Business Plan 201
- The First Step
How to Quickly Know How Much It Will Take to Operate Your Own Business
Work out, in a few easy steps, a QUICK business plan that will tell you what your sales, expenses and cash flow will be to operate your business.
Work out, in a few easy steps, a QUICK business plan that will tell you what your sales, expenses and cash flow will be to operate your business.
(Includes sample spreadsheets with sample figures)
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You've been thinking about starting your own business but don't know where to begin. Well, the very first step is to know how much money it will take, by working out a simple business plan.
If you have taken the preceding “Business Plan 101 – How to Instantly Know How Much Money You’ll Need to Make the Salary you Want plus the Quick Initial Business Plan”, you are already familiar with working out a projection.
If you have not, that's OK you can still continue with this 201 level, but you might be saying right now, "I wouldn't know where to begin to put together a business plan." Well, no problem, stay with me, you've come to the right place.
Have you ever wished you could QUICKLY know how to develop a business financial projection without spending strenuous hours of research and calculations or having to pay someone to do a business plan for you?
Now you can get a quick picture of what YOUR business would need to get started and operate.
You may even think that you don't have the money –- that’s one more reason to start working on a plan. Don’t just think about it, work on it.
Then you’ll have some goals to keep you going forward. And, remember what they say? If you don't have the money, you can raise the money. For that you need to know the figures.
This e-book will take you by the hand, step-by-step into an initial operating statement of sales and expenses, then expand this into monthly figures including a bottom line cash flow.
You’ll have a clear picture of what to expect and you’ll be ready any time to work out various scenarios as you think of your own business or look at existing business to buy.
Hi...This is Diane Hoffmann, author of "Business Plan 201"- How to Quickly Know How Much Money You’ll Need to Operate Your Own Business.
One of the reasons to avoid doing a business plan, is that many folks are uneasy by the prospect of such a laborious undertaking -- we are used to seeing lots of work sandwiched into big binders that represent business plans.
But you don't have to go to that extent at the very beginning.
You just need to satisfy yourself (before doing a big plan to satisfy bankers or investors), to see how ready YOU are in starting a business.
From this initial stage you can go to the next step and expand it into a full presentation format.
That is why I put together a series of steps that will lead you through the process of a financial business plan.
"Business Plan 201", takes you beyond the initial instant overview of knowing what it will take to cover the salary you want and the expenses you will have.
In this e-book, you will learn how to:
* Develop an Initial Operating Expense Projection
* Do a list of Launching Expenses to incorporate into your projection
* Expand the Initial Operating Expense Projection into a Year 1 Working Operating Statement
* Include a Cash Flow and Accumulated Cash Flow bottom line to show your peak financial need
* Expand the Year 1 Operating Statement Projection into a Year 2 Projection
* Set up a Monitoring Worksheet for your Monthly Actual figures versus your projected figures
* Your e-book includes Excel Sample Sheets that show you every step of the way.
Why did I write this in easy steps e-course?
I've written a few books and seminars and I am now making a lot of my material available into step-by-step, easy to follow e-books for the convenience of busy people like yourself who want to take advantage of today's internet access.
When I give seminars on starting and operating a business, it is amazing how most people who come to the seminars have no idea what it'll take to get into business and operate it for growth.
Most business start-ups don’t even make it to the third year. Many fail in the first and second just because they didn’t have a clue about the financial needs of the business from the moment when they started out.
On the other hand, because they can't "see" how much money it would take, many who don't go to a seminar give up believing that it could be possible. Preparation is the key to success. Preparation allows for informed decision-making.
Or else, they think a few sales will be enough to start and carry on business only to find out later that the sales didn't even cover expenses - let alone a salary!
True story
I'll never forget an acquaintance of mine some years ago, who was a metal fabricator, and who wanted to start his own business.
He was working for a company at the time and told me that he had a customer who would give him $100,000 in business right off the bat. And he represents thousands others who have the same view of business start-up.
With this in mind, he actually did go ahead with his idea, and three years later, he was in trouble. He had operated "by the seat of his pants" without a business plan or "a picture" of the key figures needed in business.
Bit by bit he had financed his house to cover increasing expenses to the point where he no longer had borrowing power and had to get a job again.
Provide a salary
A lot of people also do not see and understand how important the planning of all expenses is when thinking of starting a business. Even the owner’s salary must be provided for in the vision.
They just think of the "self-employment" and the "sales" they'll be "automatically" getting, and assume they'll be able to live on it.
And it doesn't matter what kind of business it is -- whether it is ONline or OFFline -- this works for any type of small business start-up. It works on basic figures that you can expect a business to make no matter what product or service it provides.
How much money do you need to live? You need to pay for your shelter, food and necessary expenses. If you're single, you may get by with $25-30,000 to start. If you're supporting a family you'll need more! How about $50,000, $100,000?
In the financial business, everything is relative!
Initial Expense Estimate
What will be the expenses? Think of everything and write it down. That’s what we do in the initial stage of the e-book.
Can you think of anything else besides the salary you want to make? What about rent? You might start from home but include it in your initial estimate. Why? You'll see that in the e-book.
You want to know what it will cost to operate the business. You can always take it out or change expenses later. What about insurance? Even if you work from home, there will be some extra insurance.
What about cost of sales, what about discounts you’ll sometimes give to make a sales, what about specials and giveaways?
Launching Expenses
And this e-book does not stop here. It looks at the expenses that will be incurred outside of the initial operating statement. You need to incorporate this into your first month’s expenses. You need to make provision for this as well.
In another few minutes, the e-book will show you where to place that into your initial projection.
Working operating statement and Year 1 projection
In a few more minutes, the e-book will show you the sales, expenses and cash flow in further revealing details. You don't have to work at it for days. You'll have all that information so far in one evening.
In that e-book that will be sent to you in PDF file you will see samples of the worksheets showing you these figures. It will then take you through building a complete Year 1 projection taking into consideration important steps that one might not think about. For instance, at the onset of a new business, how does one make provision for the start-up sales?
A business may expect to make $10,000 a month, but will the projection show that in Month 1 and 2, etc.?
How do you calculate this into the projection worksheet? You will find this in the e-book and many other aspect of planning an initial financial projection.
Expanding into Year 2
Then in another short time, the e-book will show you how to expand the Year 1 into a Year 2 projection, where you will see the year-end figure even out to the projections of the initial operating statement.
This is because in Year 1, you don’t necessarily meet the projected totals. But in Year 2, having made provisions for the healthy build-up of sales during the first 12 months, you will.
Monitoring Worksheet
After this comes one of the most crucial function of a business plan – MONITORING the figures month to month. This is where a lot of business folks fail. They may do a business plan, but they never look at it again.
The process will take you to how to set-up and prepare the Monitoring Worksheet so that you can begin to monitor and compare your plan right from Month 1.
You will be shown the process that will take place as you get your real, actual figures and compare them to projection.
And most importantly you will see what to do if they do not stack up to expectation. You will be able to see how close or far you are to your projected figures and make IMMEDIATE adjusting corrective actions to get your figures back in line.
You will find out what the essential key to monitoring is.
Now for your own figures
After you`ve gone through all of this, you will be able to follow it again, this time, building your own spreadsheets using the models provided.
You will then be able to insert your own figures to come up with your very own financial picture. You'll be amazed at the information you'll get from this.
From that point, you'll be able to play around with various sales and expenses to instantly come up with different cash flow scenarios, until you find what's feasible for you.
You'll be able to take a look at real figures as you adjust and make informed decisions on what will be best for you and your business to get started and to operate successfully.
To summarize the steps
that will be covered in the
"Business Plan 201"
e-book:
* The Initial Operating Expense Projection
* The list of Launching Expenses to incorporate into your projection
* The expansion of the Initial Operating Expense Projection into a Year 1 Operation
* The Cash Flow and Accumulated Cash Flow bottom line to show your peak financial need
* The expansion of the Year 1 Operating Projection into a Year 2 Operation
* The set up of a Monitoring Worksheet to monitor Monthly Actual figures vs projected figures
* Included in your e-book will be the Sample Spreadsheets that show you each step.
New link coming soon...
Sincerely and to your Success,
Diane M. Hoffmann
Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications.
Business Plan 201 - the First Step(c)
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