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  • Unique business plan help

    Not sure if this is the right area for this but I need help writing my business plan and doing some of the research involved. I contacted SCORE in Columbus last week and someone called returning my email inquiry but didn't say who they were so I couldn't call back knowing who to ask for. I called anyways and nothing. So I emailed for help again and apparently they're supposed to email you AND call, nothing. I'm not seeing the help that they could offer. I tried looking for a mentor through sba.gov but can't find anything unique to what I want to do. Can anyone offer some help? Perhaps you know of a person that could be a mentor??? (Oh and yes, I already have Kelly Allen's book in case anyone was thinking that). Thanks!!!!


    -sharonda-

  • #2
    There's no reason to be mysterious, just tell us what this unique premise really is and someone qualified will jump in. Rather than business plans, I like to work on cash flow plans.

    You probably didn't get a call back from an old score dude or an "employee" of SBA because something unique would fall in the catagory to them of "it is hard to make an income off of a hobby". Which may or may not be true. Or the other total advice will be "what did the bank say". Those are not answers. Those are wastes of time.

    You first need to lose all the jargon and things "you should do" the college told you to trust, and speak to those that really make money in the free world. Business plans do not attract investors, they attract sharks. Things that really work make money from the start and can finance and upgrade themselves.

    Please just whip out your premise.
    sigpic

    Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

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    • #3
      well...

      I wasn't trying to be mysterious about it, I just wasn't thinking about describing it. And while I don't need a business plan, I'd prefer to have one simply because it looks professional and it's good to have things written down on paper. Besides, how would i look going to investors or a bank asking for money to start up without everything I'm talking about written down? As for my business, I want to have a haunted attraction and gallery space. Artwork displayed in the gallery space will have copies made and displayed in the haunted attraction as part of its theme. The haunted attraction will be open during fall season and the gallery space will be open year round. Everything will be in one building so people will have the option of choosing which event they want to go to. Artists locally and nationally can submit work to be displayed in the gallery or the haunted attraction. Artwork will also be for sale to those who want to purchase it, etc, etc.

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      • #4
        I don't think there would be a shortage of artists intrested in showing at a gallery. I'm not sure the two really mix though. Art galleries try to stay top end and are short to accept just anyone's work to be exclusive to a degree and command some price and earn larger commissions for serious art buyers. Even that being said, shows once a month or even more tend to require someone with big pockets paying for the space.

        Haunted houses on the other end, are even at vendor level not likely to offer things that would get torn up by patrons that are not necessarily house trained nor respectfull of other people's property. All props generally have to be mounted somehow rather crudely and I actually had a section in my haunt with paintings I did that weren't necessarily up to standard. I called it the WTF is that museum. I discovered it was easy to pick out who was a prick in the customers by what was said, not that the paintings were bad but, not what would normally be expected in a haunt.

        Things in a haunt have to be somewhat kinetic and have things that light up or move or use illusions like the changing portraits to be vintage photos to pass as something that should be in a haunted house. Or they are stylized copies of work as set decor.

        A haunter might pay $100 to $275 and up for something not even for their haunt but for a private collection but the average haunt customer has already paid admission and it is a brain teaser to spend $5 on some glow sticks or an $1 mask in the gift shop. They came there for a show, not for an up sell.

        Typically gallery spaces are run by a person or a consortium of people who significant others need a tax write off. They may break even but when you sit down and look at how many pieces have to fly out the door and at what dollar figure at 40% commission and the art itself being somewhat subjective in nature, there needs to be a back up plan to paying rent. I am an artist and also a haunter and art sells for $175 per square foot, I don't have any pictures or samples because everything sold or I ran a screw through it and destroyed it to be a haunted house prop. I have found you can sell a whole haunted house and all the accessories that go with it. Again no pictures, somehow people in the immediate area took an intrest and 3 years later had a paper bag full of cash. I can't say there was not an ongoing promotion on my part but, in the real world, things just don't sit around like it is a museum unless it is majorly funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

        In the modern world, there are things like kick starter or actually involving a number of artists to collaberate. For instance, one place I visit, the sculpters and casting people go into a room in the haunt and do weird things on canvases with the spare spray paints and such on canvas and I was told there would be an art gallery some day that would possibly knock the local hoity toitey art scene on their butts. SO this got me into doing a little research and the local artists seem to think big geometric shapes on canvas with the occasional tan color splattered or smeared is art. Someone is going to spend $75 or $100 for this two colored crap and hang it up to complement their McMansion decor or what are they thinking? Maybe 50 artists and no one selling anything and everything is black and tan. Or it is cartoony and with a torquious back ground. Okay, I could kick any of their asses.

        At a haunt convention, you see what haunters make and everything across the board is dark grey or dark brown with blood on it. Another unimpressive pallet. Except in some cases it sold out because it was phenominally cheap in price or it somehow had movement and things that light up or it spits water or fog. So I know some local people that make masks and props and painted a couple in wild colors to take to their show. Bright green multi layer air brushing, a bright pink hello kitty mask with blood, a copper leaf and a silver leaf offering on what might have been an army of two inspired ame mask. One really sold and it was a clown that was more simple than most and another one got screwed up trying to install the harness. They attracted people to the booth, became great conversation pieces to sell their items from those conversations as I planned but the concensious was that haunters don't know what to do with fancy paint jobs. If it isn't human looking, then distorted with blood on it, it has no place in a haunted house.

        I'm offering this as exerience rather than I don't think that is a good idea. So the visions for where is this gallery going to be? At the haunt? At another space temporarily in town? Who would want to come see this? My first thoughts would be I'm sure we could get 50 to 80 haunters to populate the gallery that would appreciate the weirdness but would anything actually sell? I kind of doubt it. 80 people to me means 3/4 of a person might buy something. A simple formula of 1% of who you can get to come buy and have wine and grapes and hang out might buy something affordable. So say some artist in there did something wonderful lke a multi media big piece for $800. A real haunt owner might have their check book and so months and months of preparation and cleaning out a space and freshening it up made a whole 40% of that. So $320. Crap that is exactly how much the wine and grapes and party napkins cost. Crap! And the same people might come in lower numbers but return visits to the gallery would be more about hanging out than buying things so you could have a show every month and sell that one item per year.

        So, our down town businesses have what they call an art walk where there are a dozen businesses where different artists set up for a day and go from the gallery and walk to a number of down town businesses and see the art. I talked to some young girl with large abstract paintings and she just got out of art school and is trying to figure out how to make a living. An old dude that glues things found in the garbage and spray paints it all gold is happy to be part of getting people to come down town again. The coffee shop did well for a day and then closed a month later. I saw tons of people walking and not one painting floating down the street having been purchased.

        I even had someone for no reason gift me $1500 worth of canvases and art supplies even though I have thousands of dollars of that stuff here but, I can't put my finger on what would actually sell. Who would buy it. There are a number of artists doing dark art and halloween themes and selling originals for $400 to $800 and prints of their work for $20 and there are a number of people collecting the $20 things and filling up walls in their homes. Still we aren't exactly reliving the art movement of the mid 50's here where just getting out the crayons and a week later you have a jaquar car and paid for a 15 story building.

        Sure the college took your money or someone loaned you money to go to college and how to pay it back is going to be a real bitch but, no where in there was there how you really make money as an artist and all the artists that are selling crap are on the road in Galleries on the Eastern Seaboard even though they hail from the center of the country. So there are places on the earth where art is hot and it isn't Ohio or Texas. So you have to make things and then get in the car or van and go gypsy style to make it. You can't set up a gallery in Ohio and expect anyone necessarily to care when the whole thing is more like a haunted house trade show where people get excited one time of year to travel all across the country to vacation in Florida and bring back some art. I could have something better 4 miles away and actually work on their home but, what I make isn't as cool as they had to go all the way to Florida for this crap. It is so special.

        Something I have become aware of is what demographic exactly is doing all this spending of money. It all comes down to large consumsion of alcohol and spending money they have no idea how to make that much money or how many died to buy something no one actually needs to survive.

        There is the argument you have to kind of address. We are in a recession/depression. Investors are holding their money tight right now and should. Banks haven't given anyone a loan since 2008 and aren't going to for probably 20 years. They sure use it in their advertisements to get you to think putting your money in their bank might be the ticket to getting a loan but it won't. If you have an on going enterprise they might help you with the buying of the property if what it is you do has been significant for 5 or 10 years with no hick ups. At that point you really don't need some other entity grabbing 20% of your profits when you have worked so hard to build a business. It is all a fantasy like if you work 40 years in a factory, the stock market won't actually steal your retirement money or anything.
        sigpic

        Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

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        • #5
          So I would advise to take one or the other and go with it. One or the other could pay for the other. A successful haunt could be partially dismantled and an art space forms and the haunted house paid the rent for the year. Or several years commissions by finding that art style that makes it could pay for a haunted house space and construction.

          It would be easier to get places to offer a one or two day use of empty space for the art gallery showing. Items aren't held a long time and become more like an event from you and many haunt related artists showing their wares. You have no idea if it will work until you actually do it. It is performance judged by demonstration. Only if it consistently kicks ass do you even consider paying rent with a lease for any more than 2 days. Plus you are now free to bounce that 2 day thing to anywhere in the country. In the old days that what haunts had to do. It wasn't assured and still isn't that a start up can afford to stay in the same place and things go into trailers or storage until the next season instead of pay for a permanent building.

          I would think the art thing would be where you would meet a would be investor. Someone that shares your idea and actually has tons of money from some other place. Like if you never paid a dime back it wouldn't matter, it would be one hell of a thing to have done in our life kind of investment.

          You can't write the business plan until the opportunities really present themselves and you are working out the finances of how much things are going to cost and if it made money what do you do with it. More likely they won't relate to haunted houses but, would love to have a gallery with the wine and cheese thing and dressing up and shit. So, you get out the crayons and bust your ass and make lots and lots of paintings and sell them and there is your money. You can get your haunted house jones by being a scenic artist at existing haunts, get into masks and make up and costumes and even be an actor but actually owning one requires embezzling money from something that already makes money, not from a bank or investor. They only get involved when there is no risk and it is a hard money making industy and years of proving you have a knack for making too much money.

          Artists pay cash for shit.
          sigpic

          Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

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          • #6
            Another way to go would be to focus only on the haunted house. The theory by some artists that have haunts is that instead of making a painting, it doesn't even have to be good, if not more like folk art fits better, and you don't sell any art. Rather you lease the viewing of all your artifacts to each customer that buys a ticket. You are in the entertainment field then and not making a painting, selling it then having to make another one if you intend on getting money.

            Big difference though. A big canvas or a block of clay might be $40. A haunted house is going to cost someone $25,000 or $45,000 or $150,000 and not pay right now. I know people that are making $200,000 per year that the haunt remodels have resigned them to living back with their parents in their 30's. In 4 years they haven't even budgeted themselves $20 a day and it is all for the end business that will eventually buy permanent property that will get paid for over time and only then they will make some money. So if you don't have a couch to sit on and have to pay rent and eat, you better pick out something esle. Sounds crazy but that is the reality of the commitment. You might have something in 15 or 20 years.

            If you borrow money they will never see it. People that lend money know how that works and just don't lend money. It is all too easy to be the one left holding the bag or being the one who didn't get reimbursed. Typically you don't want any endevor that requires you have to pay lots of things or else. You just never put yourself in that position in life.

            The art thing, there is no reason you couldn't set up a booth with other artists at a haunt convention. I think there is one in Ohio somewhere. If no one bites you will know. If you leave with nothing but pockets full of cash, we need to have a conversation. Still, none of these things has proven to be 100% successful. There are no mentors or someone that did it right out of the box. They did something else that made money and then spent that money and became something. Even borrowed money not from a bank but from pawning vehicles and getting cash advances on credit cards that would have been the last time they could do that if they failed.

            Do not waste your time trying to fill out forms. It isn't a job application. Plus filling out applications pays nothing. You just have to figure out what people want from your personal skills and do it. Earn the money. Then it is your money. No one can tell you what you are doing with your money is wrong. It is no one's business. Not a group of old retired guys, not branches of the government for small business. Not grant organizations. You want a painting? Gimme $75. It's not dry yet so don't put anything near it in the trunk of your car.
            sigpic

            Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

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            • #7
              And I have gotten loans. You really need to just go into any bank and ask to see who is the bank loan officer and see what low income maggots they are. The only way you are going to get a loan is to get their kid a job for $30,000 a year or some other kind of illegal favor. Other than that. their job is to have 200 interviews with people filling out loan applications and say thanks for stopping by but no, it isn't going to happen 200 times.

              Every church has a brother sitting there saying no 200 times a week.

              Every crisis center and shelter is having to say no lots of times a week.

              Just do something with what is around you and don't look about standing in lines anywhere. You are supposed to be the one making lines form to buy your stuff!
              sigpic

              Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

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              • #8
                .....

                ......wow. You are one sad man. What in the world makes you think that what I want to do isn't going to work because you tried it and failed? And what the hell are you even talking about?? You're rambling on about stuff that has nothing to do with what I asked for in the first place. Oh and by the way, your "view" on artists makes me wonder how you can even call yourself one. Everything that you wrote clearly speaks about your experiences and what I'm getting is that you give up when the first of 200 people tell you "no". That is the difference between me and you; I'm not going to give up on what I want to do just because someone says "no" or because you don't think it's going to work. My advice for you is to get some counseling and rant about this stuff to someone who cares. Good luck and I hope that you find whatever it is you're looking for. Surround yourself with positive people and move on because I have better things to do. Blessed be.

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                • #9
                  My experiences outline exactly the concept you are going to engage in. I'm 30 years older than you and not at all sad. I hope you can understand my points and make some positive ways around making an art gallery and a haunted house work. For now I think I have been completely realistic, tried to be helpful and spent some amount of effort trying to add to the subject. It was not a sad rant or me wanting to hear myself type.

                  If I have somehow missed what it is that you want to do, then you have not communicated it properly and no one will be able to assist you until you can explain it. Or go into detail about how these two things somehow go together and are actually supported by anyone that pays money.

                  I can offer you one serious lesson, don't do something just because some asshole said you couldn't do it.
                  sigpic

                  Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

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                  • #10
                    Tell us about your haunted house experiences and art gallery experience in the past. Did you find that those two things were well recieved when combined? Is this a tested experience of yours that is ready for investment right now? How much money do you need and how much will it cost per month to keep this endevor open to the public. Or is it not the public at large, is it a select taste of the community?

                    I think a haunted art gallery would really piss off all the current vibe of art is something for betterment of the community. Sure, lets do the side of the post office in a mural of grim reapers and monsters. Let's combine the black and tan interior decorator paintings with the dark grey ones that have blood splattered on them and see if they sell. Or lets make a haunted house look like Swan lake sculptures. Yeah that will work, I stand totally corrected.
                    sigpic

                    Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

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                    • #11
                      So I sent pretty things to a haunted tradeshow and they were not sold. If the local haunt guys and I have an art showing and it is disturbing images it may be a hilarious comment on the local art scene and be trashed for being ignorant and satanic or something. None of that makes money. So no one is going to loan money if you see 4,000 people and ask and fill out 4,000 forms and stand in 4,000 lines.

                      I wish it would work or I would be rich and would have 200 people wanting to interview me. Yet I'm a very sad man that needs counciling and should rant to someone that cares. So you told on yourself, you don't care and just want people to fill the forms out for you so that you can get a loan whether you can pay it back or not.

                      A little sociology to you. Young people want it now and have no idea what it takes to get things and old people found out it takes years and years to get something and even then you can fail. There is nothing wrong with failing, that is how you learn. If you can't learn from my perspective you are destined to a similar fate and 30 years from now people will be telling you you need counciling and are completely insane.
                      sigpic

                      Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

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                      • #12
                        It's all good, someone will read this, understand it and benefit immensely from the time I have invested here. A lot of people on here have already experienced these things with me and we all learned something and discussed things. It has value.
                        Last edited by Greg Chrise; 10-22-2012, 07:12 PM.
                        sigpic

                        Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

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                        • #13
                          Seriously?! You talk too much man! All I'm asking is for someone to help me write a business plan whether or not they think it'll work or even if I think it'll work. How old you are and how much experience you have is irrelevent! Who said anything about anyone doing anything FOR me? I do for me and if anyone on here even remotely agreed with you, they would be sharing and they aren't. Let's agree to disagree and leave this one alone. Don't comment back, just let it go.

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                          • #14
                            I think you are really pissing me off.
                            sigpic

                            Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

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                            • #15
                              And by the way, no one tells me to not state my opinions. The way you judged me on here, even if my passionate ramblings might have been misplaced are simply not going to make people want to jump in from the haunted house industry and give you as your 28 whole posts suggest you "want" a paid position, an internship, a business plan, a mentor. You just put yourself into pay for a consultant catagory and even most of them not returning that phone call just like the score dudes or the SBA dudes.


                              If you can't care about anyone in a civil fashion, no one is going to give a shit about you. The real way you get into the haunt industry is you show up and bust your ass expecting absolutely nothing for years and years to figure out what it is you need to know.


                              Yeah maybe I talk too much. Maybe no one likes me or my opinions at all. This isn't high school. There is no one that is genuinely snippy here even thought there have been some disagreements and it doesn't feel like your attitude fits in. SO in honor of international caps lock day I would like to say:


                              GET OFF MY FORUMS! GET A JOB! STAY IN SCHOOL KIDS! GET A JOB! PAY YOUR COLLEGE LOANS! LEARN TO COMMUNICATE!
                              sigpic

                              Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

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