Business Plan roadblock....

goodidea

Hi All,
I’m working on a business plan for an interesting project and I’d appreciate suggestions for a slight roadblock I've encountered.

Main prob’ I’m encountering (at the moment) is that I can’t locate any stats on the potential sales that could be generated in the sector for the proposed service. There's no similar data recorded by the CSO or their European and UK equivalents. I've spoken to them all at length.

I have detailed info on the production levels in the sector i.e. output levels, numbers employed, numbers of producers, values and types of sub products they produce. I have values on the costs associated with direct inputs, but unfortunately there are no figures available (that I can find) on the spend they make on similar services that I propose offering.

I’d appreciate your thoughts on how I can proceed without the key numbers I actually need for the plan.

As a potential way to market I approached an organisation in the sector selling other services but it turns out they’re not as good as they claimed to be and are only interested in running their business on state grants. (The intro was via a state funding body. That's one for a separate thread!)

Your suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Peterdalkey

This topic was covered on here recently. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=84771835

goodidea

Peterdalkey wrote: »

This topic was covered on here recently. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=84771835

Thanks PeterDalkey. Much appreciated. Have a good weekend.

Lyn256

Here's a link to a Govt report that gives some info on small businesses in Ireland (scroll down to the Appendices)

http://www.djei.ie/enterprise/smes/the_voice_of_small_business_report_2011.pdf

This was the most recent info that I could get and I used it for my recently submitted thesis.

As Peter says in the other thread-this will give very very broad information and necessarily relevant info for your business.

Also predicting sales is an almost impossible feat-you're nearly better off to work it in reverse. Figure your break-even point and desired profitability point and that at least gives you a minimum target to aim for and a desired target-the chances of you reaching that target will be related to your sales and marketing abilities.

goodidea

Lyn256 wrote: »

Here's a link to a Govt report that gives some info on small businesses in Ireland (scroll down to the Appendices)

http://www.djei.ie/enterprise/smes/the_voice_of_small_business_report_2011.pdf

This was the most recent info that I could get and I used it for my recently submitted thesis.

As Peter says in the other thread-this will give very very broad information and necessarily relevant info for your business.

Also predicting sales is an almost impossible feat-you're nearly better off to work it in reverse. Figure your break-even point and desired profitability point and that at least gives you a minimum target to aim for and a desired target-the chances of you reaching that target will be related to your sales and marketing abilities.

Thanks for the posting. I was also thinking along those lines. The project isn't aimed at the SME sector which is the reason numbers I'd like are not available. Projecting potential sales is more of a "dark art" than an exact science. I won't let it stop me but it would have been useful to have an insight into the capital expenditure for services in my target market.

Regards