Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Business plan needed

[Chris ScottHanson (chris]

Tom, and all...

Here at Cohousing Resources, we recommend that you actually do a full  
Development Plan, not just a business plan.

A development plan worries less about the market and the product  
being sold to that market, and more about the process of doing the  
business of development successfully.  We assume you know who the  
market is - yourselves, and others like you.  We also assume you know  
what the product is - cohousing, in one of its forms as you choose to  
define it as a community.

We offer a 2.5 day custom workshop which will set you off on the  
right track for this development process, providing you with the  
three fundamental elements of managing that process, all tailored to  
your local area:

    1. Project Budget - using local costs, with estimated unit mix  
and unit pricing
    2. Project Schedule - using local permit processing times, etc.
    3. Project Cash Flow Plan - spreading the budget over time

The agenda for this 2.5 day workshop, customized specifically to your  
location, includes such items as:
    a. Overview - defining your dreams, and getting from dreams to  
reality
    b. Development models - what works, what does not
    c. Legal issues - contracts, ownership forms, risk management
    d. Financial Issues - banks, risk, budgets and pro formas,
    e. Affordability - goals, strategies for achieving these goals,
    f. Raising the Money - early buyer incentives, managing  
financial risk
    g. Marketing and Membership - fundamentals, details, samples
    h. Finding and Buying Land - where and how
    i. Design Process - considerations, design stages, the environment
    j. Design Team - identifying, hiring and managing the design team
    k. Scheduling - predicting, anticipating, managing
    l. Permits and Approvals - public process, technical process
    m. Construction - what can you expect
    n.  Moving in - preparing, living there issues

Workshop participants come away with a three ring binder full of this  
material, with samples, and guides, budgets and charts, and lots of  
information.

If you are interested, we are able to successfully provide land  
acquisition services for your community, however the workshop, above,  
is a required prerequisite for undertaking a land acquisition  
contract with you.

Please call or write if you have any questions or suggestions about  
how we might help your community get going.


Kelly ScottHanson

Cohousing Resources LLC & Ecodevelopments LLC
Ecovillages, Cohousing & Sustainable Communities
Development and Consulting for a Sustainable Future
   based on the Natural Power of Community

(206) 842-9160 Seattle
(206) 260-2800 eFAX
(617) 894-7661 Boston
(617) 344-8563 eFAX

email:          kelly [at] CohousingResources.com

web site 1:      http://www.CohousingResources.com
web site 2:      http://www.EcoDevelopments.com


On Jul 16, 2005, at 6:54 AM, Tom Hammer wrote:

> We at Concord Village are working on developing a business plan,  
> and we
> could use some help from a community which has been built or is  
> close to
> completion.
>
> Wanted:  An example of a business plan for a group of motivated  
> homebuyers
> who want to help plan, design, and finance their own cohousing  
> community.
> Helpful plan elements will include:  marketing, finance, production,
> management plans plus an organizational plan to coordinate the various
> investors, lenders, designers and equity members.
>
> Thanks in advance for your aid,
>
> Tom Hammer
> for Concord Village
> Where we're still looking at land, possibly among the older  
> mushroom houses
> of the mushroom capital of the world, Kennett Square, PA
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