Business Planning and Productivity

Business Planning and Productivity. A business plan is very critical to your business. It is a roadmap on what your business does I was going to do it and who is going to do it.

Before you go through the steps you should ask yourself these questions; are we ready to start a business plan to expand the business? What makes our company different? Are we in a niche? What’s your differentiator? What solution do we provide that makes a difference? What are our costs to breakeven and our margins and what does it take to make a profit.

Here are some steps that you should take to create your business plan:

Step 1: Executive summary, in the executive summary you should define the sector is what products or services you’re selling, who’s your target audience, what does your industry look like, and your swot analysis strengths weaknesses opportunities threats, and who are the owners and stakeholders.

Step 2: Mission statement, it is important to tell the readerr what you’re going to do and how are you going to do it. One rule you should follow is to keep it simple, the KISS rule.

Step 3: Describe your Product or Service, you should be describing what are you actually selling or producing. How much does it cost to make the product. What is the packaging and the marketing costs.

Step 4: Marketing plan, who are your customers, who is the competition, what’s your niche, how will you distribute your advertising; online and off-line sales strategies and who will market it and who will be the face of the business.

Step 5: Operational plan, will be critical to your plan logistics, transportation, inventory, legal, suppliers, employ contractors or employees and accounting systems.

Step 6: Organizational Chart, is another critical step who runs a business who reports to who what is the hierarchy and who are the stakeholders.

Step 7: Financial plan is one of the most important part of the business plan this should include a profit and loss projection and analysis a breakeven projection analysis and very importantly cash flow analysis.

Step 8: The final step can include items like attachments for resumes, profiles of business owners and founders and organizational profiles of employees. Also successes of the business via awards and media.

In summary business plan is very essential to accompany’s success. 7 out of 10 businesses fail, so when starting a new business you need to have a plan. A plan to get you from point A to B profitably and successfully. The reason that 70% of businesses fail, is because they did not have a plan, they had no research, they had no niche, they did not understand the breakeven, cash flow or profit margin‘s. Essentially you need to know how much is going to take to make a profit, pay your bills and get you on the road to profitability and growth.

Planning and Productivity

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New Business Start Up To Do list

The essentials for any new business start up would be in my opinion: A Business Plan which you can find at The Business Development Bank of Canada’s site BDC, Business Bank Account from the best business bank in Canada RBC, Incorporation number that you should register with CRA via their website at canada.ca, Trade Name registration which is done to protect your name in Canada NUANS Search, Shareholder agreement if more than one founder, HST registration for business number once you get to over $30K in sales, creating brand with mission statement, website with Word Pressand Go Daddy, email address via Google Business, Google Analytics for Search, Google Search Console for SEO, Mail Chimp for Email Marketing, LinkedIn for Networking, Google My Business Page for Reviews and Map, phone number, business address and a great accountant.

Once you get the basics completed and start to make sales, you will need to understand how to operate the business. Questions you can ask yourself could relate to, what is my gross margin? Do I hire staff or contract the work out? Do I need a line of credit or loan? Should I buy my office or manufacturing facility?

My strong advice is find a mentor or community you can learn from. I would not pay for advice, as the best learning is by doing and making mistakes. You need to learn from your experiences and adjust your business to eliminate your weak spots.

The best industries that large gross margins are Real Estate Services, Transportation and Logistics, Storage Locations, Field and Sport Centre Rentals, and Waste Management and Remediation. By picking an industry and already has large margins you can stay one step ahead. I would then find a niche in the industry of your choice. By owning a niche you can focus the lower your competition. You can target keywords and own them.

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When buying a Franchise, what to look for

If you are thinking about buying a franchise you take a look at different things. Look at location, franchise fees, initial investment, and competition from other sources.

Many people are quick to jump into a Franchise agreement without doing the necessary due diligence. You need to ask for certain items. This should include: Corporate Documents, Financial Statements, Corporate Tax Returns, Access to the Accounting system along wth Bank and Credit Card statements. Also, having a Notice Assessment review for CRA would be a critical step in the process.

Look for a franchise that is focussed on E-Commerce and has good online marketing presence. Social Media has become an essential part of any business. Having a Franchise with strong influencers will go along way to help grow your location.

Franchises that have a strong online backing and are going to help you in the new post Covid world. One tip I would give is to look for a franchise that focuses on environmental and social issues, these will have longer runways for success.

You might think ‘Quick Service Restaurant’ when you think of the world of franchising. 60% of the estimated 1,300 franchises in Canada are not in the Food Category. 60% of franchises can be found in a range of other industries like Wellness, Products or Services, Elder care, Cars and many, many more.

Dig deep to find business opportunities in franchising by investigating the sales verticals available! So many possibilities are out there, make sure to do a deep dive in your due diligence.

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