Business plan for Project Red

Posted on October 24, 2007
Filed Under - projects, Working for yourself |

Dragon's Den

Could I face the dragons… and survive?

Project Red, my online project, has now begun in earnest. I am writing the initial business plan, attempting to answer such basic questions as: How does it work? How does it make money?

The site doesn’t exist yet, so I am plucking numbers out of the air based on what I can find out from similar websites. It’s quite difficult to predict things like unique visitors, income from advertising and so on when you don’t have any base data.

But if I’ve learnt one thing from watching Dragon’s Den (ha!) it is that you’ve got to have a grasp of your numbers.

As far as software is concerned, my intention is to use an off-the-shelf product as I don’t have the resources to develop my own and the available products are absolutely fine for my purposes. There is a particular product that I like the look of but it is not the most popular of its type; it is a newer kid on the block. I am thinking about installing a copy to play around with and I will also try out one of the industry standards for comparison.

At the same time I am thinking about branding issues, look and feel, how the whole thing is to be presented. For instance , I am trying to decide whether to get someone to design a proper logo at this stage or wait until the project has been up and running for a bit and then having a re-branding exercise.

There is a lot to think about all at once. Some areas I am comfortable with, other areas are new to me. I used to be an IT project manager, so describing how the site will work and developing a plan to implement it is water off a duck’s back. But working out the financials is a different story. I’ve got little experience in this area and I’m not the most mathematically minded person either!

Nevertheless, it’s all pretty exciting. I’m confident in my ability to apply myself and grasp the basics, and I will be cornering knowledgable friends to pick their brains wherever possible.

Stumble it!

Comments

2 Responses to “Business plan for Project Red”

  1. Anne Howe on October 30th, 2007 10:02 pm

    Hiya,
    Thanks for linking to me. On business plans you can find an easy template here
    http://www.peterjones.tv/index.cfm?fuseaction=peterJones.Article_Detail&content_id=52
    Good luck with your plans. The figures are just forecasts but need to be backed up with evidence..list the expenses you know of, what is the project going to cost you, what are you going to achieve and see if it balances. Just like balancing your chequebook. Do not buy yourself a job. Business link also have information.

  2. sally on October 30th, 2007 11:40 pm

    Nice one, thanks for the advice! The Peter Jones template is also good - there are definitely some questions on there that I haven’t addressed yet.

Leave a Reply