Most people see a business plan as a set of numbers mainly designed to get finance. It will normally comprise

• Outline text
• Projected financials i.e. P + L, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow

The plan will be done at start-up. It will be dusted down when new finance is needed

What’s wrong here?

There are several things wrong with this approach. These are

• It avoids asking the key business questions like
  • who are our customers, how do we get and keep them
  • who are the competition
  • what are our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
  • We never measure performance against the plan. That’s like setting off for Bedlfast and arriving in Cork..
  • We may not understand how the numbers hang together e.g. how payment options affect cashflow

How should we use plans?

• Look at the key business stategy first. What are you offering? What is the market
• Based on your strengths and weaknesses develip yourtactics, pricing, advertising etc
• Put put numbers on your projected results
• Debate the plan with partners, advisors, family etc. This helps you identify weaknesses and argue your case convincingly
• When in business continuously monitor performance against the plan

How we can help

We can help you in several ways

 We have broad commercial experience in project appraisal  We can help you in the strategic and financial planning phase.

We support you in presenting to your case to lenders and grant agencies.  We are approved Enterprise Ireland advisors.

Measuring performance against plans can be difficult for small businesses. We vcan provide accounting services to givy you ongoing information on how you are doing.