Your Business Planning ToolkitTo Do List

• What’s my

USP?• Creativity =

Differentiation

• Plan It

• Drive Positive

Change

• Strive To

Improve

Innovative People ⇔ Innovative Cities27th March 2014

Your idea – max the opportunity

You love being creative!

You have a great business

idea!

Go! Go! Go!

Wait! Stop!

Who will you sell this to?

You may need investment

How will you make money?

What about other benefits of doing this

business?

Is this a great Public

Relations opportunity?

Is there a Community

Interest angle?

Creativity

Practical Planning

Will your creative idea be right for the market? Your creative passion is to be encouraged and applauded

BUT!!!!

Adapt your ideas to meet the demands of your customers What does your market research tell you? Customer is King! Who else apart from the direct customer needs to be convinced? They are your customers too!

Which Customers? A new Wakefield change consulting firm has identified its target customer

base, including: Education Sector – Academies and 16+ Community Interest Companies / Social Enterprises Local Authorities Central Government / NHS / Other Public Sector Start Up Businesses Growth Businesses with Expansion Plans Small Businesses with limited capacity to do everything they need to, or that

recognises they don’t have the required skills

And who else?................

Potential customers Other established organisations that already provide services to those target customers It can deliver its services through Associations, Partnership, Collaborative Bids Best of all….this approach requires….

So…. HR consultancies with a client base Accountants and solicitors providing Business and HR advice Business coaches Education sector consultants ERDF and other grant funded business support programmes, e.g. Wakefield Business

Support Programme, New Enterprise Schemes, Growth Accelerator, Growth Vouchers, Manufacturing Advisory Service, Skills Funding, Arts Council, Lottery Funded et al…….

OK!! –SO WHO WILL YOU SELL YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE TO?

Creative Thinking

PLAN IT

Left Brain – Right Brain Research suggests we all have a dominant side of the brain - this shapes personality

Which are you?

What does it say about your personality?

Right-brained tend to be creative, curious and intuitive

Those ruled by the left tend to be logical, strategic and rational

What are the implications of that for your team? Might you need left and right brain?

Sommer+Sommer braintest

This is just one example

Consider other ways and tools to find out whether you have the right personality, skills, experience, knowledge and capacity to get your concept to market

What sort of business plan? Consider what sort of business plan you need. Whilst there are some common principles the reasons why you need a

plan will determine what content you need in it Planning should be proportionate to your business need and customer

requirements Plans needed for internal progress checking are likely to be very

different for those where you are seeking investment, wanting to lease premises, etc.

You must put yourselves in the shoes of the customer Write your plan with influence so they can make an easy decision to

progress

Reasons to plan

Get clarity from the start Know the fundamentals of the business Get off to the best possible start Document your direction at start up or if you’re at a standstill Think about areas not previously considered Consider issues in more depth Look at the business inside out Forward look with long term cashflow projections Goal / objective / target setting

Reasons to plan Internal Progress Monitoring, Measurement and Reporting (living document) Satisfy Business Stakeholders/ Shareholders of direction of travel Feasibility Studies Seeking investment / funding – attract them and provide confidence refer to

“WBSP sources of finance” To secure premises, e.g. on a lease Franchising / licensing Company Valuation, e.g. merger / acquisition Exit Strategy – e.g. effective and efficient plan for withdrawing products and

services that are no longer viable Whilst there are some common principles the reasons why you need a plan will

determine what content you need to include

In your plan…consider these Business Opportunity – value statement/mission; window of opportunity,

stage of development Marketing - market size and focus, customer positioning, products and

services, distribution, operational business model, inc.value proposition, capabilities/resources, partnerships, activities, relationships, costs, market channels, revenues, customers, summary

Operations – executive capability, business development schedule / vision (including milestones), GANNT chart/ project plan

PESTLE Analysis SWOTM Analysis Governance and Ownership – owners, board, assets, e.g. patents Financials, including investment required, cash-flow projections and

assumptions, business valuation Base case (most likely), best case and worst case scenarios

In proportion

to the reason

for your plan

And when that’s done…don’t forget these at the front

Well designed cover – first impressions count! Document Contact Disclaimer/ Intellectual Property/ Confidentiality Clause Business Snapshot Contents Executive Summary – overview, founders and team, business

objective, products and services, competitors, customers, the market, financial forecasts, investment needs

Business Objectives Make them SMART – Specific; Measurable; Achievable;

Realistic / Relevant; Timed

Agree them with your stakeholders

They are targets – so support them with performance measures, monitoring and progress reporting

Can encompass both outcome and objective setting.What do I want to achieve?Why do I want to achieve it?What will success look like? – write it, draw it – use

colour description and feelingsBreak down the goal into mini goals / steps to achieve,

with mini successes and shorter timeframesWhat barriers to success exist and what can I do to

prevent them happening?

Goal setting

Phillip Parramore MBA MInstLM

Performance Improvement and People Development Specialist

T:  07766 543356

E:  info@guidedotyou.co.uk

W: www.guidedotyou.co.uk

Thank youFrom GuideDotYou

Change Solutions