Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello,
My name is Brandi Wiggins and I am currently perusing a start up of a small business in the Virginia area. I would like to open an indoor family entertainment center specializing in inflatable castles and obstacle courses. For 5 years I have done the research, contacted competitors, and perfected a business plan. Originally I was going to open my business in Savannah; however my husband was deployed to Iraq for 12 months. I am in search of assistance in startup cost and equipment cost. This type of business is a very profitable endeavor with little maintenance cost. I am extremely excited to get this going to be able to offer a wholesome family environment to my community.

So that you can better picture my goal heres alittle of my ideas:

Monster Time ® (MT) is a center aimed to facilitate family fun. MT is an indoor recreation and birthday party facility for kids and their families located in the city of Stafford, VA.  Our goal is to provide a healthy and safe environment for children and families. MT will offer excitement and fun through our tunnels, mazes, and slides in a padded supervised play area. A snack bar with nutritious snacks and choices of beverages will be available for customer refreshment.

MT will be different and unique from any of the competitors because of our goal to integrate learning with healthy play. Among the traditional bouncy castle will be large life size interactive educational diagrams. Children will be amused in a giant ear or nose, while starring at the blue light galaxy on the wall. MT will be a successful and profitable business because of the major market arena and it’s location in a growing and expanding community. The business space will be approximately 5-9,000 square feet and include an open area playroom. The facility will accommodate up to 50 to 60 children in the play area at the same time.
Our biggest operating expenses will be the rent for our facility and any equipment purchased during the start-up period. We would like to add to our initial service plan conservatively, to be financed from existing cash flow as we go. We anticipate a net profit before our second year.

MT will exist to provide play at an affordable price. Children and adults will be encouraged to use the bouncy, jump, and slide on bouncy castles; ball filled pits; and colorful climbing structures. MT will designate a play section for toddlers and young children who might be intimidated by the large play structures.  MT will also provide a refreshment selection more suitable for adults. Coffee, natural juice beverages, and a local newspaper will be provided for the supervising adults.
MT is a party fun facility that will be suitable for:

• Birthday Parties  
• Open Play
• Church Youth Nights
• Mom Club’s
• Summer Camp Outings
• School Groups
• Kids karaoke
• Kinder Music classes

Any help, advise, or direction would be excellent.

 

Thank you for any suggestions, advice or comments.

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The business sounds great.

You've been working on your business plan for 5 years, but have you been working on the financing? Have you begun to save towards the start up costs? Have you started to apply for loans or done any other work towards the funding end of the start up steps?

From your business plan have you figured out exactly how much you will require for funding?

SBA backed loans are difficult to come by. Have you researched the qualifications criteria and do you meet the requirements?

Depending on how you answer these questions you might be able to request funding at Preneuraholics.com (launching this month).

 

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Sylvia Freelance Business Plan Writer

Hi Sylvia, while I can certainly appreciate your quest to create a new funding source for entrepreneurs, after reviewing your website/blog I very much doubt that donations to businesses (for profit) are going to be a viable one.

If you follow the rather traditional concept of donating money, why do you think somebody would give away meaningful a amount in return for receiving - nothing?

The idea of helping others is certainly noble, but have you considered how many of us would continue to make charitable donations if it wouldn't be for the tax write-offs?

I'd recommend that you do some research on how Pay Pal's Donation feature is utilized to gather additional guidance on your idea.

Mark

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Jackson Steiner
http://www.JacksonSteiner.com

Advanced Document Design for entrepreneurs, intermediaries, and the financial services industry.
http://www.Publications.FastVentures.com

Brandy, I think your concept sounds intriguing. Maybe it would be worth looking into corporate sponsorships as an alternative funding source. From what I gathered from your post it sounds like you may be able to drum up some support from the manufacturers of these inflatables. How about pitching your venture as a promotional platform for their products?

Another idea is tapping groups that have a vested interest in promoting exercising for kids to prevent obesity? This has become a huge movement and basically jump-started the development of video games with a physical fitness aspect (e.g. Wii).

Also, look into whether or not there may be some funding opportunities available from your local government, possibly for commercial development or job growth in certain areas.

Depending on how much you're looking for, I think you should be able to develop a viable funding mix for this venture.

If you are interested to discuss your project in greater detail, please feel free to send me a PM and I'll try to give you a few more pointers.

I hope this helps.

Mark

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Jackson Steiner
http://www.JacksonSteiner.com

Advanced Document Design for entrepreneurs, intermediaries, and the financial services industry.
http://www.Publications.FastVentures.com

Mark,

I appreciate your concerns. Let me assure you that I have spent the past 18 months researching prior to implementing Preneuraholics.com. I also spent quite a lot of time in discussions with PayPal regarding the use of donation buttons.

As for your assumption that nobody will donate...I have had many, many people already say they will definitely participate and donate. There have been a few such as you that don't believe people will participate if they don't get a monetary return on their "investment" or a tax write off. But we're talking small donations here, $10 -$100 on average.

Entrepreneurs are responding as I expected...with a sense of empathy...a sense of having been there themselves...understanding the difficulties in finding funding. They want to help change the system. They understand that with a small donation they don't expect a return. Their reward is in the knowledge that they are helping to launch a new start up they believe in. (Start up projects will be posted by categories and donors will be able to choose their "favorite(s)".)

People are ready for a change in the system. It's time to try something different. It's all in the power of numbers and unity. With hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs in the same position, by uniting together we can bring about change.

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Sylvia Freelance Business Plan Writer

Sylvia,

Since your blog talks about small amounts from many sources, I'm curious as to your thoughts about:

1 Who /what kind of businesses situations will be "served" by this method

2. What "typical" amounts will be acquired by a single entrepreneur through your site?

 

 

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Business Growth Masters, LLC -
Capital Catalysts for Entrepreneurs
Home of the Scalable Business Plan and QuikStart Capital Programs
http://www.bizgrowthmasters.com
info@bizgrowthmasters.com

Robert,

Preneuraholics.com will target the many entreprepeneurs that are attempting to start a small business. Mom and Pop type businesses if you will.

I spent several years advising folks on how to start their own small business and I know there are scores and scores of such folks. A good example is the poster on this thread (didn't mean to hijack this thread). Brandi has a great idea that will benefit her community. I know there would be many potential donors that would see this as a worthy project.

These are the types of folks that don't qualify for venture capital or grants. They may not qualify for bank loans for various reasons. Not necessarily because they are "losers", but maybe they don't have enough industry experience. That in itself would disqualify a person from being approved for an SBA backed loan.

Or  maybe someone has scrimmped and saved and is "only" short by $5K or $10K. There are countless people in these situations that can use our help.

This is not for some kid that wants to sell t-shirts for beer money. The folks that apply at Preneuraholics.com will need to show good faith effort at their start up tasks in order to assure potential donors that they can actually pull it off. They will need to provide proof of legitimacy.

As for typical amounts, from $1,000 - $50,000 would be attainable.

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Sylvia Freelance Business Plan Writer

Brandi,

Just wanted to add on to Mark's comments. There are a number of ways to bring capital into a business. Based upon the information you have supplied-I think you should be able to develop a viable "capital strategy" that will enable you move forward.

The amount you require (as well as other specifics)  will have some impact on the number and type of options available to you and the "cost of capital" as well as the time to acquire - but it seems quite possible.

 

If you want to discuss your specific situation (in confidence) feel free to send me a PM or contact me directly.

 

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Business Growth Masters, LLC -
Capital Catalysts for Entrepreneurs
Home of the Scalable Business Plan and QuikStart Capital Programs
http://www.bizgrowthmasters.com
info@bizgrowthmasters.com

Sylvia - I have several questions for you (in no particular order of importance):

•  Who determines on whether a funding request should be granted? The donor? You? A committee?
• How do you determine a “good faith effort?” Are you just taking my word?
• Are you administering this program/endeavor pro bono?

Excellent questions yourekidding...

Most are answered right in the blog (below).

Funding requests will be posted by the requestor at Preneuraholics.com. Within the posting the requestor will explain their start up plan, their ability to create and run the business, their cash infusion thus far and anything else that will help convince the potential donors that their request is worthy of their donation. They will be able to upload any documents they want to present as proof of their legitimacy and effort such as DBA certificate, business registration certificate, website, financial statements such as assumptions or cash flow statements or projected income statements. It will be up to the requestor to determine how much they want to divulge without showing any proprietary information.

Those projects will be posted by category so that donors can choose whatever industry they might be more inclined to help. Somebody might want to help a day care center and somebody else might be partial to a tatoo parlor (for example). So to answer your question, the donors pick the start up they want to help.

There is a fee to post a request. A business owner will understand that the fee is part of the cost of their startup. This fee ($49) will also serve as a deterent against fraudulent postings.

I encourage you to read through the blog for more detail. Thank you!

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Sylvia Freelance Business Plan Writer