We help clients to create a business plan and set a baseline to manage their business launch or growth to profitability. We use a proprietary Excel™-VBA process to manipulate worksheets that contain the business plan, so that clients can analyze and simulate many different ranges of parameters that generate specific results, to find the best options for maximizing results.

We offer a range of service levels starting with a “Do-It-Yourself” kit, so you can create your own plans at the lowest cost. If you like, we also provide coaching / consulting services to help you build a business plan to analyze (or simulate) different assumptions to test how you can establish a successful, profitable business. LIFTOFF Business Plans include convenient simulation options that enable you to analyze many combinations of assumptions to test “what if” scenarios, or (for LIFTOFF_LITE) a likely case, an optimistic case, and a conservative case, to assess your risk based on those assumptions.

If you do not feel ready to start with a complete business plan, we also offer a couple of tools that can be helpful to develop your business concept and to create an action plan for getting ready to develop that business plan.

Many people aspire to have their own business. One challenge is that they are accustomed to following, not setting, direction. Goal setting is prerequisite to running a business, and to direct employees who end up working for you, so we added this foundation to the LIFTOFF Business Plans suite of products.

GOALSET offers a flexible paradigm, to plan outcomes with more elastic delivery timelines, but without losing sight of end-goals you have in mind. We incorporate specific to-do items for progress tracking. This also works very well in getting a side-gig business launched.

We first look at self-improvement, to develop how to manage yourself and others. Based on your personal attributes you can rate your performance regularly on a scale of 1 to 9. GOALSET creates an averaged score, so you can keep track of your growth. You can change focus attributes to create an entire self-development program and monitor how you progress over time.

GOALSET lets you keep track of your “To-Do” list, including things that did not get done and roll forward into the next working day. You organize daily tasks and calls to make, and flag items that are completed so they can be archived. You can delegate tasks, while tracking progress. Phone calls can be marked for follow-up until the process is completed.

GOALSET lets you manage up to 250 goals, prioritized by flexible criteria, including precedent goals, and goals can be broken into component work packages, to keep track of all pending initiatives while current work is tracked in the current To-Do list. You can change priorities to have goals rearranged, so you get the more urgent (or important) work items completed first.

Your vision determines the potential for a business venture. It can be narrow in focus or have grand scale potential. VISIONADO is a high-level planning tool to create a vision and enabling mission(s) that create a physical instance of what you are envisioning. A business venture usually evolves in stages.

LIFTOFF Business Plans start with a clear vision and mission statement. To create that foundation, we offer a process to formulate that vision (the long-term commitment of what your business represents) and current mission (the initiative(s) you take to achieve business success). VISIONADO automates a “vision board” with Analysis, Definition, and Outcome steps that offer project planning and tracking.

Based on a vision board (that you can create with images in a spreadsheet), it lets you plan the launch and growth of a business venture. This high-level planning tool breaks that vision into milestones, and tangible work packages, that encompass SMART task definitions. By working back from a vision, that defines WHAT you want to accomplish, refine HOW this is accomplished in detail for progress tracking.

VISIONADO lets you plan the implementation costs, based on the scope for each task definition, and set alternative implementation strategies to see what works best with the funding you have access to. It includes optional project planning and tracking to transform “WHAT” you want into “HOW” you get there. The focus is costs: you decide if you want to invest in (or drip-feed/self-finance) work to build a home- or small business venture, before you invest in an actual business plan to assess profitability.

VISIONADO lets you estimate the time needed to deliver an outcome, with time and materials costs, to confirm it is affordable. This simple project management tool transforms vague ideas into tangible results. The development time and cost estimates show a clear picture of WHAT you want and HOW to create a that outcome, the foundation of a formal business plan to create a business, and what financing is needed. You can then decide which LIFTOFF Business Plans version is most appropriate.

LIFTOFF_LITE is based on cashflow planning focused on business essentials rather than financial reports. This removes financial reporting complexity not directly tied to cashflow impact. A concept of marginal contribution to your profits is: if revenues exceed costs by a sufficient margin, you can turn this opportunity into a viable business. We can reflect loans, repayment, taxation, depreciation, and other refinements without much detail, and make the bottom-line realistic, but uncomplicated for small entrepreneurs. This is more productive to find business opportunities aligned with your goals and objectives. To produce useful estimates, we use a 5-year planning term.

Any business has a silent partner in the tax department, so sooner or later a business will have to create compliant financial reports. This depends on the type of business: at some point you should engage an accountant who can give you specific, relevant information that reflects the business needs. Even so, you can continue your planning and performance tracking with LIFTOFF_LITE should you prefer.

LIFTOFF_LITE cashflow planning offers basic “what if” analyses with optimistic, likely, and conservative parameter input assumptions. This helps you to promote project financing, assuming the conservative scenario still yields a positive net cashflow.

For a small business with simple accounting needs it is an appropriate tool to seek financing, but in some cases financiers (or grantors, etc.) insist on a formal pro-forma financial reporting format. It is easy to explore alternatives with LIFTOFF_LITE, such as the feasibility of changes (or pivots) due to market changes or new imposed regulations (like lockdowns). If it yields a positive result, you move forward, otherwise look for an exit strategy.

LIFTOFF_LITE used for a business case shows a “net marginal contribution” view of a potential venture, but not how that venture is consolidated within a larger corporate bottom line. It is a great approach for ranking potential projects for which only a limited funding is allocated, so that the best projects can be prioritized for implementation, since a positive net contribution can only benefit the business.

LIFTOFF_BASIC provides “what if” simulation, with more flexibility in the definition of automated cases to test many combinations of inputs, to find a feasible region that delivers positive results. Pro-forma financial statements adapt to your financial statements, adding a 5-year forecast result. It sorts result cases from best to worst results, to make it easy to see what strategy works for a successful operation. It even supports consolidation across a hierarchy of component plans for a growing business enterprise.

LIFTOFF_BASIC also supports detailed cost estimates with a Bill-Of-Materials to monitor source costing. If you think of a restaurant, the menu defines gross income from food served, but recipes define cost of food produced (taking a certain level of waste into account). For many businesses this level of detail is unnecessary, as summary cost estimates may be sufficient, making it easier to implement “what if” scenarios, but it is there if needed.

Simulation lets you mix summary and detailed input values, managed under program control, so the software can find the best opportunities according to your criteria. It can save up to 600 of the best input combinations that might help you to determine the “feasible region” within which your business will be operating profitably.

LIFTOFF_BASIC supports the automated import of tracking data (as many accounting software systems are Excel™ friendly). While missing a target one month may be a warning, missing targets consistently calls for action. This tracking requires data-driven parameters to import and consolidate the key performance indicators relevant to your business, a one-time setup, so it can alert you to where intervention may be required, to correct problems or set new targets to do business within the “safe operating” limits. You can have a current set of pro-forma financial statements at the end of each month, which enables you to take corrective actions more proactively than just at year-end.

LIFTOFF_FULL offers additional functionality to LIFTOFF_BASIC:

Product Management with a full product-lines breakdown, including marketing expenses, for retail-, hospitality- and production environments that manage a complex goods inventory (often using seasonality). It also has a Bill Of Materials process that supports any operation where you assemble products or perform construction. It can estimate the operating space you require based on product size, sales volume, and turnover, as well as potential retail/showroom space needs.

Project Management supports a detailed work breakdown for leasehold improvements or custom production activity. It supports Bill Of Materials and cost estimating and tracking, key to releasing progress payment based financing to fund the construction. It offers standard project planning and status reports, including Gantt-chart reporting to show the implementation timelines.

LIFTOFF_Premium for enterprises offers distributed budgeting to support a tiered hierarchy of strategic business units that budget plan individually and have their results consolidated into a corporate plan. It supports networked sites by copying across the intra- or internet to safely upload and apply results and support consolidation at regional and/or divisional levels. It includes all LIFTOFF_FULL features but is only available by quotation, as each setup is uniquely adapted to a large business entity. It operates on individual Excel™-equipped workstations that move files to/from a networked storage. Files will be uniquely named for hierarchy- and consolidation levels, a process that is entirely data-driven and does not require special development (other than to establish access privileges for the participating workstations).

Training, coaching, and consulting include guiding you through the specific application, and to prepare you for creating, maintaining, and manipulating a business plan (which includes “what if” scenario modeling). With your license you can generate as many alternative business plans as you wish for your own business venture(s). You cannot use the tools to offer commercial services. Each product comes with template worksheets that facilitate “DIY” analyses, documentation, and a “Show-and-Tell” process to guide you through.

Coaching keeps you on track and confirms your intent before you commit this to paper (or a worksheet). It can identify conflicting statements or objectives without SMART attributes (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based). It asks the question HOW you achieve things, and HOW to know you were successful, questions the audience for your business plan asks when you seek funding for your initiative(s).

Coaches do not guide the process (effectively putting words into your mouth), that reduces the effectiveness of your business plan. They help you to present your plan to stakeholders and to be ready to answer questions that help to reassure stakeholders it is the right course of action to launch a business or to move your business forward. They can also help you with customization of your business plan.

Consulting involves active participation in creating a business plan by eliciting inputs from the client, as many clients find it easier to explain “WHAT” they want the plan to focus on, rather than “HOW” to put that into a proper format in the plan. This does not mean that the client no longer plays a key role in the definition of a business plan: it means that the consultant removes the learning curve by eliciting the information they need to complete the plan.

Clients are the experts on what is needed to create or grow their business; consultants focus on understanding that perspective and putting it into words, to be interpreted by stakeholders who will examine the business plan for specific purposes (such as deciding on funding requests). Consultants do not create a plan on behalf of clients: it must be relevant to what clients have in mind, and consultants are not mind-readers. We do not lead a client down a predestined line of thinking.

We offer our materials to independent service providers under a formal authorized associate agreement. Our intent is to make sure that those who represent our products and services are qualified to perform that role in your time zone and geographic area (which reduces the overhead cost of engaging associates). As the client, you must still obtain a product license (as explained above) before you can work with an associate of your choice to provide coaching or consulting services.

Associates will be able to show a certificate that shows they are licensed to represent our services, but they cannot sell our products directly. This ensures we can maintain a mailing list of licensed users we can reach out to in case a problem fix (or product improvement) is applied that we will then offer free of charge.