Business studies - Business Plan

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Bharat Aswani

Contents

Introduction – Page 2

Planning

Self-Assessment – Page 3

Skills and Talents – Page 6

Brainstorming – Page 8

Gaps in the Market – Page 10

Decision Time – Page 13

Findings

Customers/Market Research – Page 15

Personnel – Page 23

Marketing – Page 25

Production – Page 30

Finance – Page 33

Evaluation – Page 36

Bibliography – Page 38

Introduction

In this report I will be looking at all the needed sections in order to start up my business. I will begin with a self assessment of myself; this is in order to see if I have the needed skills in which to run a business and if I am capable to do so. I will then be looking at my skills and talents and how they help me in the running of my business and dealing with my customers. I will be making some brainstorm diagrams to give myself an idea of then type of business I would like to run and I shall also be looking at the advantages of my ideas. The final sections in my planning are looking at the gaps in the market, I will do this to see if there is a need for a one my business ideas in the city I wish to set up, I will also be able to see how much completion I would with each of the business ideas. After that is the decision time, I will be looking at all of my previous sections and using them I will decide the most suitable business for myself to start up, I shall list the reason I have chosen said business as well.

After deciding my business I will be looking at who my potions customers are and the market I shall be looking to sell to, this is needed as it allows my to be specific as towards who my target market will be. After looking at the possible market I will be looking at personnel, the goals and aims of my business, they types of communication I will be using and who I will employ and under what conditions. I will also be looking into Marketing which is the advertising of my product and deciding on a logo for my company and what forms of advertising I plan on using and the reasons behind my choice, and the advantages of it. After I have decided on how I am going to promote my product I must think of what type of production I must use and which will be the most suitable for my business. Finally I will be looking at the what I will need to start up my business, I already know I will be needing a loan as I will not have enough capital to start up my business but I don’t not know how much I will need. I will also be looking at how much it costs me to make my product and how much I have to sell to cover my costs, I will also be producing a cash flow forecast to help me estimate the amount of money that should be coming into my business.

Finally I shall be looking back at everything and I will evaluate all of it, I will look at what went they way expected and the problems that have occurred and how I plan to solve them. I will also briefly look at how external and internal factors can affect my business in way I can and can’t control.

       

Planning Section

Introduction

I am going to take a self assessment questionnaire. The reason for this is so I can see the strong points and weak points I will be brining into my business. I will then look at each question and the answer I have given and see how it could affect me in certain situation. For the weak points I will look for solutions to improve myself on these problems, for my strengths I will look for ways to further improve myself in the hopes to become more efficient.

Self-Assessment Questionnaire

  1. I am always up to date with my work. Yes
  2. TV, Friends etc, never distract me if I have to do work. No
  3. I get on well with other people. Yes
  4. I do not act rashly. Yes
  5. My family give me their full support with work. Yes
  6. I cope well under stress. Yes
  7. I don’t give in easily when the going gets tough. No
  8. I listen to advice. Yes
  9. I can be very persuasive when I try. No
  10. I need to be pretty ill before I take time off. No

I am always up to date with my work. Yes

In any aspect of the business being up to date is necessary as if work is left pending for too long it begins to pile up very quickly. If all my work is done in time and kept up to date I can avoid having to spend extra hours working overtime to catch up. Being up to date I would have all the needed information I need ready for when I need to reference it for example being up to date with stock, creditors and financial accounts you can easily see what is needed and how everything is going within the business. On the other hand always trying to be up to date with work may result in having to work overtime anyway for certain reasons one being not having enough time to complete what is needed. One way to solve this would be to draw up a schedule so as to allocate time on a regular basis to keep up to date with work.

TV, Friends etc, never distract me if I have to do work. No

This is a problem could lead to further complications that could cause my business to suffer. Instead of spending time looking up information and doing research I my make a quick decision regarding the business which may end up costing me a lot of money in the long run when it could have been easily avoided by focusing on what I was doing and thinking it through. At some point I may leaving work undone to leave to do something else this could be filling out stock order’s or financial accounts, these will then become a larger work load for myself to complete which could lead to me not doing them properly. To avoid this I can follow a schedule and focus on my work fully when it needs to be done so as not to make mistakes while still leaving time for me to peruse with leisure activates.  

I get on well with other people. Yes

This is a vital part of any business communication and working with others. It is important to get along with others as it is important that your employees don’t see you as just an authority figure but as a person they can talk to. I have also be able to talk with customers and supplies these are people I will have to deal with on a daily basis and is important to come across as a friendly person and crate an environment free from tension. Once this is accomplished then employees and costumers may come to me with ideas and suggestions for my biasness, allowing me to hopefully improving the business in general.  If I did not get along with others none of this would be possible and the business would suffer as customers would not see the business as a friendly place thus putting them off returning and employees beginning to resent myself and not working as well as they could.

 I do not act rashly. Yes

This is important as making rash decisions could end up being fatal decisions for my biasness. It is important that I think all my choices though so as to avoid making the wrong decisions for my business. Making choices to quickly may give customers and my employees a bad impression of what I am like. This can be avoided by sitting down and looking at what my choices are and then looking at date and making notes and comparing data so as to be sure the choice I pick is the one that will be most beneficial for my business in the hopes to attract more customers and allowing my business to grow and expand.  

My family give me their full support with work. Yes

It is important that my family support me with the work I want to do so I know I can rely on them for moral support and to help in ways needed. If I need help with a decision with the business I can get advice as it is always a good idea to get an outside point of view, if at any point I am short handed at work I could call on my family to help me with my work load. Without family to support me in times of difficulty I will have server problems and no one to help me though.

I cope well under stress. Yes

This is important as in any business there are times where work inevitably piles up and there is a lot expected from you. Starting up any business will cause a lot of stress as there is the fear that the business with not do as well as planned or I wont be able to make correct decisions or is I make the wrong decisions at any point having to fix and solve the problems. There may be times in which I am short on supplies and delivery is late depending what the kind of delivery system I plan to use for my business so there is the fear that I may not have the stock to sell to cover the losses for that month and be able to pay the wages of my employees, then I may have too much stock for the next month and then not sell the extra and then have stock and money go to waste. The best way to deal with stress is just to take a small break and think everything through with a clear head and make the right decisions.

I don’t give in easily when the going gets tough. No

This is a quality I will not want to have at all as starting up a business is always difficult and requires a lot of time and effort. If I wish for my business to be successful and grow then I must continue working hard even when at times I feel it is too much. The only way to avoid such a negative quality would be to really think if this is what I want to do then going after it to the best of my abilities.

   

I listen to advice. Yes

Listening to advice from others will play an important part as it helps to get an outside point of view. It could save me from making decisions which may not be in the best interest of my business, as well as allowing me to use the advice I have been given to improve on any problems I may have or ways to bring more customers. If I were to stick to my own ideas all the time then and follow them through I could end up with a big loss if something goes wrong.

I can be very persuasive when I try. No

 

Being persuasive is important in a business as it would allow me to convince people so buy/sell certain things. I may feel I am paying too much for my stock in that case I can try and convince my supplier to give me a better deal possibly allowing me to buy more. Being persuasive my also help if there is any completion and I can try and find out what their business plan is and then find a way to attract more customers then them. One way to go about this is to be friendly and to just really try and get the information you are looking for or convince people to give me what I am looking for.

I need to be pretty ill before I take time off. No

This can be positive or negative, if I am not feeling very well I can not work as hard as I normally would or I could cause further problems for my self if the illness does not go away. On the other hand taking time off work every time I feel a bit sick will end up causing a larger work load for my return and a loss of sales for that day. I must make sure to only take time off work when it is 100% necessary so as to avoid increasing my work load for the day in which I return back to work.  

Skills and Talents

Introduction

I will be looking at all of my skills and talents which I could use to affect my business. This will allow me to see the problems and advantages each of them will cause to my future business, after this I will then look at situations in which they can be used to aid me with my business and for solutions for the problems that they may cause.

My Skills and Talents

  1. Playing Badminton.
  2. Good knowledge of Microsoft Office programs.
  3. I like to keep up to date with new technology.
  4. I enjoy talking and meeting with new people.

Analysis of my skills and talents

Playing Badminton.

This skill can aid me with my business as you learn to get along with others and how to work as a team, as playing doubles requires very good communication in this particular sport. This can aid me in my business as I know how to work with others and communicate with them, it will allow me to hopefully get alone with my employees and communicate with them, it also allows for a company team for example which would help build a bond between me and my employees. On the other side it could have negative affects on me and my business because I may spend too much time focused on playing or arrange to go play a game when I should be concentrating on work that I have to do, as a result it may lead to work being done late or not up to a certain standard. It may also cause me to be tired when going into work if I went to play a game late in the night so during that day I won’t be as focused as normal and it will cause my work to suffer. To avoid these problems I should always make sure that my work is done before I decide to make time recreational activates and to make sure I get to sleep at a certain time everyday so as to avoid being tired during work.

Good knowledge of Microsoft Office programs.

This an important skill as it is needed to run a business, knowing how to use programs such and word, excel, PowerPoint are needed to make presentations send letters and crate accounts. I can also teach my employees how to use these programs so I can delegate work onto them if I feel I have too much work to do. The negative side to this is that if I teach another of my employees these skills and them leave them with work that needs to be done they may run into difficulties thus resulting in work not being done properly or being done late, it also takes a lot of time to teach someone full use of these programs time of which I may not have enough of. To make sure I do not come across these problems I should make sure I only give my employees work which I know they can get done in time and properly, and I should also make sure I have time to teach them how to do new things with these programs as sometimes it may just be faster if I just do it myself and delegate something know they can do upon them as this will give them a sense of responsibility and possibly motivate them to learn other skills on their own.        

I like to keep up to date with new technology.

This is an advantage as knowing the new technology out there is important for the business to survive, as most of them time it allows the business to achieve greater economies of scale and become more efficient. They also may be able to carry out certain tasks which in turn will allow me to save money by replacing employees whose jobs these new machines take over. The down side there is the risk of these now technologies do not work out as expected or there are problems with them which cannot be solved easily thus resulting in a large loss for my business. To make sure these problems occur I can look into new machinery to make sure no problems can occur that could lead to problems for me and my business.  

I enjoy talking and meeting with new people.

These very important as I will have to handle customers, it will also help me communicating with my employees old and new as this is needed to get work done and can help with getting new idea for my business which could allow me to improve. The downside is some people may find I come across to strong and this may push them away or not want to speak at all. To avoid this I must make sure that I know when someone is willing to be willing to speak and when they rather be left to themselves and not be bothered by others.

Brainstorming

Introduction

In this section I will talk about two different business ideas witch I would like to peruse. I will choose these ideas by making three brainstorm diagrams each with 5 different business ideas, from these ideas I am hoping to have two which I believe would be possible for me to start up and run effectively. I will be linking my ideas to the self assessment which I filled in the Planning section and my Skills and Talents section. This will show how these could affect m possible business, by the end I hope to have one business idea which I know I want to follow as my final idea.

Brainstorms

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

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Chosen ideas

The first idea I have chosen is Website deign, this is a good idea as I will not need an office I can put out an add and work from home. I would not need any employees as long as I keep to a work load which I can handle myself, I would need to take time to fully learn how to make and deign a webpage but the difficulty in this should not be much if I focus as much time as I can to learning.

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