NxLeveL™ Entrepreneur Business Plans
E1. The Word Smith
E2. Butterfly World
E3. Bedside Manor Reservation Service
E4. Christmas Customs
E5. Qual-Com Consulting
E6. Windbreak™
E7. Seasons Dolls
E8. Frontier Embroidery
E9. Consultant HQ
E10. Box and Ship
E11. Magellan Construction
E12. MARMS Stock Photography
E13. Downstream Chili
E14. Doc's Sunny Flowers and Herbs
E15. Colonial Home
E16. Best Buffalo Bison Ranch
The Word Smith provides small businesses and private non-profit corporations with assistance in finding funding through clearly and precisely written grant proposals. A sole proprietorship, the Word Smith has been a part-time business for about six months, and requires little to no outside funding at this time. The proprietor would like to grow the business to a full-time endeavor, and wrote the plan to develop a clear direction of its growth possibilities.
This plan contains the suggested NxLeveL™ Entrepreneur Business Plan sections, including the following worksheets: Services Pricing Worksheets, three years Monthly Cash Flow Projections, two year comparative Balance Sheets and sample resume.
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E2. Butterfly World, Inc. (pdf)
Butterfly World, Inc. is an independently owned business that provides expertise and quality service in supplying butterflies and moths. The business is in the development stage, and will be organized as a C-Corporation. The owners are seeking significant funding from a variety of sources.
This well-written plan contains all of the sections suggested for the NxLeveL™ Entrepreneur Business Plan. Many of the worksheets from the NxLeveL™ Business Plan Workbook were developed with this plan including: Salaries, Occupancy Expenses, Miscellaneous and Outside Services Expenses, Sales Forecasts, Cost of Projected Product Units Sold, Start-up Expenses, Monthly Cash Flow Projections for three years, Projected Income Statements for three years and Balance Sheets for three years.
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E3. Bedside Manor Reservation Service (pdf)
Bedside Manor Reservation Service is a growth branch of an existing consulting / marketing company. The service mission is to provide a consumer-oriented bed and breakfast reservation service with prompt response, accessible hours of operation, and customer satisfaction in their tourism experience. To the bed and breakfast owners, it will provide prompt bookings, exceptional marketing, and integrity in its dealings.
This well-researched plan contains all of the NxLeveL™ Entrepreneur Business Plan sections and more. Worksheets include: Monthly Cash Flow Projections for two years, Annual Cash Flows for five years, Monthly Projected Income Statements for two years, Comparative Projected Annual Income Statements for five years, Comparative ProForma Balance Sheets for five years, Assumptions relating to financial statements, and an amortization schedule for the proposed loan.
This is an interesting plan in that the owner decided NOT to pursue this add-on line of service for her existing business after discovering, through this business plan writing, that the idea was financially infeasible. The author gave permission to use her real name and phone number for those who might want to contact her regarding her NxLeveL™ experience.
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The author of this plan wants to expand an existing business to include custom-made Christmas ornaments of solid brass with 24K gold, silver tone and antique brass plated surfaces. The company has the capability of creating ornaments to feature a company logo, scene, historic building or tourist attraction. The company has also created a custom The Twelve Days of Christmas series that includes a story about the origin of the song. Current marketing efforts are the challenge.
This plan contains good research information and is interesting to read. The owner does not require outside financing for at least a year, so limited financial information is provided. The plan does include the Growth/Start-up Costs Worksheet, Projected Sales, Projected Cost of Product Units Sold, Monthly Cash Flow Projections for Year One, and Annual Cash Flow Projections for Years Two and Three.
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Qual-Com Consulting is a start-up business, but the owner/author of the business plan chose to attend the NxLeveL™ for Entrepreneurs class and write a business plan from that format. The owner has extensive business knowledge, although he has not operated his own business. This plan is easy to read and understand, and represents a consulting business that will not need additional financing to start. The plan was written strictly for the owner’s managerial use.
All of the sections of the NxLeveL™ Entrepreneur Business Plan are represented, as well as all of the individual worksheets from the Financial Section. Monthly and Annual Cash Flow Projections for three years, first year Projected Income Statement, Balance Sheets and Statement of Owner’s Equity are included.
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WINDBREAK, The Ultimate Outdoor Baby Blanket is an extension of a part-time business to a full-time endeavor. The author of this won a “best business plan” award for the original version of this plan. This business is a “virtual manufacturing company” which contracts out the actual manufacture of this high-quality, unique outdoor baby blanket. The plan is well written and easy to follow. The owner anticipates self-funding the operation for the first year.
This plan contains the suggested NxLeveL™ Entrepreneur Business Plan sections, including the following financial worksheets (some in slightly different format from the NxLeveL™ Workbook, but very easy to follow): Sales Forecasts, Variable and Fixed Costs, Break-Even Analysis, Monthly Cash Flow Projection for Year One only, and Projected Income Statement Balance Sheet and Statement of Owner’s Equity for Year One.
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The owner of Seasons Dolls is a true artist, who has been designing and making original cloth dolls and accessory patterns as a hobby for the past 15 years. The cloth doll has interchangeable faces and hair, and faces can be custom-designed. Each doll is numbered, dated and signed by the artist, and includes a certificate of authenticity. The purpose of the business plan is to determine if this hobby can be turned into a part-time business for the artist and selected family members with only a limited amount of growth capital available. Since the plan was developed for internal use only, it is written with somewhat more casual “first person” language than if it were to be used for external financial purposes.
This is a fun and interesting plan to read, as it illustrates some wonderful and creative marketing and product growth ideas, including useful additions like a specific monthly marketing reminder list. Financial worksheets include: two years of Sales Forecast Monthly Projections, two years of Cost of Projected Product Units Sold, Start-up Expenses, first year Monthly Projected Cash Flows, and Projected Annual Cash Flow for year two. The conclusion illustrates how NxLeveL™ helped the artist realize the challenges of turning a hobby into a business endeavor.
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One of the shortest sample plans in our library, Frontier Embroidery proves that putting your basic business thoughts together in a business plan format does not mean you have to write a book! The owner has a concise, clean writing style, making this plan easy to read. Information about the embroidery industry is difficult to find, as many of the businesses are “untracked home-based endeavors”. The author has utilized quotes from industry periodicals to support her industry analysis, along with some generalized information about retail embroidery businesses.
This business plan was written to help the owner and her family “get organized” in their attempt to expand their current part-time, home-based business into a full-time endeavor. All family members will ultimately play a role, as the owner sees this as a useful training ground for her five children. Initial investment for machinery and computer equipment has already been made, so additional growth capital required is minimal. Financial information includes: 3 Years Sales Projection, and 3 Years of Monthly Cash Flow Projections.
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Forming a consulting firm that serves as a “networking agency’ between professional consultants and potential clients is the premise behind Consultant HQ. The owner, an independent consultant, realizes how much time is spent prospecting for, contacting, and maintaining individual clients in consulting businesses. This business idea was designed to facilitate that process by setting up a central “clearing house” for all types of consulting services. The author did a good job of analyzing both the pros and cons of this type of networking service, and ultimately decided that it would take more time and effort at this point in time than the owner had to devote it, considering he also has another full-time job.
This plan is well-written, easy to read, and has some good representations of marketing and financial analysis information. The financial worksheets included in this plan are: Break-even analysis, two years cash flow projections with assumptions, two years projected income statement, balance sheet, and statement of owner’s equity, sales forecasts, fixed assets worksheet, start-up expenses worksheet and advertising budget worksheet.
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Box and Ship is a 12 year old full service “wrap it, pack it and ship it” business. The owner of this business faced what many “new” entrepreneurs do, buying a business in which he had worked for several years. The challenge of this type of acquisition is apparent in this business plan, as the owner worked through planning changes he wanted to make to the business, dealt with prior reputations of the business and inherited clientele, and physically changing the business location. The purpose of this business plan was to understand the business from the OWNERSHIP side better, and plan for a potential expansion and building purchase.
In the middle of the NxLeveL™ classes, the building in which the business is located became available for sale. The owner decided to complete the plan, put in a bid for the building (which included managing two other tenants), and submit the package to the bank. By the time class was over, the bank had accepted the proposal, the purchase was complete, and the plan was already being revised! This is a good example of a “living, breathing management tool” that allowed a “new owner” to analyze his next steps.
Financial pieces included in this plan are: salary/wage/benefits worksheet, outside services, insurance, advertising, occupancy expenses, existing debt, miscellaneous expenses, sales forecast and cost of sales worksheets, break-even analysis, and one year cash flow projection.
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E11. Magellan Construction (pdf)
Magellan Construction is a family-owned business that has been operating for almost 3 years. The owners’ goals are to build quality, affordable new homes in a first-time home buyer price range. The company, to this point, has run on a “we’ll see” basis with no long-term planning. The purpose of the business plan was to develop an infrastructure for long-term planning and organization.
This business plan is concise, well-written and easy to understand. It presents non-traditional marketing ideas that are appropriate to this company’s home-building environment. Two years of Projected Balance Sheets and three years of Projected Income Statements are included. This would be a good plan for group “critique” in class, particularly in analyzing what additional financial information might be included to help management better understand how cash flows through its business.
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E12. MARMS Stock Photography (pdf)
MARMS Stock Photography is a business that markets photographs, taken by the owner, for use by magazines and publications. The business does not sell “pictures,” but rather the use of the pictures. This is a small home-based business, originally designed to fulfill the owner’s love of photography with a desire for additional income. One of the owner’s goals is to determine if the business could (or should) be expanded beyond part-time to replace her full time job.
This is a well-written business plan that is interesting and easy to read. It does a nice job of representing the written sections of the NxLeveL™ Entrepreneur Business Plan outline. Since MARMS is a small, home-based, owner-operated business that is not seeking outside financing, it contains only some of the essential financial worksheets: a Start-up Expenses Budget, and three years of Monthly Cash Flow Projections. The owner asked that her real name and contact information be left in this plan, should anyone be interested in contacting her either about her business or her impression of the NxLeveL™ program.
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The little community of Downstream: live or die? That was the question a little town faced, and five local families decided to help it “live” by developing a product that would help to bring tourists to Downstream. That was the start of what is now a thriving business: Downstream Chili Corporation, which produces and promotes its trademark “gourmet Spice of Western Life”, Downstream Chili.
This DOWNSTREAM CHILI business plan won the first-place prize at a statewide NxLeveL™ Business Plan Contest—and for good reason. It is contains one of the most thoroughly written and researched marketing sections of any business plan in the NxLeveL™ Business Plan Library to date. Additionally, it contains historic and financial presentations that give a clear picture of where this business has been, and where it’s going. The owners would like to build a new facility, and wanted to use their business plan as their guide to accomplish that goal. The projections show the impact and required growth needed to make that dream happen.
The financial information in this plan is presented slightly different that in other sample plans. The writer chose to present Cash Receipts as one set of worksheets showing a 2-year historic comparison with third year budget and actual columns. The same format was used for a set of Cash Disbursements worksheets (thoroughly covering expense categories of Occupancy Expenses, Administrative Expenses, Wage/Benefit Expenses, Cost of Goods Sold, and Selling Expenses). Cash Flow Worksheets are for two historic years and one projected year. Then combined Projected Income Statement/Cash Balance Worksheets were prepared for two more years. Finally, the Appendix section contains a wonderful array of additional supporting materials, giving the reader a clear idea of just how thorough the author wanted to be.
Although it’s one of the longest plans in the library, this is a good one to use for in-class illustration of marketing and financials, and to show just how much work can/should go into a well thought-out plan for an existing business.
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E14. Doc’s Sunny Flowers and Herbs (pdf)
“Flowers today are probably the only indulgence that comes without fear of gaining fat, losing your life savings, or forbidden by law and can still make people happy,” according to this business plan author’s research. “And, the selling of specialty cut flowers provides a fantastic resource to be creative.”
DOC’S SUNNY FLOWERS AND HERBS is a market gardening business specializing in fresh cut flowers and herbal plants. This business plan is a great representation of what a NxLeveL™ student can produce in the allotted 12-15 week course time frame. The owner had done no previous research or writing prior to taking the course, but has created a thorough management document to help her begin her long-range planning. The financial presentations give a clear picture of where this business can potentially go, and what equipment will be needed.
The Financial Section of this plan is one of the most thorough in the NxLeveL™ Business Plan Library to date, and is presented according to the workbook methodology. Worksheets (three year projections) included in the financial section are: Outside Services, Occupancy Expenses, Miscellaneous Expenses, Fixed Asset Requirements, Start-up Expenses, Sales Forecasts, Cost of Projected Product Units Sold Forecasts and a Break-Even Analysis. Monthly Cash Flow Projections with accompanying notes are presented for 3 years into the future. The writer also prepared Projected Income Statements, Balance Sheets and Statement of Owner’s Equity. This is a well-written plan that serves as a good model for the NxLeveL™ course process.
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Recreating the elegant ambiance of colonial America through the use of quality primitive, colonial and folk art home décor and furniture reproduction products is what the COLONIAL HOME business is wanting to help customers accomplish. An expanding middle-aged population interested in specialty home decor from the 18th and 19th century makes this retail business particularly appropriate to its east coast location. Baby Boomers and Generation X’ers are looking for that “reach back into time” look but often aren’t willing to pay the prices found in the true antique market. COLONIAL HOME’s slogan “Today’s Treasures are Tomorrow’s Antiques,” reflects the business’s idea that reproduction furniture and artwork pieces will become tomorrow’s antiques but at affordable prices today.
This sample plan has an outstanding marketing section , which translates to a well-thought-out financial section. The author did extensive research, which is well-documented throughout. In addition, the plan develops all of the critical individual revenue and expense budget worksheets as well as three years of Cash Flow Projections. Since COLONIAL HOME will be self-financed, this plan truly shows the value of developing this planning document as an internal managerial tool regardless of ultimate financing needs.
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E16. Best Buffalo Bison Ranch (pdf)
The BEST BUFFALO BISON RANCH is in the business of raising and marketing bison and bison meat/products. The primary method of marketing is with a trailer containing freezers, which is taken to various town surrounding the ranch location. The business involves all family members , with the oldest sons becoming more involved in the business. Having been in the ranching business full or part time since 1974, the owners are interested in continuing to promote bison meat and side-products. They want to expand their product line and their herd by developing better marketing strategies while keeping within a reasonable borrowing budget.
This state NxLeveL Business Plan Contest winning plan is written in an easy-to-read style, but is thorough in its content. The marketing section is particularly well done, documenting industry background as well as results from a customer survey. The development of the budgets and statements for the BEST BUFFALO BISON RANCH are clear representations of the NxLeveL Business Plan process. Financial data includes: Growth Expenses (related to her expansion and additional product/service development, Fixed Assets Acquisition Budget, Sales and Production Cost Budgets, Sales and Administrative Expenses Budget, General Overhead Expenses Budget, Monthly Cash Flow Projections for Year 1, Annual Cash Flow Projections for Years 2 and 3, Projected Income Statement and Balance Sheets, and a Break-Even Analysis. This is a good representation of a “usable” management tool for the owners of this business, and a great example for new NxLeveL students.
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