I need help with a business plan, and getting the community's intrest

[Mackenna]

Hello, I recently became the Vice President of team 4348, and we currently do not have a business plan in place, so we are under-funded at the moment. Are there any suggestions or uniform business plans that are helpful to use as a guide for our own?

Also we are the only team in Tooele, and do not have much publicity for our team in this area. We only have six members at the moment, not including any mentors, and compared to many other teams we are tiny. We aren't affiliated with any of the local high schools so it is harder that way to get the number of students that we need. Any ideas to drum up our publicity or get the community interested is greatly appreciated!

[Chris Fultz]

Here is a business plan template we put together several years ago and updated in 2014.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2925

And here is a presentation on sponsor / sponsor support from the 2010 CHP Forums.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2380

[Mark Sheridan]

Originally Posted by Mackenna

Also we are the only team in Tooele, and do not have much publicity for our team in this area. We only have six members at the moment, not including any mentors, and compared to many other teams we are tiny. We aren't affiliated with any of the local high schools so it is harder that way to get the number of students that we need. Any ideas to drum up our publicity or get the community interested is greatly appreciated!

3476 is a community team too. We ask local high schools if we can recruit and put the word out for us. Some schools wont allow it. We mostly recruit through word of mouth and use all the connections we have. Just a few examples have been through various home school groups, local churches, boy and girl scout troops and public demonstrations.

I would recommend starting FLL or equivalent to be in your business plan. Many of our students come from FLL or a similar middle school program so we recruit there too. We have a few cases where our student or an alumni mentors an FLL team.

Lastly, I recommend some sort of team dues or recommended donation. Just charging something changes the perspective from trying something free to investing in the team. We offer alternatives, such as a student spending time calling X number of potential sponsors, sell lightbulbs or equivalent. The actual amount of money is a difficult decision, but even $20 can go a long way of having the attitude that robotics is an investment.

[bstew]

Team Neutrino has fundraising resources available on its website: http://www.teamneutrino.org/resources/fundraising/. If you have any questions, I can put you in contact with our fundraising team. Hope you figure this stuff out!

[thomasweese]

I spent a lot of time over the course of the season working on this exact thing. As a rookie team we had absolutely nothing to start with, and I had to do my best with what we had. By simply looking at examples, similar to the one that team 234 made and others, we got a sense for different options for how to put it together.

It's definitely a pain to find the format and structure for a business plan that works for your team, but it is an extremely valuable use of your time. I wish you the best in your endeavors to develop the perfect business plan. Feel free to look at ours, which I've attached.

Also, don't hesitate to PM me with any other questions if needed.

[SpaceBiz]

Before you write your business plan, identify what it is you plan to accomplish by writing it. Sustainability? Growth? A resource to assist in grant writeups? Effective utilization of team resources (spending money well)? Effective recruitment of mentors and students? Consistently in team procedures? To Help students understand how the business side of your team works?.....

There are many more reasons than I listed, but those are just a few.

Your business plan can be whatever you want it to be. There is no set list of things it must include or can't include. I would strongly discourage using a template that doesn't achieve what it is you want most effectively. And because every team has a different plan, with most being hard to access, finding a template to match your goals probably isn't the best use of your time.

With a list of things you want your plan to accomplish in mind, read over other team's business plans and see how they accomplish some of your objectives.

I would look for some business plans of teams that have won Entrepreneurship Award, and others that you think might match your structure, size, and the objectives you hope to accomplish through the plan.

We Have won EA the past three years, and I would encourage you to take a look at our plan on our website team2537.com but I would recommend not using it strictly as a template unless you feel it accomplishes most of your team's objectives effectively.

Would like any help with your plan's structure, someone to look over a draft, or anything else, feel free to PM me.

[fresh_prince]

Spectrum has our 2012-2013 Business Plan available on our website here. In 2013 we won two Entrepreneurship Awards, so this is the version we have published. If you would like to look at our more recent editions I can also find those for you.

[Greg Hainsworth]

We are a sophmore team and our situation is very similar.

Email me and I will send you some resources on business planning from Jason Dwyer with Comcast Universal that I found very helpful in creating a business plan structure.

gphainsworth@gmail.com