[hackerspaces] Hackerspace business plan

[Adam D Bachman]

I was going to give a quick one-liner like Jens' "are the bills payable?",
mostly because that's how we did it at the Node, but I think Punkin's
suggestion is a winner.

If folks want a business plan because, "businesses have business plans, QED"
then forget it. You'd be better going it alone, you're not going to catch a
break because they're not supporters, they're haters. But if they have very
specific questions and answering those questions will be valuable to you, if
would be a good exercise to answer them.

At the Node (http://baltimorenode.org) our plan looked something like an
answer to, "what will it take to survive for six months". It was very
helpful to write down how I thought this would work (
http://wiki.baltimorenode.org/index.php?title=Version_Zero) but the only
real purpose of the document was as a starting place for discussion and a
limit to the very vague, bike-sheddy, non-helpful side discussions that were
happening during our formation.

The discussion is ongoing and we've been in business for almost a year (one
year next week), so it has worked for us. "When needs arise, we will meet
them" is always enough of a business plan for a roomful of creative folks.
Whatever gets you from "here we are" to "we are doing things" fastest (
http://baltimoreprintstudios.com/2010/05/strategic-plan-posters-are-back/).

I'm curious what you expect your relationship to investors to be? Are you
going the for-profit root with actual shares and returns and all that, or
are you a non-profit and they're actually donors? Donors don't get a say in
how their money is spent, members are part of creating the business, so a
"business plan" (talking about what you're going to do) makes less sense
than just doing it.


- Adam

On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 10:19 AM, punkin3.14 <punkin at mag3.14159.ca> wrote:

> On 10-06-28 9:49 AM, Chris Hardee wrote:
>
>> We're starting up a space here in San Antonio, TX and I've been asked by
>> sponsors and members for a business plan. I've been working on one but
>> is there a skeleton plan or something I can base this off of? Any tips
>> or experience anyone can share about writing one? Thanks
>>
>
> To be frank, most "business plans" aren't worth the paper they're printed
> on. But since you are being asked to provide one by people with a real or
> potential stake in what you're doing, its important to understand what
> specifically they want to see before they'll be willing to invest. Any
> business plan you draft needs to address whatever specific question your
> sponsors and members have. The most valuable thing you can do at this point
> is make sure you know what those questions are.
>
> At KwartzLab, we held a very long conversation with our potential
> membership regarding what they expected from the venture -- both what they
> wanted in terms of community and resources, and what they needed in terms of
> financial stability. From this, we were able to draft a vision statement, a
> governance model, and a budget for the space. Because we knew how many
> people would be signing up on day one, we were also able to draft reasonably
> accurate financial projections. We didn't package this up as a business plan
> per se, but its the sort of thing you'll want to include.
>
> If your sponsors are interested in knowing how you plan on growing your
> numbers, you may also want to include a section on the sort of marketing or
> outreach you have done so far and have planned for the future, how
> successful its been, and what growth you anticipate for the coming year.
>
>
> --
>
>    |\___/|   Punkin3.14
>    )     (
>   =\     /=     punkin at mag3.14159.ca | http://punkin3.14159.ca
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