Business plans are a vital strategic tool for any new venture. But many people don’t realize, that it is not the document itself that plays a huge part in a new business’ success, but rather the process of having to think and make decisions – large and small – about all aspects of your new ventures, and getting more and more proficient at it as you go along. In this section we’ll check out how to kick off the planning process.

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower

The fastest way to get your planning process off the ground is creating a One Page Businessplan, which is a close relative to an executive summary in long business plan. It’s a simple and fast procedure that will cover the basics and get the ball rolling. In this section we will work through the SSBB one page planning template for your venture.

A business plan is, simply put, a road map for your business. It outlines where you want to go and describe the route on how you plan to get there in detail. Many people still have this outdated idea in their head that the plan must be a long, boring document and shy away from it, thinking it a nuisance of a necessity. You can stop rolling your eyes right now. I can see you, you know. In this section will look at some awesome Business Plans and the different sections that need to go into your opus maximus, especially if you want to charm the pants off future investors.

One of the most vital elements in planning is the SWOT analysis. The acronym stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and is a structured planning method that can evaluate pretty much anything: a company, a product, a service or a person. Well work through the SWOT analysis for your small business in this section of the module.

As with everything in life, one size does not fit all. In this section we look at three alternative planning methods and examples of their uses:
– the Business Model Canvas
– Gantt charts
– Mind maps

Every business planning process requires setting business objectives which will later be translated into actionable SMART (specific – measurable – attainable – realistic – timely) goals. We’ll look into the difference between setting goals and objectives and how to go about setting those milestones for you and your business.

A healthy cash flow and liquidity are key factors to getting any startup off the ground and running. Retaining a lean overhead, can contribute greatly to achieving that goal. We’ll check out options to keep overhead low and look into colab spaces in Switzerland as well as special service packages for startups and SMEs in Switzerland. Because lower fixed costs mean less risk for the budding entrepreneur.

Writing the financial section of a business plan is quite intimidating for many first time entrepreneurs, but is an important factor for the success of your venture. We’ll take a closer look at how to get started with getting down with your numbers, so you can understand and project how well your business can do in the future.

A solid place to start, is the expense budget. Creating this overview will allow you to understand how much costs you have to cover to be able to make a profit in the first place. We’ll look at an expense budget template and differentiate between fixed costs (i.e. rent and payroll) and variable costs (i.e.  advertising and promotional expenses).

The next step in the financial planning process is the sales forecast. In this spread sheet you’ll make an educated guess about much of your product or service you are going to sell during your first and the following two to three years. We’ll work through a sales forecast template in this part of the module together.

The next step in the financial planning process is the cash flow statement. It is a simple spreadsheet that shows actual cash moving in and out of your business. At the outset this is based on a set of assumptions you’ll have to make about your business. We’ll work through a 12 month sample cashflow template and look into potential pitfalls such as delinquent customers.

The income projection is nothing else but a pro forma profit & loss sheet and you can base this on the previously established expense budget, sales forecast, and cash flow. Typically done for three to five years, we’ll review an income projection example during this part of the module.

Next up on the financial menu we’ll check out how to draw up a balance sheet that will show your assets and liabilities for your venture. We’ll go trough an easy checklist of assets to estimate what you’ll have in stock, month by month for cash, accounts receivable (money owed to you), inventory if applicable, as well as physical assets like properties and equipment. On the other side of the balance we look into what you have as liabilities – aka debts. This is all money that you owe because you haven’t paid bills as of yet (aka accounts payable) as well as any outstanding loans.

At a break even point your business matches the expenses with your sales volume. If you have taken the time to create a three to five year income projection you’ll be able to realistically assess when that is going to happen and when sales are going to surpass your expenses and your business will become profitable. If you are planning to bring on investors at some point in the future, the break even point is often a deciding factor for them to evaluate whether they want to come on board.

Finally, we’ll take a gander at the pitch sheet, essentially a slightly amended One Page Plan with some added financial information about your funding needs and use of those funds. The pitch sheet is your “elevator pitch” in written form, a short, concise document that will hopefully convince an investor to check out your idea and in-depth business plan. We’ll look at some examples and you can easily create a visually appealing pitch sheet in a few minutes.