Professional Business Plan development for Funding & Business Grants

A professional business plan is the foundation of a successful business… Business Plans may be internally or externally focused. Externally focused plans target goals that are important to external stakeholders, particularly financial stakeholders. They typically have detailed information about the organisation or team attempting to reach the goals. With for-profit entities, external stakeholders include investors and customers

A professional business plan that is well executed and developed is in essence the difference between your business being funded or not!

What Does a Professional Business Plan Entail…

A business plan is a formal statement of business goals and objectives; it also, gives reasons and provides strategy as to how they are attainable, and timeframes for reaching them. It also contains background information about the organisation, an in-depth market analysis, feasibility research, information on the team attempting to reach those goals and more.

Financial Cornerstone of a Professional Business Plan…

The yard-stick in measuring and quantifying the goals in business are often numbers and a business plan has to be backed by a well formulated financial plan. A well formulated financial plan is what is scrutinised most by funders and has to include the following:

Projected monthly management accounts
Projected yearly income statements
financial reporting
Projected yearly balance sheet
Projected yearly ratio’s and graphs
Projected yearly cash-flow statements
Projected yearly cash analysis
Projected yearly break even analysis
Projected loan amortisation schedule
Projected fixed asset schedule

Start-Up’s Objectives in a Professional Business Plan

When looking to start a business, some of the key objectives & questions your business plan should cover include:

What problem does the company’s product or service solve? What niche will it fill?
What is the company’s solution to the problem?
Who are the company’s customers, and how will the company market and sell its products to them?
What is the size of the market for this solution?
What is the business model for the business (how will it make money)?
Who are the competitors and how will the company maintain a competitive advantage?
How does the company plan to manage its operations as it grows?
Who will run the company and what makes them qualified to do so?
What are the risks and threats confronting the business, and what can be done to mitigate them?
What are the company’s capital and resource requirements?
What are the company’s historical and projected financial statements?

Mitigating Risk in a Professional Business Plan

One of the key objectives of a business plan is to effectively mitigate risk, for both you the owner of the business and for funders is risk mitigation. Our business advisors carefully analyses each business and provide strategies to effectively fulfill your key objectives while mitigating risk.

A popular strategy when borrowing in a sector that is supported by business grants is to cushion a portion of your borrowings by non-repayable grants; and VAT on capital expenditure to reduce debt considerable, thereby mitigating risk.