Creating a Business Plan
A business plan is essential for planning, managing, and growing your business. A well-designed plan lays out a vision of growth, important factors, and the guidelines and steps needed to get there. It also provides a guide for managers and staff as your business grows. A business plan is an essential document for obtaining financing for your business.
What is the work-process Lions Financial uses?
A closed-loop, value-focused, four-step SIRE© work-process for each of our services:
It is important to have the right business plan, if your plan is wrong then every step you take will be in the wrong direction as well. This moves companies away from their objective instead of towards it. We implement the four-step SIRE process to help our clients achieve business success.
Step 1: Survey
We will begin process with a questionnaire to have a general understanding of your business. We clarify objectives and gain insights of the unique current issues that need to be addressed.
Step 2: Insight
To have a deep insight of your specific business, we will incorporate industry research, determine product offerings available from many sources, create an assessment for reasonable factors to take into consideration for specific business evaluation.
Step 3: Recommend
Then, we will come up with solutions for Business plan that is tailored to the goals and objectives for your company. We will also provide multiple strategies and avenues to take into consideration for the planning process.
Step 4: Execute
We will implement the strategy with your company. We will do the Due Diligence regarding elements that need to be executed and taken to consideration the Risk factors and manage expectations. We achieve a better result with our professional experience, integration of technology, understanding of your industry, and staying attuned to the compliance and regulatory requirements.
Key Items to Include in a Business Plan
Executive Summary
Introduce company, what it does, value proposition, consumers’ identified key pain points, solutions summary table of company’s existing and future products & services that address these problems, target market, competition, team- executives, management and key employees, financial plan, funding requirements, metrics & milestones
Company Overview
Key details about company’s ownership and legal structure, company history, location, mission statement, value proposition
Products & Services
Key details about products & services, problem & solution, competitive matrix. SWOT Analysis - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.
Services, prices, features and benefits; sourcing & fulfillment distribution chain relevant supporting technology, costs, intellectual property, registered patents, trademarks, copyrights,
Future products vision for 3-year short-, 6-year mid-, and 9-year long-term future
Target Market
TAM/Total Available or Addressable Market
SAM/Segmented Addressable Market or Served Available Market
SOM/Share of Market-3-year short-term future, buyer-user personas, key customers
Marketing & Sales Plan
Positioning -mass-market, mid-market, up-market, luxury-market brand based on competitive matrix analysis
Pricing- cost-based or competition-based
Promotion- packaging, advertising, PR, content marketing, social media
Distribution – direct, retail, manufacturers’ representatives, original equipment manufacturer
Strategic alliances-partnerships
Metrics & Milestones
SAM/Segmented Addressable Market or Served Available Market
SOM/Share of Market-3-year short-term future, buyer-user personas, key customers
Marketing & Sales Plan
Positioning -mass-market, mid-market, up-market, luxury-market brand based on competitive matrix analysis
Pricing- cost-based or competition-based
Promotion- packaging, advertising, PR, content marketing, social media
Distribution – direct, retail, manufacturers’ representatives, original equipment manufacturer
Strategic alliances-partnerships
Metrics & Milestones
Team
List of key executives, managers, key employees & contractors, with relevant credentials & experience of each, compensation, risks & risk mitigation
Financial Plan
- Profit & Loss Statement-annual:
- Revenue – EBITDA, earnings before interest-taxes-depreciation-amortization/ interest-taxes-depreciation-amortization expenses, net profit/income for current and projected short-term future
- COS: direct cost-of-sale, or COGS, direct cost-of-goods-sold, gross margin, total operating expenses
- Cash Flow Statement -accrual accounting by month and annual for current and projected short-term future
- Balance Sheet: Assets -accounts receivable, money in the bank, inventory, Liabilities- accounts payable, credit card balances, loan repayments, Equity – owner’s equity + investors’ shares, retained earnings, stock proceeds, for current and projected short-term future,
- Sales Forecast: by customer segment, by product & service category, for current and projected short-term future.
- Personnel Plan: by team member -type & compensation for current and projected short-term future
- Business Ratios: profitability ratios – gross margin, return-on-sales, return-on-assets, return-on-investment, liquidity ratios debt-to-equity, current ratio, working capital, for current and projected short-term future
- Break-Even Analysis: for current and short-term future
- Use of Funds: major areas -equipment, inventory, renovation, technology hardware & software, personnel, education & training, marketing, sales, partnerships, research & development,
- Exit Strategy: acquisition by another business, with names of some potential buyers, initial public offering/IPO, management buyout, family succession, liquidation
Application for funding by loan alternatives
- Factoring lenders – accounts receivables factored down
- Hedge Fund lenders- quick access money for higher risk businesses such as asset or technology-concept-backed companies
- Peer-to-Peer lenders – family, friends, cause-supporting strangers
- Customer lenders -from within the community which a business serves
- Convertible Debt lenders (private placement and corporate bond investors, with unpaid balances of guaranteed interest-generating investments convertible into equity position holdings of the business)
- Venture Capital lenders (people/companies with access to bank loans not previously available to the borrower business)
Application for funding via SEC-regulated sources
- Public Offerings-registered equity or debt securities public offerings
- Reg A Offerings – lower-threshold less-stringent registration-exempt equity or debt securities public offerings
- Reg D Offerings- registration-exempt private placement equity or debt securities offerings
What’s Next?
Contact Lions Financial for a better strategy and holistic plan for your company. Lions Assurance Financial helps executives and businesses, together with their tax and legal advisors, to develop optimal financial solutions for success. Contact us for an initial consultation to determine how we can help your current business need.
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