Learn how to write a solid business plan to give your company the greatest possible start!
By creating a solid and efficient business plan, you may increase your company’s financial viability and be ready for any unforeseen circumstances. In order to assist you get the greatest results for your organisation, this course will walk you through the fundamentals of business planning.
Why would you do this course? Having a solid strategic and operational plan can help you know where you are going, the primary goal of your business, your product, clients, and ensure you don’t get diverted along the road, whether you want to start a new business or if you are currently in business.
The greatest way to protect yourself against failure is to plan.
Planning is essential if you want to avoid, or at least reduce, failure when operating a business, beginning a small business, or forming a firm.
Obtain the resources you require to stop spending a lot of time and money and to make your company run the way you want it to.
Lesson Structure
There are 11 lessons in this course:
- Introduction to Business Planning
- The business plan, strategic and operational planning, feasibility studies, the executive summary.
- Focus and Direction
- Deciding on direction, visualising future business directions, vision and mission statements
- Legal and Administrative Requirements
- Legal structure of a business, business names, taxation, regulations, licenses and permits, types of business ownership
- Developing Objectives and Strategies
- Setting goals and objectives, SWOT and GAP analyses, strategies for achieving objectives
- Planning for Growth
- Planned as opposed to runaway growth, subcontracting, franchising, licensing, the growth plan
- Risk Management and Contingencies
- Approaches to risk management, identifying business risks
- Systems
- System components, the quality audit, benchmarking, business plans as a mechanism of control
- Marketing Plans
- The definition of marketing, marketing requirements, the marketing process, market research, implications of unplanned marketing
- Operation Plans
- Control of business operations, writing an operation plan
- Human Resource Plans
- The value of human resources, occupational health and safety, skills and competencies of different staff
- Financial Plans
- The importance of financial planning, establishment costs and start up capital, cash flow forecasts, profit and loss statements
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school’s tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
- Explain the essential elements of a business plan.
- Recognize the differences between a vision and a mission statement.
- Describe the administrative and legal needs for a business.
- Describe the significance of a company name.
- Describe the significance of establishing goals and objectives in a professional setting.
- Discuss coping mechanisms for growth
- Explain the many business hazards that exist.
- Describe the marketing process Describe the operational planning
- What value do human resources have?
- Why is financial planning important?
How You Plan to Act
- Ask a company owner about their business plan.
- Imagine how a present company would look in a year.
- To find out what licences, permits, permissions, and registrations are required to start a business, get in touch with a government agency.
- Conducting interviews with current business owners will help you understand their plans and goals for the coming year.
- Determine the areas of a business that would require attention during times of rapid expansion.
- Identify potential business hazards.
- Look at the safeguards for intellectual property rights and the possibilities of a company that is for sale.
- Analyze the workings of a present company
- Create an operational strategy for a recently developed business proposition.
- Determine any risks a proposed business may have.
- Determine the costs involved in launching a proposed business.
Make a Success Plan
A plan or outline that establishes the business’s purpose and direction before it even starts is necessary for it to be successful. This plan or map aids the company in defining their goals and creating a vision for how they wish to run their firm in the future. It serves as a business plan. Also, it enables staff members or lending organisations to understand your goal and the plan you have in place to make it a reality.
Make a direction plan
The formulation of a vision or mission statement results in an outline for the purpose of the company. Once this is completed, it can be amended later when it is compared to the company’s goals to determine whether they can be achieved or whether a more feasible vision has to be developed. Starting out, it’s crucial to reassess and offer the firm any necessary flexibility in this regard.
Making a decision about what you truly want to do or achieve and being open to making changes or alterations to the initial plan when more information and data are gathered are essential steps in any planning process. It is advised to reevaluate your vision and objectives once you have built your plans in order to ensure that they can still be achieved.
To do this, you must first visualise your company at a specific point in the future. Then, you must consider all the variables and potential changes, and be prepared to adjust your strategy as needed.
What Does a Business Plan Contain?
A typical business plan, might contain the following. Do you know how to put this together?
- Title
- Title Page
Summary Executive
A brief business strategy serves as the executive summary. Ideally, it should be one page long and include a summary of all the key aspects in the entire strategy. The business plan’s executive summary establishes its tone and can let the reader know what to anticipate. Infuriatingly, some influential decision-makers may rely solely on the summary when making financial decisions, so make sure it’s strong!
Summary of Contents
a well-organized list that makes it easy for users to find particular things. Sections, pages, chapters, or all of these may be used to split the items.
Primary Body
These elements could be present in any combination:
- Direction
- Mission/Vision Statements
- Aims
- Objectives
- Business Description (environment, marketplace, structure, growth etc)
- Business Functions
- Marketing
- Operations
- Financial
- Human Resources
- Systems
- Quality
- Innovation
- Information Technology
- Control (Incorporating Risk Management)
The Conclusion
What is the company preparing to do? What last thought do you wish to evoke in the reader?
Implementation
Appendices
The major body’s specifics will become clear as the course goes on.
Launch a business or pursue a career in management
- What is Successful?
- What is the future?
- How to make money?
- How to improve?
- How to sell?
