This section is the library for all LIFTOFF Business Plans published documentation that we add to regularly. This is an archive that gives you free access to anything we have emailed customers and prospects in the past. If you want to be on our mailing list for information materials, please click on the button at right to provide us with your email address:

If you are interested in our newsletters, but you did not receive all issues, we now store our newsletters on-line in PDF format to make it easy to retrieve. Newsletters are normally emailed at the start of each month (after a holiday is applicable) to provide information about the use of LIFTOFF Business Plans.

Issue 1: May 2019 = Announcing LIFTOFF Business Plans to be released soon.

Issue 2: July 2019 = Launching LIFTOFF Business Plans on July 1, 2019.

Issue 3: August 2019 = Planning your business with LIFTOFF Business Plans.

Issue 4: September 2019 = Opening our LIFTOFF Business Plans website.

We regularly publish information related to business plans, such as about news items that reflect issues entrepreneurs could have averted by using LIFTOFF Business Plans resources. White papers may be emailed at irregular intervals depending on when a subject worthy of a white paper emerges.

As part of our on-going research in business planning topics, we regularly compose useful information that we may summarize and publish as guides that you might be interested in. We do not email guides like this, but guides may be referenced in our monthly newsletters whenever new information is added.

This section is the library for all LIFTOFF Business Plans related user questions that may be of interest to other users. When we address questions, we will publish the questions and answers in this section of the website. If you have a question that is not yet asked and answered, you can click on the button at right to bring up a form where you can ask specific questions. We never publish your email address.

A picture is worth 1000 words: a video is invaluable as a resource that shows you exactly how a specific task is performed. This training library is under development, as our intent is to provide you with step-by-step short videos that help you to perform specific tasks towards creating your business plan and related documentation. The library is organized along the lines of the major stages of business planning. If you want to be on our mailing list to be informed about new videos added to these libraries, please click on the button at right:

If you do work you really like, you never actually work a day in your life. Many people forget to check that when they decide on a business opportunity, and sometimes end up buying themselves a low-pay job “owning” a franchise that (in reality) owns them (of course, some franchises can be the opportunity of your dreams). The problem with developing a business concept is that, when you pursue an original concept, you have a lot of up-front work to do that helps you to generate the clarity required to turn a concept into a viable business plan.

What makes LIFTOFF Business Plans different from other tools you can find on the internet is that we have a thorough methodology that is focused on protecting the assets of the entrepreneur. Instead of finding the quickest way to produce a document to convince a banker to lend you the start-up funding (as if that is ever going to happen) we explore the risks and opportunities, and only turn to financiers if we can clearly demonstrate the potential for success in your business venture. The key to success is that you work from a well-researched foundation, that makes it less risky to financiers to consider what parts of a business start-up may be eligible for financing.

What makes LIFTOFF Business Plans even more different from other tools you can find on the internet is that we also provide a more thorough planning framework with detailed marketing plans to evaluate the potential of your business venture. A marketing plan provides you with the tools to segment your business into different product lines or services, so you can then evaluate how your planned business is able to compete with other businesses offering a similar suite of products or services. A powerful feature is that LIFTOFF Business Plans can selectively consolidate multiple detailed marketing plans to explore the best options for your intended business venture.

What makes LIFTOFF Business Plans even more different from other tools you can find on the internet is that we also provide you control over the implementation execution. A plan on what must be done, without a schedule of when to do what, can result in major cost overruns that in some cases has sunk a business before it even opened its doors. When you need physical facilities (rather than an eBusiness to conduct business over the internet) you will be faced with many preparation steps that can include major leasehold improvements (renovation, custom builds, etc.) that you may be able to finance if you have a detailed tracking plan that shows when progress payments are due. These videos show you how to put a project plan together, and how to monitor progress to achieve your desired opening date.

When in any part of your business plan, marketing plan, and/or project plan you are faced with the task of breaking down component costs for deliverables, a Bill Of Materials (BOM) is usually the easiest way to provide that breakdown. A BOM can be appended to regular plans worksheets to provide calculations that can produce result values that you then insert in the appropriate area of your worksheet. Typically, a BOM is used to map the design elements for construction to the components required so that you can create an inventory of materials with costs that aggregate to specific construction deliverables. You can use a BOM in a marketing plan to calculate the cost of deliverables, such as menu items in a restaurant, again to analyze the impact of ingredients costs, or of provisions like utensils, etc.

One of the benefits of LIFTOFF Business Plans is that the detailed calculations are performed by means of Excel™ cell formulas. This means that you can customize these calculations, so that you can reflect the unique aspects of how your business (will) operate(s). This includes the methods used to copy data from one cell to another, within a worksheet. We have a separate method for copying data from one worksheet to another to consolidate information that is built using individual worksheet segments.

One of the more powerful LIFTOFF Business Plans capabilities is that you can simulate combinations and permutations of input assumptions. The simulation automates the repeated execution of Excel™ plans while it records the best 600+ outcomes to help you assess the inherent risks and opportunities in your business plan. A typical business plan is a “one shot” view of a set of assumptions, that may neither be the best view, nor the worst view, which can cause you to miss out on opportunities or to overlook risks. With LIFTOFF Business Plans simulation capabilities, you let Excel™ do the heavy lifting to find all those alternatives that may remain obscured when you use traditional planning tools.

What makes LIFTOFF Business Plans unique is the ability to consolidate data between different Excel™ worksheets using a controlled selection method rather than tightly coupled links between worksheets. While this may sound technical, it is simply a mechanism to manage data links to support alternate plans (such as variations due to different potential business locations that support different sales volumes, or that incur different leasehold improvement costs, etc.). At the business plan level, you can select which segments are relevant to that instance, and de-select information that does not apply. The result is an instance unique to that location, so you can assess the bottom-line potential as you compare different potential locations.

For corporate users, LIFTOFF Business Plans can be deployed in a distributed planning framework over a corporate intranet. Based on the Excel™ capabilities to operate in a distributed environment, LIFTOFF Business Plans can be structured with a multi-tiered architecture so that corporate, divisional, and even departmental plans can be created and consolidated over a network without the risk of creating locks on information during that consolidation process. LIFTOFF Business Plans has specific commands that move plan worksheets from one tier to another, so that at each tier we can provide consolidation while allowing lower tiers to continue operations without interference.

This section is the library for all LIFTOFF Business Plans services related documentation, that makes it easier to find the information after you may have misplaced the user guide or other reference materials you need to use the software. If you have a question about services not listed in this section, you can click on the button at right to bring up a form where you can ask specific questions about a service you are looking for.

We offer LIFTOFF Business Plans as a “Do-It-Yourself” option. This is not always the best option to get a solid set of plans, but it is often the best option for a would-be entrepreneur to explore ideas before they invest money in coaching support services or consulting support services. Our resources library is filled with information that will help you in your quest to come up with the ideal business opportunity to meet your needs. We caution readers to consume “Guru” sites’ information with caution, and not to start looking for a new mansion after reading a headline like “From $0.00 to $10,000,000 in one year!”.

We offer LIFTOFF Business Plans Coaching as a support service to guide “DIY” entrepreneurs on how to use the available tools to achieve their objectives. Coaching is done via the internet using Zoom, Skype, or other webinar interfaces, which makes it location independent and easy to access. We offer group coaching as a low-priced option that takes 10+ clients through collective weekly sessions within a given program bundle, so that specific objectives will be achieved during that time. We also offer individual coaching as a premium option that is focused on one entrepreneur to get them to their desired objective as quickly as possible (subject to scheduling and availability). All coaching sessions will be pre-booked, so clients must make sure that they can reserve their attendance dates.

We offer LIFTOFF Business Plans Consulting as a “done for you” or “done with you” service to provide entrepreneurs with a business plan, marketing plan, and/or project plan, or to implement customization and/or consolidation solutions. Consulting can be done via the internet using Zoom, Skype, or other webinar interfaces, to elicit the planning information that must be reflected, and results can be emailed as completed Excel™ workbooks while the behind-the-scenes data preparation can be done off-line.

LIFTOFF Business Plans Consulting is restricted to the mechanics of creating the planning documents (or worksheets) you need. However, while we may offer practical suggestions, we do not offer professional support or advice. In fact, once you have the planning materials you need to take the next step, before you head to your bank or other financier you should seek independent counsel from professional service providers like:

• Accountants - the financial implications of starting a business are best reviewed by seeking the advice of a professional accountant.
• Lawyers - the legal implications of starting a business, including local regulations and licensing requirements, are best reviewed by seeking the advice of a lawyer.
• Advisors - many municipalities or regions have business development advisors who know what resources may be available locally to help you get your business launched.
• Architects - when you are faced with a leasehold improvement transformation you need the services of an architect who can determine how empty space can be repurposed to suit the requirements of the business venture you want to start.

This section is reference for LIFTOFF Business Plans related subject matter published on the internet. This is largely based on information we came across while doing research to build the software and methodology. Here we provide you with links to external websites and publications that provide relevant information related to business planning and/or entrepreneurship. If you believe you have information that should be listed in this section please use the button at right to provide us with a brief description and web link that may allow us to determine if your site is a good fit for this catalog.

LIFTOFF Business Plans offers a limited set of examples, while the range of business opportunities seems unlimited. We do not specifically endorse information published by other parties referenced in the list below:

LIFTOFF Business Plans offers a limited scope of general business management information, which may not meet the needs of all our clients, so we collect references to useful subject materials. We do not specifically endorse information published by other parties referenced in the list below:

LIFTOFF Business Plans offers a limited focus on marketing related information, which may not meet the needs of all our clients, so we collect references to useful subject materials. We do not specifically endorse information published by other parties referenced in the list below:

LIFTOFF Business Plans offers a limited focus on project management related information, which may not meet the needs of all our clients, so we collect references to useful subject materials. We do not specifically endorse information published by other parties referenced in the list below:

LIFTOFF Business Plans offers specific support information to entrepreneurs who generally have an idea of what their business will be about. That may not be all the information aspiring entrepreneurs need to decide on what kind of business to start. We do not specifically endorse information published by other parties referenced in the list below:

LIFTOFF Business Plans offers a limited focus on business coaching which may not meet the needs of all our clients, so we collect references to useful subject materials. We do not specifically endorse the information published by other parties referenced in the list below: