Page 36 - Business Plans that Work A Guide for Small Business

Before You Start Planning, Ask the Right Questions • 27

neurial mind-set. The Quick Screen should enable you in an hour or so to
conduct a preliminary review and evaluation of an idea. Unless the idea
has, or you are confident it can be molded and shaped so that it has, the
Four Anchors, you will waste a lot of time on a lower-potential idea. The
next section introduces you to Lazybones and then illustrates the use of
the Quick Screen by analyzing the Lazybones opportunity. A blank copy
of the Quick Screen for your own use is found in Appendix 1. 3

What Is Lazybones?

Lazybones is a laundry service for college students. Dan Hermann and
Reg Mathelier, the founders of Lazybones, were roommates at the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin at Madison. Like many young men in college,
household chores, such as doing the laundry, were far down their pri-
ority list. Thus much of the time they were wearing clothes that were
a bit ripe. A close friend took note and offered to do their laundry in
exchange for a small fee. Dan and Reg took their friend up on the offer
and soon were wearing presentable clothes. As graduation approached
in May 1993, Dan and Reg needed jobs, but neither saw himself in a
corporate position. They both had an urge to start their own company;
they just needed an idea. The inspiration came from an unlikely place—
their own personal negligence. The two friends started to realize that
if they had bemoaned doing their laundry, so too would many of the
thousands of undergraduate students at their alma mater, the University
of Wisconsin.
With a rudimentary business plan, the two launched Lazybones. They
opened up a laundry facility (store) and began to sell their laundry ser-
vice. The first several years were a struggle. Dan and Reg worked around
the clock, and they were constantly on the verge of going out of busi-
ness. They often used credit cards to finance the business over the first
few years, especially during the summer when the business basically came
to a halt as students returned home. Fortunately, Dan and Reg found a
complementary summer business to ease the cash flow drought. While
school was out of session, Lazybones stored student possessions (such as
TVs, furniture, etc.) that the students did not want to lug home and back.
Three years passed before either founder took home any salary, but by

3 You may also access an electronic version of the Quick Screen at http://
businessplansthatwork.groupsite.com.