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What Are You Going To Sell and to Who?
A Business Plan is simply as the name implies — a plan about your business. It’s used to look ahead, allocate resources, focus on key points and prepare for problems and opportunities. But (believe it or not) many business owners find formulating a Business Plan terribly daunting and avoid it altogether.
The “Product” goal of this subject is to discover
- what are you going to sell,
- how are you going to package it (bundles, product/service combo, membership etc), and
- how much you are going to sell it for.
You’ll also spent time to discover
- who your ideal customer is,
- who your competitors are, and
- some goals to get you started and into ACTION
Be one step ahead from the get-go — not only will having a plan for your business help you get to market faster, it also helps you gain clarity, focus and confidence. It outlines exactly what your business is going to do, and for whom, and what sets you apart from your rivals.
As you write down your goals, strategies and action steps, your business becomes real.
Your Financial Security & Your Bank
Banks, investors and other funding bodies will insist on a well-written, concise Business Plan on which to base their investment decisions so it’s good to demonstrate to yourself the kind of return you can expect from your own business. This business plan will often demonstrate what you already know and take for granted so it will be a fantastic aid in any conversations you have with investor, partner and even customers. Your business plan will include written content about the “market” you’re in but also financial calculations and forecasts (usually in a spreadsheet so you can modify them as time goes by) that you believe you can achieve.
Once it’s complete your business plan should remain dynamic and ever-changing with small modifications as your business changes. The more document the more valuable your business becomes and the clearer you become about what works and what doesn’t work, particularly if you are thinking about selling at some stage in the future (and you should always think of your business as something you can sell).
Business Plans Should be Revised Throughout the Life of Your Business
In the Business Planning Course we will walk you through the market research and product/service design, including:
- Find out how to research the needs of the market, the market size for your product or service and its potential,
- Identify methods to promote your business.
- Achieve lower costs of production and distribution than your competitors,
- Turn your business into a class leader in your industry
- Identify the staffing requirements to effectively deliver your product or service,
- Sources for specialist services or advice, where required.
- Develop risk management strategies according to the goals and objectives of your business, and
- How to create contingency plans to address possible areas of non-conformance with the Business Plan.
What You’ll Learn
This course will give you some perspective about the reality of where you are, where you want to be and how to get there. Topics include:
- where you are now (market research, identification of opportunity, and a SWOT analysis that identifies your strengths and weaknesses in relation to the opportunity as well as areas of possible growth for the business) ;
- where you want to go with your business (setting up goals and strategies to make them happen) and finally
- how you are going to get there (infrastructure needed, legal obligations, marketing and systems management as well as 2 years minimum financials).
You will learn what information goes where, so that there is a logical progression of that information. That will make your final plan both easy to understand and easy to manage as your business takes shape.
Be aware that:
- Should you require capital (money) to start or support your business, you will need to produce evidence of viability in the form of a well- structured, well researched and well documented business plan. All banks, investor, banks, and other funding bodies will require one.
- A fully completed business plan is also the assessment document for accreditation in this course.
