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Business Plans: Summary Format
| Guest post by: Allison McSparron-Edwards |
Article Overview: Do you dream about business success and wonder how to make it happen? We all have aspirational dreams and goals but how many of us know how to turn them into reality. Many will have thought about writing business plans to make goals become a reality but been put off, thinking them either too hard to write or not necessary. In fact it is important that you create plans, as they provide focus and a pathway for you to follow to achieve your business goals. In principle plans are not that difficult to write, providing some fundamentals are clearly identified and followed before you start the process. The following main areas should be summarised:
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Free Download - What drives business failures or successes By Allison McSparron-Edwards |
Business Plans: Summary Format
1. Vision, Mission
Realistically assess what you expect to achieve with the business in the next three years. Define your business goals; include timings and responsibilities where appropriate. Outline the strategy needed to achieve these goals.
2. History
Outline the key events in your businesses history that explain the current trading and financial position. Note and explain any changes in senior personnel, major client changes, abnormal events or contingent liabilities. Define your business culture if appropriate.
3. Market Opportunity
Assess and quantify the market for the company's products/services; identify your main competitors and their strengths and weaknesses.
4. Business Development Strategy
Outline your current and future market positioning indicating what current and future resources will be required to achieve your goals.
5. The Services
List and define the services to be offered and how best to provide the resources necessary to deliver them, particularly staffing and IT aspects.
6. Marketing Plan
Outline the new business and marketing plan. Explain how the product/service will be marketed, who will be responsible for the plan and what targets have been set. The plan must relate to the market analysis set out in History and Market Opportunity above.
7. Management
For the senior management team and key staff note their experience, remuneration packages, incentives and the organisational structure. Indicate if there are key vacancies and what recruitment strategy is being adopted to fill the posts. Outline retention, development and training plans.
8. Financial Plan
Forecast sales and gross profit/income by client for the remainder of the current year and the same forecast for the following year (compare to prior periods, where relevant.)
Project overheads for the remainder of this financial year and forecast overheads for the subsequent year (compared to prior periods), bearing in mind the development plans set out in Business Development Strategy and The Services above.
Forecast monthly cash flows, based on the above, for the remainder of this year, and quarterly for the following year. Explain any capital expenditure requirements.
Create summary profit & loss forecasts for the following three years.
Create forecast balance sheets for all periods using the above forecasts. (This also provides a useful check on the reasonableness of the cash flow assumptions).
Project returns on capital invested/shareholders funds (where appropriate).
The following should be included:
Appendices
A. Historical audited accounts (previous three years).
B. Organisation Chart: as now and as projected, if significantly different.
C. CVs of key managers.
D. Brochure
NOTES:
Where this document is purely for internal use, sections 2 & 7 can be minimised and appendices A, C & D omitted.
Any new products/services to be offered need to be explained in sections 4 & 5, and related back to the Business Development Strategy.
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Article Tags: business goals, business success, financial plan, marketing, mission, services, strategy, vision
Referred by: http://www.topperformancecoaching.co.uk
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About the Author: Allison McSparron-Edwards RSS for Allison's articles - Visit Allison's website I am the MD of Consultrix Ltd. I am both a Chartered Accountant and a Business Psychologist. My company focuses on helping entrepreneurs build sustainable profits, capital value and to develop exit strategies. We work with owner managers developing their business skills and confidence.
I worked for many years in the service sector, beginning life as a Chartered Accountant with one of the top 6 accountancy firms before using my management skills in various multinational organisations and marketing and communications agencies. I have worked at board level in regional and London agencies, using strategy, new business development programmes and psychologically based management skills to improve commercial returns. I combine a shrewd business sense with the ability to understand the human issues involved in any group working together. Honest and forthright my many clients say I "tell it how it is"! Consultrix Ltd works with creative and knowledge based companies improving profits and capital value Click here to visit Allison's website   What drives business failures or successes Creating sustainable competitive advantage in a modern context Business Plans Summary Format Business Plans Uses and Abuses |
Related Forum Posts
New Study - Women prepare better business plans
- I found an article in Business Week and I found this quite interesting.
[quote:ka7lg35i]Who Prepares Better Business Plans, Men or Women?
A new study based on four years of data from men and women in a training program for microenterprises finds that they come out the same in quality scores. "However, women scored significantly better on the presentation of their plan to judges," conclude the study's authors, Ronald G. Cook, Paul Belliveau, and Christine Lentz of Rider University, in a paper presented at a recent meeting of the Small Business Institute. [/quote:ka7lg35i]
What do you guys think?
My entry
- 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read
- this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody.
2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto.
3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book
Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Web magazine publisher
- My duties
1) Research the articles that goes into each of my webzines - science fiction in all media, various sports (Yay, Lady Vols, 8th championship in 2008, by the way!)
2) Write the articles
3) Format and upload them to the web
4) Email and network various contacts to get out the word that new articles are available.
5) Email authors, actors, etc. etc. to see if they want to do interviews.
6) Advertise for more contributors - and then edit and upload their material!
Exclusive: Interview with Results
- Hi Forum Members,
I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles).
As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business.
This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business.
I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months.
At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews.
I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum.
If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM.
Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
Money I made while in School
- While in university I did have a Student Loan (still paying that bugger off) and had a part-time job as a Call Center agent (inbound). *Canada*
I also designed websites (outsourced all the work). I just worked on getting new customers, managed the projects to completion and helped create Marketing Plans for my clients (Online and Offline). *Canada*
When I was studying the in the States I also made some money as a Part-time Flight instructor. *USA*
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