By Rhian Jarman, Marketing and Events Coordinator, SETsquared Bristol<\/p>\n
On 17th July 2019, SETsquared Bristol ran a free \u2018Jump start your business plan\u2019 community workshop at Barton Hill Settlement, with funding from The University of Bristol. Aspiring entrepreneurs and start-up Founders, with businesses ranging from consultancies, arts and social enterprise, were treated to an informative, practical and interactive one-day session from the Global No1 Incubator\u2019s Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Greville Commins. Here we share our top tips from the session.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t matter whether a business is for enterprise or not for profit – to create a successful business, you need more than just an idea. You need to identify a problem\/need to create an attractive market. It\u2019s much easier to start a business if you have a unique product\/solution, and a scalable, profitable model.<\/p>\n
The purpose \u2013 why do I need to write a business plan?<\/b><\/p>\n
A business plan needs to specify the who, what, when, why and how of your business. The ability to succinctly explain what you do verbally, as well as in the plan, is very important.<\/p>\n
You need to understand why you\u2019re doing the business plan. Its purpose is to give your business direction, to reflect and make you think, as well as an efficient way of communicating your proposition to potential investors.<\/p>\n
Your individual reasons for business planning will be unique to your business and its goals. It might be focussed on raising funds to decide and justify how much you need. Or it may be to create a longer-term management tool for running the business and referring to in the future.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t underestimate the importance of having all this content in one place \u2013 your plan should be a handy repository to refer to and update as needed. A business plan is also a great way to stand out from the crowd \u2013 many entrepreneurs know the answer to a question but often can\u2019t find the answer fast enough! If you have all the info you need in your business plan, it\u2019s a key part of convincing an investor.<\/p>\n
What should be included in the plan? How should it be structured?<\/b><\/p>\n
There is no template for a successful business plan, but it should be a well written plan that tells an exciting story and builds credibility. The order of the sections depends on their importance in your business.<\/p>\n
All plans need to include:<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2022the customer problem you are solving\/addressing<\/p>\n
\u2022the market size\/forecast – search for the big number that is relative to you and define the business opportunity \u2013 don\u2019t say that you only need a small percentage of the market. Talk to potential customers, analyse the competition and look at historical trends to inform your numbers<\/p>\n
\u2022the 4 P\u2019s – product, price, place, promotion<\/p>\n
\u2022financial plans\/forecasts – what are you going to sell, for how much, how much money will you make? Include the flow of cash into and out of your company (this is not the same as profit and loss)<\/p>\n
\u2022funding \u2013 this could be grants, loans, investors or FFF (friends, family, fools)<\/p>\n
\u2022If your business has Intellectual Property (IP), define the IP position, where it comes from, who owns it and how you will protect it. IP can also be your brand or trademark \u2013 what\u2019s valuable and unique to your business<\/p>\n
\u2022Info on your team, include short bios for team members and identify the gaps you need to fill.<\/p>\n
Think of each section as different slices of pizza, which will be different depending on what kind of business you have and the target market. If your business is product led, talk about that first. A brand or consultancy led company might be different. Most importantly, describe the real value of your business at the beginning.<\/p>\n
Your plan should be as short as possible to get the right messages across, 20 to 25 pages or less, plus appendixes with detailed info. Explain the key points in as few words as possible<\/p>\n
Pitching your business \u2013 getting to the \u2018Ah ha\u2019 moment<\/b><\/p>\n
If people don\u2019t get your story in the first 60 seconds of your pitch, the chance is that many won\u2019t ever get it!\u00a0 <\/span>Use every tool at your disposal to hook someone in and be impactful in the first 60 seconds to draw them in to find out more. Understanding your audience and what you\u2019re trying to achieve is key.<\/p>\n Writing a snappy executive summary is a very important skill. An executive summary is a one to two page summary of your business proposition at the start of your plan \u2013 it\u2019s not a summary of the business plan. A well written, clear executive summary is your opportunity to excite and hook potential investors, and is the key to get the reader past your introduction. It might make sense to write this at the end.<\/p>\n Future planning<\/b><\/p>\n The only thing that we know for sure about business plans, is that the forecast is probably wrong!\u00a0 <\/span>But that\u2019s not a problem. The problem is veering off track and not doing anything about it, which is where your plan comes in.<\/p>\n In order to better scope your business, plan your business trajectory on two graphs, the best-case graph and the worse-case graph, and you can aim to be somewhere in between.<\/p>\n And remember, the plan isn\u2019t set in stone, you can change it as you go. Keep referring to your plan and update it as needed, it\u2019s there to help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Rhian Jarman, Marketing and Events Coordinator, SETsquared Bristol On 17th July 2019, SETsquared Bristol ran a free \u2018Jump start your business plan\u2019 community workshop at Barton Hill Settlement, with funding from The University of Bristol. Aspiring entrepreneurs and start-up Founders, with businesses ranging from consultancies, arts and social enterprise, were treated to an informative, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1251],"tags":[1257,397,1283,1281,1285,591],"class_list":["post-2633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-setsquared-bristol","tag-bame-setsquared","tag-business","tag-business-plan","tag-how-to","tag-how-to-write-a-business-plan","tag-setsquared"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mogulmagazine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mogulmagazine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mogulmagazine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mogulmagazine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mogulmagazine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2633"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mogulmagazine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2637,"href":"https:\/\/mogulmagazine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2633\/revisions\/2637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mogulmagazine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mogulmagazine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mogulmagazine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mogulmagazine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}