Archive for the ‘Business Plan Service’ Category
Business Financial Success
Business Financial Success Comes With Proper Planning
Unless you happen to be planning to establish a charitable, non-profit organization of some type, the main reason why you may be interested in starting a business is to make a living or build wealth from the endeavor. For many people, the desire to “be your own boss” and escape from the shackles of traditional employment is part of the motivation, but the bottom line usually comes down to wanting some form of business financial success so that you are not living from paycheck to paycheck.
One of the most important things that you will do in your quest to enjoy business related financial success is to have a clear, detailed, and realistic business plan that will lay out a map for your progress in your new business. A well-done business plan will include financial projections, working capital management objectives, cash flows analysis, industry and competition analysis, a profile to target customers or a specific audience, and an outline of organizational and asset management ideas.
One of the common errors that a lot of new business people make, which contributes greatly to the high failure rate of new businesses, is not having a clear and complete picture of the marketplace in which they plan to compete. Spending some advance time in analyzing the industry and collecting enough pertinent information will give the entrepreneur a much better idea of what is needed in order to forge business financial success in a given field.
In most cases, when someone is looking to start a new business, they will need some type of start up, working capital to see them through until the business starts to make enough money to be self-sustaining, as well as to be able to pay out salaries. Because a new business has no track record of any kind and no net assets or financial statements to submit for a loan, the only business financial information that the lenders will be able to evaluate is the entrepreneur’s personal credit and total assets.
Even if you have excellent credit and current assets that you can borrow against in order to take out a loan to get your business started, a loan officer will still require a detailed business plan from you. Without a thorough business plan, your aspirations are nothing more than wishful thinking and your loan application won’t get very far in the process.
The lenders will want you to prove to them that you have a knowledgeable understanding of the industry you wish to enter, as well as sufficient management knowledge to be able to successfully take your business from inception, through the growth phases and into stability.
When an entrepreneur is heavily engaged in establishing and growing their own business, there is no doubt that it becomes a very personal endeavor. But often this perspective is just “too close” to be able to make important decisions that can lead to business financial success. However, when someone has taken the time to research and map out a clear and detailed business plan, this can help to overcome the challenges.
Author: Mike Selvon
Enrich your knowledge further by reading more great business financial articles from Mike Selvon portal. We appreciate your feedback at our financial planning blog where a free gift awaits you.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Selvon
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Tags: Business Financial Plan, Business Financial Success, business plan
Financial Projections in Business Plans
One of the most difficult sections to write in a business plan is the proforma and financial sections. After all it is most difficult to what exact costs you will incur or what level of sales volumes are actually achievable. So often businesses are faced with excess government controls at all levels which take thousands of dollars in fees, additionally legal fees, delays and lawsuits often ensue and slow the project. You cannot know in advance what roadblocks or brick walls city planners, country agencies or Federal Regulators will come up with, as they often change their minds and add new laws in the middle of your already delayed project. These are only a few of the problems facing entrepreneurs when writing financial projections. Other issues occur from an over enthusiastic entrepreneurial positive attitude and business plan writers should double the money needed and triple the time to complete the project to be on a reality based plain. Thus if you beat your projections everyone is happy. Including bankers, investors and yourself. If folks are not happy you may find yourself in court defending yourself and making excuses, many of which many not be your fault, but in the end you are hung out to dry as the buck stops with you.
To assist you in writing your financial projections section of your business plan, I have prepared a sample. This sample is from a most simple business model; a mobile car wash, which is part of a franchise system. Please feel free to print this article out and make notes in the margins and then take a legal pad and sketch out your own financial projections and start-up capital needed. I sincerely hope this sample helps you.
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Financial Projections
We will follow our business plan to keep us in a profitable situation at all times. We will try to keep our car wash truck busy at all times. We will stay on top of collections and make sure all invoices go out on time and are directed to the person who authorizes payment. We will treat cash flow as a primary objective in order to reach our financial projections. We will be sure to have the right mix of services.
Gross Revenue Percentage Breakdown
Personal Car Washing 60%
Graffiti, Industrial, Concrete 20%
Fleet Washing 15%
Other 5%
Gross Revenue:
Insert Graph or Pie Chart Here.
* Note: Car washing of personal vehicles will be 60% of our business. Over 80% of these monies will be collected at the point of sale by either:
Cash
Check
Credit Card
Some will actually be paid in advance on credit cards thus keeping us on the proper course to achieve positive cash flow at all times. Very few customers will be allowed to be billed monthly.
** Note: Fleet washing and industrial (graffiti, concrete, etc.) will only account for 35% of gross receipts. Twenty-five percent of this will be collected at the time the work is done, leaving only 26.25% of gross receipts to be billed at month’s end.
Billing
On fleet accounts, all invoices will be net due in fifteen days. After fifteen days they will be considered late and 2% will be charged. If, in the future, our mix of percentages of services performed changes, we may offer a 2% discount for payment in ten days and a 1% discount for payment between ten and fifteen days. We don’t anticipate changing our mix. However, if our city awards us a graffiti contract for $75,000 a year we will definitely accept it.
Anticipated Gross Sales From Services
In the appendix there is a first year pro forma of projected sales. We believe these figures are attainable. For various reasons we will take a 70% scenario for budgeting purposes in case everything doesn’t go as planned. Just to be on the safe side. We project a conservative gross sales dollar amount to be:
$124,630 Projected Gross Revenue X .70 70% Of Projected Dollars = $ 87,241 A Conservative Safe Number To Project As First Year Gross Receipts
Anticipated Business Expenses
We project costs of $56,112 for our first year of expenses. Please see spreadsheet in the appendix. We will add in a 20% fudge factor just in case we have any unanticipated expenses in year one. We project a conservative business expense dollar amount to be:
$56,112 Anticipated Expenses X .20 20% Fudge Factor = $11,222 Possible Additional And Unanticipated Expenses During Year One
$56,111 Anticipated Expenses თ,111 Unanticipated Expenses = $67,334 Total Anticipated And Unanticipated Business Expenses For Year One.
Profit Per Truck
Please see the graph on the following page of the ‘Net Profit One Truck’. This graph is based on the spreadsheets ‘Anticipated Gross Sales From Services’ minus ‘Anticipated Business Expenses’.
We realize that if a conservative approach is taken, we must use the 70% scenario for Gross Sales and add 20% to Business Expenses. We project a conservative net profit for the first truck in year one to be:
$ 87,241 Gross Receipts – 67,334 Expenses = $ 19,907 First Year Profit. $ 19,907 First Year Profit divided by 12 Number Of Months = $ 1,659 Per Month Profit, A Good Conservative Number.
Author: Lance Winslow
Tags: Business Plans, financial business plans, Financial Projections in Business Plans
Wedding Business Marketing
Creating a marketing plan for your wedding business doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are some common questions about planning.
Q. What will a marketing plan do for me?
A. A properly constructed marketing plan helps you design your service so that it’s more attractive and visible to potential buyers. It can also help you be more profitable.
Q. What should a good plan include?
A. First off writing marketing plan is an opportunity for you to take an objective look at your business. It forces you to look at facts instead of blindly preceding on guesswork. You need to look at the needs of your customers, trends in the market as well as your competition is.
You need to figure out exactly who your customers are. Is your target market the affluent, older bride or is it the younger, middle-class bride? Knowing your ideal client will help you decide how to reach her.
Q. When should you decide on how much to charge?
A. The planning process is your opportunity to decide on your pricing strategy. You also need to take a careful look at your brand’s personality and your positioning statement.
Q. What’s a positioning statement?
A. Positioning is nothing more than how you were potential customer perceives your business. Are you the friendly and approachable planner? Are you a cost-cutting wedding planner? Are you the exotic destination-wedding planner? Carefully consider how you wish to be perceived in your market.
Q. Is a marketing plan only good for new businesses? Can it help me get repeat customers?
A. Absolutely.A solid marketing plan is not just about attracting new customers it also includes how you will deliver the outstanding service that’s required to generate word-of-mouth referrals.
Q. How many pages should my marketing plan be?
A. There is no hard and fast rule on how many pages of marketing plan should be. The size of the document is not as important as the thinking that goes behind it. You want and make sure that your marketing plan is actionable in other words you can take this document and use it as your road-map to achieving your goals.
Q. Should I hire someone to write it?
A. You should never abdicate planning your business to anybody else. A marketing plan is not a document or impressing bankers. The only thing that really impresses bankers is consistently generating profits. The decisions you make in a marketing plan affect what you were going to be doing next week next month or next year.You have to be intimately involved in creating a marketing plan that resonates with you your values and your objectives.
Q. What mistakes do wedding planners make when they create a marketing plan?
A. They fail to use the plan as a road-map to guide every business decision. They seem to forget about the plan and wing it instead. Simply typing up a marketing plan putting it in a three ring binder and leaving it there is not going to help you grow your business. I’d rather see you write a marketing plan on the back of a napkin that actionable than having a 70 page typeset dead document.
Q. Any other advice?
A. There’s lots to learn about marketing.Don’t get overwhelmed. There are plenty of resources out there to help you grow your business intelligently.
Author: Brian McGovern
The Wedding Planner’s Marketing Plan
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Tags: Business Marketing, Marketing Plan, Wedding Business Marketing, Wedding Planning Business Marketing
