How a Financial Business Plan Will Assist With the Management of Cash Flow
Posted by admin in Business Plan on September 28, 2011
The management of cash flow is perhaps the most important issue that a business executive must grapple with in order for the business to remain competitive. Cash flow represents a business’ operating activities and how this influences the movement of cash inside and outside the business at certain periods. This article will address the importance of cash flow, explaining its uses and highlighting how this component of the financial Business Plan is designed to accurately forecast and present the pattern of income and spending in a business to ensure that it is capable of settling its bills on time.
Firstly it is important to distinguish between cash and profit. A profitable business year is still susceptible to upsetting stakeholders at certain points when and if the business is unable to pay its bills resulting in a negative cash flow. Profit is usually assessed over a longer trading period (1-year) and fails to take in to account the cash flow slumps. A business to customer relationship built on the exchange of cash for a product or service – often final payment is made once the product/service is completed to the customer’s satisfaction, known as a consignment agreement. However this bears no impact on cash outflow – the production and investments that go into the goods still require funding and the business is still liable to settle payments on fixed dates – overheads, employee wages and loan repayments. What is the business dependency on the collection of payments? If a customer is behind schedule with payment how will this affect your cash flow and the ability to meet these deadlines? Have you thought about implementing a contingency structure to extend the duration your business can afford to go without payment? Read the rest of this entry »
Five Tips to Create a Thorough Business Plan
Posted by admin in Business Plan on September 28, 2011
A great business plan is the best way to start a business. It prepares the entrepreneur for the many obstacles and avenues that may come up and be utilised. A great business plan will pave the way for funding my means of bank loans and investors and will outline everything from the business name to promotional marketing, market share to the sales strategy. A great business plan is like having your own personal guidebook to success, expanding on the avenues for growth and highlighting ways to avoid failure.
To ensure your business plan is effective, take these tips on how to tailor this useful document to your individual needs.
1) The Industry
When you start out on this important document, you should begin with outlining the industry that you plan to run your business in.
Define what the company will do. If it’s a shop, what will it sell and how is it relevant to the industry? If it’s a service, then how will your service benefit the industry?
Have a clear idea of exactly what products or services you plan to sell. If you want to open a shop, then find out why your stock will sell well, how it fills a gap in the industry or why it is unique? If it’s a service, then ensure you understand every aspect of the service and what education or training it might require. Read the rest of this entry »