Dear Client

You will note in the following pages there are bullet points to assist you to think and help answer the main questions. Some of these questions may or may not be relevant to your own particular business, if not relevant please feel free to remove from your plan.

NB To add text under each section click on “blue text” and start typing

This page and the text in grey in each section should be deleted prior to submitting your business plan

Many thanks

Business Plan for

"Enter Business Name"

Prepared by:"Enter your name"

Date:"Enter date"

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1Plan summary

2Business objectives

3Business and contact details

4Business management

5Products and services

6Marketing

7Employees

8Premises

9Vehicles, equipment and other assets

10Legal

11Quality

12Environmental policy

13Finance

  • Cashflow

1 PLAN SUMMARY

"Describe plan summary here"

  • Why are you writing this plan?
  • Who needs to see the plan?
  • Do you need to access funding?

Give a general explanation of what the product/service is to be, what staff you will have and who you will market your product/service to

2BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

"Enter future business objectives here"

  • What estimates do you have for approximate turnover and profit, year by year?
  • Do you plan to introduce any additional products or services?
  • Do you plan to introduce any new staff?
  • Do you plan to introduce any new premises?
  • Do you plan to introduce any new equipment?
  • When will these be introduced?

3BUSINESS AND CONTACT DETAILS

Business name

"What is your intended business name?"

Contactdetails

Personal

Name:"Enter your full name"

Date of Birth:"Enter your date of birth"

National Insurance Number"Enter NI number"

Addresses

In the case of a limited company, give your registered office address

For sole traders and partnerships also give the address where legal documents can be served (often home address)

Home Address:
Postcode: / "Enter home address" / Business Address:
Postcode: / "Enter registered/business address"

Website

"What is your website address?"

Telephone numbers

Home Number: / "Enter home tel no" / Business Number: / "Enter business tel no" / Mobile Number: / "Enter mobile no"

E-mail address

Home e-mail address: / "Enter home e-mail address"
Business e-mail address: / "Enter business e-mail address"

Legal status

"What type of business will you have? eg Sole trader; Partnership; Limited liability company; co-operative"

Date of start or proposed start

"Enter intended start date"

If not known, give an approximate date

Name(s) of partners or other director(s)

1 "Enter partner/director name" / 4
2 / 5
3 / 6

Are you (or any of your partners or co-directors):

  • A registered bankrupt with bankruptcy proceedings pending against you Yes/No (delete as applicable)

If yes please give details:

Have you (or any of your partners or co-directors):

  • Received any funding from the HIE networkYes/No (delete as applicable)

4BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Your qualifications

"List ALL the qualifications you have. Even if they are not directly relevant to your business"

Work experience

"Enter relevant information here"

  • What previous employment have you had?
  • What business or management experience did you gain?
  • If you have previously run your own business, what typeof business was it and what happened to it?
  • Or attach your CV containing the above information as an appendix

Training

"Enter skills and training needs"

  • Review your own and other employees skills and identify any training needs (attach a training schedule as an appendix)

Advisers

"List who you've spoken to and what advice given here"

  • Who have you spoken to about your proposal? e.g. accountant, solicitor, bank manager, business advisor
  • What advice has been given?

What will happen to your business if you fall ill or are injured?

"Enter details here"

5PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

"List products/services you'll offer here?"

"If involved in manufacturing list raw materials here"

"List where you'll get supplies from here"

"Describe manufacturing processes here"

  • What products/services will you offer? Be specific – describe the individual or groups of products services
  • If you are involved in manufacturing, what raw materials will be used?
  • Where will you get supplies?
  • What are the manufacturing processes?

6MARKETING

Market research

"Describe research carried out here"

"As a result of the research, how are you going to proceed?"

  • What market research have you carried out (e.g. talking to potential customers, questionnaires, market reports)?
  • Demonstrate that you have researched that a market exists for your products or services, and that customers will buy from you.

Customers

"Describe your customer here"

  • Who are your customers?
  • How would you describe a typical customer?Give approximate age groups,if you can; the split between men/women; the sort lifestyle they have; where they are located.
  • If you are selling to industrial markets, what type & size of business will you be dealing with?

Geographical area covered

"Describe here where you will cover geographically"

  • Where will you offer your product/services? Be as specific as you can

Size of market

"Explain size of market, etc here"

  • Estimate the total number of potential customers for your product(s)/service(s) within your geographic area.
  • Is the number of customers growing, static, or declining? If static or declining, how will you get more business?

Competitors

"List your competitors, location, strengths, weaknesses, etc here"

  • Who are your main competitors?
  • Where are they located? (local, Scotland, UK, internet)
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor?
  • Where can you develop a competitive advantage over them?

SWOT analysis

Business SWOT Analysis

STRENGTHS
"List your business strengths" / WEAKNESSES
"List your business weaknesses"
OPPORTUNITIES
"List your business opportunities" / THREATS
"List threats to your business"

Competitors SWOT Analysis

STRENGTHS
"List your competitors strengths" / WEAKNESSES
"List your competitors weaknesses"
OPPORTUNITIES
"List the opportunities of your competitors" / THREATS
"List threats your competitors business"

"Explain here"

  • As a result of the above, consider why customers will buy from you and not your competitors
  • What will the difference be between your business and your competitors?

Pricing

"Explain your pricing, policy, etc here"

  • Give examples of what you intend to charge for your product(s) service(s)
  • How you arrived at your pricing policy?
  • What margin will you get on your products or services?
  • Which products or services will make the most money?
  • How will you manage travelling time?
  • Will you use a price range, e.g. economy/regular/luxury?

Distribution

"Explain distribution here"

  • Will you sell direct to customers, from a shop, on the internet, or some other method?
  • If you are selling products and also intend to deliver to customers, how will you achieve this?
  • Will you use your own transport or contract others to do it?

Design and packaging

"Explain design and packaging here"

  • If packaging is important to your business, how do you intend to package your products and what will cost be?
  • Will you use a logo, or a certain typeface?
  • How will your stationery, vehicles, premises, uniforms be branded? Put examples in as an appendix

Promotion

"Explain promotion here"

  • How will you promote your business?
  • What methods will you use (e.g. advertising, flyers, personal selling, networking, business cards, etc)?
  • Where will you promote your business (e.g.particular towns, newspapers, notice boards, etc)?
  • What do you intend to say in your promotional material/activities?
  • When will you carry out your promotional activities?
  • What do you want to achieve by doing it (e.g.discount offered to get more customers)?
  • How will you target customers for personal selling?
  • Do you have an E-business strategy / internet market?

7EMPLOYEES

"Explain employees here"

  • What employees do you intend to take on immediately and in the near future?
  • What positions will they hold?
  • What will be their responsibilities?
  • What will be their rates of pay?
  • How will you recruit?
  • What training will they need?
  • How will you train them?

8PREMISES

"Explain premises here"

  • Are you going to work from home or from a business premises?
  • Describe the layout of the premises. What was it previously used for?
  • If working from home, have you obtained the necessary permission?
  • If working from business premises, have you already obtained them? What costs are involved
  • Is the property owned or leased? If leased how long is lease and when is it renewed
  • What conversion work is needed? When will this be carried out? When will this be carried out?

9VEHICLES, EQUIPMENT AND OTHER ASSETS

"Explain vehicles, equipment and other assets here"

  • What assets will be brought to business e.g. computer, vehicle, tools, etc? List items. their value and application
  • What other assets will you need? When and where will you get them? How much will they cost?
  • How do you intend to finance their purchase?
  • What equipment will you need to conduct all your communications (e.g. phone, fax, computer)?

10LEGAL

"Explain legal requirements here"

  • Do you need planning permission or building warrants? Any environmental health issues?
  • Do you need insurances (eg public liability, product insurance, accident, key man, etc)?
  • Do you need to pay any membership or qualification fees?
  • Are their any other legal requirements specific to your business?

11QUALITY

"List any accreditations your business will need and how you will achieve them here"

  • Will ISO9002 be relevant to your business?
  • Will you be an “Investor in People”?
  • Any other business accreditation?

12ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

"List any environmental policies required and what steps taken to comply to your business here"

  • Do you have waste products to dispose of eg tyres, grass cuttings, water? Are you aware of the legislation?

13FINANCE

Start up costs

"List your start up costs"

Personal contribution (cash & assets)

"Write explanation here"

Indicate here what you will be investing in terms of both the cash you will be putting in to the business; and the assets (e.g. tools & vehicles) which you will be bringing to the business as a capital contribution.Put a realistic value on the non-cash items

Financing the remainder

"If relevant write explanation here or delete"

If there is a gap between what you require in total, and what you are contributing, indicate how you intend to bridge the gap.

  • Do you intend to borrow money? If so, how much? From where? On what terms? For how long?
  • Do you intend to apply for any available grants? If so, how much? From where?

Security against borrowing

"If relevant write explanation here or delete"

  • If you are borrowing money, what will you offer as security (if required)?

Financial projections

  • Develop a cash flow forecast which is a calendar of the cash that flows in and out of your business. You use it to estimate any short-fall and make arrangements to get more sales, reduce spending, or borrow money when needed (a template can be found on the website at)