Page 59 - Business Plans that Work A Guide for Small Business

50 • Business Plans that Work

Lazybones Executive Summary

Executive Summary
Hook: Notice how the
executive summary captures
the essence of the customer “There is now such intense competition between universities
(parent as payer and student that . . . ‘a luxury arms race’ has broken out to bag America’s
as user). This opening quote
validates the need for this most affluent students . . . and the rich cannot bear to see
type of service, especially 4
since it is pulled from an their little darlings suffer the indignities of, well, college life. ”
outside source. Fortunately for Lazybones, laundry is one of the things
parents prefer to provide for their children, and as a result
we have been highly profitable providing both laundry and
Business description.
storage services to college students for 15 years.
Net profit margins around 20 percent are not, however, the
only attribute that has Lazybones poised for aggressive growth.

Notice the use of
headings to help guide Opportunity
the reader.
Notice how they Lazybones operates at the intersection of two exploding
redefine their marketplace segments in two large, mature industries: personal services
away from laundry services
(which is very mature with for wealthy college students, and personal services
flat growth) to a niche
of personal services for franchising.
college students (which has Personal services franchising generated over $90 billion
room for growth). This is a
more compelling story. in revenue in 2005 and grew on average 11 percent per year
5
since 2001.
Suggests an attractive Each of its four current locations (Madison, Wisconsin;
market.
Syracuse, New York; Boulder, Colorado; and Boston,
While at first
glance, this would seem to Massachusetts) is run by inexperienced managers with
be a negative, the audience hourly staffs.
for this story is potential
franchisees. Dan is commu-
nicating that you don’t need
extensive experience in
laundry or services to suc-
ceed in this business.
4 Wapshott, N. New Statesman Magazine, September 2008. http://www.newstatesman.com/
society/2008/09/university-america-student
5 Price Waterhouse Coopers, “The Economic Impact of Franchise Businesses volume II: Results
for 2005,” January 31, 2008. http://www.franchise.org/uploadedFiles/Franchisors/Other_Content/
economic_impact_documents/EconImpact_Vol2_HiLights.pdf