Business Plan

A successful business plan: -
As a small business owner, you have spent a great deal of time considering your business’ future and what you hope to achieve. So why should you write a business plan? But if you are thinking about applying for a loan from the bank, you will have to get your business plan ready for your application. By going through the process, you will have an opportunity to consider the right work-life balance for you.
Your business plan is a tool to measure your business’ progress and plans for future staffing and financing. It will also become a user-friendly guide for employees, investors, suppliers and advisors. These important players in the development of your business need to look at the plan to weigh up your business so they can see if it actually works so they can be confident about getting back their loans with your business. Even though the risk of going into business cannot be eliminated, a good plan will help reduce the risk.

The following outline will take you through the "thinking process" and help in gathering and organising the necessary information
Business plan: -
Works for a business to look ahead.
Allocate resources, focus on key points.
Prepare for problems and opportunities.
The development of the businesses plan is the most important task before you go into setting up your dream. The important areas of the business plan are: -
Business Description: -
The Marketplace: -
Sales & Marketing: -
Business Operations: -
Financial Information: -
Executive Summary: -






Using Your Business Plan Effectively: -
Your plan is now ready to be used in communicating your vision to employees, partners, advisors, investors and bankers. Not everyone needs to see each section of your plan.
Here are some guidelines on how you can use your business plan: -
· Share business plan with people you trust.
· Use findings from Cash Flow Projections to get cash in hand.
· Measure progress on a monthly basis.
· Use the plan to communicate with suppliers, advisors, professionals and employees.

· Review the plan once a year.
· Consider revising it whenever significant changes occur in the: -
Personal life Business
Marketplace Economy
· Discuss changes with key advisors, banker and accountant.
Information about the writing of a Business Plan: -The business plan and how it is written is a very difficult and important task to undertaker and achieve blow are a number of web-site with useful tips and examples in how you write.
http://members.lycos.co.uk/anisa/bplan.htm
http://www.toolkit.cch.com/text/P02_6001.asp

What can a business plan provide: -
· Share business plan with people you trust.
· Use findings from Cash Flow Projections to get cash in hand.
· Measure progress on a monthly basis.
· Use the plan to communicate with suppliers, advisors, professionals and employees.
· Review plan at once a year.
· Consider revising it whenever significant changes occur in the: -
o Personal life
o Business
o Marketplace
o Economy
· Discuss changes with key advisors, banker and accountant.


Banking and Financial Tables: -
Managing your business finances is a very important step. Good financial management of your business is a key issue in establishing your success and to your keep your business running further in the early stage of your investment. 98% of new ventures fail within the first year, the main reason for is can be attributed to not fully reporting your business finances and transactions; which also means that you could not set cash flow fluently & could not met the break even point.
So therefore; you as a new entrepreneur will need to be aware of your busienss financial actions, it is importna that you know and understand the fundimental aspects of the different financial statements. Financial statements are formal records of a business’ financial activities. These statements provide an overview of a business’ profitability and financial condition in both short and long term.

There are four basic financial statements: -
Balance Sheet: -This is company’s reports; recording the company’s assets, liabilities and net equity as of a given point in time.
Profit or loss statement: -Reports on a company’s results of operations over a period of time.
Cash Flow Statement: -This reports records the company’s cash flow activities, particularly its operating, investing and financing activities. Cash flow is the most difficult part of finance for the new ventures, even if the business has a very good sales revenues and gaining a big amount of profit from their sales, however if they have a huge amount of debtors, it is a big risk for the company. Money is not coming on time, company do not have enough money for the next purchase or paying their expenses or even paying for their creditors, it finally cause bankrupt.
Statement of Retained Earnings: -This form of financial statement explains the changes in a company’s retained earnings over the reporting period.

Information about Financial Statements: -For help and advice on how to fully understanding the structure and alements of the ablove four financail statements please visit the following web-site: -
http://cbdd.wsu.edu/kewlcontent/cdoutput/TR505r/page45.htm

Break-even point: -Another area of importance for a new venture is the financail out of the period and hopefully making a level profit, which is called “Break-even!” The break-even point in economics terms is the point at which cost or expenses and income are equal; there is no net loss or gain, therefore like the term surgesses the business has “broken even!”
The breakeven point can be determined by the Lawson criterion, which can be shown by the following formula: -


Managers who could not meet their break-even are mainly resulted to underestimate their cost, the cost is not only the purchase, it is also include the salaries, bills and general office spending.

Information about Break-even point: -To help you further is understanding and undertaking a break-even analysis please use the web-sites below, which are full of help intes and examplies.
http://www.tutor2u.net/business/production/break_even.htm
http://connection.cwru.edu/mbac424/breakeven/breakeven.cfm

Apart from managing your cash flow and break even efficiently, you also need to have an understanding of your businesses credit report:
Credit report: -A credit report is a record of a company’s past borrowing and repaying, including information about late payments and bankruptcy. The term “credit reputation” can either be used synonymous to credit history or to credit score.

Information about Credit report: -To find more information about credit reports it is important that you read through the fellowing web-site before moving on to the next stection.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/freereports.htm


Legislation: -
No matter what types of business area you are operating in, to operate your business under the legal system is very important, it also could affect your business’s public relation.
The most important regulation factors of your business are: -
· Gaining the license: -
· Report on taxation: -
Apart from these, you also need to be aware of labour right, pay right, holidays, health & safety. If you operated into food industrial, you need to be very well control on the hygiene stuff, etc.

Information about Company Legislation: -To be able to understand it completely, I have provided the links of the website you need.
· http://www.legalprospects.co.uk/
· http://www.cla.co.uk/licensing/business/corp_page00.php
· http://www.taxationweb.co.uk/businesstax/
· http://www.enfield.gov.uk/407/index407.htm

Advertising your small business: -
When a new business starts out, it is especially important to set extra-tight limits on your target customer. So therefore it is important to establish when your business starts to advertises, does it do so effectively? Are you encouraging customers and sales, or are you throwing money away? A huge number of businesses spend money on placing adverts that are ineffective or prepared without any thought to the aims or target audience.
Stay focused only on your strongest target; “right on that bulls-eye.” Then as your business picks up (which we are fully hoping it does) you will focus your advertising strategy gradually around your bulls-eye/target-group a little wider, still maintaining a focus on your targeted group.
This section therefore focuses on what advertising can do for your business, as well as what you can do to produce and monitor effective adverts; including help on whether you should create an advert yourself or pay someone else to do it.


The Aims of Your Advertising Strategy: -
Contrary to popular belief, advertising is not always just about increasing sales (although that is usually the long term goal!); the following are the key aims that your adverts can try to achieve. Some businesses run different adverts with different aims over a period of time. These aims should be in place even if you pay an external company to do your adverts; by knowing what your aims are, you will help them to produce better work.
There are four main aims of a marketing Strategy: -
· Encouraging Sales: -
· Increase Knowledge of Company: -
Increase Interest in a Product: -
Create a Different Image: -
http://www.bizhelp24.com/marketing/advertising-your-business-offline-3.html

10 Essential Strategies to ensure that your Advertising is a Success: -
If your Advertising isn’t working: -STOP IT!
Only use Direct Response Advertising: -
Testing and Measuring: -
Your Headline is the most important part of your Ad: -Which of these headlines do you think would be most likely to get the reader’s attention: -
Simpson Fire Alarms - Your Guarantee of Safety
OR
Is your Family's Life worth the price of a round of Drinks?
Be adventurous with your headlines. Test different versions to see what works best. There are no rules – except what works.
Remember AIDA---
· Attention: -
· Interest: -
· Desire: -
· Action: -








State only the Benefits, Benefits and Benefits of your business: -
Don’t Advertise on a Left Hand Page: -
Never pay the full rate for advertising: -
Don’t Follow the Competition: -
Don’t buy into the myth that Advertising is essential for your Business Success: -So start to think out of the box; you should be using a combination of up to at least ten marketing strategies to grow you business.
Telephone Marketing
Direct Mail
Internet
Email marketing
Direct Sales
Public Relations
Strategic Alliances
Lead Response Marketing
A multi level Referral system
By Chris Cardell

Information about a success Advertising Plan: -
http://www.cardellmedia.co.uk/prreport.htm
http://www.cardellmedia.com/advertisingreport.htm

After-Marketing and How to Keep Customers: -
Following your marketing and promotional strategy it is very important to keep your customer, it just is not about that one visit to make the best impression it is important that you keep that first impression every time that customer enters your new business.

There are many techniques in keeping that customer using your business: -
Listen of Your Client or Customer Wants and Needs: -
Learn from your Competitors and the Industry Leader: -
Hire People locally and with great knowledge of the local people: -
Employ and train staff with people skills, listening and communication: -
Keep Track of Progress for that to consumer will see and clean and up-to date business: -

Information about how you can keep you Customer: -These web-sites contain further information about how you can set ways and techniques to maintain customer loyalty and returning back to your business to shop.
http://www.incentivecentral.org/Customer_Retention__Keeping_Your_Best_Customers_for_t.568.0.html
http://www.nbrii.com/Customer_Surveys/Keeping_Customers.html
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1073906150
http://www.henleycentre.com/HC_Whatwedo/HC_Keeping.htm