Geek Spectrum

For some lovely reason queer kids tend to be creative as fuck.  We love to make things, and subvert the norm, and a lot of us look at this and want to know how to make money doing what we love.  As a whole 20 somethings in general are not an organized bunch, we just wander from place to place looking for free food.  Adulting is hard, but I’m going to make the launching a business side of it a little bit easier.

So this is an outline of a business plan.  You need one of these.  Think of it as one of those long ass myspace questionnaires from yesteryear but about your business, not what percentage of a slut you are or whatever that nonsense was about.

 

This whole thing may seem like way too much effort.  I know effort is hard when you’re first getting started, especially when you just want to dive right in and start making and selling your product; but i promise it is much easier to start out with everything you need than it is to go back and do everything in a rush.  

 

When you write a paper you make your outline and gather your research first, you don’t dive into writing right away.  This is your outline.  This is where you do your research.  This is how you make sure you are not going to spend all of your money on supplies and then fail right out of the gate.  Business is hard, but doing your research and being prepared makes it way easier.

 

Executive summary

• What are you going to do?
• Where will your business be going in the future?
• Think of this as your thesis statement.
• Projected goal.

Company description

• What do you do/make/offer?
• What makes you different from others in your field?
• What is your philosophy/ why should what you do matter?

Market Analysis

• What will your product cost to produce?
• How much are people charging for a similar product?
• How high of a demand is there for your product?
• Who is your target demographic?
• Conducting surveys to gauge interest.

Organization and management

• Who is involved in your company?
• If it is more than just you are others employees or partner?
• What do you need to do to hire people and are they full time vs part time?
• Do helpful friends count?

Service or Product line

• What do you make/ offer?
• Why is it better than what is already available?
• Is your product Eco-friendly/ what is the life cycle of your product?
• Give photographic samples of products in your lines to garner interest?
• What is your production method?

Marketing and sales

• How are you going to sell your stuff?
• Conventions?
• Brick and mortar establishments?
• Ecommerce?
  • Etsy
  • Store Envy
  • Square
• How will you tell people about your products?
  • Social media/ blog?
  • Print advertising
• Booth design
• Custom dealings

Funding requests

• Why do you need money?
• What will you do with the money?
• Why should people give you the money?
• Funding platforms
  • Indiegogo
  • Gofundme
  • kickstarter

Financial projections

• What are you going to realistically make?
• What does it realistically cost to do the thing?
• When will you likely start making money?
• How long will it be before there is a product?
• How many do you have to sell to make a product?

Appendix

• Your personal resume
• Resumes for people who want to work with you.
• Permits.
• Federal tax id. (this is online)
• State sales tax id. (these are online)
• DBA. (this you get at town hall)
• Contact information.