By a going concern, I mean an operation that is able the meet these objectives in a reasonable time, say within three years.

1. Earn a 10 percent pretax profit.

2. Pay a fair level of salary.

3. Be able to accurately assess the costs of the project.

If your project potential cannot satisfy these goals, then some other alternative will be required. Basically then our Phase I investigation should answer the questions to whether or not the proposed  business would be in a position to meet these minimum criteria within three years, if you agree that is a reasonable time target.

To answer the question of business validity, I need a little over three weeks, spending a total of 16 hours per week studying your assets and the equivalent of an additional 4 hours per week interacting with you by phone or on the internet in analyzing information or both. In no more than one month’s time from when I start, I will help you answer:

1. Can the  project operate as a stand alone venture by meeting the objectives that you want?

2. Under what conditions can it do this? In other words, what will it take?

To do this, I need full and free access to your project plans, financial data and your financial projections. If there is no project plan, financial data or financial projections, I will need to prepare them.

I plan to examine your situation from three aspects simultaneously, each aspect having equal importance.

The site values, environmental aspects and projected return on investment concepts are the real key to making the business work but you must approach the business as an environmental business, not just as a bottom line issue. That means a SATReal Analysis must be performed. To help them do this, I will need to perform such an analysis as a cooperative event through the internet. This SATReal Analysis must include a look at the planned  projects such as incountry markets as well as export, and other planned profit centers. It will evaluate the impact of each of those chosen projects on the environment in terms of the environment impact laws of your state. That means environmental data through the SATReal Analysis will be obtained.

At the same time, I will be looking over the company’s financial and accounting data and projections, your financial projections for each of the planned  projects as a whole and as a collection of individual components. I will try as best I can to show what the project can afford to do, given its maximum effort directed toward goals. This will involve some time sharing with you through the internet and telephone.

Thirdly, we will look at the market potential, especially for internet and trade show marketing and evaluate what can be done to maximize your marketing program. It is my hope that you will select one or more lead  projects to be the most important focus of your marketing. We will focus our marketing evaluation on this lead project. That’s because it is important to perfect one thing and once the plan for that specific project is evaluated it can be permutated to the subsequent projects. Much of my consulting will involve searching through the internet visiting other  projects, scoping out competitors and creating a competitor profile. In addition we will look at the website design for your project.

I suggest that most of my consulting will take place through the internet, which will lower your costs since you will not have to pay for on site visits or perdiem. By performing my consultancy through the internet I can save you a great deal of money. That is valuable to you because at the beginning of a  project, cash flow is likely to be a bit strained. I will charge $1200 per day - a day being a total of 8 hours, for Phase I. Because I will not be on site, there will be no travel charges, but I will charge for internet access. Also you can give me a maximum charge and I will tailor the individual activities within that framework.

What I will give you at the end of four weeks is a written report on my recommendations for the  project, based upon my data gathering and analysis. The report will have two sections (1) Where to go, and (2) How to get there.

Phase One need not cost more than $5000 depending on the size of the project.

Whatever the outcome of Phase I, Phase II should include the construction of a business plan. As I see it, the recommendations coming out of Phase I will probably be one of the following

1. Recommendation 1 - Create the  project as a business enterprise, under a specific set of conditions with the present ownership (which may not mean its present farm owners will serve as managers). Any infusion of cash required will come from present owners.

2. Recommendation 2 - Same as above but with outside capital.

A business plan will be an advantage for implementation of Recommendation 1. For Recommendation 2, a plan is a necessity. The plan should be written with the general recommendations in mind and be built around the Business Planning Guide you can find on my website at

If it looks as though the project will meet objectives, and it is my suspicion in light of the growth of the need for fuelwood both in your country and for export, the project can be made profitable.

It would take about four weeks to complete a plan, with the two of us working together through the internet and by phone. I would limit my charges to US$9500 to do the plan in the final form.

The final phase would include my time only to the extent it might be needed and might include:

1. Sourcing the best  plant for your budget.

2. Helping you find a business manager.

3. Using the cash flow and budgets that come out of Phase II.

4. Helping to create effective incentives for your people, and keeping them focused on goals and performance.

5. Instituting actual business control methods for such things as inventory and purchasing, long-range forecasting and better cost information reporting.

6. Developing your marketing plan and internet strategy, including logo, design of brochures.

7. Preparing your website, setting up an internet yahoo group concept

8. Developing expansion plans.

9. Developing the publicity program.

The cost to you for Phase III is totally open ended, and would really depend on how much you need me.