PRE-START BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Participant Name:
Business Name (if known):

Your plan is about you, your company, and your ideals. The aim of completing this document is to clarify your thoughts, provide a basis for researching the market you will be trading in and to assist you and your SPEED Plus Business Consultant get the most out of the time that you spend together.

IMPORTANT: You are not expected to have in-depth business knowledge. Please complete each section to the best of your ability.

Section 1: Mission Statement:

My Company/Business Mission Statement:

Tips:

Read other companies’ mission statements (use Google), but write a statement that is about you and not some other company. Say who your company is, what you do, what you stand for and why you do it.

Avoid saying how great you are, what great quality and what great service you provide.

Don’t “box” yourself in. Your mission statement should be able to withstand the changes that come up over time in your product or service offerings, or customer base. A cardboard box company isn’t in the business of making cardboard boxes; it’s in the business of providing protection for items that need to be stored or shipped. The broader understanding helps you see the big picture.

Make sure you actually believe in what you’re writing; your customers and any employees you may have will soon spot a lie.

As a guide, the best mission statements tend to be three or four sentences long.

Section 2: Your Personal Goals

Why do you want to run your own business?
What qualities do you have that will make your business a success?

Section 3: Your Business Goals

Briefly describe your business idea.
When do you aim to make your first sale to a customer?
How much money do you hope to make in year 1?
How much money do you hope to make in year 3?

Section 4: The Market

Who will be your customers?
What is it about your business that makes it unique from other similar businesses out there?
How will you find your customers and target them?
How much do your competitors charge? (You will need to research the market to establish this.)
What do you think are going to be the major challenges that you will face when setting up your business?
What are the 5 main things that are stopping you from trading right this minute?

Section 5 : Finance/Pricing

When you consider pricing you need to establish if you provide a product or a service? There is no clear-cut method of establishing a price for your product or service but you must ensure that you charge more than the costs that you incur (and that includes allowing fully for you time). Providing a service may mean that your pricing is mainly based on your time whereas pricing a product will involve looking at the cost of components etc. as well as your time (“cost” based pricing”). Some products or services will be priced based on what the market can bear (“market” based pricing).

What costs are associated with setting up your business i.e. what equipment do you need, rent, website, stationery etc?
How do you intend to finance these start-up costs?
What costs are associated with providing the product/service that you wish to sell i.e. stock, components, time, overheads etc?
What do your competitors charge?
What amount of profit do you think you will make (this may be expressed as a percentage or an amount of money)?

Section 6 : PEST Analysis

A PEST analysis is a useful tool to help you understand the market and external factors which may affect your business. The outcome of the PEST analysis will assist you with completing the Opportunities and Threats section of the SWOT analysis. List the factors which may have an impact on your business i.e. new Government, recession, fashion changes, new advances in technology.

Political Factors / Economic Factors
Social Factors / Technological Factors

Section 7 : SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis allows you to start to define your business action plan. Strengths and Weaknesses are normally internal to you/your business and are normally based on the current situation i.e. unique product, niche market, high levels of competition. Opportunities and Threats (from the PEST analysis) are normally external i.e. how may the Government policy affect your business, and are normally based in the future. Cross referencing these in a grid will give you the basis of your business action plan.

Internal
Strengths / Weaknesses
External / Opportunities / Strengths/Opportunities / Weaknesses/Opportunities
Threats / Strengths/Threats / Weaknesses/Threats