Question
I recently bought a dump truck to haul rock and sand. How do I figure out how much to charge for this? I have been told to charge customers by the ton per mile. How do you figure that, or is there a better way to charge them?
Answer
We don’t know this because we don’t run [...]

Question
Is it a good or bad idea to change the name of a shop? I’ve taken over a women’s and men’s boardwear shop, but it used to sell little kids clothes. A lot of old customers, and some new ones, are coming in thinking it’s still selling clothes for little kids. Should I change the [...]

Question
I have steadily worked through my biz plan using Business Plan Pro 2005 software. Originally this was a plan to support a loan, but it has fast become a plan to attract investors. My biggest problem is showing potential investors my NPV and IRR. I have used numerous online Web calculators, but cannot understand the [...]

Question
We have owned a service business for 26 years and are thinking about retiring. We hired a General Manager 3 years ago and he has brought up sales considerably. He has requested to either be a partner or purchase the business. We asked if he could afford the $2 Million we feel is the value [...]

Question
My husband is a shareholder in a family owned business set up as a S Corporation. Why does it seem that we see no monetary benefit in being part owner in this company? We just completed our taxes and it seems the only time we benefit in any way is when the company takes a [...]

Question
Where do you place contract labor? In personnel or in expenses?
Answer
It could go in either, depending on how you want to track it. In our company, we keep contractors as part of personnel in our plan, because we want to keep all the people and all their costs in full view. However, we also [...]

Question
I’m writing a business plan at the moment on my small business of starting a newspaper that will be advertising jobs and businesses. My problem is how do l go about finding out what my competitors are doing? do I phone them? Or is there a place where I can go to get their information [...]

Question
It’s not clear to me where I should record capital appreciation in my business plan tables. I’m operating an investment business, and would like to show capital appreciation in our balance sheet, but I don’t want to compromise the reality of my P&L or Cash Flow tables.
Any suggestions?
Answer
According to standard financial principals, and tax [...]

Question
I am writting a business plan for a retail store which will require $20-40k in leasehold improvements.
How are lease-hold improvements listed in a business plan? Is it common practice to try to negotiate such improvements with an owner, since it adds value to the owner’s property? Is it difficult to obtain financing on such improvements?
Answer
Leasehold [...]

Question
What parts of a business plan should be included when it is being used to raise money for purchasing an existing business? The knowns are the 12 different SIC codes for targeted types of businesses, a target size of $750k to $2.5MM in annual sales and a personal financial statement.
We want to start raising capital [...]