New Business Plan Help

[bryceelliott]

Hello all,
I am developing a Business Plan for a Coffee Shop & Conference room in Gladstone OR. I have spent time as a Barista, and specialize in Training Managers in the Service Industry, I.e. Resturaunts. Therefore, I love developing the plan and goals and a service oriented, people oriented Business model.

However, I hate... Maybe loath is better, the Marketing research. What in the world do I need to do to get proper, accurate, and applicable data? What will investors, Bankers, the SBA, etc, want to see in regards to this info? I know it is vitally important as it shows the market and how we as a business will capitalize on that said market.

However, I need Help.

I don't want to go with an outside consulting firm or research agency (too expensive). Plus, I strongly believe that by doing it myself I educate myself more and prepare myself for business later. In order for me personally to run a successful Business, I need to know everything and be neck deep in the much and mire of the nuances, even the Marketing Research.

Any Help in guiding me to resources or other information will be greatly helpful.

Plus if you want more info and the special aspects of my Business please Send me a PM and we can talk.

Thanks

Bryce

 

[cafemakers]

Hi Bryce,

As a coffee shop DIY'er, you should find ample information on this topic already exists here on this board. This thread http://www.coffeeforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=12112 contains suggestions and links to a wide variety of resources.

You can use the "search" feature anytime to find much of the information that you need.

Best of success,

Andrew

 

[bryceelliott]

Thank you for the link to the other post...

I have spent quite a bit of time looking around. however, I am trying to specifically draw on the Marketing research ideas (ok... maybe a few other areas too....).

Nevertheless, I will always welcome all information especially that which I have probably missed in other forums.

Thank you again.

 

[cafemakers]

I have spent quite a bit of time looking around. however, I am trying to specifically draw on the Marketing research ideas (ok... maybe a few other areas too....).

When you say "marketing research ideas" do you mean industry data and statistics or something else? Perhaps this is an issue of syntax that we can resolve.

 

[bryceelliott]

Yeah... Industry trends, statistics of industry growth, etc.

I am currently working on pulling up demographics for the surrounding area to find out what the percentage of the population is in the target market. I also and working on determinding the trafic count for that area...

It is probably just an issue on syntax. However, I am attemping to figure out what Marketing/Industry research my Banker and SBA are going to want to see.

Thanks

 

[cafemakers]

Well... I hate to say it, but if you're looking for retail industry data, the best stuff does not come free.

You may wish to consider reports offered by the National Coffee Association, such as their drinking trends or out-of-home consumption study, here: https://www.ncausa.org/i4a/ams/amsstore ... d=1#NCDT06

Certain consultants may already own these reports, but we've already heard your position on hiring outside assistance.

Seriously though, it's nice to have supporting industry information in your business plan, but I would not place too much emphasis on this since ultimately your ability to repay borrowed funds will be the bank's only concern.

Carefully craft your concept, strategy and budget estimates and be prepared to defend the reliability of your figures. As necessary, you can then point to industry data to confirm that your figures are viable, but otherwise, this sort of boiler-plate information is not crucial to the decision-making process. Good collateral and a well thought out pro-forma outweighs a pretty Starbucks unit growth graph any day.

Best of success,

Andrew