Page 69 - Business Plans that Work A Guide for Small Business

60 • Business Plans that Work

Lazybones further sub-
divides its segment to focus Our direct market is within the roughly 50 percent of this
on noncommercial custom- segment that caters to noncommercial customers,
ers. Later in this section, they
will drill down even further meaning the overall laundry market size relevant to
and talk about the college Lazybones is about $1 billion. On whole the industry is
student user. The key when
talking about your industry mature, with revenues and growth remaining relatively
is to start with the overall
industry and then funnel steady for the last five years (Exhibit 1.2).
down to the segment where
you will compete.

Exhibit 1.2 Industry Revenue and Revenue
Growth, 2004–2008 2

Part of the Lazybones
story is that the industry can
be consolidated through pro-
fessionalizing the services. A
franchise would bring consis-
tency and brand recognition
to the customers. Again, the
assumption is that the cus-
tomer will prefer a recogniz-
able and arguably predictable
service represented by the
Lazybones brand.

Concentration in this industry is extremely low. It is still largely composed of
owner-operated family businesses with less than 6 percent
of this market accounted for by larger companies (Exhibit
Notice that through- 1.3). Revenue growth has been in slight (3 percent) decline
out the plan, Lazybones uses
secondary sources to size industrywide (see Exhibit 1.2) over the past five years due
and quantify the nature of
the opportunity. Footnoting to a reduction in dry cleaning revenues. Dry cleaners have
these sources adds credibility been “affected by a decreased need for their services, due
to your story.
to trends towards wash-and-wear fabrics and improved
laundry powders and fluids for use in the home.” 3

2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.