How do I write a business plan for my Christian start-up? Part 3

So far in this series of posts we’ve gone over why a business plan is needed, what it needs to accomplish, how to put together its framework (outline), and where to find the resources for getting started on writing a business plan for your Christian startup. As promised in the last post, this one will focus on the research needed to complete your plan. I consider there to be three sources for the data you’ll be gathering. “Public Data”, “Hands On Data”, and “Pay For Data”.

Public Data is basically free. Its in the public domain, so you can gather it from the internet, visiting your local public and university libraries, or through other public sources.

Hands On Data is physically gathered. It is collected as you can imagine, by going out and doing some legwork; measuring drive by or foot traffic at possible locations, visiting competitors and scoping out their businesses, or even by conducting polls with potential customers. All of these are forms of this type of data source.

Pay For Data is collected by hiring a company that specializes in doing things such as: marketing focus groups, writing industry reports based on proprietary data, joining a chamber of commerce or industry associations to garner info you will need, etc. The following links are a list of resource sites and pages that will allow you to get started on gathering Public and Pay For data. Hands On data is up to you to go out and gather.

General Entrepreneurial & Business Info
SBA- The Small Business Administration
SCORE- (Service Corps of Retired Executives) Small business counseling and resources
Bureau of Labor Statistics- A U.S. Dept. of Labor site
Info USA- A U.S. Dept. of State site
American Factfinder- A U.S. Census Bureau site
Sta.rtUp.Biz- Entrepreneurial social network
Startup Nation- Entrepreneur resources network
Net Impact- Network of community leaders impacting the business world
Go4Funding Forums- Entrepreneur network Q&A forums
SBTV- Small business television
Entrepreneur magazine-
Small Biz Opportunities magazine
B-Net- Reference publications

Perfect Business- Entrepreneur network

Christian Specific Research
Generous Giving
Association of Religion Data Archives
Info USA Religion Data-
ASARB- Assoc. of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies
Lifeway Research
Barna Group- Free and for pay Christian focused info and custom research
CBA- Assoc. for Christian Retail
FCCI- (Canada) Fellowship of Companies for Christ International
Christ @ Work- US version of the network above

Industry Research
Bureau of Labor Statistics- U.S. Industries at a glance
Closerware- Non-Profit Market research
Crunchbase- Database of tech companies, people, and investors
Experts & Think tanks- Find an expert to help find specific information
Expert Pages-Mostly for attorneys, but can be used to get specific expertise data

Ibis World- Industry research and reports (pay for data)

Market Trends
Comscore- Internet Rankings
Alexa- Web Page rankings and visitor info
PSFK- Trends and innovation
Trendspotting- Internet trends & marketing research

Marketing Research Firms
Greenbook- Find research firms
Market Research World
Mindbranch- Christian and religious research and statistics
Fuld & Company- Competitive intelligence
Dun and Bradstreet- Company & credit research

Competitor Research
Future now- Article with tools to legally spy on your competition
Fuld & Company- Competitive intelligence tools
The Deal.com- News on deals occurring in the business world

Technorati Tags: Business plan,Christian Startup,Christian Business,Christian Capitalism,Business plan research,Christian Resources,Startup Resources

Related articles by Zemanta

• Two-Thirds of Small Businesses Go it Alone for Marketing (marketingvox.com)
• Census Bureau Releases Statistical Abstract Of U.S. With Some Data On Health Care (medicalnewstoday.com)
• Lifeway blogs develop customer relationships (Lifeway.com)
  

Read more...

List of Capital & Grants Sources

This is an ongoing and ever expanding list of capital resources for Christian businesses and ministries. Bookmark this page and check back periodically for the most current information.
If you know of an institution I have missed, please include it in the comments and I will add to the list.Image by Teamperks via Flickr

Venture Capital (National)

Kingdom Ventures (Christian)- $500,000- $5 million. A,B,C rounds of financing, sometimes bridge loans

Kings Counsel & Trust Ventures (Christian)- Social Enterprise (social, environmental & economic). Development capital, bridge loans, hard money loans, mezzanine debt, joint venture & preferred equity. Sweet spot $5 million >. Over $100 million. Kings Counsel also helps entrepreneurs to get their start-up ready for raising capital , linking them up with consultants who can help them to put together business plans, management team, etc..

Good Capital (secular)- Social enterprises targeting poverty & inequality. Later stage equity between $1-2 million

True Ventures (secular)- Early stage capital in Tech sector.

Greylock Partners (secular)- Tech & select markets. Growth companies that are poised to become market leaders in their industry.

DFJ (secular)- Early stage capital. Information technology, clean energy, nanotech, and life sciences.

Grants (National)

McLellan Foundation, Inc. (Christian)- Various Priorities (too many to list- see website for more info)

R.L. & K.H. McLellan (Christian)- Children, The Home/ The Family, Christian Education

Living Stones Foundation (Christian)- Kingdom Business, Family Values, Transformation. United States (Particularly San Francisco Bay Area), Latin America, Asia, India, Israel, & the Middle East.


Omidyar Network (secular)- Investments & Grants to organizations and entrepreneurs that create social, economic, or political change.


IGNIA (secular)- Investments between $2-$10 million, targeting entrepreneurs who help Latin America's poor.


Venture Capital (Regional)


Ballast Point Ventures (secular)- Southeast & Texas. Expansion and acquisition financing. Management led buyouts. Recapitalization of rapidly growing companies.


Winter Park Angels (secular)- Early stage venture capital in Florida.


Startup Florida (secular)- Internet start-ups in Florida.


Florida Angels (secular)-Early stage companies in Florida

Grants (Regional)

Networks-

Venture Capital Associations

Association for Corporate Growth (ACG)

The Funding Post

Resources to find funding-

Entrepreneurial Resources

Gain- Gainsville FL Innovation network (Biotech)

Go Big Network- Find funding on self professed "world's biggest community of startup investors"

The Funded- Online community that researches, rates, and reviews funding sources around the world.

Go4Funding- An online forum for business owners and entrepreneurs to find and link to funding sources. Post capital needs and business opportunities.
At BLDNG THE WALL we are always looking to make our information and resources as current and useful as possible. If you know of a capital or grant source that would benefit others, or information that would be useful in any of our posts, please leave a comment and we will try to include it for others to benefit from it. Also, if this information was useful to you please let us know, we'd love to hear any praise reports and success stories. Thanks for reading. BTW

Technorati Tags: Christian Business,Christian Startup,Christian Capital,Capital Sources,Grant Sources,Entrepreneur Resources,Christian Entrepreneur,Christian Capital Resources

Related articles by Zemanta

• Notes from Tom Siebel's Speech to the Alliance of Chief Executives (marklogic.blogspot.com)
• IGNIA gets another $13.6M for Latin American investment (venturebeat.com)
• Do you know a company that should present at VCIR Winter 09? (coloradostartups.com)
• VC confidence level takes third-quarter hit (news.cnet.com
• Huntington Capital and Other Venture Lenders Thriving, Despite Credit Crunch (xconomy.com/San Diego)
  
  

Read more...