Articles by Results

Business Plan - Plan-Do-Check-Act Keep the Plan Alive

Posted by Graham Cripps on Wed, Jul 25, 2012 @ 03:28 PM

Plan-Do-Check-Act: Keep the plan alive

Graham Cripps, DirectorFirst, thanks for sticking with your business planning journey.  I hope you have found the information useful so far.

Introduction

This is the final publication in this series and here we will discuss the business plan, how it is constructed, the additional information that needs to be attached and, how to keep the plan alive and therefore, a useful business tool for the future.

If you have been following these articles you will now have all the necessary elements to start to populate your business plan. These elements are: -

  • Clearly defined personal and business goals

  • A full list of your business skills and an action plan for improving or acquiring these skills

  • Customer groups clearly defined

  • A clear understanding of your competition, your strengths and weaknesses and an action plan in place to lever your strengths and minimise your weaknesses in the market place

  • A full understanding of your USP

  • A detailed, realistic sales plan

  • A driven marketing plan

  • A completed cash flow forecast

  • An understanding of your key business processes

The business plan

If you have not already done so, you can download a free Business Plan template by clicking on this button

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Plan-Do-Check-ActOne of the core methodologies the we use at Results is the application of the Deming Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. Briefly, this is about spending time planning an activity to maximise the chances of success.

PLAN – what you have to do and include all the preparation, research and planning activities

DO – carry out the plan

CHECK – the outcome against the plan and identify any gaps or problems

ACT – take action to improve the outcomes, updating the plan as you go

I propose that the P-D-C-A cycle is applied to your business planning activity. In fact, if you have been following this series of articles, you have been in the planning stage of writing your business plan.

PLAN

The contents of a business plan can vary. The Results Business Plan Template provides a robust framework that has been tried and tested and has been accepted by all the main high street banks.

The business plan content should include: -

  • Executive summary – about you and an overview of your business plan

  • Product/service description – a detailed description of the product or service that you intend to provide

  • Market research details – a summary of the marketing you have carried out for your product/service and the potential market population

  • Customer groups – clear definitions of your customer groups and the products/services to you intend to sell into those groups

  • Your competition – the competition you have identified and their relative strengths and weaknesses

  • Reasons for success – detail the reasons why your business will be successful, include your unique selling proposition as well

  • Risks to your business – for each risk identified, detail the risk and what you have, or will have, in place to protect against that risk

  • How will the business be managed – list the roles and responsibilities and include finance, sales, marketing and operations

  • Sales plan – a brief summary of your planned sales

  • Sales methods – how you intend to sell your product or service into your specified customer groups

  • Sales methods – a brief overview of each sales method and how each will impact upon sales volumes overall

  • How will the business be financed – describe how the business will be financed over time and includes set-up costs, working capital and future stock purchases

  • Cash flow forecast – estimates of cash in the business over the first year and why you believe this is a realistic forecast

  • Pricing policy – how are your prices arrived at, are they competitive and sustainable

  • Your business and the law – list the laws applicable to your business and nay actions taken to comply

  • Attachments – there should be a minimum of: cash flow forecast; sales plan; marketing plan and any additional details that you feel support and strengthen your business plan.

Do 

Having the plan in place is paramount at the start of any business venture. Once the business is trading and you have some experience of operating the business, the next thing is to check how things are going against that plan. As the old saying goes “a failure to plan is a plan to fail”.

Check

How is your business doing against your plan? Are you doing better than planned or worse?

Review all the key measures for your business cash flow, sales and costs.

Act

What actions need to be put in place to either redress the situation, or, take advantage and capitalise on a positive trend.

Summary

A Business Plan is a live document and should be reviewed to check that it remains relevant in all aspects. So make it a regular activity that you undertake at regular intervals.

If you have missed of the previous articles, please click on any or all of the following to access the article and a selection of free templates. For any other related articles including SWOT analysis and setting SMART objectives, please contact Results Consortium Ltd.

A business plan is key for business

Defining your personal and business goals

Understanding your in your business

Define your customer groups

Know your competition

Defining your USP

Establishing your sales plan

Establishing your marketing plan

Establishing your business costs

Definine your business processes

 

 

Graham Cripps

Results Consortium Ltd.

www.resultsresults.co.uk

Topics: SMART, Business Planning, Small business, Business plan, business skills training, PDCA, Plan Do Check Act, SMART objectives, Sales Plan

Business Plan - Establish Your Sales Plan

Posted by Graham Cripps on Wed, Jul 18, 2012 @ 12:21 PM

Establish your sales plan

Graham Cripps, DirectorWhat is a Sales Plan and what can it do for my business?

Welcome to this article where I will be explaining the need for a Sales Plan, how to establish the plan and how it fits into your business plan.

 

The Sales Plan

A sales plan is a set of realistic targets that map directly into your financial planning and uses your market and customer research data to forecast your likely sales activity for the coming 12 months. In some cases this can also be estimated for the second or even third year.

The sales plan looks at what products or services you are planning to sell, line by line, and is the driver for your sales and marketing activity planning. In other words, if you plan to sell 10 items per week, what is the sales and marketing activity that will drive this activity to actually occur.

You can download a free sales plan template at the bottom of this article. This template is an Excel spread sheet that has calculations built into the sheet for adding up each month and a rolling cumulative figure to the end of the year.

Research will you need to do

OK, in my third article Define Your Customer Groups, I introduced you to the concept of looking at your customers and breaking them into groups. Each customer group will require different things from you and your products and services. So, in terms of your sales plan, consider which group will buy which product or service.

Then, you will need to research how many of these particular groups are in your area you intend to operate. A good source of data is the Census statistics available on your Local or County Council web site. If this does not give you the detail that you may require, you may need to consider some form of detailed market research to determine things like:

  • Shopping area foot fall

  • Buying habits of your customer groups

  • Travel statistics

  • Life style statistics

  • Etc…………

Once you have a clear and data driven view of your potential market place, you can now think about your marketing and sales activity to:

  • Let people know how to find you

  • Let people know what you do

  • Inform people of your Unique Selling Proposition

  • Getting them to contact you

  • Converting that lead into a customer

I cannot over stress the importance of market research. This data, along with knowing your competition, will give you good insight into your challenge in terms of reaching your customers and making sales in your chosen market.

How to construct a Sales Plan

If you have already downloaded your free Sales Plan template, this section will be easier to follow.

First, determine your realistic target sales quantities per customer group for each of your products or services. Then, for each month, add these together to estimate your likely sales value. Continue this activity for each of the following 11 months. This is your sales plan.

It is not real, it is not a guarantee of business, it is not cash in the bank. It is however, a list of targets for your business to achieve in order for your business to perform to your financial goals.

Beware, a sales plan is only of any use if it is realistic, backed up by effective sales and marketing activity plans and established as a live document (live in terms that this will be revisited on a monthly basis to see how you are doing against the plan and to be able to take the appropriate action).

Quantities may be numbers of units, hours employed, frequency of service etc. Whatever is a “sales unit” for your business’ products or services.

The purpose of a sales plan

The focus of any business must be sales. Sales provide the life blood of the business, cash, and the sales plan drives the business to:

  • Understand the market place

  • Understand the customer

  • Understand the competition

  • Have a key goal set for the business to achieve

  • Take actions needed to improve the financial situation

  • Review the success of all marketing and sales activities, campaigns etc.

Remember, like any other goal or objective use SMART objectives (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, Time bound).

If you have not done so already, you can down load your free copy of the SMART Objectives article at the bottom of this page.

If you have missed any of the previous articles, you can access them now by using any of the following links:

 

Graham Cripps

Results Consortium Ltd

www.resultsresults.co.uk

 

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Topics: SMART, Business Planning, Business plan, business skills training, Small Business Planning, Sales Plan

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