Danasfields

Article by Chris Haycox

Remember when you were a kid and your allowance was just never enough for all the hockey cards or bubble gum that you wanted? So like any normal kid, you came up with creative ways to make more money. Maybe you tried selling an old broken toy to your little brother, or perhaps you decided to take on a venture like the iconic lemonade stand. Perhaps, you would try poaching supplies from the kitchen, only to be run off by a parent. Or maybe, you had a more organized approach. Maybe some of you knew you would have to have a plan before the parents would let us get into something so involved. You would make a list of what was needed, what you would charge per serving and how you split up the money. It would have been your first business plan – albeit a little undeveloped.

No matter the size, age or purpose of a business – it needs a plan. Even if you started your business years ago with the intention of just running it out of your garage, you still need a plan. So what is a business plan, aside from a list of supplies and prices? It is a formal statement of goals for your business, the reasons they are attainable and a plan for reaching them. Some business plans are hundreds of pages long, others begin as notes on a scrap piece of paper. No matter how it begins, the end result will bring your business closer to success. Below is an outline of the main components to your business plan.

Executive Summary

The executive summary summarizes your business plan. The most important component of it is your mission statement. It will sum up the purpose of your business, what you will tell your clients to make them understand what it is you do. The executive summary will not contain any technical language, highlighting the most important components of the business and how you plan to make it succeed. Basically, if your reader does not wish to go over every detail of the entire plan at that particular time, they will be able to read the executive summary and still have a good grasp of your venture. If you are drawing up a plan for an existing business, include how many years in operation, the existing legal and financial structures. The document will make recommendations on how you plan to meet your goals, but the step by step details will be in the body of the business plan. If there are multiple sections in your business plan, the executive summary will summarize them. If you are seeking financial assistance, this where you would sum up your needs, the reasons you need the money and how you plan to pay it back. The document will end with a conclusion summarizing the overall executive summary. The executive summary should be located at the front of your business plan, but it is best to write it after you have written the rest of the plan first. When all the research is done and you have thought about every little detail of the past, present and future of your venture, the executive summary will be much easier to write.

Business Description

Here is where you describe your business in more detail. Some very small businesses do not include this section because the information is already adequately listed in the executive summary. For mid to large ventures, this section is very important as it gives the reader a much clearer idea of the day to day operations. If you are an existing business, list the details on your corporate structure, the size of your work force, key product lines, physical locations of assets (such as real estate and large equipment) and the annual sales figures. If you are a brand new business, your business description will be more simple. List employees you expect to hire, projected sales figures, the products you expect to push the most revenue, location of facilities (where you plan to do business), at what stage of development you are in and your corporate structure (if you have one). The management team is also outlined in this section, as well as their responsibilities.

For larger more comprehensive ventures, there will be sections on business environment analysis, industry background and competitor analysis. These are very important issues to cover, especially when asking for financial assistance. Any one defect in the above assessments could mean the failure of the venture, so be realistic in your research and conclusions. For smaller businesses, old or new, these sections may not need to be covered at all. If you feel they are relevant to your plan but do not require their own section, simply include them with the business description portion of the business plan.

The business description will probably be the first and easiest part of the business plan to write. It is a great way to begin, as it gets you thinking about all the details you may not have considered before. If we continued to use the lemonade stand as our example business for drawing up a business plan, then the business description would probably be very simple. We would describe whose house our table would be in front of, if a parent was supervising the operations and what we have already done in preparation to open. In part two of this series, we will look at the core of our business and how to document it.

About the Author

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Article by William King

Some people confuse business strategies with business planning. In actual fact business strategy is a merely a part of overall business planning. In short, business planning includes business vision, business mission, and business goals, while business strategy is the road that you will take to reach that goal. You may not need to set some fancy goals for a wholesale enterprise, still you can not start without having a well thought out strategy in place. You know that being a wholesaler, your basic job is to store, assemble, sort and deal out goods that you’ve got in large quantities from manufacturers (or other wholesalers). Outwardly, it is quite straightforward job that requires a storehouse, inventory management software, transportation, and distribution facilities; still you need a documented strategy to serve as a road map. Remember, before you start making a strategy, you should be having a business vision and mission statement along with clear cut goals. Start from conducting market research to see if there’s a need of a wholesaler in some particular industry or area. In case there’re already more than enough wholesalers in the market, analyze your business to see if you will be able to provide superior services to your customers? Decide the type of wholesale enterprise you’d like to start and also some specific type of products that you’d be dealing in (e.g. food, garments, grocery, cosmetics, etc). You need to decide on some specific product because it will require a massive setup to deal in all kinds of products. Do some research to know about the requirements of storing, sorting and shipping the product that you have chosen? Do a SWOT analysis (strength, weaknesses, opportunities & threats) to confirm if you’ll be able to pull it off. Make an initial budget to see what kind of funds you will need to successfully start and run the business. Consider all expenses including licensing, rent, transportation, and shipping costs. Create flow charts for all departments and come up with a rough estimate of the number of employees you’ll need to start with. Mark key performance indicators for all departments. As you’d have already noticed, one needs to know the wholesale business inside out to be able to make a foolproof strategy. It’s better to hire some professionals to assist you in strategy making. In the end, keep in mind that business strategy is not a one-off job. Once you’ve started operating as a wholesaler, this strategy will require several additions, modifications and changes.

About the Author

William King is the director of Wholesale Suppliers, Wholesale Baby Goods and Wholesale Directory. He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.

Article by Andrew McCombe

One of the biggest problems that many would be entrepreneurs face is that they do not believe that they can start, and run, a successful business on their own. They believe that only those with high level degrees in business or related fields have the skill and talent to create a company, and that they’re stuck in the day to day drudgery of their jobs forever.

The truth is that whether you have a degree, or whether you never even finished high school, the key to business success is often in the business planning and visioning you do, rather than the certificates and diplomas you hold.

But what is business planning and visioning?

I like to think of business planning and visioning a little bit like a road map to success. The process involves a series of exercises that are designed to help you decide how to get your business from the idea stage, to the point where you break even, and start making a profit, and beyond.

There are many ways to go about business planning and visioning, and, contrary to popular belief, your business plan does not have to be written in any kind of formal language – unless you plan to use it to apply for financing.

The simplest way to get started on your business plan, is to sit down with a piece of paper and a pen, and start jotting down whatever ideas you have that relate to the business you’d like to run.

Once you’ve assembled a healthy amount of information on what your business will be about, it’s time to begin the process of creating a structured business plan, but again, this need not be a difficult or technical process. It is simply a means of organising your thoughts about your business into a logical and easy to follow document that will grow with your business, and help you to decide what your next step will be along the way.

Typically, a business plan is made up of several different sections. These include the executive summary, a general description of your business, your products or services, a marketing plan, an operations plan, a section on the management and organisation of your new business, your personal financial statement, start up and operational expenses, a financial plan and any appendices you may want to add to the document.

If all that sounds like a lot of technical mumbo jumbo that you are never going to be able to finish, do not worry. Business planning and visioning is not supposed to be a task that you dread, or that makes you want to run away! Take it one step at a time, and take your time to write down everything you believe will be relevant to the start up and running of your business.

Include the form of company you are planning to start, whether you will have partners in your business, and who your target market will be in the general description section. Figure out how you are going to market your business and to whom and write down where you may find such people(s), and your products and services, and write those methods down in your marketing plan. When it comes to operations, will you be running a cash only business, or accepting credit applications? Will you operate from premises, or from your home? When it comes to financial matters, decide what you will need to start your business, and what it will cost. Think about what it will cost to run your business, including salaries or wages, premises rental, stock and utilities.

Ideally, your business planning process should take several weeks or even months, and you will add to the plan as you go along, writing down everything you can think of that will take your business from start up to success. That document will also accompany you as you work on your business, changing and evolving with your business.

The main benefit of formal business planning and visioning to the business owner is that it forces you to think about all the different factors that will determine the success of your business venture. It also helps you to create a logical ‘road map’ for your company, and gives you something to refer to during the often frantic and tumultuous process of launching a company.

One trick that I’ve found works quite well when you’re in the throes of the business planning and visioning phase of a start up is to think about where you would like your business to be in two or even five years. Then work backwards, through each of the steps that you would have to take in order to get from where you are now, to where you would like to be.

Business planning and visioning is a combination of imagination and planning, which allows you to see past what you have now, to what you would like to have in your company. It focuses your mind, and gives you an opportunity to think about the steps that will be needed to make a success of your company, but it is not something that requires you to have a degree! All you need is a passion for your chosen business, a little business knowledge (that you can find in any small business book), and a logical method of planning.

The old saying goes: those who fail to plan, plan to fail, and that is particularly true of starting a business. So spend some time on your business planning and visioning now, and launch your business with a clear road map in mind, and a good idea of the direction you are heading in, and how you will get there.

About the Author

Andrew McCombe is the owner of Activate Your Business where they teach new and existing business owners to Start, Grow and / or Automate their business(es) with EASE, so they can live a life of EASE. For more information and to get a free copy of the 10 EASY Steps to Your Perfect Business EBook, visit http://www.activateyourbusiness.com.au

Article by Daren Hopkins

Many people talk about business strategy but have a great failure to realise exactly what this is – is it surprising that a great deal of business people have a huge problem discussing this when they do not exactly know what this is!

Questions that should be asked may include the determination of the fact that is there even a strategy in existence or if so, is this the correct one? Additionally, how do we determine what a strategy is and how does one go about developing one?

It is important when developing strategy to look at some of the issues and why a chosen path can go wrong-if one keeps doing the same thing, one will get the same results.

Many complaints about strategy range from the fact that it is difficult to determine, it gets messy and unfinished, and many people involved either do not contribute or attempt to dominate proceedings and a general feeling of the future and the failure of any future chosen path.

Broadly speaking, some schools of thought hold with notion that there are three main reasons for a failure of strategy.

Managers often fail to realise what these differences are; business schools talk about corporate-centre strategy and business-unit strategy. Business-unit strategy is for controlled organisations that may be part of conglomerates or single-business units whereas the other is for conglomerates planning growth through the use of single business units.

Another is often no clarity of purpose; for example there is no point in using models that are simply intellectually attractive when the purpose of the task is to discover options and directions and gather proof to support decisions about the future.

The business – unit level requires methods that are relatively straightforward and the only real obstacles are intimidation by “professionals” and their jargon. Most means of analysis are in excess of 35 years old but there is a general lack of understanding of them amongst business people and most of them do not know how to use them.

So how do we correct this anomaly?Initially, the ground rules need to be set so participants need to arrive with open,clear minds. Strategy may be likened to seeing everything around, from every angle available and even into the future and the following requirements must be met to be successful: Customers are paramount and form the basis of market uuderstanding, practicality must take priority over theory, the business needs of now and the future need to be thought about and the strategy needs to be measurable.

It is worth at this point to touch on the philosophy behind a strategy.

The best place to start is to take the old adage of begin with where you want to be and work backwards to where you are now.

If, on the other hand, one believes that strategy is an analytical process then start with where you are and work forwards. However there is a difficulty with this approach as straightforward arithmetical thinking stifles creativity.Perhaps, in the real world, a combination of both methods is probably a necessity.

This is all, of course, driving towards growth of the business and that is largely down to marketing. So why are not all growing firms good marketers and why have not they developed a good strategy?

Very briefly, this begins with a failure to understand the difference between selling and marketing – marketing is about developing products or services that customers will want where selling is about simply getting people to but the product.

The rest, for the moment, I leave you to ponder on.

About the Author

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Article by Brianna Power

For many business owners, the process of writing a business plan can seem overwhelming – so much so it’s often one of the vital elements of commercial success that’s ignored altogether! However, thanks to a new Australian innovation and the following easy ‘how-to’ guide, SME owners can rest easy knowing much of the angst around business plans can be easily resolved.

Whether you’re looking to secure finance or investment, or simply get more clarity around where your business is heading, there’s no substitute for a well-conceived business plan. With so much material available on the topic, from internet guides to using templates, as well as books on creating the perfect plan and expensive consultants touting their services, it’s not surprising business owners experience information overload.

This exact consumer frustration was well-known by Marcus Tarrant, business planning consultant for over two decades and creator of the Business Planning HQ Toolkit, who decided to create a solution that would give business owners the plans they desperately needed, without costing them the earth.

The first step was to address some misconceptions in the minds of business owners. “The process of business planning should start with a process and end with a document. Many clients get this the wrong way around by starting with a document, and ending with a compromised result,” says Marcus.”Instead of creating another ‘one-size-fits-all’ template, we realized a complete planning ‘process’ was necessary, but that it had to be as simple and relevant as possible,” he continues. While consultants have typically filled this role in the past, conducting meetings with clients, asking them questions and then going away to formulate a plan, the high costs involved in engaging a consultant can be prohibitive for many start-ups or smaller, growing businesses.

“Throughout my 20 years assisting hundreds of clients with their business planning process, we found that clients that most needed our services, were those least able to afford the 20-40K we would usually charge to prepare an investment grade business plan.”, says Marcus.

“Business Planning HQ was developed to provide a cost and time effective solution to the process of planning by reducing the cost by as much as 90%, without reducing the quality. Now a organisational plan can be created in as little as 4-6 hours and you only need enter simple financial information – all the complex valuation and scenario analysis is performed for you. No expensive consultant required. No information overload. Just one simple process. And at a price point of just 0, the product is very accessible for all business owners.”

If you’re keen on getting more structure and clarity of direction in your operations, Marcus suggests taking 30 minutes with a coffee somewhere quiet, before you even embark on your plan, to jot down notes around the following:

• Commit to the process of creating a plan. Many SME owners put their business plan off because they are waiting for more certainty about current partnerships, sales or events. Your plan should guide your activity, not the other way around. Without a plan your business is like a ship without a rudder, you’ll be unable to gauge success and determine what you should do first, second or not at all. This is one task you can’t do half-heartedly. Success is about focus.• Get clear about your business vision (your plan will then take this vision and translate it into a strategy). Your vision should outline where you want to see your business going in the medium to long term and can be expressed as a series of objectives.• Consider who your primary customers are, what’s important to them and where they are both geographically and in life. Get into their headspace for a while and it will help you determine what’s possible for your business’s future. After all, your business should exist to solve a consumer’s problem.• Consider the different types of business models that could work for your business. Just because you’re a franchise now, doesn’t mean that’s the best model moving forward – think creatively and without restriction. The creation of your plan will help you determine which is the best option for you.• Consider what kind of financial outcomes you’d like in your business. Be specific and realistic. Have a timeframe in mind. Without knowing your ultimate financial goals you’ll lack a key driver for your plan.

A good business plan should align your strategy, business model, proposed actions and financial implications, as well as consider the questions and problems that are top of mind with your target audience. Ultimately, a plan should be bespoke for your operations, rather than trying to fit your business into a predetermined template.

Business Planning HQ combines two decades of experience in business planning into a series of consultant style questions. These questions have been packaged into an Excel-based Business Planning Toolkit. The toolkit is downloadable from the internet for maximum convenience and within hours, you’ll have the basis of an investor quality business plan that no template or software alone could deliver.

For more information on Business Planning HQ, visit: http://www.businessplanninghq.com or send an email to marcus.tarrant@businessplanninghq.com

About the Author

Affinity Marketing is a boutique marketing and PR agency based in Sydney, Australia.

Cost effective, nimble and meticulously well targeted, we help clients to raise their profile locally or nationally, target new markets and media, draw attention to their online presence and make their business’s presentation shine (through website, print or communications material). Contact us for more information on how we can help your business or not-for-profit find the x-factor!

info@affinitymarketing.com.auwww.affinitymarketing.com.au

Article by Concord Business

Deciding how best to fund a startup company is the first issue faced by any entrepreneurs, yet the consequences of specific choices are often overlooked. The people who invest in the company will invariably have a major impact on how the company is ultimately managed.

There are numerous benefits to write a business plan and the most formal reason is to persuade external funders and the primary source of funding for e-business is venture capital.

Investors know the profit potential in the business space which is much greater because larger the transaction size and volume is the greater will be customer reliability. With these reasons business plans became the favored choice of VCs as they realized a lot of work on infrastructure was needed in order to truly exploit one’s potential.

VCs play a major role even in company failures like when they shift their interest to other type of startups even before the other company stabilized. They somehow underestimate logistics and transportation costs and find other competitors more interesting. That is where business plans play a major role atleast in building that needed artificial growth of the company which attracts the avoided points.

Number of business companies with sound business plans grew too quickly and sustained on their own revenues, yet venture backing stopped with more exciting categories of business plans. So the moral lies that entrepreneurs who are looking for venture backing need to understand trends in business and also what investments are favored by venture firms. Entrepreneurs whether looking for small start or to grow at a pace need to only maintain control over company’s management and can move along the learning direction at a more reasonable pace. The ones who keep clear ideas of all the market needs can genuinely consider venture capital as a good funding option.

The higher the risks are the more are the hopes of fast and significant payoffs. This may also invite an environment where some of the investors can even sacrifice the long term future of a startup company for their own profit bases. So it is quite essential to check track records of different investors before deciding whom to draw near for funding.

About the Author

Concord helps in making Business Plans that will let you reach to the top of your entrepreneurial dreams in a cost effective way.