What your business plan should include
Your business plan should include a summary of what your business does, how it has developed, where you want it to go and all the social objective you want to achive (the Triple bottom line). In particular, if you are wanting to grow, it should cover your strategy for improving your existing sales and processes to achieve this aim.
You also need to make it clear what period the business plan covers – this will typically be the next 12 to 24 and now are quite often 36 months.
The plan needs to include:
- Market aims and objectives - for example how many new customers you want to atract and the anticipated size of your customer base by the end of the period.
- Operational information – such as where your business is based or would like to be based, who your suppliers are and the premises and equipment needed etc
- Financial information – which should including profit and loss forecasts, cashflow forecasts, sales forecasts and audited accounts.
A summary of the business objectives, including targets and dates to be achieved. If yours is an owner-managed business, you may wish to include an exit plan. This includes planning the timing of your departure and the circumstances, e.g. family succession, sale of the business, floating your business or closing it down.
If you intend to present your business plan to an external audience such as investors or banks, you will need to include your current plan.
We at CMS can support you with these issues whether you are a Enterprise in the making or a long established Coop or Social Enterprise
Tags: Starting a Business
