The Basics of a Business Plan

Establishing your own business can be one avenue to increasing wealth, as it gives you the opportunity to control and expand your earning capacity. So why is it that some business owners end up in less advantageous financial positions, sometimes losing everything they own?

One factor that can help to determine the success of your venture is the planning that you do before starting, and during the lifetime of your business. A business plan is basically a document that provides a thorough description of your venture; giving information about the type of operation, the products or services offered, the industry in which it exists and the target market, its objectives and the strategies to be used to accomplish its goals, and financial details about the business.

In theory, since you conceived the business idea, it should be relatively simple for you to put down these various details on paper. However, writing a business plan is a project that may require expert guidance, as it takes careful thought and analysis to develop a comprehensive blueprint for your business.

Recently, the Private Sector Development Programme (PSDP), an agency that provides technical assistance to small businesses in Jamaica, hosted a workshop that looked at the importance of business planning for organisational growth and sustainability.

Deanna McFarlane, consulting officer in the PSDP’s Corporate Finance Broker Unit, explained that a business plan would assist entrepreneurs to plot a course for their businesses and increase their chances for success. By completing a plan, owners would be better able to identify customers, improve operational efficiencies, focus on strategic goals, obtain financing for start-up and expansion, and attract investors for further growth.

McFarlane outlined the following steps to completing an effective business plan:

1. Executive Summary

This section provides the key highlights of the business plan, summarising the profile of the business, objectives, strategies and all the other areas that are detailed in the rest of the document. Although the summary appears at the beginning, you should only prepare it after completing the other segments. It must be well written and attention-grabbing to influence readers to continue to examine your plan.

2. History & Background

You should provide a description and location of the business in this section, as well as the reason why it was started and its basic objectives. List accomplishments such as major contracts or awards won, along with details on memberships in business and trade associations. If your business is a start-up you can talk about your personal successes that are relevant.

3. Strategic Direction

In this segment, you need to outline your vision - a short statement that highlights the soul of your business and its reason for being; and your mission - a statement expressing the overall purpose of the organisation. Then outline your goals, listing short-term objectives and your long-term plans over five years. Finally, describe the strategies that must be implemented in production, marketing, sales, distribution, internal operations, management and financing, to attain your objectives.

4. Environmental Analysis

Describe the general environment within which your business is operating, and state the relevance of your business to the sector in this section. You should also analyse your strengths and weaknesses, those internal factors that can influence your development; as well as the external opportunities and threats that can make or break your business. McFarlane advised entrepreneurs to admit the truth about their businesses, as this would help them to solve potential problems.

5. Market Analysis

A description of industry factors should be provided in this segment, looking at the size of the market, existing products/services and market segments, and trends that may affect your business. It is crucial to research details about your main competitors and identify their strengths and weaknesses, in order to plan ways to capture market share from them or maintain your dominance.

6. Marketing Strategy

McFarlane explained that business success depended on the ability to attract customers and keep them satisfied. This section will help you to understand your market, by examining key demographic details such age, gender, income level, geography, buying habits and personal tastes. Give details about your expected sales performance, distribution channels and your competitive strengths.

7. Organisational Structure

In this segment, provide information on the management and human resources of the organisation by giving profiles on key team members and important external advisors. You should also describe recruitment plans that may be essential to the business, and any relevant regulatory issues.

8. Financial Analysis

This final section is the most crucial, as it details how the money will be earned and spent. You will probably need assistance from an accountant to create a balance sheet, profit and loss statement, cash flow projections and other revenue assumptions. Looking at the figures will help you to determine if your wonderful business idea is actually feasible.

So, if you haven’t already written your business plan, put aside some time to get it done. As McFarlane confirmed, proper planning will help to build people’s confidence in your venture, and greatly assist you in achieving your business goals.

Copyright © 2009 Cherryl Hanson Simpson

Top 3 Wealth Creation Strategies

Here, I'll make clear the top 3 wealth generation secrets I learned with Jamie McIntyre. One of them allowed me to support my family after losing my job.

Select one of these systems and use it consistently to gain financial freedom. And do not stop educating yourself and finding out about the method in depth.

3 Strategies Revealed

1 - Share Renting

Renting shares is an expression coined by Jamie to elucidate an options trading methodology known as covered calls. An investor can create unceasing cash flow from options premiums issued against a share owned by that financier. That's the reason why it is known as'renting'.

When an investor understands a stock exchange worth won't experience giant range over a period of time, the financier will write a call option contract against that share for a similar period. He will earn the premium right after he writes the contract generating instant money.

The financier purchasing the contract expects the cost of the share will riseimmediately and has the option to to get the share cheaper thanthan the market value.

Covered call is a favored strategy for investors planning to boost extra revenue while holding a stock which overtime reduces the risk of owning that stock. In addition to the money created, the investor can still get' other stock benefits like dividends and voting rights.

Glaringly you need to talk to a financial counsellor to help you select the best pick for this strategy and deal with the operational issues.

2 - Real Estate Investing with No Deposit

This strategy is really beneficial for beginner property financiers that desire to enter the investment but don't have any money.
you get an off the plan property and barter a 10% discount. You need to search forchances to get price cuts without using property developers and avoid buying a property that won't increase in price overtime.

You employ a bank deposit bond to pay for the ten percent deposit and secure a 90% loan on the initial property cost.

Next, you barter the settlement for a lengthy period and you will have time to find someone to pay for the remainder of the loan.

This is a simplified version of the technique and you'll learn it in more detail in the home study. But it shows you a possibility you may never imagined.

3 - Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a Web business strategy that allows you to sell other people products on the web to earn profits.

Thousands of firms or merchants use affiliates to sell their products in order to spend less money promoting and reaching more people.

An affiliate register a site around a spot or sub segment of the market and advocates a product to an audience. When a user click a recommended link, arrives on the merchant's internet site and and buy a product the affiliate get his cut.

The commission structure alter and an associate can receive a share of the sale, a fixed price for a subscription or lifetime takings.

The options of products are endless and you can definitely find a product that pleases a massive target market and still is of your interest.

In order to make money with affiliate marketing one has to drive a huge amount of visitors to the merchant website and chose a program that has proven high conversion rate.

The above mentioned secrets are methods to create wealth and let you live a more enjoyable life in the future. I was thought affiliate internet marketing with Jamie McIntyre 2 years ago which authorized be to generate sufficient funds to make ends meet.

Individual Health Insurance

Health insurance is the essential requirement of every individual. In fact some people get it through their employers; while some prefer to get it individually. Interesting fact about the health insurance is that only few people get health coverage at work. This is the main reason; there is a tremendous scope for individual health insurance sale. When it comes to get an affordable health insurance plan, people want to get more and more information. On the other hand, brokers make every effort to change the individual health insurance leads into policies. Apart from this, in this technological advancement era, most of the individuals who don't receive health coverage from employers use the internet to search for an affordable and budget-friendly plan.

To make the process of taking a plan easy and hassle free, most of the brokers assure that the prospect buyer of individual health insurance are guided to a reliable insurance company. From these companies, buyers can easily avail a plan according to their budget as well as requirements. Individual health insurance leads that these brokers provide to insurance companies as well as to the agents are online shoppers who are actively searching for individual health insurance quotes. In short, with the help of these brokers, one can be sure of getting these individual health insurance leads. Talking about the sources for such types of health insurance leads, then for brokers the internet as well as small businesses are the sources for them. For hassle free and instant process, first of all, online brokers also filter the leads thus forward them to insurance companies.

Brokers of individual health insurance leads are very committed as well as focused in providing the insurance companies and agents with the quality leads. Apart from this, they also assure then that leads are sent in real-time. Interesting fact about the broker is that they never attract individual for health insurance leads by offering special offers as well as incentives to force them to get a policy. Moreover, with extensive database of potential clients and because of high contract rates, these brokers assure individuals and increase sale. Above all, individual health insurance leads through these brokers will definitely take the insurance companies as well as agent's one step closer to the prospect buyer of the individual health insurance