A Business Plan is a tool
that helps you take a structured approach to the development of your
business or self-employment. It provides you with a way of measuring
your achievements within clear time-scales, enables you to make sure
that what you have planned is financially viable, and plays a vital
role in raising money from funders, sponsors, banks and trusts. Your
plan should normally cover at least a 2 - 3 year period. There is
no definitive approach but there are three broad areas to think about:
- Setting the context in which your business operates;
- Laying out your plan;
- Giving detailed information about you and your business idea.
This will entail a concise summary of the current aims and objectives
of your business, highlights of your history, progress and achievements
to date, and a clear outline of your current professional and financial
state. It should also include describe principal opportunities to
grasp, trends affecting your business, the strategy to be adopted
and resources needed for the future.
You will also need to present the legal structure of your organisation.
Will your business be a Sole Trader, Partnership or Limited Company?
If you plan to have premises, where will they be? Media professionals
often work "out of" home i.e. they are based there but
do much of their work at the premises of employers - production
companies, facilities or on location.
Keep it all under review. Besides helping to keep your business
off the rocks and in good standing with funders and potential sponsors,
your Business Plan will give you a sense of control over your future.
But you should not be tied down by it: update the plan as time passes
and it will become more accurate through your collection of information
and growing expertise. The process is prepare, monitor, refine,
and re-work. Your Business Plan is a working tool. If you see it
as a document written for someone else then it will be shut away
in a drawer and forgotten - so make it work for you by using it.
Channel
4 RealDeal
Includes a guide to writing a plan, templates and cashflow and other
spreadsheets.
Bplans.com
Access to 200 sample Business Plans.
AllBusiness.com
BECTU
Includes information on film, television and theatre industry standard
daily and weekly rates. Will help you with financial planning.
HSBC
UK Business
It is also worth visiting the High Street banks, all of whom offer
small business services and advice, much of it free of charge.
Business
Link
Contact your local Business Link if you need help with putting a
final financial plan together.
Remember that some organisations offering grants may have a particular
format they wish you to follow and will provide details. You will
need to find a template that suits you and your ideas and then adapt
it to your own needs.
You can get further help from the Bournemouth University Innovation
Centre; contact Jayne Askew on Ext. 3994 or e-mail
jaskew@bournemouth.ac.uk
This final Research Project guides you through writing your Business
Plan, and utilises the information you have gathered in all of the
previous tasks and research projects.
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