I’m working on sample business plans for such networks. May I ask, what was your biggest problem when you wrote your plan? Anyone else reading this comment, feel free to post a comment on this topic, too.

Peg Corwin

I’m working on sample business plans for social sites, and will let you know when they are done. What particular problems are you having?

Peg Corwin

Great article!

I was having a problem because doing a biz plan for a local site (that is social) is a lot more dificult than most.

Does anyone have any samples of their own that they could post?

Or even email to tmzmod @ hotmail.com please?

I would really appreciate any help :)

Thanks!

Thanks for your nice comment. Let me if there are areas where I can create posts to be of help.

Peg Corwin

David

I appreciate your need for someone to help you think through your idea. SCORE counselors across the US offer this service to US residents (www.score.org). However, I see from your email that you are located outside the US. May I suggest http://www.micromentor.org/mentor/how-it-works. You can find some that do not charge for their services. I also suggest contacting non-governmental organizations in your country like the World Bank’s development office, to see if they provide mentoring for startups.

Peg Corwin

I really appreciate all the good adivses and help you offer.

I’ve found it very hard to get advice or help due to the fact that I’ve been unable to share my concept worried that someone else will take advantage of the information.

I’m not from this line of industry, I have no technical knowledge what so ever, but I’ve spent the past few months reading and researching about the target audience my concept aims to reach.

I need someone to brainstorm with, to discuss the concept and eventually enable me to turn the concept and idea I have in my mind into a presentable business plan.

I would appreciate any advice
Best Regards
Gina

I checked all the links on business plans in this post and they work for me. Which links specifically are not working for you?

Peg

Would you mind forwarding me or fixing the excel and business plan templates?

I respond to your questions below:

Should I hire someone who knows social media, or just someone who can write business plans?
1. Whomever you hire, they must be very familiar with online marketing. Ideally they would have created plans for other social networking websites.

Where can I find a tech partner?
2. One site I am aware of is PartnerUp.com. You might also recruit for the person as a salaried position, and then offer low base and high commission or equity percentage. Odesk.com and Elance.com. I would also post a question in Linkedin answers, and maybe even Craigslist. See also: http://pegcorwin.com/how-do-i-use-a-developer-to-build-my-website/

What is the time frame to finish a business plan?
3. Depends how busy your consultant is, and how much info you supply that person about competition, pricing, organization structure, and niche. Get a price and a delivery date at the same time. Stage payments, with the last after completion.

What is the normal cost to do a business plan?
4. I am not sure of market rates for plans. I have never paid for one. I recommend you get several quotes and compare. Are you going for startup funds from friends and family, or angel funding? At SCORE, we recommend initial business plans be 10-20 pages, plus attachments. Angel or VC packages are structured differently.

Links on business plans: http://www.delicious.com/citylady403/business_plans

The Q&A site Quora.com has great content on social media and startups.
http://mashable.com/2011/01/27/quora-video-guide
http://mashable.com/2011/01/14/get-more-out-of-quora

Let me know how things go.

Peg