CIS Grant Business Plan To Meet Your Requirements

The CIS Grant program, now administered by the Department of Small Business Development, offers a grant to start-ups and existing businesses, owned by at least 5 persons from previously disadvantaged communities and organised as a primary cooperation. The Co-operative Incentive Scheme grant of maximum R350,000 can be used for assets or working capital.

While South Africa has a highly-developed co-operative sector, operating in the formal economy, there are also co-operatives operating in the mainly informal, marginalised, and unskilled economy, the latter of which is populated by the unemployed and those unemployable in the formal sector.

In addressing the needs of this sector, government has established agencies with the sole aim of supporting small businesses and co-operative enterprises. The provision of co-operative support services, such as education and training, business advisory services and access to loans, funding and linkages, is the collective responsibility of the accredited institutions and organisations that provide these sought-after services to co-operatives. Technical support services are also extended via a cost-effective support service that makes use of existing support service providers.

Thinking of starting a new, expanding your current or buying an existing business and need a professional Business Plan developed? A business plan is the most essential element of the early stage planning of your business. Most business strategists agree that planning is one of the most important parts of running a business. There’s the common known saying that “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail” and no matter whether it is a large multinational corporation trying to plan an expansion or a small business launching an exciting new product, the importance of a well-executed business plan is of the utmost importance. We’ve seen numerous clients whose businesses shortcomings could have very well been avoided. Our developments are used regularly to create a vision, secure funding, secure non-repayable business grants, attract team members and/or manage the Company

The essential elements for a well-structured CIS Grant Business Plan include:

Legal entity: Your executive summary should include copies of all registration documents, and the income tax and VAT certificates of the business entity.
Shareholders and management: Add detailed CV’s of all directors, members, and key personnel to motivate that management has the necessary experience to manage the operational, administrative, human resources, marketing and financial aspects of the business. A Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) rating and organogram must be added.
Capital expenditure: Include copies of recent quotations for land and buildings, equipment and soft assets (computers, etc).
Development: Provide a copy of the development and layout. Also include a detailed bill of the infrastructure required, with recent quotations for all material costs. Describe the key staff involved in the development and a transfer of skills plan.
Staffing: This section defines the cost to company of all salaried, waged, part-time and contract, historical and going forward. Ensure that all salaries and wages are preferably market-related and not below minimum wage guidelines for the industry. Outline your process for identifying and hiring new staff.
Marketing analysis: Projected turnover levels need to be based on secured contracts, letters of intent, and/or detailed market research. Include copies of these documents and/or write-ups of the research conducted. Draw up and implement a general and specific marketing strategy to detail how the business will attract market share and achieve projected turnover levels. Some of the areas that the market research should focus on include-
- Competitors’ analysis;
- Competitive edge of the business;
- Demand versus supply;
- Sustainability of the business;
- Future developments (technological, new market entrants, alternate products, etc);
- Contracts with clients;
- Letters of intent from potential clients;
- Other networks and potential relationships that might have been created; and
- Strategic location of the business.
For acquisitions: Obtain the past three years’ historical financial statements and latest management accounts for the current year. The valuation will be based on the Discounted Cash Flow Method (valuing the operations of the business based on its income-generating potential, based on historical and projected future performance), and not necessarily the value of the assets.
Financial projections: Eight documents comprising of the management account, income statement, balance sheet, cash flow, cash forecast, break even analysis, loan amortization schedule and fixed asset schedule with all necessary ratios, graphs and calculations.
Appendix: Statutory information needed by funders in an application (contact us for the complete list).

At DTC we understand the complexities of the various requirements and the unique criteria for a customized and accurate business plan. If using the document to raise funding and/or non-repayable business grants, we guide you forward through the process and provide you access to our vast network of venture capital companies, private equity companies, angel investors, banks, Government B-BBEE initiatives, Silicon Cape investment organisations, rent to own asset funding companies, crowd funds and more for you to seamlessly meet your objectives.