Business plan topic

Hey guys and gals. As some of you know I'm in the beginning stages of getting into scrapping as a profitable business. One of the things I've learned in life so far as a self employed business owner is that a business plan is a really good idea. I have always skipped this part in the past, and its one of the reasons I never convert from owning a job to owning a business.

Anyway I'm going to try and do something like this, but wanted your input. I think it would be useful if I could share it here, as well as gather input from the experienced members here.

Any thoughts on what would be the best format? Should it just be a topic here? Would a topic for discussion, backed up by an attachment like a word file of spread sheet be better? Personally I think having an attachment that get updated to reflect peoples input would be a lot simpler, threads on forums can get kind of messy sometimes.

TIA for your input all.

Devo

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Originally Posted by Kris Kringle

Business plans are a good thing they help keep you focused. Mine is in word format. One thing to remember is A business plan is Kind of like a road map to a destination of where you want to go and as a Road map there is different roads you can take to get to your destination.

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Agreed! While I plan on doing this for myself, and my situation, if there is enough interest I will try to keep it general enough that it can be easily adapted for others to use.

Yea one thing that you don't want to do it pick one road and take that...sometimes and you have to keep in mind things will change due to market and you have to able to change on a dime and get X done.

Our plan is very simple and open but at the same time down to the point.

Simple thing to keep in mind

You need to make a profit at the end of the week. Try to make X profit a day and sure as hell make sure you have profit at the end of the month. Start small and work up. If you put to much money out you will be stuck paying back on them and I feel it will set you back. We got the core items we needed and the built on top of that.

The plan in this biz is make as much money as possible after expenses....LOL it's not rocket science it's scrap metal GOOD LUCK ALL

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Originally Posted by mikeinreco

The plan in this biz is make as much money as possible after expenses....LOL it's not rocket science it's scrap metal GOOD LUCK ALL

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Thanks for clearing that up, I guess that's all the plan I need. :)

Seriously though, some people are fine with using a dirt simple plan like that, and many are succesfull. I've been in business (non scrap) for 15 years now and have finally learned there is a lot more to a business plan than just make money. Just off the top of my head:

- Can the business run without me (if no you own a job, not a business)
- Can the business be sold
- Whats my exit strategy
- etc

Anyway I posted this topic up to see if there would be interest in developing a business plan that others might contribute to and find useful for their needs. I know better than to start a debate on the usefulness of a bp, since it can mean too many things to too many people.

I think it's a great idea to have something to review every once in a while to make sure your headed down the right path. Maybe more important in some cases is to set daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals...which is a plan in a way but also measurable progress.

Just thinking out loud here. Perhaps it would be better to develop more of a handbook type of document that is more specific to different areas of scrapping. For example scraping cars. Come up with a central document that contains the info you need for scrapping a vehicle. With the data you then develop a business plan specific to your needs.

There is lots of info (and even more opinions) scattered through out this forum, and the internet in general, but it would be very helpful to have the info, with real numbers, contained in one location that is specific to one segment of the scrapping world.

Not so much a checklist, but a sheet with some real, hard numbers. From the real numbers can come a business plan. Just a though.

Thanks for starting this thread. I especially like the part about if the business can't run without you then you own a job, not a business.

Here's my story. Burly Guys Junk Removal LLC was started in Michigan in 2009 as a junk removal company company. We began to get really successful (and a huge component of that was scrap metal) when suddenly one day my wife decided we were moving to Florida. Being the obedient partner that I am, and not liking Michigan winters, I decided to go along. She went down to Sarasota the first part of May in 2011, but as that is the height of my busy season I could not leave just yet. So I rocked it through the fall in Detroit, and set my team in Detroit up so that they could run (mostly) without me.

I drove to Sarasota in December, just before Christmas. I am marketing the junk removal services here, but a business plan would be really helpful.

So I am now writing one that I will model strongly after yours. Thank you for the inspiration!

The point being that I am setting myself up with contractors in Florida vs. employees in Michigan. Again, my main business is junk, not scrap, so scrap metal is a by-product, albeit a profitable one.

the problem with hard numbers are, there are none, the numbers change , some times hourly or less. you really have to deal in % not hard numbers.

Halden1 do go to the introductions section and start a thread, tell us about you and your interest in scrapping, Mike.

A little bit late to jump on this thread but I think you're talking about a business model canvass - Its a sort of one page business plan - if you google it there will be several free templates to use.

Bplans: Business Planning Resources and Free Business Plan Samples | Bplans
How to Write a Business Plan | The U.S. Small Business Administration | SBA.gov

these a a few sites that i think can help. The hard part is adapting it to whatever your trying to do