To get the most out of E-Valuator make sure that you give each evaluation a separate title. Print out the web page that E-Valuator generates after you've submitted your information. You can then refer to these figures when reading the corresponding e-mail that is sent after you click on the 'e-mail feedback based on this report' button.

Test, test, and test again...

The best way to use E-Valuator is to keep testing different scenarios for your business plan. It is often surprising how making a small adjustment to one figure can affect the profitability of the entire business-plan assessment. The important thing is to consider what these adjustments actually mean in terms of your business model. For example, it may not seem much of a difference to change your target conversion rate for your web-business from 1.5% to 2.0% and the profitability of your business plan may look far healthier as a result. But what are the prospects of you achieving a 2.0% conversion rate in your first few months of trading? Do you have a realistic strategy for achieving this?

Use E-Valuator to submit one set of figures that you believe are your base-line figures. These are your conservative estimate of what you will achieve. How do these figures look? Are you a long way off achieving a profitable business plan or are you already 'in the ball park'?

Study the feedback and the profit-prediction provided and then return to E-Valuator. What improvements can you realistically make? Make these changes one at a time and submit your information. For example, if you see that you can perhaps charge more for your basic product or service and also reduce your overheads, adjust each one in turn, generate a report for each and then compare them. By working methodically in this way you will quickly build a picture of where the strengths and weaknesses are in your business plan.

You are advised to pay close attention to the following areas as they will have a significant impact on the viability of your business plan:

1. Experiment with the retail value of your main product or service.

You don't need to be a business genius to work out that by increasing your prices you will improve your projected sales figures! But what would be the real impact of increasing your prices? For the base-line assessment of your plan you should set a price that is no higher than a similar product or service offered by other companies. If you need to re-evaluate your plan because the profit-predictions look poor, think about what you would need to do to justify charging the extra price. You may be able to charge more than other businesses if you have increased the perceived value of your product. People may be willing to pay more if they feel they are getting more for their money than if they buy elsewhere.

This might be achieved by:

• offering extra bonus products
• making your product or service of higher quality
• adding something unique to your particular product or service
• building a highly reputable or sought after 'brand' name
• providing exceptional customer service
• providing additional guarantees and warranties
• free delivery
• discounts on subsequent orders
• membership or subscription to something of value

You may also discover that by selling your product for less, that you actually receive more sales and higher profits. We suggest that you obtain at least 3 different sets of figures and then choose the strategy you will adopt.

2. Reduce your costs and overheads.

Some business models require making very large investments to start up the business. Our advice wherever possible, is to start small and to grow your business using the profits achieved early on. We help people identify businesses which can turn a profit within a short period of time -- but this is sometimes difficult when you have high initial costs. In this case, consider carefully how many years you intend to 'write off' these start-up costs and use E-Valuator to perform profit-predictions based on different write-off periods. Be realistic about the impact that the various scenarios will have upon the financing of your business. Are there particular reasons why you may need to pay off all your development costs within a certain period, such as paying back a business loan or meeting investors' expectations? If so, do not extend the write-off period beyond this just to make the profitability of the business plan appear healthier. We want your business plan to be realistic!

If your business is likely to involve high overheads, for example because of staff salaries or the high cost of renting a prestigious business address, look at whether your business plan can really absorb these on-going costs and what effect these have on your projected profitability.

Perhaps you are planning to open a store in a very popular high street location but 80% of your profits are actually allocated for renting the premises. You may be able to charge more for your average sale and sell in higher volumes, but does this justify the additional overheads? In this scenario you can use E-Valuator to generate a profit prediction for comparative models whereby, for example, you sell by mail order or by the Internet.

3. Increase your back-end sales.

Compare your first-time sales profit prediction with your repeat-sales profit prediction. Do your first-time sales represent the major source of your profits? If they do then you will need to make sure that your marketing expenditure is calculated carefully to leave you with sufficient profit from your first-time sales alone. If you need to spend all of your profits from your initial sales in marketing and you have no significant profits coming from your back-end sales then your business plan may not be viable.

Think of how you can develop a profitable back-end sales process and whether you may need to launch your business with this already in place. Remember the 80/20 rule - 80% of your profits will most likely come from 20% of your customers. You've spent money marketing and worked hard to win each new sale, you've provided a great product or service and built trust with your customer. They will want to buy from you again. Make sure you have further products and services to offer them!

Consider also the conversion rate of first-time customers to repeat customers. We suggested that a good target figure would be 36% for an 'average business', but of course this will vary enormously depending upon the nature of your product or service and your target market.

Use E-Valuator to gain an idea of how important having great back-end offers is to your overall business strategy. In particular, look at the amount of money this allows you to potentially allocate from your first-time sales on marketing and growing your business. A successful back-end sales strategy can make the difference between a business that is 'treading water' and one that can expand rapidly because it has the profit margins which allow for significant re-investment in product development, infrastructure, and marketing.

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