Small Business Ideas, Grants & Plans to Start & Run a Business: Ask Questions Share Tips List Your Business Coffee Talk with Experts Biz Planning | Sample Plans Idea Name Plan $ Do It! Promotional Merchandise Marketing | Sales | Customers HR | Employees | Contractors Legal | Biz Forms Managing | Operations Financing Your Business eCommerce FREE Trade Publications Biz Books Small Biz News Gen X Biz Work @ Home The Fridge - Biz Info on Ice Send Awards & Greetings Yoga @ Your Desk Guide to Find FUN Online Idea Cafe in the News Kudos for Idea Cafe Advertise on Idea Cafe Privacy Policy Contact Idea Cafe Link to/from Idea Cafe Site Map Biz Web Guide

Listen in! Pick up some expert advice to a reader's question that we selected from CyberSchmooz. Featured Biz Question I've read a lot of info on business plans...The one thing I'm not sure how to do is projecting the sales and profits of a self-service-oriented business idea I have. In all my searching, I cannot locate a similar business in the civilian sector (nonmilitary) that I can use as a "guide".....anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance, JT Answer from our Guest Expert Kent Capener of Capener Consulting Profit and Sales Projections Well, JT, first, make sure that if you're “guided” by what others do, don’t let them guide you out the back door and into the dumpster! You wouldn’t be the first one to do that, so let's see what we can drum up for you on the right road to your self-service biz idea. Two Ways to Cook Up Projections JT, you cook hamburgers the same way in Idaho as you do in Bulgaria. One might be on a stove and the other a campfire. No matter. The point is the process of preparing business projections is the same, for the most part, no matter the location or the business type. The format for doing so is governed by basically two conventions: Pro Forma and GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principle) projections. GAAP projections contain, at a minimum, the following: Income Statement, Income Statement Analysis, Balance Sheet; Cash Flow, Revenue, Cost of Sales, Volume, Personnel Costs, Summary Financials; and Equity/Debt Analysis, Marketing Budget, General and Administrative Expenses. GAAP projections are most commonly (and highly recommended to be) monthly for years one and two; quarterly for year three; and annually for years four and five.  The most common use of a Pro Forma is for a one-year period. Pro Forma literally means document. It really isn’t a financial term, but has taken on those connotations.  Pro Formas are generally not as extensive as GAAP projections; however, they often do contain some of the same elements. Don’t worry that you can’t find a guide out there. You can make your projections as accurately and as professionally as anyone else. To put it into military terms, since you allude to your involvement, it’s like learning the theory of taking a hill. You apply the same theory to each and every different hill. It’s the same here. And here’s how: continued Page 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 Enter your search terms Submit search form       Search Idea Cafe Web Small Business Tax Center • Idea Cafe Home • Sign Up • Biz Grant Center • CyberSchmooz •Coffee Talk with Experts • People in Biz Profiles • Starting Your Biz • Biz Planning • Running Your Biz • FREE Trade Publications • Marketing • Financing Your Biz • Human Resources • Legal & Biz Forms • Managing Your Biz • eCommerce • You and Your Biz • Gen X • Work@Home • The Fridge • De-Stress • Send an Award • Send an eGreeting • Yoga @ Your Desk • Web Guide • Idea Cafe in the News • About Idea Cafe • Advertise on Idea Cafe • Contact Us • Privacy Policy • Site Map • Small Biz News Copyright 1995-2023, Idea Cafe Inc. Downloads are for personal use only, not for resale to others, and may not be reprinted in any form without written permission from Idea Cafe Inc. DISCLAIMER: We hope whatever you find on this site is helpful, but be cautioned that it may not apply to your own situation, or be totally current at any given time. Idea Cafe Inc. and all of its current and past experts, sponsors, advertisers, agents, contractors and advisors disclaim all warranties with regard to anything found anywhere on this family of websites, quoted from, or sent from Idea Cafe. and its related sites, publications and companies. We also take no responsibility for comments published by others on these pages. TRADEMARKS: The following are Registered Trademarks or Servicemarks of DevStart, Inc.: Idea Cafe®, Online Coffee Break®, The Small Business Gathering Place®, Take out Info®, Biz Bar & Grill®, Complaint-O-Meter®, A Fun Approach to Serious Business™, CyberSchmooz™, and BizCafe™.

About the Expert Kent Capener Owner of Capener Consulting Kent is an expert on marketing; advertising; print, radio, and TV production; biz plan writing; trade show services; and direct response television. He relishes helping start-ups grow. more