Who wants to rip my business plan apart? It's online and offline
In a recent brainstorming session with a co-worker, we started developing ideas to supplement our income. I took a variation of one of Dan's old "one time money makers" and we started adding and modifying it until we have the following business plan. Let me give you an overview of what we are wanting to do. I'd welcome your thoughts:
We are wanting to print a cellular phone directory for each of the 56 churches in a local denominational association. Also, we will have an online version as well that can be updated as it changes. (The selling point for this is especially noticeable for us - we go to a larger church, and how many times do we need "So and So's" phone number, but, they aren't listed, either because they don't have a home phone, or, their number is not listed.) In each directory, for each church, there will be a business card sized ad for each business that's represented in the church (providing, they buy an ad, of course.)
We figure that each church has an average of 10 businesses, or business owners, represented in it. We would sell this as a "sponsorship," and, charge $300 to be in the online directory, or, $600 for both the online and the print directory. (I may adjust these prices, but, I wouldn't think very much.)
What we would do with this money would be this: (and the selling point would be equally stronger to the people buying the sponsorships, as well as the leadership of this denominational Association)
We would take all the pastors and their wives in this area and put on a special retreat for them, whether it be to take them to The Cove, which is Billy Graham's retreat center, a beach retreat, or, my personal favorite, take them to the Gatlinburg Area for a 3 day, 2 night retreat, where there will be a speaker of some clout come in, as well as various ways to "pamper" the pastors and their wives, i.e., pedicures, manicures, massages, shows, fancy eats, etc.. You and I both know, pastoral leadership is very tried and tired, and they have no end to the constraints put on them. This would provide a very good way for their churches to bless them, each while expanding the potential reach of their own businesses.
We may also look at bringing in a "big name speaker" into our area, and providing a big outreach event (something along these lines 10-15 years ago would have been to bring in a Billy Graham, or something,) but, we'd need to examine this locally. This would be a great event to sponsor, provided we had enough sponsorships purchased
Again, what we'd provide, is once, or maybe twice a year, is to provide an updated phone listing/directory for each church. I'd like to just do one, but, the issue is that many churches have a lot of churn, so, it may be necessary to do it twice a year. That being said, any instances of people leaving or joining a church can be handled immediately on the website that we would develop for that church.
Each church would have a seperate site that their members could go to for contact information for anyone in their church. Also, on this website, there would be a listing of each business represented in their church (with an ad,) and also a link to another website that would have every business owner/business in this local association.
The selling point is that more money can be kept "in" the local association. For the business owner, the benefits are very strong - very low cost advertising to reach a very specific, target niche and also, being able to bless their pastoral leadership at the same time. For the association, the benefits are equally strong - the more money "in" the association equal more tithes, and also, the fact that we'd be blessing their pastors with a fine, relaxing, needed weekend, with no cost to them, and, if we did decide to do a big local event, it would make it even stronger.
I'd love to know what you're thinking. Do you think that I could be right about the ten businesses represented per church? If so, do you think that this could be an easy "sale?" I would hope to present it not as a sale, but, as a sponsorship.
My co-worker believes, that for the most part, this would be one "big" sale to the local association, and then, he thinks the members are so interconnected, that it may "weave" down through the ranks pretty well. If that's the case, it will indeed be an easy sale. Also, in my mind, this would be a VERY easy renewal once per year, so, once we did it, we could hopefully have a good, steady, residual income.
If it did work here, I'd immediately go to the next association, one county over, and do the same thing with their 50+ churches. I think that within a year, we could have set up maybe 5-10 associations, and then, have a good residual income. I don't know if we could handle any more than that.
I honestly think, start to finish, we could have this whole thing started, sold, set up, printed, and distributed in less than two months, three months tops.
I think that we could probably do a 25% commission on each sponsorship sold, so, for hopefully 2-3 months of work, if we really could average 10 sponsorships per church, our salesperson could easily make $40K plus, if they just do the $300 sponsorship. Obviously, if they each do the $600 sponsorship, her pay would be $80K plus.
Anyway, I'd welcome your thoughts. Thanks.
We are wanting to print a cellular phone directory for each of the 56 churches in a local denominational association. Also, we will have an online version as well that can be updated as it changes. (The selling point for this is especially noticeable for us - we go to a larger church, and how many times do we need "So and So's" phone number, but, they aren't listed, either because they don't have a home phone, or, their number is not listed.) In each directory, for each church, there will be a business card sized ad for each business that's represented in the church (providing, they buy an ad, of course.)
We figure that each church has an average of 10 businesses, or business owners, represented in it. We would sell this as a "sponsorship," and, charge $300 to be in the online directory, or, $600 for both the online and the print directory. (I may adjust these prices, but, I wouldn't think very much.)
What we would do with this money would be this: (and the selling point would be equally stronger to the people buying the sponsorships, as well as the leadership of this denominational Association)
We would take all the pastors and their wives in this area and put on a special retreat for them, whether it be to take them to The Cove, which is Billy Graham's retreat center, a beach retreat, or, my personal favorite, take them to the Gatlinburg Area for a 3 day, 2 night retreat, where there will be a speaker of some clout come in, as well as various ways to "pamper" the pastors and their wives, i.e., pedicures, manicures, massages, shows, fancy eats, etc.. You and I both know, pastoral leadership is very tried and tired, and they have no end to the constraints put on them. This would provide a very good way for their churches to bless them, each while expanding the potential reach of their own businesses.
We may also look at bringing in a "big name speaker" into our area, and providing a big outreach event (something along these lines 10-15 years ago would have been to bring in a Billy Graham, or something,) but, we'd need to examine this locally. This would be a great event to sponsor, provided we had enough sponsorships purchased
Again, what we'd provide, is once, or maybe twice a year, is to provide an updated phone listing/directory for each church. I'd like to just do one, but, the issue is that many churches have a lot of churn, so, it may be necessary to do it twice a year. That being said, any instances of people leaving or joining a church can be handled immediately on the website that we would develop for that church.
Each church would have a seperate site that their members could go to for contact information for anyone in their church. Also, on this website, there would be a listing of each business represented in their church (with an ad,) and also a link to another website that would have every business owner/business in this local association.
The selling point is that more money can be kept "in" the local association. For the business owner, the benefits are very strong - very low cost advertising to reach a very specific, target niche and also, being able to bless their pastoral leadership at the same time. For the association, the benefits are equally strong - the more money "in" the association equal more tithes, and also, the fact that we'd be blessing their pastors with a fine, relaxing, needed weekend, with no cost to them, and, if we did decide to do a big local event, it would make it even stronger.
I'd love to know what you're thinking. Do you think that I could be right about the ten businesses represented per church? If so, do you think that this could be an easy "sale?" I would hope to present it not as a sale, but, as a sponsorship.
My co-worker believes, that for the most part, this would be one "big" sale to the local association, and then, he thinks the members are so interconnected, that it may "weave" down through the ranks pretty well. If that's the case, it will indeed be an easy sale. Also, in my mind, this would be a VERY easy renewal once per year, so, once we did it, we could hopefully have a good, steady, residual income.
If it did work here, I'd immediately go to the next association, one county over, and do the same thing with their 50+ churches. I think that within a year, we could have set up maybe 5-10 associations, and then, have a good residual income. I don't know if we could handle any more than that.
I honestly think, start to finish, we could have this whole thing started, sold, set up, printed, and distributed in less than two months, three months tops.
I think that we could probably do a 25% commission on each sponsorship sold, so, for hopefully 2-3 months of work, if we really could average 10 sponsorships per church, our salesperson could easily make $40K plus, if they just do the $300 sponsorship. Obviously, if they each do the $600 sponsorship, her pay would be $80K plus.
Anyway, I'd welcome your thoughts. Thanks.