So, what is a business plan?
Key Advantages to having a Business Plan
When looking at your business goals, the most fundamental and first point of call is always to set up SMART goals. Then look at your products and services and breakdown who are your customers. Secondly who are your competitors, how will you be selling your products and services and then be clear on your offerings and the purpose.
Profitability would be the next area to look at. What profit margins are there on each product and service? Do you have a real understanding of what the minimum requirement is to breakeven? You should have a target for each week, month, and quarter. To be able to achieve your plan, you can then again extend these targets out to your wider team.
The next especially important part to look at, is cash flow. Having a clear understanding for the initial investment that.
· Do you have trading profits and losses to consider?
· What are your operation costs?
· What would your return investment be?
· Very importantly, what are your payment and collection terms?
Borrowing is another important area. You need to consider the following.
· What borrowing will you need?
· What will you be funding?
· Is it assets or is it the ongoing trading costs?
· What will your pay back terms be for those borrowings?
· Consider your future profits and growth plans and build this into your cash flow forecast.
Now that you have the numbers part complete. You need to have a look, at what your opportunities are and what your threats are in the marketplace. What are your opportunities in your industry? What are your threats? What do you believe are the challenges that you will face?
Tracking your progress is an integral part of any business. Once you are trading you need to ensure you are tracking the progress. Set up some KPI’s. Remember ‘’What gets measured gets improved’’. After all this reviewing and goal setting, remember to look at why, you started your business. Was it to make money, pay off for the stress and hard work, to live an amazing life?
There are several ways that we as an accountancy firm can support and help your business grow. The first thing would be to give us a call and set up a proposal meeting and discuss our services. we will look at your business plan for the full financial year and then after that we would always advise to book a 90-day accountable session this is one of the best things that complements your business plan, and it keeps you accountable of hitting those key milestones and goals.
Comments