Posts Tagged ‘Business Activities’

What is a Business Plan?

A business plan is basically a blue print to success. It sets out the parameters of how the business will operate, who the key players are, the plan going forward and any other relevant information that the author deems necessary should be included.

Why do I need a Business Plan?

You need a Business Plan for a number of reasons. First and foremost it is will focus your mind on where you are going or where you intend to go. It will dictate the speed of growth and will also allow your staff and other members of your team to share the vision.

Secondly, a Business Plan will be required if you intend to raise finance. If you intend obtaining a Business Loan or finance through other funding streams then again you will need a Business Plan. One thing is for certain, it is imperative that you construct a plan and amend/update it regularly.

Does the Business Plan change?

Yes it does. As your Business grows and changes, so should your Business Plan. It is wrong to assume that a Business Plan, once created, is filed away in a draw for 12 months. It should be kept in an easily accessible place and be update on a regular basis – for this reason alone it will focus your mind on where you are going.

What should the Business Plan contain?

This will depend on your own requirements but let’s take a look at some basic components:

SECTION 1 – Principle Business Details and Activities.

1. NAME OF BUSINESS

The name of your Business goes here.

2. BUSINESS ADDRESS

Company address goes here.

3. BUSINESS TELEPHONE CONTACTS

Your business telephone contacts go here.

4. DATE BUSINESS COMMENCED

This is the date that your business started or was registered with Companies house.

5. LEGAL STATUS

Whether you are a sole trader or a Limited company.

6. PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES

Describe your main business activities. For example:

The development and creation of jewellery which is then sold via the internet worldwide.

SECTION 2 – Your key Business Objectives

SHORT TERM BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

Here you should include your short term vision. An example of this would be as follows:

To develop a sustainable business through the development of excellent products and customer service. We aim to develop 30 products within the first 12 months of trading, and achieve a turnover of £50,000.

MEDIUM TERM BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

A medium term business objective should be 3 to 5 years maximum. Include here where you want to be by this time and how you plan to get there. For example:

We aim to have created 100 products by 2008. The majority of these will be created by staff that will be employed as a result of the short term aim achievement.

Our turnover by this date will be £250,000 with a profit margin of 35%. Our sales will be predominantly achieved through internet advertising although we expect during this period to trial other methods such as National newspaper advertising.

LONG TERM BUSINESS OBJECTIVE

The long term business aim should be your ultimate goal. This can be any length of time from 5 years to 15 years. An example of this would be:

To have 50 different retail outlets strategically placed around the UK in areas of high demand. The company aims to exceed an annual turnover of £2,000,000 with a profit margin of 35%. The company will still continue to trade via the internet and it is expected that this will account for 40% of our business.

SECTION 3 – Key personnel

NAME AND POSITION

Insert name and position. Example:

Richard McMunn – Business Development Director

DOB

Insert date of birth

STATUS

Business Development Director and shareholder.

EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE INDUSTRY

Insert any experience and knowledge of the industry.

PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT

Insert previous employment here.

QUALIFICATIONS

Insert qualifications here.

NAME

Repeat the above for all key personnel.

SECTION 4 – Premise details

In this section, indicate where the business is registered and where the business operates out of.

SECTION 5 – Equipment

Include all equipment that is owned by the company. Examples of these would be:

- Computers including software and hardware
- Vehicles
- Manufacturing equipment etc

SECTION 6 – Products and services

Indicate here what services and products are offered by the company.

SECTION 7 – Advertising

Here, include details of how the company advertises its products. This may either be in the form of internet advertising (Google, Yahoo or otherwise), Newspaper advertising (either National or local), other media avenues such as Admedia or any other form of advertising.

SECTION 8 – New products and services

Include here all of your predicted new products and services that will go on sale within the next 12 months.

SECTION 9 – Pricing

- How do you price your products?
- What is the profit margin of each product?

Include a breakdown of how much each product is on sale for and how much that product costs to produce.

SECTION 10 – Customers

What is your target audience and how do you know this? (i.e. ages 16 – 30). How to you reach your customers? How many visits does your website get each week?

SECTION 11 – Business strengths

Include here all of your business strengths.

SECTION 12 – Areas for Improvement

Here, include all of the areas you believe you can improve on. A business that has no areas to improve on is not telling the truth!

Be honest and look critically for ways in which you can improve or develop.

SECTION 13 – Business competition

Who are your major competitors? How do you monitor your performance against theirs? What are they doing that’s different or better than you?

SECTION 14 – Market predictions

How do you predict your market and adapt to the changing conditions? For example, during Christmas time sales may increase depending on the type of product you are selling or the service you provide. January through to April maybe slow in terms of sales due to the fact that people are less likely to spend after the expensive Christmas period.

Think about your business and how the market will vary from month to month. It is essential that you begin to track your daily sales/turnover right from the word go. After a year or two of trading, you will be able to predict your sales and adapt accordingly.

SECTION 15 – Sales and Promotions

What are your predicted sales and the reason why? Are you planning on running any promotions throughout the year?

SECTION 16 – Financial Information

How long have you been trading and what is your monthly/annual turnover?

How much have you spent on starting up your business? How did you finance this initial investment?

What is your predicted turnover for the next 12 months and why?

SECTION 17 – Business asset statement

What are the financial assets of the business including stock.

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Author: Richard McMunn
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Business plan software for small businesses refers to those sets of computer programs that help you in planning your business. Good Business Plan Software can open several new vistas for the development of a small business. A mega corporate has the convenience of a separate department exclusively for the planning of the business. However, small businesses cannot afford such huge expenses. Therefore, growth of several small businesses suffers because they do not have good business plan. Once you understand the importance of a good business plan then you will easily realize how significant business plan software is for the small businesses.

Important Features of Business Plan Software:
Business plan software makes business planning much easier. No matter how small size your business is, business planning is always a complicated matter and involves several steps. Significant pieces of information, analysis and many other things combine to form a business plan. Business plan should be capable of showing every minute detail regarding the smooth operation of business activities. In addition, it should also outline the essential items for the success of the business. Manually handling all this important information in so many parts is very tedious. Business plan software lets you enjoy the difficult and complicated process of business planning by making it easy to implement.

Good Planning Takes You at the Top: Bad Planning Kicks You Out:
There are many types of Business Plan Software for Small Businesses are available in the market. However, you should choose one very carefully. Do not waste your hard earned money on software that makes your work more difficult instead of making it easier. Wisely chosen Business Plan Software can take your business on the path of prosperity and success. With careful planning, you have every chance of not only earning name for you but also reaping big profits. On the contrary, if your planning is poor, you will not be able to stand against your competitors ultimately resulting in getting out of the scenario.

Good Business Plan Software for Small Businesses puts several alternatives before you. It can tell you several different methods for implementing the same business plan. Software can also put before you several examples and sample plans. These examples and sample plans give you clear picture of the procedure adopted by the Business Plan Software. Every business owner wants to reach the goals set by him. If you feel that you lack the expertise to achieve that goal, business plan software can guide you also about how to compensate this weakness.

Alexander Gordon is a writer for http://www.smallbusinessconsulting.com – The Small Business Consulting Community. Sign-up for the free success steps newsletter and get our booklet valued at $24.95 for free as a special bonus. The newsletter provides daily strategies on starting and significantly growing a business.

Business Owners all across the country are joining “The Community of Small Business Owners to receive and provide strategies, insight, tips, support and more on starting, managing, growing, and selling their businesses. As a member, you will have access to true Millionaire Business Owners who will provide strategies and tips from their real-life experiences.

Author: Alexander Gordon
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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As the pace of competition has accelerated, product life cycles have shrunk.

It used to take 8 to 10 years to design and build a car.

Now it can be in less than a year and half.

Windows of opportunity open and close with blinding speed; and customers, who are constantly being wooed by the competition, are more demanding than ever.

Some people will advise you that it is impossible to plan for the future and thus business plans are irrelevant and a waste of time.

In fact, in this era the exact opposite is true. It is now more important than ever before to have a battle plan during what might, in retrospect, be viewed as “peacetime.”.

Planning and preparation are required for your financial as well as your company’s survival. No one is saying, “The world is more uncertain for you now, so plans are no longer relevant.” The truth is that planning and that planning skills are now most important and more vital than ever. In this regard, businesses are no different from individuals.

Success in this super competitive era depends on making very clear business plans and statements. Winners develop a vision of where they intend to be going, and this blueprint will allow them the flexibility to respond appropriately when the unexpected occurs.

The basics of it all are that by not planning you limit your options and flexibility greatly .

What is diffirents in business strategic planning int this time period of 2006 ?

Good business plans require different attributes. The networking revolution created by the Web for business-to-business activities and business-to-consumer products and services has offered new opportunities but has created a very different business environment.

There are essentially only three central tenets that are a part of business plans:

1. A focus on speed in all of its manifestations

2. The integration of the Web into the core of what the company does .

3. A focus on how the company adds value for its customers

Planning is the essential element in the competitive battleground, and speed is the central weapon. Like all artillery, speed is an asset when a company is able to employ it .

In building its own business; it is a liability when an “armed” competitor is moving like lightning to undermine your core business. And whether it’s being used for or against you, the ever-present element that must be factored into your plans.
There is a great need and reward for “Speed”.

Planning for speed involves an even broader view. To be successful you should take on the widest possible focus on speed and create your businesses accordingly.

Build your plans with the following in mind:

The speed with which you need to bring a product to market .

The speed with which your competitors might introduce a competitive product.

The speed required to improve existing products and bring enhancement (or future generations) of your product to market .

The speed with which the industry, because of the Internet, could potentially be transformed

When these factors are fully integrated into a business culture, they lead to a clear way of determining the intensity at which to approach the market:

1). Faster, better, cheaper. . .

It’s getting repetitive, but if a product is faster,

better, or cheaper on the Web, companies need to exploit it immediately

2). Get your feet wet now so that you’ll be prepared to swim hard very soon.

Even if your competitors aren’t there yet, start exploring what the Net can do for your business

3.) Planned evolution is vital.

If you that have the capability to rapidly evolve
your products you will find it easier to stay ahead of your

e -competition, and developing this capability must be a goal of yours in itself.

4). You cannot waste time being concerned about cannibalization.

Worry about “cannibalization” (creating one product to replace another) assumes that a company owns a market and has time to leave a product in the marketplace until the company is ready to replace it with something new.

Smart planners realize that this is an outmoded way of thinking. The new breed of winners in most industries assume that the competition is right at their heels and any competitive advantage they have is fleeting. As a result, they worry about hurting sales of an existing product by bringing out a new one.

Be much more concerned with constantly driving to stay

ahead of the competition.

Some brick-and-mortar companies have found it more difficult than others to let go of the “old way” and are sometimes less nimble than newcomers. To survive, they will need to find ways of eliminating excess baggage.

You will be ” Ahead of the the game .

If you recognize the need for online success and can establish your operation, with an independent management style then you that can have the freedom and resources to win in a today’s environment.

You will certainly be rewarded.

Lastly A good business plan should also answer this question: “In the evolving competitive arena, how does my product or service add value?” Focus on this issue and act on your findings and you are most likely to develop successful plans to which the customers remain loyal.

This is certainly the integral most basic concept which your Grandmother would of insisted on .

Shaun Stevens Senior Marketing Consultant Ace Employment Services Winnipeg Experience in Marketing in the Human Resource , Training as well as Corrections Fields . http://www.aceemploymentservices.net
call_kirk@hotmail.com

Author: Shaun Stevens
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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