looking for a business plan form for importing produce to US

[bhill at igc.org]

Greetings;
*
We are beginning a new company which will import organic produce – from teas to fruits – to US markets. *Could anyone suggest a good business plan form/program that would help us develop a viable business plan?
*
Thanks,
*
*
Brian Hill

This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list

[thomaswakely at cdcbank.c]

Brian –
*
I have written many a business plan and I have never been satisfied with any of the “off-the-shelf” plans available. While, many of them do at least give you a format to follow and some even give you a good set of financial projections you are still going to wind up developing 75% of the plan yourself.
*
You might want to spend $100 or so to buy one of the many software packages out there. St .Edwards University here in Austin, Texas requires that all of their graduate school of business students purchase Business Plan Pro at http://www.paloalto.com/
*
Thomas Wakely
President/CEO
Azteca Bancorporation
*
*
*
*

From: owner-COMMUNITYDEVELOPMENTBANKING-L@cornell.edu [mailto:owner-COMMUNITYDEVELOPMENTBANKING-L@cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Brian Hill
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2006 8:12 PM
To: MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com
Cc: Community Development Banking, Conference
Subject: looking for a business plan form for importing produce to US

*
Greetings;
*
We are beginning a new company which will import organic produce – from teas to fruits – to US markets. *Could anyone suggest a good business plan form/program that would help us develop a viable business plan?
*
Thanks,
*
*
Brian Hill

This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list

[nielm at mailbag.com]

Brian...

Funny you should ask about a business plan just now.* I just found a great format at*www.score.org this evening! *Score is part of the Small Business Administration.* The opening page of their website gives a selection of sample business plans for many different situations.* The first one is for a start up company. Open it in Microsoft Word and save it.* Very detailed and includes instructions for what to include. You can build a very effective business plan from this format and, when you finish, you will have what the SBA wants to see... if you go to a bank for a SBA loan.Hope this helps you and others.

Niel Moser

On Jul 13, 2006, at 8:12 PM, Brian Hill wrote:

Greetings;
*
We are beginning a new company which will import organic produce – from teas to fruits – to US markets. *Could anyone suggest a good business plan form/program that would help us develop a viable business plan?
*
Thanks,
*
*
Brian Hill






This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list

[nielm at mailbag.com]

Sorry... one more thing.
When you get to the Score website, click on Template*Gallery under* How To - Business Tools.* That is where you will find the business plan formats.

Niel

On Jul 13, 2006, at 8:12 PM, Brian Hill wrote:

Greetings;
*
We are beginning a new company which will import organic produce – from teas to fruits – to US markets. *Could anyone suggest a good business plan form/program that would help us develop a viable business plan?
*
Thanks,
*
*
Brian Hill




This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list

[comdev at mccrearyky.com]

Brian, I am somewhat puzzled. You state that your concern is importing
produce into the United States, which is an adversarial paradigm for small
US farmers seeking to compete and contribute in economically sustaining the
communities they inhabit here in the States. How does importing foreign
goods assist with community development?

Patrick Thrush

________________________________________

Greetings;

We are beginning a new company which will import organic produce – from teas
to fruits – to US markets. *Could anyone suggest a good business plan
form/program that would help us develop a viable business plan?

Thanks,


Brian Hill

This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list

[johnl at floridacdc.org]

Click the link below to view the "business plan creation kit" on my website (when you get there be sure to click the link to download the accompanying Word and Excel files).

http://www.floridacdc.org/forms/bus-plan.htm

Brian Hill wrote:
Greetings;
*
We are beginning a new company which will import organic produce – from teas to fruits – to US markets. *Could anyone suggest a good business plan form/program that would help us develop a viable business plan?
*
Thanks,
*
*
Brian Hill


This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list

[Jones Dept.]

Don't know where you're located but obviously you have good access to the web.
Nose around the United States Dept. of Agriculture's website (it's enormous
and has relevant resources to your questions, especially statistics, scattered
all over it), especially in the portion of the site dedicated to USDA's
Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). AMS has publications, how-to's, about
organic that should be of particular interest. Also look at the general stuff
on your specific vegetables etc. as that'll give you market scale, context,
and often all kinds of very very good information for planning your whole
supply chain (i.e. shipping and storage issues, crossing borders, industry
structure and players, etc.).

You probably want to look at the articles from past issues of Food Processing
Magazine, www.foodprocessing.com, as it covers trends not only in what grocery
stores are buying but also restaurants and consumers. Lots of timely and deep
market research, profiles on companies, and in it's companion magazines
"Wellness Foods" and "Cuisine Arts?(I think I'm wrong on the 2nd title) it
gets into food trends, seasonings/spicings, etc. that you'll find even more
useful. Subscribing is free in the U.S., don't know outside the U.S. but you
can search all the content for free on the web.

Of course your 3 biggest possible outlets in the U.S. would be the
organic/natural foods supermarket chains:
Whole Foods, by far the biggest and headquartered in Texas
Wild Oats, considerably smaller but growing, headquartered in Colorado
Trader Joe's, smaller again but growing-might be California based-all have
good websites

Unless your supply is enormous and consistent, I'd focus on selling to
quality-conscious upscale restaurants closest to where you land your output in
the U.S. as your marketing costs in convincing a chef to use you instead of a
retailer are enormously cheaper, quicker, and simpler (the chef tastes it, the
retailer expects a sophisticated set of marketing specialists' work AND a much
lower unit price.) So you might look at the dominant publication for chefs
and operators of U.S. restaurants, appropriately titled "Nation's Restaurant
News."

If you really have a lot of volume, you could also look at an exclusive deal
with one or more restaurant chains of the scale you need, since a chain or
franchisor will vary from a handful of restaurants to 20,000 (McDonalds).
You'll find them in NRN or in the target communities you choose to focus on.

Al Jones
Regional Development Officer (and old marketing guy)
Business Resources Division
Montana Dept. of Commerce


On Thu, 13 Jul 2006 18:12:15 -0700
"Brian Hill" <bhill@igc.org> wrote:
Greetings;



We are beginning a new company which will import organic produce - from teas
to fruits - to US markets. Could anyone suggest a good business plan
form/program that would help us develop a viable business plan?



Thanks,





Brian Hill


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