My First Business Plan

The year was 1999. I knew that I was getting closer to launching out on my own to make my first feature film "The Keyman." I was at 40,000 feet over the Atlantic headed for Spain.

The guy I was seated next to looked like a businessman type. I had a very rough draft of my first business plan and I asked him if he wanted to read it and give notes. He looked through it and gave me some of the best concise advice I'd ever had.

"First," he started, "I invest based on what the idea is and on the people who are to make the idea work." He went on to tell me that the rest was fluff, mostly necessary but fluff nonetheless. He wanted to know clearly what the idea was and who was doing it.

On that flight I came up with what I began to call the three "R's." And these have led off every business plan I've done.

Right Idea
Right Team
Return on Investment

My Executive Summary begins here. Now as I pitched investors over the years, I've added, adjusted and changed some of the info. Probably the biggest addition to the guy on the plane-- comparable picture reports and financial projections. And for that information, FilmProfit has been a great source.

I'll go into all this, including providing you samples from my business plan in the workbook for the "Greenlight Yourself: course. Were prepping workbooks now for Saturday's class in Fort Worth, so if you plan on attending and haven't registered, please hurry and do so. www.s-films.com/pov