Inngenium

Who we've worked with ...

• Disney Resorts, Anaheim, CA


• Victorian Harvest Inn, North Conway, NH


• Stratosphere Hotel, Las Vegas, NV


• Permission Books. Steamboat Springs, CO


• Riverside Inn, Glen, NH


• The Dragonfly Inn, Honey Grove, PA


• Best Western - Albany Inn, Albany, NY


• Village House, Jackson, NH

And many others ...

What they're saying ...

Thank you for all you've done. Your knowledge, advice and attention to detail saved us from a very expensive mistake!" ~ John & Sarah, WA

Hilary was great to work with despite the time difference from the US to the UK. Not only were we buying our B&B in a foreign country but we were moving our other business there too! She really helped us set our expectations!" ~ John & Sally, NH

Through our long experience as hoteliers, strategic planners and innkeepers, we're able to offer you a wide variety of hospitality consulting services in one of the following capacities:

Business Planning

"Business Plans for Innkeepers ... by Innkeepers"

Depending on your time constraints, abilities and amount of involvement you wish to have, we can help you with as little as proof reading your final business plan, through to constructing the complete document. When we write complete business plans, they're always from scratch - we don't use software packages. This ensures that what we produce for you will be specific to your inn and your unique situation. We can assist you in exploring every aspect of your new or current business, from analyzing financials through to completing a market study, giving you the information you need to ensure that your vision makes sense and that your business will be successful.

Feasibility Studies

A new venture is always a little scary. Our Feasibility Studies aim to uncover the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and potential challenges of the new inn or B&B you've always dreamed of. We take a detailed look at the market factors, supply and demand generators, costs and potential returns on your prospective venture, to ascertain what your return is likely to be, prior to you parting with the substantial sums needed to purchase land and start to build.

Inn Consulting

Need some specific help with something that doesn't quite fall into the above categories? Ask us! Using our long experience of good (and bad - note the recent recession!) times in the hospitality industry, we can often find solutions to help you solve a problem or identify new ways to help your business, by bringing fresh eyes and a new approach.

Good communication between us is a necessity to ensure that your project is plain sailing. We've found that email and the phone best accomplish what we need to do, allowing you to contact us easily and quickly whether you're in Los Angeles, Lynchburg or London!

Once an initial contract is signed, we work with you closely to ensure your deadlines are met as agreed. If we're writing a Business Plan for you, you'll receive periodic drafts for your review as sections are completed, to ensure you're comfortable at all stages and will be completely satisfied with your finished business plan.

Our working style is very much of a personal and collaborative one and we actively encourage your input at every stage. After all, this is your business. You'll work with just one contact for the entire duration of your project, and anything we produce for you will be from scratch, tailored to your specific inn, B&B or project.

More

While we can help you with, and give general advice on, many aspects of the hospitality industry and innkeeping, we're not experts in everything. Below is a list of industry colleagues we know well and would recommend, who are all specialists in their own fields.

Associations

• Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII) - National association offering many resources to both current and aspiring innkeepers.
• American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) - Serving the wider hospitality industry, the AHLA is not only a great place to go for industry information but also acts as our legislative advocate.

More

Telephone:+1 949 350 2671

Email Us

Please note that messages sent or left over a weekend will be answered on the next business day.

We appreciate your inquiry and will be in touch with you within 48 hours, or sooner if we can!

Something went wrong. Please press your browser's back button, make sure all the fields are filled in and try again. If you still get this message, please email our Webmaster to let him know. He just loves problems like this!

Privacy

In order to complete many projects, we often have to ask you for personal information that you might not want to share with just anyone, so we take great care to maintain your privacy. You can be assured that anything you share with us will be kept confidential and won't be disclosed to anyone else. Increasingly we're asked to sign confidentiality agreements, sometimes by our clients, but usually with property sellers in return for their financial information. We understand, and are happy to comply.

Our Guarantee

Our goal is to provide you with assistance that allows you to make educated decisions about your targeted lodging property and which, if appropriate, can then be used to construct a convincing and appealing business plan. We do this by providing you with data that is comprehensive, informative but also realistic. We will direct our best efforts to ensure that you are wholly satisfied with the process and the end result, and will work in a timely manner to meet deadlines as agreed.

Current lending conditions have tightened the requirements of many institutions, making it more difficult to obtain financing for lodging properties, even with other favorable factors in place such as good credit and a healthy deposit. Lenders have been known to deny strong applications for undetermined reasons. Because we have no control over the lending decision process , nor over the operation of the business once you have taken ownership, we make no warranty, express or implied, that the business plan, feasibility study or other such document we assist in producing, will achieve any specific financing, marketing or management objective.

Buying/Selling B&Bs or Inns

When looking for a B&B or Inn to buy its important to find someone to represent you who knows our industry and can offer you the best advice, especially if you're doing this for the first time. The brokers listed below specialize in the transfer of B&Bs, inns and small lodging properties, know how to value them properly and will be able to assist you in making a wise choice better than most residential realtors.

• Badger Realty - David Cianciolo (White Mountains, NH). Office: 603-356-5757/ 207-935-5757
• Cape Cod Real Estate - Tom & Carol Edmondson (Cape Cod, MA). Office: 800-585-4011
• Eliot Dalton Inn Sales Specialist - Eliot Dalton (Pennsylvania, New York). Office: 610-717-8083
• Inn Matchmakers - Roxanne Smith & Becky Goldsmith (Colorado). Office: 720-979-3184
• Mendo Realty - Barry Cusick (North CA coast). Office: 707- 937-4010
• The Hearthside Group - Gary Gosselin (Vermont, New Hampshire). Office: 802-863-2150
• The Swan Agency - Kim Swan (Maine). Office: 207-288-5818

Aspiring Innkeeper Seminars

Running an inn or B&B is more than just making a few beds and cooking breakfast and the amount of work involved often takes first-time innkeepers by surprise. If you're thinking of becoming an innkeeper and are new to the hospitality industry, we highly recommend going to an aspiring innkeepers class before you get too far into it. There are many classes held across the country - the PAII website (link above) can help you find one to suit your needs.

Mortgages/Loans

When asked, we generally recommend going to the local banks for your financing. They know the area and community and its always a good idea to do business locally and be able to build a relationship. Some banks however, won't fund lodging properties. If you get stuck we recommend talking with Rick Newman at Commercial Capital Network, 1-609-759-1050.

Writing Your Business Plan - Template or Software

Whether your business is worth a $100 million or just $50,000, writing a business plan gives you the opportunity to investigate just how realistic your goals are and how you can best achieve them, whether its to have sizeable profits or simply to clear the monthly bills.

Read on ..

Writing My Inn's Business Plan - Where do I Start?

(Originally Published in May 2005, PAII Innkeeping Newsletter, Vol. 23, No. 5)
With B&Bs and inns still increasing in price, more and more lenders are looking for a complete business plan before they’ll advance a loan on a business that is in their eyes, decidedly risky. So where do you start if this is your situation?

Read on ..

5 Rules to Writing your Inn's Business Plan

(Originally published in November 2007, Getting Inn Newsletter, Vol. 1, Issue 9)
Having been at the sharp end of many “strategic development” projects for years before becoming an innkeeper, it never ceases to amaze me how many people go into business for themselves without some sort of plan. Whether your dream is an antique store, online mail order company or in our case, a bed and breakfast, figuring out how you’re going to get from A, your starting point, to B somewhere in the future takes more than just a few notes on a napkin.

Read on ..

Whether your business is worth a $100 million or just $50,000, writing a business plan gives you the opportunity to investigate just how realistic your goals are and how you can best achieve them, whether its to have sizeable profits or simply to clear the monthly bills.

There are several schools of thought on the use of templates or specialized software. We prefer to use neither, except what we've developed in-house writing hundreds of plans over the years. Its been our experience that its easier to tailor a template to include the information specific to the hospitality industry, rather than try and mess with some of the software that's out there. Regardless of your own preference, your business plan should at least conform to a standardized outline which is common for all business plans regardless of industry, and which meets SBA requirements. This will help those reading it to navigate around. Remember, your plan has to be specific to the industry and also specific to your particular business so be careful if using something that allows you to "fill in the blanks".

Whoever your intended audience is and whatever mechanism you use to get the information down on paper, your business plan should be comprehensive, concise and easy to read. It should include detailed and relevant research, possess a professional and visually pleasing style, and be completely error-free with correct grammar and punctuation throughout. Bear in mind that your business plan may not be the only one on your lender or investor's desk, so presenting something that's well-written and laid-out not only sets you apart from all the others, but creates an impression of worth. Don't forget, its often the first impression anyone gets of yourself and your business; you want it to work well for you! Also remember that a Lender can spot a "canned" business plan at a thousand paces. As we've been told by our friends in the commercial loan business, many of these have all the hallmarks of having had little or no time spent on them - and it shows! So be extra wary of how you present your plan if you do use a software program.

So, got it covered? Ready to start?

Copyright Hilary Jones 2006. All rights reserved.

Back to Articles

With B&Bs and inns still increasing in price, more and more lenders are looking for a complete business plan before they’ll advance a loan on a business that is in their eyes, decidedly risky. So where do you start if this is your situation?

Aside from helping you to assure a lender that you are a good risk for a loan, a formal business plan helps you to think through all the factors which can make or break your new business. When researched and constructed effectively, your business plan will not only help you see the business as it really is now, but it will also help you to plan what you need to do to be successful for the next 3 to 5 years.

Despite the desire to think of your perfect property as just that – perfect, you should start by asking yourself some hard questions. Why is the inn here? What business does it attract? What makes it profitable now or what will make it profitable in the future? Is it really a year-round business? Who is my competition? Despite what you may hear from the seller’s agent, you should take a step back, do your due diligence, and find out the answers to these questions yourself, or with the help of someone experienced, knowledgeable and above all impartial. The information you end up with may well surprise you!

So now you have the bones of your business plan, its time to flesh them out. Separate your information into categories; Market Analysis, Operations, Financial Statements. As concisely as you can, write down all that you’ve found out and how it relates to your new business. Include your ideas for the future and match them with the research that backs them up and makes them plausible.

Thoroughly review the financial statements from the seller. Even if you’re writing your business plan yourself, this is one area where it makes sense to get professional help. You shouldn’t buy a house without having an inspection of the building’s structure, its systems and foundations; you shouldn’t buy a business without a close inspection of the business’s foundation either. PAII’s biennial Industry Study is an excellent resource for helping you decipher the numbers initially, but contact your accountant or consultant to perform a proper review. It’s worth the investment in their time to ensure that the property you’re buying is going to yield enough to meet your goals and pay off the debt you’re looking to take on.

Next, list the factors that could make your business fail. Although you probably don’t want to consider your new B&B failing in any regard, sometimes a more pessimistic view-point is actually helpful rather than detrimental. Try to imagine situations outside your control that would prevent guests from wanting to stay with you. An unusually warm and dry winter in a ski resort area is a good example, and a string of seasons like this can prove disastrous. Devise realistic back-up plans for each of your ‘threats’ so that you feel comfortable that you could still meet your financial obligations should the worst really happen.

So now its time to assemble your information into easy to read, digestible chunks of information. When compiling your business plan consider who will be reading it. Many lenders see hundreds of business plans over the course of a year and yours needs to stand out to get attention. Do not overwhelm with excessive volume however, you may still end up with a document of twenty or thirty something pages by the time you’ve added your Executive Summary, resumes and income projections. As long as your plan is well indexed, easy to read and professionally laid out, with ideas that are plausible and plans that are credible and supported with research, your business plan will stand above the rest. Let the lender decide what he or she wants to read. Above all, before submitting it to anyone, make certain that someone other than you proof-reads your final copy to ensure there are no spelling or grammatical errors.

Realistically, a business plan should be no more work than compiling the information for a standard loan package. The difference is that once finished, you can submit it to any lender or investor, confident that it contains everything they need to know. It’s worth the time and investment to do it well. Happy Writing!

Copyright Hilary Jones 2005. All rights reserved.

Back to Articles

Having been at the sharp end of many “strategic development” projects for years before becoming an innkeeper, it never ceases to amaze me how many people go into business for themselves without some sort of plan. Whether your dream is an antique store, online mail order company or in our case, a bed and breakfast, figuring out how you’re going to get from A, your starting point, to B somewhere in the future takes more than just a few notes on a napkin. Sure, there are some who seem to be able to wing it quite nicely thanks, but for the majority of us who are serious about being successful, a business plan is a must have. Now, writing a business plan is not that hard to do, but it does take some planning to do it right. Following five simple rules can put you on the path to really understanding whether innkeeping and that dream inn, is right for you.

Let’s first take a moment to consider what’s involved. There’s thinking, writing and research; then more thinking, a whole lot of reviewing, rewriting, more research and of course, putting together some financial statements. Quite straightforward really, but who has the time - right? Perceived lack of time is probably the biggest hurdle to overcome in writing a really good business plan. The self-discipline to actually sit down and do it comes a close second. Yet, why would you not want to invest a significant amount of time investigating a business into which you’re about to sink a good chunk of your future, not to mention your life savings? Yes, time is a limiting factor, so rule number one is Start Early. Preferably before you’ve found an inn you like and well before you make an offer on one.

Unfortunately over 70% of innkeeping business plans are lost to the known world the minute the loan request is granted. This is crazy considering that if your business plan is good enough to get you into innkeeping, it’s good enough to be used to develop your inn business long-term. This one benefit alone is worth all the time and money you’ll invest upfront. So treat the whole business planning effort as an important strategic development step in your new business and not like some terrible chore that has to be suffered through because the bank requires it. Rule number two therefore is Get Organized. Set aside time to do your research and time to write, then stick to your schedule. Budget at least a couple of hours at any one stretch with no distractions so that you can really focus.

So now you’re organized, what next? Researching the market is the most important task you’ll do, after figuring out how much you can afford to spend and how much you need to make. Don’t skimp on this part of the process or try to project a favorable outcome based on what you think you know already; it’ll only hurt you later. See how many facts you can find to support (or refute) your assumptions. Look past the immediate future and take a peek out further to see what may happen down the road. Are there any plans for major town or village expansion, more housing, more businesses? More hotels? Will a proposed new highway take all your passing trade out of your way or alternatively will it suddenly make you more visible? Rule number three - Dig Deep - will enable you to see what you’ll really be facing, not just in your first year but three, four and even five years hence. On the positive side, the things you turn up may give you a competitive advantage later on. Alternatively, your findings may show that the area or inn you like so much now, may not look so great over the long term.

B&Bs and Inns are risky propositions, no matter what anyone tells you. Firstly, new innkeepers are largely inexperienced and unrehearsed in the hospitality trade and secondly, financial viability is often contingent on factors outside the innkeeper’s control, such as the weather, the economy and of course, the whims of the traveling public. Little wonder then, that in the eyes of the lending industry, we’re just a smidge higher up the totem pole than restaurants when it comes to investment risk! In order to prove to yourself, and your bank, that profitability is a distinct possibility at some point down the road, you need to apply rule number four – Consider Adversity.

Generally speaking, unless there is some huge and unforeseen economic factor which steps in to blow your initial findings sky-high, the reasons why guests travel to your location is not going to radically change (destination inns aside, which are a whole different kettle of fish and beyond anything we’re discussing here). This means Ski-resorts are always going to attract winter sports enthusiasts and beaches will always bring in what we call in England, the bucket and spade brigade. The big red question mark for these types of locations is, of course, their reliance on suitable weather. What are you going to do if it doesn’t snow, rains all summer or the beach is consumed by a tidal wave? Your business won’t be a foregone conclusion under these circumstances. On the other hand, if you’ve picked a spot that relies more on attractions and events that are on-going and have been so for a dozen years or more, and which bring in a steady stream of visitors, its probably a reasonable bet that things are not going to change fast enough economically (note: not competitively) to suddenly put you out of business. While it’s crucial to stress the positive aspects of your future business in your business plan, you must also show you’ve contemplated the worst and identified any factors which may send the whole thing sideways.

Which brings us to the fifth and final rule – Backup All Assumptions! Wherever you’ve got your research from, however you’ve formulated the reasons why you can succeed in your particular market, it’s vitally important that you state your information sources somewhere in your business plan. Why? Well how else will anyone know that you’re not just making it all up? References give you credibility. Used the PAII Industry Study to build your financial statements? Then put in a reference to that. Got your market research information from the state’s local tourism site? Reference that too. Anyone can fudge figures, quote statistics and generally make the picture look rosy, but you’ll feel a whole lot more comfortable and be much more able to defend your final business plan if you can show your investors where you got your information. One word of caution here: it’s very tempting to over forecast your occupancy and income and under budget your expenses just to get your loan. However, it’s the fastest way to max out your credit cards once the place is actually yours. Creativity has its place but not in something as critical as your financial well being!

So lets recap. Creating your business plan isn’t difficult, nor is it complicated. However it does require time and thought to produce a plan that is going to benefit you both in the initial funding stage and on into the future. Five simple steps can guide you towards the proper preparation crucial to your success as an innkeeper. Start early, get organized, dig deep with your research, consider adversity and don’t forget to backup all assumptions using credible sources.

Copyright Hilary Jones 2007. All rights reserved.

Back to Articles

What should I include in my business plan?

Generally, your business plan should give the person reading it a complete view of your business, how you're going to run it, fund it and why you'll be successful. The basic sections you'll need will address your market, your services and your financial prospects.

How long will it take to get my loan?

It really depends on your lender. if you choose a bank that's SBA approved, your loan application may only take a couple of weeks to process instead of the 6 weeks or more it used to. But we still recommend you leave plenty of time just in case your first choice of lender denies the loan.

How long will it take you to write my business plan?

A lot depends on what you want us to do and the sort of plan you need. A B&B plan written full-time start to finish, with all the financials in hand, can be ready for you in about 10 - 14 working days, however our workloads mean that we can't often do this. 20 - 30 working days is more common. Plans for larger properties with restaurants, spas or other facilties that need to have their own research and financials incorporated can take longer.

Why would I hire someone to write my plan?

Good question! There's certainly no substitute for writing your own plan. We're mostly hired because someone is short on time or doesn't have the writing skills, desire or experience to want to do the necessary research or number crunching. The additional benefit in hiring us is the access you'll get to a host of free advice on all sorts of things from selecting bed-linens to preparing menus! You have a lot of other things to think about when you're purchasing or building your inn or B&B. Your vision and enthusiasm are essential to the process, but we can take the time and skill set burden off you.

More

How much are your services?

Again, it depends on what you want us to do. Before we even send out a proposal we'll have an in-depth chat with you to discuss your needs and find out how much involvement you want in the process so we can estimate the length of time required to get the job done. Based on that conversation you'll receive a detailed proposal from us with schedule of fees for each service you've asked us to provide. Even for the most comprehensive Business Plan, in most cases your investment for our time and experience will be less than 0.5% of the funding that your plan will enable you to get, and equivalent to what you'd pay for a commercial appraisal on the business. And don't forget - all the little extra things you pick up from us along the way are free!

What exactly is that worth to me?

Many of you are planning on embarking on a new career that will be all, or part of your livelihood. Its very easy to miss important things when you're not familiar with an industry, or to inadvertantly take a rushed and hurried approach to researching your potential business, only to find after investing a substantial amount of money and time that its not what you wanted or hoped for. If you do have the time and writing ability and are detail-oriented enough to do all the research required, including all the financial and market analyses, then its definitely the best way to learn about your new potential business. Otherwise, do ask for help!

And if I just want you to look over something I've already done?

Our hourly consulting rates are extremely competitive and depend on the service you want us to provide, including but not limited to:

• Proof-reading and error-checking
• Fact checking and verification of market research
• General feedback and suggestions for revision

Read our article on writing your own plan here.

If you'd like us to quote for any of our services or just want more information, please contact us! You can reach us from here on the website, or by email, or of course by phone at our office in Maine, Monday - Friday, 8:30am - 5pm EST (949) 350-2671. Remember it costs nothing to ask and quotes and simple advice are always free!