A guide to third sector trading - WCVA

It’s an idea, but is it business? A guide to third sector trading
1: Getting
started
2: First steps 3: Business
planning
4: Legal and
governance
5: Funding
and
resourcing
6: Financial
controls
7: Managing
growth
8: Management
and
governance
9: Social
enterprise
10: Sources
of support
3.2 Writing the business plan
A community development organisation on a housing estate in the South Wales Valleys accepted an attractive-sounding
offer of free business planning for a proposed new catering venture – which could open up possibilities for job creation
and greater financial independence. The fact that the consultancy was free meant that the normal practices of writing
a detailed brief, getting references for the consultant, and close supervision by the group were largely bypassed. But the
resulting business plan was a fantasy – forecasting an impossible turnover of hundreds of thousands of pounds. Rather
than advancing the enterprise, it left members of the group helplessly scratching their heads for months about what to
do with a useless plan, and unable to find an alternative way to develop their ideas.
A plan for every occasion?
The business plan format: The basic shape of the plan will be
much the same, whatever its purpose and audience. The plan
should include:
• a summary and an introduction
• the context and background to your plan
• your business aims and your social objectives
• the practical proposals
• the customers, the competition and evidence there is a market
for the service and/or product
• how the business will be managed
• how much it will all cost to set up, and where the money will
come from
• how much, in detail, it will cost to run, and how you have
calculated the income which you expect to earn
• evidence of a sound cash flow – ie that you will always have
enough money in the bank to meet your expenditure.
• the targets you will use to measure progress.
(See also the checklist for the contents of a business plan in
Appendix 3.)
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