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BIG X / EXCELSIOR HENDERSON
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Dan explained to me that a project of this magnitude needed to be that long because it encompassed so much information and investors would require that much information. Dan's environmental business had a plan not even half of the Excelsior-Henderson's. he emphasized to me that there is no right or wrong length, it is completely arbitrary to the situation. he said a small, simple business may only a need a few pages, but Honeywell may need a few hundred.
Carol, you had said so many times that the first thing you do when consulting a business is look for wear and tear on the business plan, if they have one. Well, I asked Dan if their plan collects dust. He said they do not look at it on a daily basis, but they utilize it during meetings and for benchmarking their progress. They end up using it a couple times per week usually.
This brought me to contingency planning. With a monster start-up like this and no other recent motorcycle company start-up to look at, there must be quite a bit a refinement and adjustment. Dan agreed, "contingency is part of any business." Your estimates will not always be right on, so you need to go back into the plan and adjust accordingly. They emphasize the importance of developing a plan, using it and realizing that adjustments (contingency) are completely normal and will need to be made.
So now they have a solid business plan in place and are ready to go out and find the life-blood of the new company, investors. If they can convince anyone that they have a viable plan and can seriously pull this plan together and make it a profitable business, they will take that money and build some prototypes.
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It is not everyday that somebody goes into business to start manufacturing motorcycles, so it will be a tough road ahead to convince people it can, and more importantly, [next page]