Business plan and consulting services

Business plan - a plan, a program for the implementation of business operations, the actions of the company, containing information about the company, the product, its production, sales markets, marketing, organization of operations and their effectiveness.

A business plan is a short, accurate, accessible and understandable description of the prospective business, the most important tool when considering a large number of different situations, allowing you to choose the most promising desired result and determine the means to achieve it. A business plan is a document that allows you to manage a business, so it can be presented as an integral part of strategic planning and as a guide for execution and control. It is important to consider the business plan as the planning process itself and as a tool for internal management.

A business plan is a document in which the goals of the enterprise are formulated, their justification is given, the ways of achieving the funds necessary for the implementation and the final financial performance indicators are determined. As a rule, it is developed for several years (more often for three to five years) with a breakdown by year. At the same time, data for the first year are usually given with a breakdown by months, and for subsequent years - in annual terms. Often, when drawing up plans for operating enterprises, a rolling schedule is used, in which a detailed plan for the coming year is developed annually, as well as the general business plan is refined and extended for another year.

The purpose of a business plan is to show the real chances of implementing a business idea. He not only gives a true assessment of opportunities and risks, but shows the need (or lack thereof) in attracting additional investments, opening credit lines. In fact, a business plan shows the success of the management and the way of development of the enterprise to achieve the set goal.

The business plan has two groups of users - internal (initiator of a business idea, founders and staff of the firm) and external (potential investors, creditors, partners).

The business plan serves three main purposes:

• he gives the investor an answer to the question of whether it is worth investing in this investment project;
• serves as a source of information for persons directly implementing the project;
• the lender, when making a decision to issue a loan, receives comprehensive information about the existing business of the borrower and its development after receiving the loan.

The business plan helps to solve the following main tasks:

• a clear formulation of the company's goals, the definition of specific quantitative indicators of their implementation and the timing of their achievement;
• to determine specific areas of the firm's activities,
• target markets and the place of the firm in these markets;
• formulate the long-term and short-term goals of the firm, the strategy and tactics for achieving them, determining specific quantitative indicators of their implementation and the timing of their achievement.
• identify persons responsible for implementing the strategy; choose the composition and determine the indicators of goods and services that will be offered by the firm to consumers.
• to assess the production and trading costs for their creation and implementation;
• to identify the compliance of the existing staff of the company, the conditions for motivating their work with the requirements for achieving the set goals;
• to determine the composition marketing activities of the company for market research, advertising, sales promotion, pricing, sales channels, etc.
• assess the financial position of the company and the correspondence of the available financial and material resources to the possibilities of achieving the set goals; foresee difficulties, "pitfalls" that may interfere with the practical implementation of the business plan;
• organize a system of control over the progress of the project.

Business plans are divided into the following types:

A business plan is a detailed, clearly structured and carefully prepared document describing the current state of the enterprise (firm), its goals, ways to achieve them and expected results.

Business planning in modern Russia is often viewed as an activity aimed only at obtaining funds from external investors (creditors, buyers of shares, partners). In countries with developed market economies, business planning initially carries a different semantic load - awareness of the situation and determining the ways of the most effective development of the organization. Unfortunately, the very concept of "planning" in Russia has been significantly compromised. As practice shows, the majority of Russian enterprises do not have not only long-term (for 3-5 years), but also short-term (for 1 year) plans. The argument against planning among Russian managers is the idea that planning is an attribute of an administrative-command economy that is not characteristic of a market economy. This attitude towards planning is inadequate. In reality, a business plan is a rational management tool in a market economy.

The object and subject of a business plan in a market economy is the firm itself, and this is the fundamental difference between business planning and centralized (state) planning in the former Soviet economy.

The business plan is intended primarily for the following categories of participants in economic processes:

• managers of firms for whom the business plan is a guiding document, and the planning process itself brings obvious benefits,
• the owners of these firms, who use the business plan as a tool to influence managers to achieve their goals and interests;
• external investors (creditors, buyers of shares and shares) who need to know and control the prospects of return from their investments;
• other business partners (wholesale buyers, suppliers, government agencies, consortium members, etc.).

The main purpose of a business plan is to understand the general state of the organization at the moment and outline ways of transition from a similar state to a desired one.

Business Plan Principles and Techniques

Among the issues that must be included in the business plan and considered in detail in it, the following can be distinguished:

1. Confirmation that buyers approve of a given product or service. Investors always want evidence that the products or services that the company will sell have been tested with consumers and have found their application, at least as prototypes. The more testimonials from customers who have tested the products will be presented, the better.

2. Understanding the potential needs of investors. In advanced economies, investors usually want to return their capital at a profit within three to five years after the investment. In the business plan, they want to see evidence that the businessman has thought about how to accomplish this task. Investors want to know that the expected income from the sale of manufactured products (services) will allow them to receive a return on capital invested commensurate with the investment risk - usually in the range of 45-60%, adjusted for inflation.

3. Ownership - exclusive rights to a product, type of service or production process in the form of a patent or trademark. In many countries, it is not possible to obtain a patent for a product that is already on the market. Therefore, you should consult with an experienced patent lawyer before offering your products for sale.

Questions to avoid when drawing up a business plan.