How do I write a business plan for my Christian start-up? Part 1

Putting together a business plan for your Christian or Social Enterprise Start-up can be a daunting task, especially if you have never put one together before. Add to it the fact that there is an added social benefit aspect involved, and you see why people might think that this is beyond them. Don't worry! In this series of posts I will cover all the steps needed to put together your business plan.

Image by juhansonin via Flickr

That is, if you don't want to pay a professional to do it. I'll also include information on software that you can use to make your life easier, if that's the route you would like to take. I find that putting together my own plan really helps to form my ideas, work out problems, and really see things from an investor's and client's perspective. Going through the journey and doing the work and research it takes, to put together a good plan, really prepares you when it comes to presenting your "big idea" to prospective stakeholders.
Your business plan should help you to do the following:

• Better form your ideas regarding the business
  
• Formulate a strategy for your business including marketing plan, financial plan, products offered, etc.
  
• Ultimately help you to raise capital for your venture, by communicating your vision to others and answering the potential investor's main question: "Why should I invest my hard earned money in you and your idea, instead of somewhere else"?

Your business plan could be for a small home business with you as the only employee, or it could be for something on a much grander scale. Whatever the case, the plan needs to be able to communicate your vision, the steps to realize that vision, and it needs to show readers the following:

• You have experience in the business you are about to embark upon, or you have a management team that is experienced
• You have an understanding of the industry, the business, your target market, and your competition
  
• You have an understanding of the risks involved, you know the costs and have worked out an approach to overcome these factors (i.e.- operating on foreign soil)
  
• You have projected a financial outcome for the first five years with realistic numbers (pro forma statements) and it is going to bring a great return on investment (ROI)
  
• You have projected the social outcome in the first five years and it is going to bring a great social benefit
  

In the next post I will discuss what I consider to be the first step once you have your business idea and have decided to go forward with the business plan; doing the research. I'll include a list of information sources for your research so you can get started backing up your ideas with hard facts and figures.

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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

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