Writing Your Business Plan

Reasons why you should have a business plan:

• To articulate why you have gone into business;
• To raise funds;
• To exit and realise the business value.

We use a 3-stage process to write your plan.

We will interview key members of the team, likely to be you, Andrew Packer and Amy Doran, and seek information on the business to capture key information. This will expand on our initial discussions around management, products and services, markets and marketing.

We will review historical financial information and seek input from your external accountant, Andrew Sherling, as required.

Where financial information is not readily available, we will discuss with you the most effective way of obtaining this so as to minimise costs.

We will build a financial model that incorporates historical information and financial forecasts. The model will generate a three-year P&L, balance sheet and cash flow forecast and allow for assumptions to be changed easily. You will be able to carry out scenario planning to allow you to make informed decisions and understand the business risks.

Our forecast models are simple to follow and designed to be understandable even to an unsophisticated user. We aim for a single-page dashboard showing at-a-glance information relevant to each client, such as a summary cash flow indicating the maximum funding requirement.

We will agree with you the detailed input assumptions before designing and building the model to ensure that we achieve the required level of sophistication whilst minimising cost. For example, we may build in to the model individual client forecast assumptions rather than using broad brush assumptions to obtain a more reliable picture.

Although the financial forecasts may be the core of the business plan, the readers’ perception of their achievability depends on the detailed plans set out in the narrative. It is important that the narrative and figures are consistent and support each other. The narrative provides the opportunity to justify the assumptions in the forecast.

We will communicate with you and seek additional information, as necessary, to write the narrative. We would expect several revisions to the plan, following input from key members of the team

The plan will present an optimistic and realistic view of the business. It is common to include a Risk Factors and Rewards section and a useful way of giving a balanced view is to include a SWOT analysis. We will discuss the pros and cons of this with you during the drafting stage.

Whilst we will draft the plan and make recommendations on what to include, we will ensure that the final document meets with your approval.