2. Get the Most For Your
BUSINESS
Here is what SCORE offers to you
Free of CHARGE:
*A confidential, business counseling session with a SCORE volunteer
counselor who has the business experience you seek to address your
questions.
*An assignment to help you think through your business challenge or
opportunity and a follow up appointment to be set at your first counseling
session.
*Follow up from your SCORE business counselor or charter office, checking
on your progress and offering additional assistance.
Chicago SCORE Chapter
Citicorp. 500 W Madison Street, #1250
Chicago, Illinois 60661
312 353-7724
3. Mark Lieberman
Business Planning Addresses To
mark.lieberman01@
Remember
•Me: mark.lieberman01@scorevolunteer.org
http://www.Linkedin/In/LiebermanMark
gmail.com
•Score Chicago: scorechicago.org
•Score National: score.org
4. Today’s Topic
Business Plan, what? why? when? who? how?
Elements of good Business Plan
Brief descriptions of each of elements
How to write one?
Common mistakes to avoid
5. Myth #1
Myth: All I need is a good idea to be
a successful entrepreneur.
Reality: A good idea is a great
start, but it takes hard work,
research, and planning plus
successful implementation
strategies to turn your idea into a
profitable enterprise.
6. You Need A Business Plan Unless
You Are Talking to One of the 3 F’s
7. Business Plan is a Process
RESULTS
Simple
Specific
PLAN ACTION
Realistic
Complete
FOLLOW UP
8. One Plan: Many Uses
Laboratory
Elevator
Speech Business Plan Motivator
Promotion
9. Typical Business Plan Outline
1.0 Executive Summary
2.0 Company Summary
3.0 Products (or Services or both)
4.0 Market Analysis Summary
5.0 Strategy and Implementation Summary
6.0 Company’s Organization
7.0 Financial Plan
16. If That’s the Goal, How Do I Get
There?
You can get But there is a better way
there this way …
17. What the SCORE Template
Contains
Purpose Tab Use
Number
Introduction None Documentation and Company Name
Input 1-6 Basic Expenses, Sales Forecast, Cash Flow Controls
Financials 8 - 17 3 years of Income Statements, Balance Sheets and Cash
Flow Statements
Miscellaneous 18- 21 Reasonableness Checks and Break Even Analysis
Your ? Your own custom worksheets; scratch area
Worksheets
Don’t look for tab 7. It’s there but it’s hidden and unused.
Tabs 1 – 6 are where you’ll spend most of your time. Your thought goes here.
Tabs 8 to 17 are protected. They are read only. Your payoff is here.
Tabs 18 – 21 may or may not be useful.
18. What to remember about
Introduction (0)
Here’s where you will enter your company
name. That name will carry through to all
future statements. The Introduction also
contains some documentation on color
codes.
19. What to remember about
Sales Forecast (4
and 5)
•Although this isn’t the order in which they
appear, work on 4 and 5 before any
others. They should be where you spend
most of your time and thought.
•Try to confine yourself to 4 or fewer
products or product groups.
•If your business is seasonal, make sure
you reflect that pattern in the sales
forecast. Almost certainly, you won’t
begin in January so change the time
buckets here to align with your actual
start date. The change will carry though
all other slides.
•If you use a supporting sheet, link to it.
20. What to remember about
Fixed Operating
Expenses (3)
•Use the Expense captions as a start, but
over key them with better captions if you
need them.
•At first, you won’t know these. Take a
guess, and refine the guess as you learn
more about the business.
•Don’t key in Other Expenses. They
come from the Amortization Schedule
(20) which in turn comes from Required
State Up Funds (1).
•This amortizes all annual expenses
equally over 12 months. If that is
inappropriate, you’ll have to modify the
Income Statements (8,12, and 15).
21. What to remember about
Salaries and
Wages (2)
•Be honest. Are you going to pay
yourself during the first year?
•The spreadsheet will amortize pay
and contractors evenly across all
months. If that isn’t true, you will
need to do some changes to the
spreadsheet.
•Estimate average wages for full and
part time employees if you have
them.
•Contractors who work for you full
time aren’t contractors. They are
employees. Treat them correctly.
22. What to remember about
Start Up Funds
(1)
•You probably won’t know all this when
you start so put in estimates you revise
as you go. Over key inappropriate
captions, but be sure the total are correct.
•Fixed assets will be automatically
depreciated.
•Sources of funding will be repaid as
appropriate using the Amortization
Schedule.
•Don’t be afraid to change your estimates
based on what you see in the Cash Flow
statements. Cash flow balances may
never be negative.
24. Volunteers for Business Plan Boot
Camp?
Requirements
•Know Excel or equivalent
•Need to get done in 4 to 6
weeks
•Serious about a business
plan
•Ready to work hard to
complete financials
