Business Plan Sample
Business Plan Sample
Business Plan Sample
2012 - 2014
22/02/2013 09:40:33(UTC)
Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 3 Company Overview ............................................................................................................. 4 Products and Services ........................................................................................................ 5 Pricing and Sales ................................................................................................................ 6 Marketing Strategy .............................................................................................................. 7 Competition ........................................................................................................................ 8 Management and Staffing .................................................................................................. 8 Implementation..................................................................................................................... 9 Financial Projections ......................................................................................................... 10
Executive Summary
IT-Advisers will be formed as a consulting company specializing in marketing of information technology and hi-tech products in international markets. Its founders are former marketers of consulting services, cloud-based software and market research, all in international markets. They are founding IT-Advisers to formalize the consulting services they offer. Mission IT Advisers (ITA) offers high-tech manufacturers and IT-companies a reliable, high quality alternative to in-house resources for business development, market research and channel development on an international scale. A true alternative to in house resources offers a very high level of practical experience, know how, contacts and confidentiality. Clients must know that working with ITA is a more professional, less risky way to develop new areas even than working completely in house with their own people. ITA must also be able to maintain financial balance, charging a high value for its services and delivering an even higher value to its clients. Initial focus will be development in the European and Latin American markets, or for European clients in the United States market. Keys to Success 1. Excellence in fulfilling the promise completely confidential, reliable, trustworthy expertise and information. 2. Developing visibility to generate new business leads. 3. Leveraging from a single pool of expertise into multiple revenue generation opportunities: retainer consulting, project consulting, market research, and market research published reports. This is a sample business plan created with iPlanner.NET business planning software application. Main financial measures
2012 Cash Sales revenue Net profit for financial year Operating margin Owners' equity Return on equity (per year) 3,422 1,175,000 -112,509 -9.58% 22,491 -500% 2013 52,939 1,800,000 76,547 4.25% 159,038 48.1% 2014 114,404 2,450,000 210,178 8.58% 349,216 60.2%
Company Overview
IT Advisers (ITA) is a new company providing high-level expertise in international high-tech business development, channel development, distribution strategies and marketing of high tech products. It will focus initially on providing two kinds of international triangles: 1. Providing United States clients with development for European and Latin American markets. 2. Providing United Kingdom and European clients with development for the US and Latin American markets.
As it grows it will take on people and consulting work in related markets, such as the rest of Latin America and the Far East, also similar markets. As it grows it will look for additional leverage by taking brokerage positions and representation positions to create percentage holdings in product results. ITA will be created as a California C corporation based in San Jose, owned by its principal investors and principal operators. As of this writing it has not been chartered yet and is still considering alternatives of legal formation. The initial office will be established in a quality office space in the "Silicon Valley" area of California, the heart of the U.S. high tech and software industry. ITA offers expertise in channel distribution, channel development, software and market development, sold and packaged in various ways that allow clients to choose their preferred relationship: these include small business consulting relationships, project based consulting, relationship and alliance brokering, sales representation and market representation, projectbased market research, published market research and information forum events.
Market research - group studies available to selected clients at $5,000 per unit. A group study is packaged and published, a complete study of a specific market, channel, or topic. Examples might be studies of developing consumer channels in Brazil or Mexico, or implications of changing margins in software. In the future ITA will broaden the coverage by expanding into coverage of additional markets (e.g. all of Latin America, Far East, Western Europe) and additional product areas (e.g. telecommunications, web-based software and technology integration). We are also studying the possibility of newsletter or electronic newsletter services, or perhaps special on- topic reports.
Marketing Strategy
ITA will be focusing on information technology manufacturers of computer hardware and software, services, networking, who want to sell into markets in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Latin America. These are mostly larger companies, and occasionally medium-sized companies. Our most important group of potential customers are executives in larger corporations. These are marketing managers, general managers, sales managers, sometimes charged with international focus and sometimes charged with market or even specific channel focus. They do not want to waste their time or risk their money looking for bargain information or questionable expertise. As they go into markets looking at new opportunities, they are very sensitive to risking their company's name and reputation. The consulting industry is pulverized and disorganized, thousands of smaller consulting organizations and individual consultants for every one of the few dozen well-known companies.Consulting is a disorganized industry, with participants ranging from major international name brand consultants to tens of thousands of individuals. One of ITA's challenges will be establishing itself as a "real" consulting company, positioned as a relatively risk free corporate purchase. At the highest level are the few well established major names in management consulting. Most of these are organized as partnerships established in major markets around the world, linked together by interconnecting directors and sharing the name and corporate wisdom. Some evolved from accounting companies and some from management consulting. These companies charge very high rates for consulting and maintain relatively high overhead structures and fulfillment structures based on partners selling and junior associates fulfilling. At the intermediate level are some function specific or market specific consultants, such as the market research firms or channel development firms.
Market segmentation
Large manufacturer corporations - our most important market segment is the large manufacturer of high-technology products, such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft. These companies will be calling on ITA for development functions that are better spun off than managed in-house, and for market research, and for market forums. Medium sized growth companies: particularly in software, multimedia, and some related high growth fields, ITA will be able to offer an attractive development alternative to the company that is management constrained and unable to address opportunities in new markets and new market segments.
Competition
The competition comes in several forms: 1. The most significant competition is no consulting at all, companies choosing to do business development, planning and channel development and market research inhouse. Their own managers do this on their own, as part of their regular business functions. Our key advantage in competition with in-house development is that managers are already overloaded with responsibilities, they don't have time for additional responsibilities in new market development or new channel development. Also, ITA can approach alliances, vendors, and channels on a confidential basis, gathering information and making initial contacts in ways that the corporate managers can't. 2. The high-level prestige management consulting: McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, etc. These are essentially generalists who take their name-brand management consulting into specialty areas. Their other very important weakness is the management structure that has the partners selling new jobs, and inexperienced associates delivering the work. We compete against them as experts in our specific fields, and with the guarantee that our clients will have the top-level people doing the actual work. 3. The third general kind of competitor is the international market research company: Dataquest, Stanford Research Institute, etc. These companies are formidable competitors for published market research and market forums, but cannot provide the kind of high-level consulting that ITA will provide. 4. The fourth kind of competition is the market-specific smaller house. For example: Nomura Research in Japan. 5. Sales representation, brokering and deal catalysts are an ad-hoc business form that will be defined in detail by the specific nature of each individual case.
very flat in the beginning, with each of the founders responsible for his or her own work and management. The ITA business requires a very high level of international experience and expertise, which means that it will not be easily leveraged in the common consulting company mode in which partners run the business and make sales, while associates fulfill. Partners will necessarily be involved in the fulfillment of the core business proposition, providing the expertise to the clients. The initial personnel plan is still tentative. It should involve 3-5 partners, 1-3 consultants, 1 strong marketing person, an office manager. Later we add more partners, consultants and and sales staff. The annual personal estimates are included in the tables presented below.
Headcount
Personnel Partners Consultants Marketing manager Sales reps Office manager 2012 4 4 0 2 1 11 2013 5 4 1 2 1 13 2014 7 4 1 2 1 15
Implementation
Total start-up expense (including legal costs, branding, stationery, other one time expenses) come to $30,000. The annual overhead expense estimates are presented in the table below. Start-up assets required include $50,000 in fixed assets like office furniture, computers, software and other equipment and tools. 9
Financial Projections
The paid-in capital from partners and other investors will be $135,000. An annuity loan will be taken from a bank in amount of $500,000 for 60 months. The performance measures, business plan financial projections and break-even analysis are presented below. Performance measures (USD)
Sales revenue Cost of sales Gross profit Other operating expenses Labour cost Depreciation of fixed assets Operating profit EBITDA Financial income and expenses Profit before income tax Income tax expense Profit Operating margin Gross margin Sales per employee Value added Value added per employee Return on equity (per year) Quick ratio Current ratio ISCR DSCR Debt to equity ratio Debt to capital ratio 2012 1,175,000 297,500 877,500 265,000 727,260 5,000 -119,760 -114,760 -5,250 -125,010 -12,501 -112,509 -9.58% 74.7% 106,818 612,500 55,682 -500% 1.04 1.04 -21.9 0 3.33 76.9% 2013 1,800,000 450,000 1,350,000 322,500 897,000 15,000 115,500 130,500 -30,448 85,052 8,505 76,547 4.25% 75% 138,462 1,027,500 79,038 48.1% 0.90 0.90 4.29 1.08 3.04 75.3% 2014 2,450,000 610,000 1,840,000 455,000 1,110,900 15,000 259,100 274,100 -25,569 233,531 23,353 210,178 8.58% 75.1% 163,333 1,385,000 92,333 60.2% 8.52 8.52 10.7 1.79 1.02 50.5%
10
15.0 15.0
15.0 15.0
15.0 15.0
25,000 25,000
356,857 356,857
356,857 356,857
11
Total liabilities Owners' equity Share capital in nominal value Share premium Retained profit/loss Current year profit Total owners' equity Total liabilities and owners' equity
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
12
CASH FLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES Inflows Outflows Payments to vendors (assets) Total Net cash flow from investing activities CASH FLOWS FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES Inflows Payments from shareholders Loan amounts received Total Outflows Principal repayments Interest expense Dividends (net to shareholders) Payment of corporate income tax Corporate income tax on dividends Total Net cash flow from financing activities Net change in cash Cash at the beginning Cash at the end
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
60,000 500,000 560,000 12,498 6,167 0 0 0 18,665 541,335 54,280 3,422 57,701
0 0 0
13
Net cash flow from financing activities Net change in cash Cash at the beginning Cash at the end
14