How to Write a Business Plan

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(No Transcript)
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How to Write a Business Plan

• Peter Harrison
• Third Sector Partnership Team Manager

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Definition of a Business Plan

• A business plan in its simplest form will usually
  define where you want your business to be within
  a certain period of time (usually 5 years) and
  how you plan on getting there.

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Why produce a Business Plan?

• Will help organisation to clarify its role and
  make decisions about its future development
• Its a useful way of presenting your organisation
  to funders and supporters
• Will help your organisation to think through why
  it exists, why its services and activities are
  valuable and how it may need to change
• It will make clear what your organisation is good
  at, how it needs to improve and how it can
  develop to meet the changing needs of service
  users
• It will look at money what you have and what
  you need
• It will help your organisation to make sure that
  people can access your activities and that you
  are being effective in achieving your goals

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Who should be involved?

• It is essential that everyone in your
  organisation understands and supports your
  business plan
• It is a good idea to set up a small working group
  to pull the contents of the plan together but aim
  to consult everyone involved with your
  organisation including all your management
  committee, trustees or directors, your paid
  staff, volunteers, members and service users

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Carry out a SWOT analysis

• Before you start writing, spend some time
  identifying your organisations strengths,
  weaknesses, opportunities and threats
• This will help to focus your planning and usually
  produces information that you will include in
  your written business plan
• Consult widely and consider including the views
  of other organisations (what is a weakness to
  some may be a strength to others)
• Start out by working out what you are
  particularly good at. (There will be a whole
  range of aspects to consider)
• Think about your organisations weaknesses and how
  you can tackle them
• Having identified your strengths and weaknesses,
  identify what opportunities there are to take
  forward your work including changes in policy,
  social trends, etc. and what threats or obstacles
  you might face

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What to include

• Executive Summary - begin with an Executive
  Summary that introduces your organisation or
  project in an appealing way and sums up the main
  points of the plan. Summarise the key purpose of
  your organisation and the difference it seeks to
  make. This is sometimes referred to as a mission
  statement You may find it easier to write this
  section after completing the plan.
• History of your Organisation this should
  include details of your legal status (e.g.
  charity, company, etc.) why and when you set up
  and who your beneficiaries are, details of how
  you are managed and a summary of your past
  achievements (also known as track record)
• The need for your Service explain how you know
  that your activities are needed by your users.
  This may include reference to local or national
  research or reports and information from your own
  monitoring and evaluation and user feedback.

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What to Include (continued)

• Funders will want to see that you work in a
  strategic way
• Include information about similar or related
  services and partners and explain how you work
  with them
• Be clear about the benefits you offer to your
  users and how you know this.
• Explain why your organisation is best placed to
  provide these activities and services.

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Aims and Objectives

• This section should explain in more detail what
  your organisation or project sets out to achieve.
• Think about how your organisation has changed and
  review your aims to make sure they are up to
  date. You may also need to review your governing
  document
• Aims an aim is a broad idea of what your
  organisation exists to do. An example of an aim
  might be To increase understanding about the
  lives of older people through a variety of
  media.
• Aims lead to outcomes, which are the longer-term
  benefits that will be achieved. For example an
  outcome of this aim might be That local people
  gain a better insight into experiences and needs
  of older people

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Aims and Objectives (continued)

• Objectives These are the tasks needed to
  achieve the aims
• You need to outline a series of objectives
  relating to each aim. E.g. an objective for the
  above aim might be To produce a drama
  performances based on the lives and experiences
  of older people.
• Objectives lead to outputs or SMART targets.
  SMART targets are specific, measurable,
  achievable, realistic and timed. For example the
  above objective might produce the following
  output 300 local people will attend and
  participate in 5 performances during June, which
  will be led and produced by older people.

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Budget

• Now you have a list of objectives, you need to
  think through how much it will cost to carry
  these out. The best way of doing this is by
  producing a detailed budget with accurate
  costings.
• Remember that your costings must be realistic and
  viable if you are to convince funders that you
  can deliver your plan and that its worth
  investing in.
• Costings may include
• gt premises and equipment think about where
  you will carry out your activities. Will you need
  to rent a space to hold your activities? Is the
  space accessible to everyone? What equipment do
  you need to run your activities? Look at your
  options and work out the costs.
• gt office costs and stationary work out the
  likely costs of heat, light, telephone, postage,
  photocopying, etc. Remember to include other
  expenses such as paper, envelopes, pens, etc.

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Budget (continued)

• gt staff and volunteers How many people do
  you need to your activities effectively and
  safely?
• If you will employ paid staff you need to
  identify the grades and salaries including
  employers on-costs such as national insurance,
  training, recruitment costs, travel expenses,
  etc.
• If using volunteers you need to identify what
  expenses you will expect to cover and any
  recruitment, training and supervision costs.

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Fundraising Plan

• You will need to show how you plan to meet the
  costs identified in your budget. This is often
  presented as a projection over more than one
  year, in which case you may need to include
  inflation. It should include
• gt details of who is supporting you including
  any funding already guaranteed from where, for
  what and for how long
• gt details of which funding bodies you plan
  to approach including key dates for applications
  and decisions
• gt what income you expect to bring in from
  subscriptions, charges, etc,
• gt any other sources of income generation or
  your own fundraising
• Some funders will also want to see that you have
  ideas about how you will cover your costs when
  their funding comes to an end. This is sometimes
  called an exit strategy.

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Promotion and Publicity Plan (marketing)

• Describe how you will advertise your service to
  everyone who needs to know about it.
• How will you ensure no-one is excluded
• Explain how your organisation puts equal
  opportunities into practice
• Identify how you will promote yourselves to
  supporters, partners and potential funders.

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Monitoring and Evaluation

• Explain how you intend to monitor and evaluate
  your activities. This usually involves both
  quantitative information (numbers) and
  qualitative information (quality of what you do)
• If you set SMART (specific, measurable,
  achievable, realistic and timed) targets, it
  should be straightforward to identify how you
  will measure whether or not they are achieved.
• Identify what information you need to collect,
  how it will be collected, who will collect it and
  when. Only collect what is useful and necessary.

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And finally

• Make sure that your business plan
• Is written in plain English and does not contain
  jargon or technical language people (including
  funders) reading your plan may not know anything
  about your subject area and its specialist terms.
• Does not use acronyms. Spell them out in full at
  least the first time you use them.
• Is easy to read with clear typeface (arial 12
  minimum) and numbered pages include a contents
  page at the beginning to make it easier to
  navigate the document
• Is concise and to the point funders do not want
  masses of information. Dont include anything
  that isnt directly relevant. Use bullet points
  and short paragraphs.

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And finally (continued)

• Extra information can be included by sending a
  copy of an informative annual report with the
  Business Plan and any covering letter can also
  offer to provide extra information if required.
• Include a timetable of when you will review and
  update your plan.

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Sources of advice and help

• The Complete Guide to Business and Strategic
  Planning for Voluntary Organisations by Alan
  Lawrie. Available at www.amazon.co.uk (15.64)