Business plans for small businesses - you can download ready-made examples for free
In this article we will talk about business planning. This publication is a direct instruction to the main actions that allow you to turn an incompletely finished business idea into a clear step-by-step plan for implementing the main tasks.
We will consider:
1. What is a business project and why is it necessary?
2. How to correctly draw up a business plan.
3. How to structure a business plan and draw it up yourself.
4. Ready-made business projects for small businesses - samples and examples with the necessary calculations.
And at the end of our article, we will try to show you the main mistakes of many novice businessmen. In this chapter we will bring to your attention many different arguments necessary to create a competent and high-quality business plan.
In addition to all this, in this publication we will provide examples of completed works. You can easily use them and also use them as a basis for writing your business project. We will also try to answer the questions asked and tell you why not all businessmen create a business project.
So, now in order!
The structure of a business plan and the content of its main sections - a step-by-step guide to creating it
So, how to write a business plan yourself? In this case, you will need a sample for a small business. And you will also find it in this article.
How to draw up a business plan - detailed instructions on how to write it yourself.
In the desire to quickly open their own business, most new entrepreneurs immediately begin to take action without giving them a report. What will this bring them in the future? It also happens differently when a businessman spends the bulk of his personal time in wonderful dreams and daydreams, doing practically nothing in this case, because he simply does not know where to start.
In both of these cases the following situation occurs. Without a competent and clear plan of action, a novice entrepreneur finds himself in a difficult and incomprehensible economic world. As a result, he simply loses his personal desire for his main goal. To be able to create your own business, it is important to draw up a clear and competent business project, which will subsequently play a major role for the entrepreneur in the struggle for personal ideas.
1.1. Business plan - what is it (basic concept and purpose).
Despite the fact that the business plan itself has many purposes, it can be safely given a clear and understandable explanation for the compiler:
A business plan is a fairly clear guide for its creator and investors, which, with the help of the basic mechanisms of the business system, leads to the implementation of the main described idea into reality. This document is created on the basis of three pieces of knowledge about a personal idea, which will subsequently serve as the basis for all your further actions. Only a clear understanding of these things can provide you with exactly the launching pad that will ultimately lead you to your main goal. We offer you three knowledge that are key factors for the success of any business project:
1. First place. The level you are at at the moment. Simply put, if you are an employee and want to open your own store, then you should first understand what skills you lack, what amount of money you have to start entering this business, what equipment, premises, etc. you have.
2. In second place. Final result. In this case, you should decide for yourself exactly what kind of cash flow your business will have, what income, what place in the market, etc.
3.Third place. You need to competently and accurately describe and understand exactly what steps can lead you from the very first step to the second. Of course, you cannot predict and calculate everything. But still, you should understand in great detail how to act. Only after you have dealt with all this can you proceed to the next step, which is preparing to create a personal business project.
1.2. Why do you need to draw up a business plan and why is it necessary? - two main goals.
There are two main purposes for writing a business project. In any of these cases, special attention must be paid to the relevant information.
Goal 1. Create a business plan for investors.
In this situation, you need to try to understand that your main task, which this document will fulfill, is to take money from the investor and prove to the latter that the money will be used rationally.
It makes no difference whether you will need to repay the loan or whether the money will be given to you free of charge, as a subsidy or grant. All the same, you will be obliged to provide the implementation of your personal idea in the most interesting and beautiful way.
It is for this purpose that your personal work should have the following characteristics:
- Logical presentation. It consists of the correctness, clarity and justification of any action, term or process you describe. If you are not sure about something, do not write about it, or try to carefully study this aspect. In addition, on this test you may be asked several tricky questions, on which the final decision will ultimately depend.
- The beauty of storytelling. Everything must be described beautifully and smoothly; you should not write “negative” words. As for such a term as Risks, it needs to be written away from the numbers, or made minimal. It is allowed to slightly smooth out or embellish the described situation, with which any difficulties may arise in the future. But still, it is necessary to take into account the fact that it is not advisable to take on impossible tasks and obligations, even just on paper. This is fraught with consequences.
- Confident delivery. The important thing is that you can create a beautiful and relevant presentation, be able to find supporting statistics, give an example of another company, etc. Behave and speak in such a way that it seems to others that you are stating quite obvious things. Say everything clearly and clearly, so that even a small child can understand you. Many investors may turn out to be much smarter and higher in position than you, and trying to hide by expressing smart words will show others your uncertainty or lack of business skills. The interlocutor must understand you as much as possible and penetrate into the essence of the business idea. If you follow the rules described above, you will have a much better chance of attracting substantial capital thanks to a properly designed business project.
Goal #2. Drawing up a business plan for yourself.
In this case, a business project is drawn up as a guide to action just for you. It is imperative to calculate everything you need, and, based on your personal capabilities, begin to act. This plan must be close to the life situation in which you will create your business.
And it looks like this: To organize the work of your office, you will need to purchase furniture. This will include 15 chairs costing 1,500, five tables (each costing 7,000 thousand rubles), two cabinets (for storing papers) costing 4,000 thousand rubles each. As a result, you will receive a considerable amount of money. But still, you should also not forget about the fact that, for example, in your garage there are sheets of chipboard lying idle, from which you can make the cabinets you need. Or let's say your father has three unnecessary chairs. As a result of all this, you will have to spend less money to set up your personal office. This saving, especially when starting out, is very important for every business. This is what will determine how quickly you can develop.
What mistakes can be made here?
Very often there is a displacement of these two plans, in the case when a person, despite competently and clearly trying to explain to the investor what exactly his personal money will be spent on, tries to save it in advance. In the event that to conduct quality work you need 10 couriers with a certain salary, this is what you need to write in the business plan. Before you start drawing up a business project, you need to understand for yourself who exactly you are doing this for. In the same case, if you have not yet been able to decide on this decision, most likely all your efforts will be completely useless.
We draw up a business plan correctly
How to write a business plan yourself? This question is relevant for many. And the sample that you will find in this publication can help you with this. In order to draw up a business plan, you must first understand the situation in which you find yourself at the moment. An analysis of the current situation will be the basis for developing further actions. To be able to carry it out, you will need to mobilize all the information that you have. In case you don't understand something, try to clarify it. This could solve a lot of things in the future.
Can't handle it on your own? Then you should contact a specialist to resolve this issue. To carry out the analysis, the tried and tested technology is SWOT analysis.
We use a new tool - SWOT analysis
What is SWOT analysis? The name of this method, as if floating, contains the following meaning:
- Strengths - virtues.
- Weakness - disadvantages.
- Opportunities - opportunities.
- Threats – risks (threats).
The main point is to assess all of the above factors, both within the organization itself and external influences. This business project must provide a real picture of the main starting positions.
It should roughly look like this.
Advantages of this solution:
1. The cost of the product is very low.
2. Only specialists will work in the team.
3. The main essence of the idea contains innovation.
4. The packaging of the products will look attractive and attractive, and the services will be inviting.
Disadvantages of the idea:
1. There is no trading platform.
2. The company's brand contains very poor recognition indicators.
Typically, the threat and opportunity items are combined into a single whole, and then divided into 2 levels. The first lies in external factors, which the company itself and its management team have nothing to do with it and cannot influence in any way.
Suitable for this role:
1. Economic and political situation in your country, region, world.
2. The main character traits of the population of your region, district, and their ability to acquire anything.
3. To what extent is the technological side developed in your area of operation.
4. What is the demographic situation, etc.
Possibilities:
1. If technology is very poorly developed in your area, you can bring some innovations there and get a significant part of the market for yourself.
2. Count on additional investments from investors or the state.
3. Pay attention to the local flavor in the organization of design and advertising and thus, due to this, increase the number of sales.
Threats:
1. Huge customs fees for importing products.
2. The presence of very strong competition in the developed business area.
This SWOT analysis can be completed very easily and quickly. But still, we advise you not to rush for the first time, but to think through each point very carefully.
Having finished preparing the ground for drawing up a high-quality business project, you can then safely begin drawing up its main sections.
Structure and content of a business project - main sections
Having fully understood who exactly the business plan is being drawn up for, for what specific purpose and how it changes depending on the direction and other reasons, you can begin to study the sections and subsections of this document.
It all starts with the title page.
Preparation of the title page is not an important task. In order to do this work correctly, you need to enter the following information there as follows:
1. Full name of the project you are developing.
2. The name of the company for which this document is being developed.
3. Company location. The country and city must be indicated.
4. All telephone numbers necessary for communication.
5. Information about the owner of the company and the author of the document itself.
6. Date of preparation of the document.
In addition to all of the above, you can post other information of a financial nature on this page. This is necessary so that lenders and investors can be interested immediately. In this section of the title page, you will need to indicate the time during which your project can pay off, what profit is planned after the full implementation of your idea, what is the need for receiving money from investors and what will be their quantity. Having listed all of the above, you should definitely take into account those information that will either allow or not allow third parties to study the compiled document. As a rule, all this is framed as a simple sentence that it is forbidden to show documents to unauthorized persons.
Writing a resume.
This part is the first informative work. It is considered the most basic. It is on the first pages that a large number of lenders and investors form their first and last opinion. And the whole point is that a summary is abbreviated information about the entire work, about each individual section, and about the conclusions made in them.
Needless to say, all of the above should look very attractive. But you shouldn’t overdo it either. Many investors have a keen understanding of what is real and what is not. Based on this, paints must be added to a certain limit.
This section is compiled at the moment when work on everything else has already been completed, all calculations and other information are completely ready. In your resume you will be able to reveal all the tasks assigned to you and the main essence of the entire business project. For this reason, the following paragraphs must be included:
1. First, all the main goals of the project and its main tasks are indicated.
2. Secondly, all resources that are planned for expenses are registered.
3. Ways to implement the plan.
4. To what extent is success possible in this enterprise? In this case, the description should contain novelty and relevance for the target audience.
5. The amount of money that the project owner wants to take, since he does not have that kind of money.
6. All information regarding exactly when the resources borrowed from creditors or investors will be returned.
7. Brief information about the main performance indicators.
When writing a resume, you should not write out all the information in a very beautiful way. In this case, only accurate data and numbers should speak for you.
The thing is that this section must be short (only 1.5 -2 pages), and shocking for those who need to be inspired to give you money.
Setting clear goals.
This part of the business project is dedicated to what you want to achieve. This is either some kind of activity, or created services or goods. In this case, the following points are mandatory:
1. It is imperative to indicate the important technological processes that you want to use. In this case, you should not delve into all the details and list the details. It is best to prepare a separate proposal that will contain in detail all the information and sequence relating to the entire technological process.
2. It is necessary to competently and clearly formulate, provide an evidence base and highlight it specifically for the benefits that consumers can receive.
3. In addition, it is worth proving that you are planning to create something truly unique. What exactly doesn't matter. Perhaps this will be the low cost of goods on the market, which you were able to obtain through cooperation with cheap suppliers or certain terms of the contract with them, or the creation of a unique technology.
4. Immediately after this, you should definitely indicate that you do not plan to stop at the achieved goal, but want to develop further. It is necessary to indicate probable ways of developing similar technology, either increasing production itself, attracting new suppliers of products, or developing new methods of achieving the intended goal.
5. In addition, if you have any unique patents or copyrights, this should be indicated when drawing up the project, so that investors can gain confidence and originality of your proposal. Clearly thought out and written in this section, this section will certainly help convince investors or lenders that your idea will be able to stay afloat in the future and will not be completely absorbed by competitors.
We analyze the industry to which the idea belongs.
This section is important and can help you win the trust of many investors if this document is written in great detail and clearly.
The very first thing you will need to do is analyze the market in which you are going to work. It is imperative to say what its current state is, what exactly is being implemented well and what is not so good. What degree of technical equipment does it have and where does it fall behind in this regard? The more relevant and fresh information about this is provided, the better.
Once you have written all of the above, you will be able to have the basic background to implement your personal idea. In this case, you can show or tell what specific niche your product will occupy and what its development prospects are.
In addition to the internal state of the market, it is also necessary to describe in detail the existing external factors, for example, the lack of trained workers in your area. Anything that may somehow relate to the effectiveness of your personal idea. The more details you can provide, the better you will find solutions and answers to them. Based on this, your project will look impressive and unique in the eyes of lenders and investors. This, in turn, can increase the competitiveness of your company and can provide ready-made algorithms for solving most problems calculated in advance.
We also cannot ignore the existing competitors in this area. If your project is unique (for example, in your region no one sells books or flowers), then listing its advantages, including goods and business opportunities, can only increase investor confidence in you. Naturally, your personal idea must stand out against this background. In addition, drawing up a portrait of an ordinary consumer of your product or service can be a great addition. It is necessary to identify the target audience, or the reason due to which your product or service will be needed last. And also the reasons why the buyer will come to you. There is no need to carefully describe a jumble of different situations. Try to create and systematize a general image that will certainly contain all the main ideas of your products. Most likely, it will be of a collective nature. But it's not bad. An excellent solution would be to compose an image with knowledge of the simple fundamentals of psychology or describe some statistics.
Assessing the capabilities of an enterprise within the industry.
In this article we talk about how to write a business plan. And step-by-step instructions and a sample are also translated here for readers. The above point is one of the most important because it shows us what you can do with your own idea.
The following should be included in this section:
1. Goods and services that your company will sell, the main direction of its activities.
2. All legal and administrative information: when your company was created, how many employees there are, how many partners, who they are, what the general structure is, who exactly is the owner of this company, information about the legal form.
3. Financial and economic indicators of the company in general form.
4. Information about the company’s ownership, physical location.
4. Detailed information about the selected type of activity, for example, if the direction of your activity is agriculture, then you must indicate the seasonality of the work carried out, etc.
Particular attention should be paid to this point if you are opening a new business. In this case, it is necessary to describe each item in more detail. You should also add new points about the likely success in the development of the company and information about the skills and abilities of the owner. This section is the main one because its main job is to convince lenders and investors that your idea will actually work. Your business will be promising and reliable.
Full information about what you are going to implement.
At this point, you need to describe all the information about the products sold by your company from the point of view of those who will purchase it, i.e. consumers. A great idea would be to add beautiful and high-quality product photographs to this section. In addition, you will need to clearly state its technical characteristics.
All this should be written in the following sequence:
1. Company name.
2. How you can use the product, what exactly it is intended for.
3. Description of its main characteristics and listing of secondary ones.
4. Highlighting its main advantages. It is necessary to focus on the competitiveness of the product.
5. If there are no copyrights or patents for the product, this must be noted.
6. If it is necessary to obtain a license on product quality, then this section will definitely need to be included.
7. Certificates that indicate the quality of products should also be included in this list.
8. The impact of sold goods on human health and the environment.
9. Complete information about deliveries, appearance of product packaging.
10. What guarantees are there for the products, how and where exactly can you get service.
11. How are products disposed of after their service life has expired? Only after you have taken into account all the points listed above will you be able to get a quality description.
Marketing planning in a business project
Marketing plan and its preparation.
Once you have a complete understanding of your industry's assessment, product, and its core position in a given market, you should move on to a strategy for promoting it. To do this, you definitely need to calculate the volume of consumption and likely buyers. In addition, you will need to describe the main levers of influence on demand, which includes price fluctuations, launching an advertising campaign, increasing product quality, etc. In addition, you will need to describe the methods by which you are going to sell your products, what your advertising policy will be, and other promotion details. Remembering the customers, you need to indicate how exactly they will buy the products: retail or wholesale, whether you will work by reselling the products or whether you will work for the end client. You also need to evaluate the product in terms of its appearance, price, what specific tasks it will perform, its suitability, service life, safety for health and the environment.
To do this, you must adhere to the following plan:
1. Analyze and study your future consumers.
2. Determine the likely capability of the product or service.
3. What possibilities exist for its implementation.
4. The entire path of products from the very beginning of its production to the final consumer.
5. Description of the external qualities of the product.
6. Storage location.
7. Storage methods.
8. Service after purchase.
9. In what specific form will you sell the product?
Ways to attract a consumer audience:
1. Carrying out promotions and campaigns.
2. Free distribution of goods for testing.
3. All kinds of exhibitions and the like.
The most important thing is that the relationship between the following three parameters is very accurately traced: profitability, cost and quality. Writing this paragraph of a business project will not be an easy task for you. Here it is necessary to take into account various factors and mechanisms that are related to the behavioral side of the audience, methods of advertising products, hidden and open, determining the main interests of the target audience, creating forecasts and other complex processes.
Creating a production plan.
This section should be devoted only to the main stages of product production, with a description of the technical process. Here it is necessary to describe detailed information about the availability of premises assets, technical equipment, qualified and trained employees who will work or are already working under your supervision. In addition, this paragraph should describe ways in which you can increase or decrease the volume of material produced.
If, when compiling this work, you indicate exactly how you plan to establish the work process and production as a whole, you must describe the entire main chain of product creation. And this needs to be done from the price of raw materials and by uploading finished goods.
If you have a partner who takes on certain obligations, then you need to provide in detail all the information about him, the amounts of money that he spends on this. In addition, it is necessary to provide an explanation of why the contract was concluded with this particular organization, its main advantages in this market, and provide all the detailed information. If your partner provides your company with the necessary equipment or raw materials, then each product or brand of equipment must be described separately. You should also make a calculation of how much it costs you and how profitable it will be for you.
At this point you need to calculate what the cost of the product will be. It is necessary to indicate variable costs, which will vary depending on the number of raw materials purchased or other factors, and fixed costs, which will not change under any circumstances.
To correctly and completely compile this section, you must follow the following points:
1. To what extent is production developed, what innovative or unique engineering solutions exist, how developed is the transport system, how are resources supplied, what is their quality.
2. Description of the detailed characteristics of the technologies used and also the objective reasons for this choice.
3. Is it necessary to purchase or rent additional premises?
4. What kind of personnel may be required for your idea, its main characteristics, work experience, education, number of required employees, additional information.
5. You will need to prove with facts that the products manufactured by your company are safe for widespread use and will not cause harm not only to people, but also to the environment.
6. It is necessary to describe the number of production capacities. In this case, it will be necessary to describe what is already in stock.
7. Describe what raw materials or additional resources you may need and in what quantities.
8. It is necessary to indicate all subcontractors, materials and suppliers, other contracts and their terms.
9. Each product or service produced must have an estimated cost.
10. In this paragraph it is also necessary to indicate an estimate in which current expenses should be listed.
11. It is necessary to create an analysis in which the cost of the product will be examined in detail.
Organizational plan.
In this section you need to write or provide excerpts from regulations or legislative acts regulating the activities of your chosen industry in the state. In addition, it is necessary to indicate a clear schedule according to which your project will be implemented in the future.
Financial plan.
In order to draw up a correct business plan, you will need a sample with calculations, which you can download for free directly on our website. This part of the business project will be well designed if you provide information on the following points:
1. Plan of expenses and profits ahead for several years.
2. Over what period of time do you want to implement your idea. In this case, it is necessary to describe the first year in detail, preferably by month.
3. Plan for moving finances and assets.
4. Approximate total balance in the first year of implementation of the personal plan.
5. Break-even analysis. It should reveal break-even points, study the prospects and schedules of financial activities.
In addition, you also need to describe possible investments. For example, leasing.
All financing options should be carefully considered. In addition, you must describe how you plan to pay off all debts.
At the end of this part, you should describe an analysis of the effectiveness of the entire work. To do this, you can use any method, for example, analysis of financial and economic activities. This is done to determine the financial sustainability of the project, its profitability and other indicators.
Be sure to follow the structure of this section:
1. Description of annual reporting on income and expenses received.
2. Structure of tax payments.
3. The plan necessary to describe the dynamics of funds in the first year of operation.
4. How much investment will be required.
5. Expenses that will follow the use of hired funds.
6. Conducting an analysis of all business project documents using a special technique.
2.10. Study and analysis of possible risks.
Any business of any complexity can have a lot of different troubles along the way. The same applies to the implementation of any business project. It is for this reason that this section is so significant. The most important thing is to calculate the probable risks and carefully consider effective methods for solving or preventing them. It is at this point that strategies for solving all possible risks must be described. This can subsequently become a good incentive for investors and a very convenient tool for the owner of the idea, since he will have ready-made solutions to eliminate many difficulties. It would be good to create alternative actions to possibly cover damages and losses. The more you can predict from the beginning, the fewer problems you will have in the future. To do this, you can use SWOT analysis. If we analyze the last method, then in this case it will be possible to calculate not only possible risks, but also losses. All kinds of methods, from expert to statistical, will also be relevant here.
Let us present to your attention more significant solutions:
1. Receiving guarantees and support from authorities at various levels.
2. Insurance.
3. Obtaining bank guarantees.
4. Creation of collateral.
5. Possibility to transfer rights.
6. Finished product guarantee.
What to include in applications.
This item may contain various information, since it is a general archive of the document that is used in the main sections of the plan.
It may include:
1. Copies of licenses and official agreements.
2. Confirmation of the veracity of the described characteristics.
3. Cost and catalogs from possible suppliers.
4. Table with financial statements that are missing from the main text.
Result: This is a common form of creating a business project. Based on your service or product, you are obliged to change it for yourself. It may be necessary to add or reduce some information somewhere. If you know perfectly well what you will do, then creating this business plan will be easy for you. Marketing difficulties are likely to arise. But in this case, you can seek help from a specialist in this field.
Common mistakes when writing a business plan
When creating your business plan without some experience, it is very easy to make any mistakes. Even if you manage to work out all the required parts with special care, relying on the recommendations of experts and based on ready-made methods, it is very easy to make mistakes. So what mistakes can be made in this case?
There are 3 main types of errors that you should definitely pay attention to.
1. Technical shortcomings. These include poorly processed information, descriptions of unreliable facts, erroneous submission of even reliable information, errors and blots in calculations, lack of conclusions and conclusions.
2. Conceptual errors. They can arise due to poor education in business, a complete lack of understanding of sales techniques, implementation of the chosen technology, etc.
3. Methodological. Even with an excellent business project, these mistakes can negatively
As for the very last option, we will talk about it below.
Mistake No. 1. Moving the problem from a sore head to a healthy one.
When creating a personal business project, its author, as a rule, is greatly inspired by this idea. Begins to consider it original and unique. This can happen. But still, even with careful study of this project, you may be refused financing if you do not want to invest personal funds in your business. As a rule, investors are well versed in the situation and can invest 70-80% of the entire planned amount. But you still need to understand that you are also interested in this financially and are ready to invest your money in this work.
If you don’t have even 30%, start looking for a partner from whom you can get this amount. Only in this way can you be completely sure that a well-developed business plan will be carefully studied and will attract the attention of investors. The worst option is that if you tell your investors that you are going to pay money only if your project can be implemented and begins to generate income. In this case, you won't succeed. Try to show your lenders that you are willing to invest in your project. Only then will they be able to trust you.
Mistake No. 2. The investor should show more independence.
Unfortunately, most of the authors of their projects and investors do not owe anything to anyone and will not just give you their money. The person who owns and manages his finances first thinks about personal gain. And this is logical. Based on this, as soon as he receives an offer, he will begin to carefully evaluate the project several times lower, if the most attractive criteria are present. So why?
And the answer to this question is very simple. You must try to convince the investor, provide guarantees that his finances can be returned to him and he can also make good money from this. In the event that when creating a project you did not indicate the required amount of money, but simply wrote in the project implementation path what exactly you are missing and did not inform you about when exactly you are going to return the money, at what percentage you want take them, then the investor will probably not be able to understand anything about your idea. Based on this, he may think that you want to offer him to finalize your personal business project for you, and then also lend money.
This oversight can be corrected. To do this, you need to carefully describe what kind of money transfers you require, in what period of time you are going to receive them, indicate the exact date when exactly you are going to return the funds, what guarantees you can provide for the money given to you.
In the event that you feel that you may not be able to cope with this work, you can seek help from a professional. He will be able to competently and clearly formulate all your desires.
Mistake No. 3. The organizational and legal framework is hopelessly forgotten.
An investor is a person who wants to have maximum guarantees for himself. And this is not strange, since he begins to think whether he should give his money or not. It is for this reason that all the vagueness and ambiguities associated with the legal framework, for example, official documentation that confirms the ownership of warehouse and industrial buildings, begin to alarm the investor and force him to stay as far away from such a project as possible.
This section of the project must be developed by a professional. The whole point is that it is necessary to have a good understanding of all the intricacies of the legislative organization of the production process and the participation of loans and investments in it. This is necessary so that this part of the document can fully correspond to reality. If you want to do this work yourself, then get ready for a lot of work studying the regulatory and legislative framework.
Mistake No. 4. As always, they forgot about the experts.
Working independently on your project is a positive thing, since its author will ultimately have a better understanding of the situation than an outsider. But still, there are various pitfalls here. A professional in this matter will be able to write a more competent and accurate plan, which as a result will be attractive to the investor.
This is one of the most common mistakes, since a person tries to save his money on this. The result of this work is that he receives an unsuitable business project.
If you cannot fulfill all the required conditions and study the necessary processes, then it is best to contact a specialist. And the money spent on this will definitely come back to you.
Mistake No. 5. Expenses not included in the plan.
Very often a methodological error occurs in which the author of a business project begins to forget about some costs. This will be misappropriated due to a poor understanding of the production process, hasty conclusions, one’s own inattention and other factors. These shortcomings can lead to very serious consequences.
The most common forgotten expenses may be:
1. loading or unloading of products;
2. non-payment of funds to clients;
3. loss of a certain percentage of manufactured products due to defects;
4. taxes, compensation, VAT and other payments;
5. loss of products during storage;
6. installation of goods;
7. training workers in specific skills.
If you doubt your abilities, try to get advice from a specialist in your chosen field and an experienced financier. They will be able to tell you exactly what expenses you forgot to add to your list.
Mistake No. 6. Negligence in studying risks.
As a rule, the most important thing for any investor is that all his finances can be returned to him. It is because of this that, when investing his money in a project, he wants to know about all the possible risks. The main point of the plan that contains this information comes last. But despite this, it is the most important of all sections that should be carefully worked through.
The very first mistake within this methodological error is to consider the investor a stupid person. If you write that everything is fine and the risks are minimal, and end your section there, then don’t expect money from the investor.
The latter, in this case, will immediately be able to understand how important the high-quality implementation of the plan is for you. The second mistake is not balancing very high risks with excellent returns. If you don’t do this, then most likely you won’t be given finance either. The section regarding risks must be well developed. An investor must have confidence that even in the event of the greatest risks, you have your own algorithm of actions that will help you cope with all the troubles and minimize losses. In this situation, this information can make the entire business plan more attractive.
These six methodological mistakes are typical for any person who first began to develop his own business project. He won't even guess why his work is doomed to complete failure. But still, these mistakes can be corrected. You just need to remember all the necessary information and get a positive result.
Ready-made example of a business plan for a cafe - sample with calculations
Now it’s worth presenting to your attention a ready-made business plan for a cafe, which will contain a real example with calculations. Cafes are located on almost every corner. But despite this, the demand for them will never fall. These establishments are visited for various reasons. Based on this, a cafe is one of the most frequently developed business projects. In this article we will try to look in detail at writing a business plan for creating a cafe.
The estimated monthly profit of this establishment is approximately 200 thousand rubles. And the initial starting capital will be about 2 million rubles. But still, your very first step should be writing a business project.
Market analysis.
When choosing a location for a new cafe, you should carefully walk around the block and area to look for competitors. A large number of all kinds of summer cafes, bakeries, restaurants, coffee shops and pastry shops can create an unfavorable atmosphere for you, since they all have a certain clientele, which at first will take part of your income from you.
Then you will start choosing a format for your cafe. You need to choose from the following ideas:
1. A small establishment with food called fast food.
2. Self-service cafe.
3. Quick service place.
4. A cafe that includes delivery of its own products.
In addition, you should decide what exactly you will cook. It is quite possible that this will be an establishment with an expanded menu. Or maybe it will specialize in children's recreation, Italian dishes or a sushi bar.
Basic principles of the menu.
Typically, making pizza is a long process. Based on this, it would be a great idea to occupy the client’s time with light salads and appetizers that can be served to him very quickly.
You should also not miss out on the wide range of drinks. These can be various teas, juices, coffee, non-alcoholic beer and water. The main menu can include not only standard types of pizza, but also original options. This could be a fruit dessert made from dough. Or an unusual combination of salty and sweet flavors, etc. In addition to all this, you can allow your visitors to choose their own toppings and create an original pizza. The main ones can be:
1. various cheeses and sausages.
2. different varieties of mushrooms.
3. pickled onions, olives of various colors.
4. seafood, anchovies and shrimp.
5. meat of various varieties and cooking options, bacon.
6. all kinds of sauces.
7. pickled fruits and vegetables.
Case registration.
The very first thing you need to do to register a personal business is to decide on the premises. Unfortunately, without this, the entire process will be impossible to carry out. The main importance is the area of the selected territory, the location of the pizzeria and lighting.
You should pay attention! If you have chosen a separate building, the documentation procedure will be quite complicated. But still, if you rented a hall in a shopping center, this can significantly reduce paperwork. This fact is due to the fact that the administration of the premises has already completed the documentation with the SES, and has approved the sales area with the fire service.
After you have been able to rent out premises in a shopping center, you will need to start drawing up a lease agreement, register your personal enterprise and notify the city leadership about the opening of a new establishment. A good option would be to register as an LLC. By choosing this registration form, you can pay simplified tax. (STS), or 6 percent of the pizzeria’s total profit, or 15 percent of the profit minus expenses. If the amount that the shopping center requests from you turns out to be very large, then you will need to make the necessary calculations and make sure that this enterprise is profitable. In addition, this cooperation with the shopping center contains several advantages:
1. The number of visitors will be constant, since the shopping center is a popular place visited by a large number of people who spend a lot of time there.
2. The target audience is very profitable because people move around the shopping center with a certain amount of money that they are willing to spend.
3. Excellent self-promotion results from the personal resources of the shopping center. This helps to save on marketing activities. You just need to calculate exactly what balance you will receive every month if your cafe operates excellently and consistently. Rent of premises of 60 sq.m. will cost you about 130 thousand rubles. monthly. On weekdays, your establishment will be visited by approximately 55 people per day. And on the weekend, about 100 visitors will come to you. In total, the flow of visitors will be approximately 1,700 people. The price of an average order in your pizzeria will be about 530 rubles per person. And this is with the usual markup of 270-300%. What can bring you 910-920 thousand rubles.
4.4. Financial plan.
To be able to launch your personal pizzeria, you will need approximately 2 million rubles. These figures are justified by the initial costs.
The latter consist of the following points:
1. Payment for the rent of a certain square footage of premises in a shopping center, which will need to be paid immediately 2 months in advance, while the premises are being renovated, the establishment is opening and the first income can appear - 260,000 thousand rubles (by the way, you can try to agree on the start of payment arena from the launch date of the establishment, and thus reduce initial costs.
2. Completing all the necessary documentation for renting the premises, expenses for carrying out organizational tasks will cost you approximately 100,000 rubles.
3. Creating a design for a pizzeria. Payment for necessary materials and finishing work. All this will cost about 460,000 thousand rubles.
4. Costs of advertising the establishment for two months. All this will cost approximately 130,000 thousand rubles.
5. Purchase of the necessary equipment and inventory to create quick pizza - 950,000 thousand rubles.
6. Development of menu text and creation of its design – 40,000 thousand rubles.
7. Formation of a stock of products - 75,000 thousand rubles.
As a result, you will get the same amount of 2 million rubles. The biggest expense item is equipment. You cannot save money on this, since your visitors will visit your pizzeria precisely because of the fast and very tasty pizza, but not to admire the interior of the cafe.
It is important to know! If you don't have enough money, you can save on everything except equipment. For a good establishment, you will need the following equipment: a flour sifter, a dough mixer, a dough mixer, an automatic machine for rolling out dough to the required size, a professional oven and a press. In addition, you will need to purchase equipment for quickly preparing the necessary ingredients for making pizza - a cheese roller, a vegetable cutting machine and a slicer. The very last point in this section is the purchase of refrigeration equipment and furniture: cabinets, display cases, racks and tables for preparation.
Marketing strategy
A city with over half a million inhabitants will have a lot of competition on site. It is for this reason that creating a good advertising company will be justified. In order to carry out all promotional activities more efficiently, you will need to take into account the following important points:
1. Age category of clients. As a rule, it will consist of young people.
2. There is an excellent option for advertising within the borders of a shopping center.
3. Active influence on the target audience of Internet sites that will help attract clients to you.
Before you start opening your own pizzeria, you must first try the following ways to introduce the population to this establishment:
1. Distribution of leaflets and various flyer advertising.
2. Outdoor advertising, which will be visible to a large number of people through the placement of banners and banners.
3. Organization of projects to promote services on the Internet.
On the day your pizzeria opens, you should consider the following events:
1. Installation and installation of a large billboard, dismantling attractive advertising of your establishment’s products along with its loyal prices and promotions for certain groups of customers.
2. In the shopping center itself, there must be periodic announcements about wonderful and aromatic pizza, which will be even tastier for tired customers.
3. Place outdoor advertising throughout the block and area so that nearby office employees and students can flock to your cafe in honor of the opening day - to try it out. In the next days of work, you should pay attention to which marketing option gave the greatest result for the least amount. Then you will need to abandon less profitable marketing decisions and focus your attention on more valuable ones. You should definitely pay attention to your regular customers and try to prepare various discounts and promotions for them.
Pre-opening preparation schedule.
The shortest time it can take you to open and decorate your cafe is 2 months. This time will depend on how quickly you can find the workers you need, how quickly you can carry out repairs on the premises, and how long you will spend on completing all the necessary registration documents.
Taking into account the fact that you are opening a food establishment located on the territory of a shopping center, which already has a number of papers and permits, you can safely count on the following work schedule:
First month:
1. Registration of the company with government agencies. Development of the necessary documentation.
2. Reconciliation of documents with the fire service and the SES.
3. Creating a room design.
4. Purchase of necessary materials for repairs.
5. Start of marketing activities.
Second month:
1. Carrying out repairs to the premises and its design.
2. Hiring of working personnel. if necessary, his training.
3. Purchase and installation of necessary equipment.
4. Installation of lighting.
5.Purchase of basic ingredients.
Third month:
Opening of a pizzeria.
Income level assessment.
To be able to calculate the profitability of your enterprise, you must take into account all expenses, both monthly and basic.
You already know the first ones, we’ll bring the second ones to your attention below:
1. remuneration to staff - 215,000 rubles;
2. payment for rent of premises in a shopping center - 130,000 thousand rubles;
3. utilities – 25,000 thousand rubles;
4. transport services – 20,000 thousand rubles;
5. payment for accountant’s services – 8,000 thousand rubles;
6. payments to the insurance fund – 65,000 thousand rubles;
7. purchase of products, raw materials - 165,000 thousand rubles;
8. unexpected expenses - 15,000 thousand rubles.
Let's summarize the amounts. As a result, we get about 680 thousand rubles. In this state of affairs, the more costly item is the wages of workers. This amount was calculated taking into account the hiring of the following employees:
1. Five ordinary cooks.
2. Chef.
3. Pizzeria administrator.
4. Cleaners.
5. 3 dishwashers.
6. Four people as waiters or delivery people.
7. Payment for accountant services.
As a result, from the profit (950,000 rubles), we subtract monthly expenses (680,000 thousand rubles and we get 270,000 thousand rubles. And if we also subtract 15% of the tax from 270 thousand rubles, (then this is 40,500), as a result net income will be 229,500 rubles.
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