On May 23, 11:38 am, Brian Conrad <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 05/23/2011 10:13 AM, Brandon Newsome wrote:
>
> > Hi,
>
> > Does anyone know where I can see samples of a mobile app business plan? I
> > think they're pretty different from a standard plan for a regular business,

They aren't. Download a template somewhere like the SBA. Skip any
sections that don't seem relevant. Add any sections that do seem
relevant.

>
> I think it is:
> 1) create mobile app
> 2) put mobile app on market and see if it sells
> 3) if mobile app is very successful sell the company and retire.
>

I agree. If that is the plan, just document it. You could elaborate a
little on step 1 and 2, and explain how you would measure
"successful".

> Of course I don't know why you'd need a business plan other than to
> play the Silicon Valley Game

I have no experience playing the Silicon Valley Game. Nowadays,
though, I've heard they might want to see an idea in phase 2.5 above
before they are impressed by a business plan. Other than those minor
details like putting my home at risk of forceclosure and my family at
risk of poverty, I'm *glad* i never got any funding.

Writing a business plan can be a positive mental exercise. I'm getting
some entertainment out of reading the one I wrote two years ago.

What it won't do, and I discovered this, is predict your future sales
results. I thought I might be able to do enough research to figure
this out, but all I discovered were fluffy things like:
- Mobile devices are a big deal
- GPS is increasingly part of cell phones - also a big deal.
- An obscure operating system called Android is expected to have 18%
of the Smartphone market by 2012.
- A publicly traded company that makes hardware for my target market
sold $557 million in product last year.

Those last two were actually very valuable insights, but they still
don't predict my sales results, do they?

When you get to the part where you predict results, accept that it
will all be made up. Think of it as a place to document what you PLAN
to DO, and what you HOPE to ACCOMPLISH. You could base this on what
you need to cover your expenses and have a comfortable living. Once
you realize this, the format becomes less important - you could just
jot a few notes down and post them on the wall.

If it is to get funding you probably have to multiply any realistic
projections by three.

A large, publicly-traded company like say, Hewlett Packard, has a much
bigger budget for market research that you or I. They can get it right
when it is an established product line. But suppose they are making
printers for a different market with new technology. They got it wrong
by an order of magnitude, so the executives got bonuses while 1000s of
employees got canned. But lets be glad they did, because I got this
great opportunity to reinvent myself and write Android apps.

Nathan

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