Most consultants in the business plan field tend to be high-priced with a primary focus on bigger business ventures, which can be intimidating to a budding entrepreneur. Since you start this business low-key it may be the better fit for many small entrepreneurs that will feel less rushed because they are paying much less than they would pay for high-priced consultants. One of the best ways to advertise your services is by referral, so you will need a website that people can link to, and you do have to become active on social media where you can offer advice to any prospective business owners that may sooner or later need financing.

You can also make your business (and expertise) known to local lenders that may find it challenging to explain to a budding entrepreneur how to do the homework before asking for a loan. You may even be able to leave referral information with a local library, or a business development center, in your area. You could even insert a small leaflet in business books, although some librarians have a major problem with that. Do not overlook business supply stores where you get your provisions – many will have a referral board where you may be able to place a small advertisement for free. It takes creativity to find ways to make your service known without spending a lot of money.

Make sure you create a solid brochure and prepare a presentation binder that steps a prospect through the process of creating a business plan. The foundation of this is, actually, our business planning course, and we have a set of PowerPoint slides that you can customize to reflect how you plan to operate your business. This information would also be featured on your web site. The best option is to link to a Marketing Plan that details how we expect to generate revenue, but in the absence we need to sort out, such as the following default model components:

• Revenue Potential – we generally use customized Excel™ logic for the calculation of revenue under various assumptions that must be adapted to reflect the nature of the business, and reflect seasonality.
• Capacity – it is important to understand the production potential for a business venture, and that the model should have a cap on levels of production that exceed the potential site capacity, for example.
• Operating Expenses – variable cost of operation may not be linear based on volume of production or sales or we may need to separate fixed costs from variable costs to get a better projection.
• Investment – we need to understand the impact of different levels of equity vs. debt investment on the viability of the business model.
• Taxation – we need to segregate cash vs. non-cash expenses before calculating the tax liabilities inherent in the business model.
• Cash Flow – the focus of the model tends to be to establish the net flow of cash and working capital or financing that affects the liquidity of the proposed business operation.
• Financial Statements – the most common way of representing your bottom-line results is to use standard

We use an engine to drive Excel™ through different combinations of data that represent different assumptions and calculations of the net outcome of those assumptions. While core calculations are still defined in Excel™ it collects key results and prioritizes the cases based on our sort criteria. The engine can also filter out and discard cases outside the feasible range if we express the criteria using Excel™ cell formulas to quantify the boundaries. It usually takes about 2 weeks to adapt the model to the business concept depending on how complex the revenue and/or operating expense model components are and how much they deviate from the default models.

To determine how the model needs to be adapted to the business under study it is important to consult with the entrepreneur about their intention in different areas. With our standard model we incorporate a 5-year view, with annual totals concentrated in a report structure and monthly views to ensure that seasonality is properly reflected, in particular the costs that do not stop out of season. Compared to the marketing plan this may be a bit sobering, but seasonality does not have to kill an opportunity if we plan the business accordingly.

Like the marketing plan, the power of simulation is that we can quickly run through hundreds of combinations and then have the simulation engine prioritize the best of all outcomes. Although the nature of doing combinations is a somewhat random effort the speed with which we can calculate many cases enables us to take all possibilities into account. The simulation incorporates tests that can disqualify out-of-bounds results. We can also explore a feasible range of alternative input values that yield positive results to see how that plays in a risk scenario. It can take many discussions over 2 – 3 weeks to work out all the details until you have a model that completely reflects how the entrepreneur sees the opportunity being implemented.

Excel™ makes it easy to copy worksheets in order to generate new sets of assumptions, so you should not discard older models until the client decides there is enough material to make a decision (which may very well involve going back to an older model). The completion of the calculations is not the end – you may need to review the results with your client to make sure they can fully explain the analysis to a prospective lender: otherwise the whole exercise is futile. Potentially the lender may challenge assumptions that they require changes until finally a satisfactory outcome results in your client getting the desired financing.

The key to success is to generate quality results that people benefit from. Note that walking away from a bad opportunity is also a success because the client benefits from not sinking money into a bad (or marginal) idea. It is not difficult to establish a modeling process, but keep in mind that what a model reflects are assumptions that we presume to have validity. Your role may well be to introduce some reservations that you may reflect in an addendum to the business plan if you think those assumptions might not be totally realistic: you do not want to make crazy ideas look attractive. You can deliver a business plan in about 6 weeks (not counting revisions a client asks for).

• Capacity – make sure volumes in business projections are feasible given the capacity constraints of the operation. Some expectations look fine in principle until you start projecting growth into the model.
• Revenues – be careful to reflect the revenue generation that a client has in mind, rather than assume default calculations in the model.
• Expenses – again, use the model defaults as a guide, but confirm the business expenses with the client to make sure they are complete.
• Parameters – understand what aspects of the business plan will be the elements that we want to vary in order to determine the impact on the business idea.
• Model creation – customize the model to incorporate all the changes needed to reflect specific income, expense, financing and operating parameters.
• Simulation – execute the analysis by running through all cases to find the feasible operating region. Correct and repeat the simulation until the required information has been generated.
• Reporting – consolidate the information into a final business plan with recommendations for how a client can achieve the best results.

This is the end-product that you deliver to the client, so they can explain a need for financing. The prospective lender may ask for changes that then have to be incorporated in (a) subsequent revision(s).

Learning Formats       SEBC_DBP

This course is currently available in a classroom setting (public or company private) with approximately 30 contact hours. The intent is to perform an actual business plan exercise to confirm the student understands it.

PDF – Certificate Of Completion

Each course offers a certificate of completion that identifies the course, the student, and a brief description of the course. To receive a certificate the student must have attended at least 80% of the course sessions. This personalized certificate is forwarded to the student by Email.

PDF – Course Notebook

Each course includes a notebook in PDF format that provides the minimum knowledge the student must master in order to obtain the certificate. In the notebook you will find references to other study materials. Students receive the notebook by Email when their registration is confirmed.

PDF – Program Overview

An overview of this study program can be downloaded from the website by right-clicking on the program link on the enquiry page.

PDF – Current Training Schedule

A list of upcoming training sessions can be downloaded from the website by right-clicking on the schedule link on the enquiry page.

Registration – Service Providers

To register for any training course please look on the enquiry link page of your service provider (from where you accessed this website). On the page you will find a registration request form where you can order the course that you are interested in. The availability dates will be provided to you, along with payment instructions if you decide to go ahead.