Team of Grads Put Skills to Work Immediately
Entrepreneurs who need a business plan to woo potential investors, but who lack the big bucks to get one professionally written--or the time and know-how to do it themselves--now have an alternative.
Santa Monica-based BestBizPlan.com promises to prepare business plans with all the bells and whistles for a fraction of what you’d pay a consultant or accountant.
The company is the creation of David Lavinsky, a UCLA MBA and aspiring entrepreneur. Essentially, he has tapped his network of MBA pals who need good-paying part-time work to pay the rent while they’re scrambling to launch their own businesses.
Lavinsky ought to know. He’s busy starting a fruit smoothie venture and preparing for the arrival of a new baby--both of which are going to require a heap of cash. Like many of his peers, he perfected the art of crafting business plans in B-school. Why not put that talent to good use?
“We have all these great skills, chunks of downtime . . . and student loans coming due,” said Lavinsky, 28. “Small-business owners need business plans, but they can’t afford what a lot of consultants charge. We’re filling a need.”
Lavinsky has assembled a team of 15 MBAs, some of whom were accountants, bankers or consultants before they caught the entrepreneurial bug. Their rates are $40 an hour, compared with $100 and up charged by some established firms. A typical plan, complete with financial projections and an executive summary, can take 50 to 200 hours to complete.
Lavinsky’s consultants will work out of their own homes, relying on the telephone and Internet to connect with clients to keep overhead low. The Web site (https://www.bestbizplan.com), launched just last week, already has attracted a couple of nibbles.
“This isn’t going to be a business that makes me millions,” Lavinsky said. “Helping business owners while allowing myself and my associates to continue pursuing our entrepreneurial dreams is more of what I’m after.”
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Marla Dickerson can be reached at marla.dickerson@latimes.com.
