Task 2B financial aspects of a business

To be completed in class today 11/03/13

Calculate total start up costs for your business.
You should calculate fixed costs and variable costs separately.

This should include the following:
1) The cost of premises for your business (this can be calculated by researching property prices in the area you are interested in) remember you may have to pay for a year or so in advance and a deposit of 1 months rent. Include business rates if they are applicable.

2) The cost of any equipment you may require ( if you have a shop for example you would need a till, fridges, shelves etc) remembers he little things like stationary any PC's for staff etc.

3) If you are selling goods calculate the cost for your stock or materials that you may require for a month.

4) utilities can be fixed or variable costs and need to be included in your start up costs as best you can.

Task 1 feedback

Task 1 Feedback

Here is the feedback sheet for task 1 that I will be marking your work against.
I suggest you look through it and check your blogs for gaps.

Task 1 Text highlighted in yellow is completed Non-highlighted text still needs to be completed
Assessor’s Feedback for
Grading	Marking Criteria	Feedback	Suggested evidence format	Achieved
unit 4 P1	Describe the main job roles and functions within an organisation	You need to describe the following roles: Pay, conditions qualifications needed etc   For example customer service asst, C.S manager, IT support, web designer, database programmer, IT manger HR asst HR manager, Finance Asst & finance Manager (you could maybe use info you collected for unit 2 functional areas here)	Blog
Unit 4 P2	identify different organisational structures used within business organisations	Flat, Matrix and Hierarchical to be described Find businesses that use them	Blog
Unit 8 P2	Produce three documents of different types to support straightforward business tasks for internal communication in an organisation	For example any three from the following. Memo, agenda, minutes, letter, email, person specification, text message	blog
Unit 12 P1	Describe three different business organisations which operate online	Ownership, location, purpose etc to be discussed.  Ideally a NGO, private sector organisation and a  Public sector one	Blog
Unit 12 P2	Explain how they operate their activities online	Are the business organisations using their websites to sell? To inform/educate? As a brochure? A mixture? Design features that help/ hinder their intentions- navigation issues, subscription/membership, use of graphics and text etc Use annotated screen shots	blog
Unit 12 P3	Explain the issues a business organisation would need to consider to go online	You need to explain the following in relation to one or more of the businesses. Marketing Finance Legal HR IT security Logistics Site implementation	blog
Unit 12 P4	Explain the operational risks for a business organisation operating online	Supply issues  HR technical problems online fraud	blog

Creating a Marketing strategy

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Task 2b Business Plan

Creating a Marketing strategy

How do you promote your product or service?

There lots of options they all have a time and place where they are useful.
Also have a time and place where they are a waste of time and effort.
What's good for a big company not always good or achievable for a small business
You need to briefly identify the pros and cons of these methods for your business

• TV Adverts
• Youtube Channel, videos
• Radio Adverts
• Flyers: Handed out or posted
• Posters: Large versions of flyers? 
• Email: existing customers or Spam
• Twitter: Regular updates on business
• FaceBook: Company/product page, targeted ads
• Instagram: Uploaded pictures
• Linkdin: Business type facebook
• WoM: Word of mouth
• Blogs: Some bloggers very influencial 
• Newspapers: Adverts, features
• news: features
• Celebrity endorsement: freebies? 
• vouchers: reward customers? Encourage new custom
• loyalty card: reward customers
• price structure: Who are you targeting

You have to decide which ones would be best for you and your product/ service
This should be based on market research you carry out.


The marketing mix explained in a short video here

Marketing methods

3 Levels

Low level campaign

Mixed Level Campaign

High level campaign

Marketing mix

Task 2 b Business Plan

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Preface

This document is an edited (and abridged) version of the Business Plan template that can be downloaded from the HSBC website.  It is provided to give you a start in preparing your own Business Plan.  You do not have to follow the structure or use the section headings exactly as they appear below, but you must provide all the content as specified.

Do not be frightened by how much information seems to be required.  The trick is to keep adding a little more every day, and not be afraid to change what you have already written, whenever a new idea occurs to you or you discover more information.

As your document nears completion, you can focus on the presentation and appearance.  Do not try to do this at the beginning; it will only distract you from concentrating on the content.  Try to use your friends, family, and fellow-students to comment on your work.  They may well come up with useful suggestions for improvement.

A point to remember!

Even though this is not an imaginary business, If you begin to realise that it may not be as successful as you would like, this really doesn’t matter.  You are being assessed on how well you understand all the processes, not on whether or when you might make a profit.  It will have been good practice for when you really decide to go into business!

At a practical level, do not forget to remove all these “Advice” boxes, change the footer, and edit the Contents page!

Business Plan

Your business logo

Business name

Address 1

Address2

City/town

Post code

Phone

Fax

Mobile

E-mail

Web site

Contents

                                                                                                                   Page

1. Summary................................................................................................................................. 4

2. Business overview...................................................................................................................................... 5

Introduction                                                                                                 

Competitive advantage

4. Marketing................................................................................................................................. 6

SWOT and critical success factors

Market research

5. Team and management structure.................................................................................................. 7

Skills, experience, training and retention

Advisors

Management systems

6. Financial budgets and forecasts........................................................................................................ 8

Profit and loss forecast

Cash flow forecast

Break-even analysis

Summary

The summary is the last part of the plan that you will write, but it should be included at the beginning of the plan.  Assume you are using your plan to raise finance (i.e. start-up and working capital). This summary needs to make the reader (e.g. a bank manager or a potential investor) want to find out more.

Business overview

Introduction

This is a brief explanation of the idea that has prompted you to start your business.  Describe your products and services, as well as the location.  Explain what industry sector you will operate in and where it sits in the business lifecycle (i.e. in an emerging industry, growth industry, mature industry, or a declining industry).

Describe your business objectives and goals. Make sure they are specific and measurable.

Competitive advantages

Explain your competitive advantage(s) and the market niche(s) you have identified.

Marketing

SWOT and critical success factors

Outline briefly your marketing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in a SWOT chart.  From these, what will be the critical success factors for your business?

Market research

What is your target market? Describe what market research you have completed and what you might do in future.

Promotion plan

Explain how you will promote your business to customers (e.g. through advertising, exhibitions, Public Relations).

Team and management structure

Skills, experience, and training

Describe the skills and experience required of yourself and your employees.

Management and Legal requirements

Briefly outline the management structure of your business as well as any legal (compliance) requirements: tax and VAT obligations, health & safety, etc.

Financial budgets and forecasts

Attach the following financial documents to the business plan, together with brief notes explaining them:-

Profit and loss forecast

Cash flow forecast

Break-even analysis