Introduction - my past businesses include;
       1. Selling Wild Birds – aged 10
       2. Accounting / Consulting Practice - Sold
       3. Telephone Meters / Electronic Ballasts - Sold
       4. Accounting  / Consulting Practice - Sold
       5. Panel Manufacture / Fabrication - Sold
       6. Sports Clothing Embroidery (NIKE, Adidas, Wilson etc) - Sold
       7. Wooden Furniture from Indonesia – Failed / Liquidated
       8. Accounting  / Consulting Practice – Closed
       9. Removals / Storage – Sold
       10. Advertising Magazine - Failed 
       11. Consultant – London - Closed
       12. Restaurant – Spain - Sold
       13. Retail Gift Shop – Florida - Sold
       My family were also Entrepreneurs (property development, African artifacts, mining, farming, fast food, timber logging, 
       haulage)
       Small Business Development Corporation –  7 years.
       •  Investigated around 15 Businesses a month – lending Money, mentorship and support programs. 
       •  Lent between $ 5,000 and $ 2 million. Lent $$ to hawkers in squatter camps to global businesses (Nando’s / KFC). 
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                             Why do you need a Business Plan ?
     1. Planning Tool - Forces you to consider a wide range of factors that potentially impact 
        the viability of your business. It is a formal ‘Checklist’ – have I considered everything ?
     2. Formal requirement – Applying for finance, negotiating rental contracts, negotiating 
        supply contracts, looking for investors & partners and even Customers sometimes ask 
        for your BP eg RFP Process / Tenders & Bids. 
     3. Creates  discipline  &  structure  –  It  tests  those  wild  ideas  and  brings  a  measure  of 
        ‘reality’ to the conceptual process. Often Entrepreneurs run ahead of themselves and a 
        BP forces them to get real and find solutions.
     Ideally  the  BP  should  be  a  detailed  written  document.  In  reality,  BP’s  are  usually 
     fragmented ideas and they are not committed to writing. This poor practice increases risk.
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                                   The negative sides of a BP
   The negative things about a BP are;
   1. They take time to complete. BP’s are commitment of time and sometimes cost.
   2. Barrier to starting business. A new business is exciting and taking ‘time-out’ to complete a 
      BP seems like an obstacle & causes a delay.
   3. They outdate quickly. Business is dynamic with constant changes, so a BP needs constant 
      revision and this gets tiring.
   4. Confidentiality risks – Intellectual Property. All your research and ideas can be misused. 
   5. Criticism – Sharing a BP invites Criticism and not everybody likes Criticism.
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                                                Before you Start
    Before you start the BP consider;
    1. Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA) – Get your own simple NDA and get any-one who reads your BP to first 
        commit to an NDA. An NDA offers some protection.
    2. Who is your audience – CRITICAL. Tailor the BP to your audience. A bank is going to be looking at short-
        term EBITA (earnings before interest and tax) and loan securities, whilst a potential Angel Investor will be 
        looking at medium to long-term ROI (return on investment) over a certain period. A leasing agent will be 
        looking at what product lines you are selling so that he can leverage and balance a tenant mix in a Mall, 
        whilst a Distributor will be looking at what product volume you can move. 
    3. Size. A small business needs a smaller BP. A larger business needs a larger BP.
    4. Your business type. A retailer will concentrate on local competition, demographics, inventory turnover 
        ratio, trading hours etc whilst a manufacturer will concentrate on machine capacity, quality, work flows, 
        logistics. ONE SIZE does-not fit all.
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                               Step 1 – Break Even Analysis
    The essence of business is the flow of money from your customers to your vendors and you 
    are trying to keep as much of this money flow as you can.
    B/E Analysis – it is probably the most important Business Calculation you need to learn.
    B/E Analysis estimates the Sales you need to ‘Break Even’ ie. Using the money you collect 
    from your Customers as Sales, you can pay your running costs and Vendors.
    B/E requires estimating your monthly running costs and dividing this by your Gross Profit 
    Percentage. Eg. Costs are $ 15,000 a month and GP is 60 %, the B/E point will be 15,000 / 60 
    % = $ 25,000 per month or around $ 5,800 per week or $ 1,000 a day and X per hour etc.
    Learn about Gp % age and determining your Expenses.
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