employee can sell a good idea to his boss in the same way the YMCA can sell memberships to potential members.

What does it mean to sell a product, service, or idea? three things must happen before you can say something was sold: 1. A business or person must be helped or improved, 2. The person being sold must feel the same way about a product as the salesperson feels, 3. Everyone within the transaction must understand enough infromation about the product that they respond with positive actions.

Well, Non-profits certainly do not have a title position called salesperson or account representative, but everyone in the organization ought to be a salesman for the organization. What is the role of the “salesperson” in a not-for-profit? MARKETING!

Making services/programs available
Arranging materials to be easily understood & desirable by "markets”
Relaying feedback to the upper management or board
Keeping all profitable markets open (succesful programs open too)
Encouraging new ideas & new markets to buy into the mission
Targeting specific markets that may have interest in the mission
Investigating new ideas and
Nudging people to for financial resources: donations, grants, or program
Growing the organization because of successful segmentation