Financing With An Alpaca Business Plan:
Take A Basic Business Plan and Add Some Pizzazz!
Who wouldn't love a face like that? As much as I loved my furry creatures, I knew I needed a business plan to make my alpaca farm a true business.
Hi, I'm Janine. I'm on the other side of the camera. My alpacas and I live in Australia. I knew about six years ago that I wanted an alpaca farm. I absolutely fell in love with these creatures the first time I saw them, and they have the most agreeable personality imaginable.
Like you, I did a lot of research about alpaca farms, the different types of alpacas, the different colors, the breeding issues, the sales issues... everything I could think of.
I did all the start up business spreadsheets, with all the projections on costs of feed and vet care and shearing and breeding ... again, everything I could think of.
I figured I needed about $150,000 to make the alpaca farm a reality. That's not a lot of money to start a business, especially one with the potential that this one had. But I didn't have $150,000. I barely had $15,000 and some land that my uncle had left me. So I decided to talk with my local banker. I put all my information on an alpaca business plan into a folder and went to see him.
Looking back on it, I don't know what in heaven's name made me think I could convince a banker to lend me $150,000 on my promise that I would buy some alpacas and turn them into a successful farm. I had lived on a sheep farm before, but I had never run one. And I had never even lived on an alpaca farm before.
Before that banker was finished with me, I was screaming, in good Eliza Doolitle fashion, "Just you wait, you dirty banker, just you wait! You'll be sorry but your tears will be too late!" Well, not really screaming, but I sure felt like it.
To make a long story short, I spun on my heels and decided to make a go of it anyway. It started small, almost on the hobby level. Then a year went by, and another, and another, and before I knew it I had a thriving business on my hands.
But I wanted more. I wanted to double the size of my farm. But this time I had an edge. This time I knew that I needed a true business plan to make my dream alpaca farm happen.
The business plan I needed wasn't one to start, or even grow, the business. It was a business plan to explain to the banker why he should lend me the money -- and that's a whole different story. I found a basic business plan, and that really did the trick. I put together
-
A summary of what I had accomplished;
-
An outline of the industry, and why it was so successful;
-
A biographical summary showing why I was the best person for the business;
-
My financial statements since I started, demonstrating the growth in the company.
And the real caveat was a little slideshow I put together about alpaca farming, what is was, who did it, the strengths and challenges of the business. (MS PowerPoint lets you put a slideshow AND the viewer on a CD for others to see it.)
I made an appointment to see the business banker at another bank. (I NEVER wanted to see that first banker ever again in my whole life, or my next life for that matter.) I walked into the bank and was shown into the office of ... you guessed it. THAT banker was there. I nearly died.
Well, I made my alpaca business plan presentation anyhow.
And I got the loan. Honest. Somewhere along the way I guess I became a real businessperson as well as a rancher. Sid (that's my banker) and I still laugh about the whole thing. You know, he's not such a bad guy after all.
