My potential business partner asks me to write a business plan. In the business plan, I am required to write how much money is required and what effect that each investment will bring about respectively. But I feel it is difficult to predict exactly what effect that each investment will bring about respectively, especially web site promotion. How can you predict it, especially you are facing a new field that almost no one has done it before?
Most people have two balls neither of which are crystal!
You should not be looking for predictions unless you business is fortune telling. Americans call it forward looking statements and we tend to say forecasts or estimates.
Estimates I feel is the better term.
If you are doing it for your own benefit it would best to be conservative, alternatively you could do two or three with different scenarios. Excel will come in handy here. A very succesful friend of mine said he always calculated his interest rate as 3x the current bank rate for his estimates. I am sure you understand the concept of discounting future money flow. No one can predict things like future orders but I am sure your partner will have his own ideas and will adjust your forecasts to his own. It is difficult,as you say to predict future statistics from websites (all you can do is go from historic data from your data logs, and it is difficult to get this sort of information from competitors. See Alexa rankings?However, as you know once you get visitors/sales the numbers can only go up if you keep developing the site as you have done in the past. Don’t skimp on the investment. If you are in a competitive environment you really need to "go large" with your injection of capital.
A website is a bit like mail order. There is a correlation to the number of orders to the funds invested.
But I am sure you know all this.
We hav just raised £2m for a local directory website. The company will be looking to raise much more money in 6 months time.
How much money/access to money has he? It may be better to tailor the money to the plan.
http://menglee.bravehost.com/