College course business plan

[jschner]

I hope this is the right forum for this. I'm attending a college course for a Business Management degree and one class I have we have to create a business plan for a product idea. The idea we came up with is an automatic pool cleaner for tiles. A realistic idea or not, I figure this is part of the pool cleaning and maintenance industry or pool equipment. I have been searching for hours trying to find the US market size for pool maintenance, some type of demographics, info on the industry, breakdown of maintenance categories, etc... and not finding much. I do see there are market analysis I can purchase for big bucks, but that is out of the scope of this course and way more info than needed.

I'm not looking for the specific answers, but looking for resources where I can find the info and that it is semi realistic. Are there some market resources out there about the pool industry, something I can reference? I'm hoping I can concentrate on actually writing the business plan rather than spending hours trying to find the most basic of info. At least that is the goal. Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[mguzzy]

Lets see... calling @Donldson ..maybe he knows

 

[Hal3]

I hope this is the right forum for this. I'm attending a college course for a Business Management degree and one class I have we have to create a business plan for a product idea. The idea we came up with is an automatic pool cleaner for tiles. A realistic idea or not, I figure this is part of the pool cleaning and maintenance industry or pool equipment. I have been searching for hours trying to find the US market size for pool maintenance, some type of demographics, info on the industry, breakdown of maintenance categories, etc... and not finding much. I do see there are market analysis I can purchase for big bucks, but that is out of the scope of this course and way more info than needed.

I'm not looking for the specific answers, but looking for resources where I can find the info and that it is semi realistic. Are there some market resources out there about the pool industry, something I can reference? I'm hoping I can concentrate on actually writing the business plan rather than spending hours trying to find the most basic of info. At least that is the goal. Any ideas? Thanks!

I found this with Google:

Discover 9 Fascinating Facts About Pools, Spas and Swimming

How many pools are in the U.S? How many times per year does the average person go swimming? Learn 9 fascinating facts about pools and swimming.

www.liveabout.com

 

[Hal3]

So, this is your "potential market".

Potential Market - Definition, Importance & Example | Marketing Overview | MBA Skool

Potential market is the part of the total population that has shown some level of interest in buying a particular product or service. This includes individuals, firms and organizations. Potential market is also called Total addressable market (TAM).

www.mbaskool.com

 

[Hal3]

BTW, I earned my MBA in my 40's. It was a wonderful experience. So great to learn something entirely new at that age. I remember my business plan project.

Anyway, you are tasked with creating a report similar to the ones people are selling for thousands of dollars.

Start with your potential market and cite the source referenced by the article above - not the article itself.

Then, make your own assumptions or range assumptions and use your MBA buzzwords. "market penetration", "start-up costs", "break even", "exit strategy", etc. Do you want to start another Maytronics? License the product to an existing pool products company? Do you have barriers to competition like a patent?

Have fun!

 

[crusemm]

I'm going to hang on to this thread. I am currently in my first semester of an MBA program (at age 50, WTF was I thinking) and will probably need it in the near future.