Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
where you want to be by a given date and how you intend to get there. This guide looks at: The benefits of a business plan What should be included in your business plan? The basics of writing your own.
A business plan is not only for business start-ups. It is an evolving document that should be reviewed regularly. It will always be a useful tool to persuade others to invest time, money and effort in your business.
Purpose
You should be able to sum up your purpose in a couple of sentences. It should clarify what you want your business to achieve, beyond making a profit.
Objectives
While purpose is general, objectives should be SMART: Specific Measurable Actionable Realistic Timed You may have a number of different objectives, but they should complement each other and be prioritised.
Strategy
While your strategy may be flexible, it should always be grounded in thorough market research. You should investigate: Potential customers and competitors. Economic and market conditions. How trade works in your chosen sector.
Who the suppliers are. The staff, facilities and equipment required. Trends and emerging technologies that could transform the marketplace.
Include a SWOT analysis, listing your business Strengths and Weaknesses and then the Opportunities and Threats to your business from the outside world. This will help you make sense of your research. You should then be able to answer the following questions: Who will buy from me? Why should they buy from me? How will I supply what they buy? What makes me different from my competitors? What is my unique selling point (USP)?
Budget
The success or failure of your business rests on its ability to make a profit and anyone thinking of investing in your business will scrutinise your budget closely. Work to a 12-month cashflow and estimated two-year profit projection, breaking down your budgets into monthly figures, showing the main areas of expenditure and income. Remember to include contingencies in every area to cover unexpected costs. While you need to show confidence in your business, unrealistic projections are likely to do more harm than good. Its safer to be pessimistic than wildly optimistic.
Exit strategy
Its not essential, but including details of any proposed exit strategy demonstrates the thoroughness of your planning.
Executive summary
Start your business plan with an executive summary to provide readers with a quick overview of the whole report. This is best written last.
You may find that a more detailed plan is necessary, but avoid including very detailed figures as these will be more likely to change and your plan will become out of date.
We aim to provide the highest level of customer service possible. However, if you experience a problem, we will always seek to resolve this as quickly and efficiently as possible. A copy of our How to voice your concerns leaflet can be obtained in branch or by contacting your relationship team. The complaint procedures are also published on our website: Contact us. While all reasonable care has been taken to ensure that the information in this business guide is accurate, no liability is accepted by Bank of Scotland for any loss or damage caused to any person relying on any statement or omission in this business guide. This business guide is provided for information only and should not be relied on as offering advice for any set of circumstances and specific advice should always be sought in each instance. When using these services your agreement will be with the relevant third party and their terms and conditions will apply. Bank of Scotland shall not be responsible or liable to you for any failure by the third party to provide these services or in relation to use by the third party of any confidential information supplied to them by you.
Please contact your business team or branch if youd like this in Braille, large print or on audio tape.
We accept calls made through RNID Typetalk. Calls may be monitored or recorded in case we need to check we have carried out your instructions correctly and to help improve our quality of service. Bank of Scotland Business is a trading name of Bank of Scotland plc and serves customers with an annual turnover of up to 15m. Bank of Scotland plc. Registered in Scotland No. SC327000. Registered Office: The Mound, Edinburgh EH1 1YZ. Bank of Scotland plc are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority under numbers 169628. Licensed under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 under registration number 0593292. Both companies are members of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and the Financial Ombudsman Service. (Please note that due to the schemes' eligibility criteria not all Bank of Scotland customers will be covered by these schemes.)