Business Planning and Budgets

A business plan should demonstrate how much money you need, why you need it and when your investor is likely to get repaid. It should instil confidence in your business and management skills to convince your bank, financier or investors to lend you the necessary funds. To raise substantial capital for your privately held business your business plan must be clear, complete and realistic. A poorly prepared business plan will impact on your chances of receiving the funding.

We believe every business should start with the end in mind which is why we are so pedantic about helping clients with their business structure, accounting software selection, website and marketing plans. This is also important from a business planning perspective because you need to consider the financial outcomes you would like to achieve from the start. Using some financial modelling tools we can prepare ‘what ifs’ calculations so you know your best and worst case scenarios but without knowing your financial goals you are missing a key driver for your business plan.

Basic elements of a Business Plan:

01.

Business Description

You need to provide an overview of your business operations but you should try and keep it simple and assume the reader has virtually no knowledge of your industry or operations. Make sure that the reader will have a firm understanding of your business, the products and services and who your targeted customers or clients are.

02.

Competition

Clearly describe who your competitors are and why they have the lion’s share of the market. You should also explain how they achieved their status and how you intend to win a share of the market. Be realistic but conservative with your estimates and paint the picture based on best, worst and likely scenarios.

03.

Marketing

Provide a detailed description of the marketing techniques you plan to use to achieve your projected sales figures. Highlight your points of difference, your focus on niche markets and provide an insight into the unique features in your website, the search engine optimisation techniques and marketing collateral you plan to create. Cover off on your branding, launch and ongoing marketing activities given it could be the difference between boom or bust. Convince prospective investors that you are not only confident and serious about increasing your sales but you also have the skills, techniques and collateral to achieve your targets.

04.

Personnel

Success in business can boil down to 3 key variables – strategy, tools and people. Without pro-active people on the management team the best ideas and products can fail. Describe your management team and include resumes of all your key personnel. You should also list people in other employment categories like production, sales, finance and administration together with an organisational chart to illustrate total employment numbers.

05.

Financial Data

Illustrate your current financial position
(balance sheet) as well as your current profit and loss statement and other income sources such as salaries. You then need to prepare projections for start up costs, the first year’s financial statements and a cash flow budget. They are designed to illustrate where you are going financially and ideally you should project these figures over 3 to 5 years depending on the amount you are financing.

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