Your Business Plan
Anna Stubbs • March 1, 2024
An ever-changing business landscape can present unforeseen challenges for any business at any time. Identifying risks and opportunities in your business model and creating a Business Plan will help you prepare for difficulties or adversities and provide clarity in the event of a crisis in the future.
Now is an ideal time to document a clear Business Plan:
- Defining what you, as business owners, want from the business; this includes cash drawings, your role, hours of work and holidays.
- Establishing your budget to ensure you’re generating enough cash to cover all expenses including tax, personal expenses, loans and asset purchases.
- Determining your critical KPIs; the most important things you need to measure to track your progress towards achieving your targets.
- Identifying your opportunities and vulnerabilities; the factors that will most impact your business recovery.
- Determining how to manage your most critical challenges.
- Establishing your 12-month and 90-day goals to ensure you’re clear on your priorities.
- Clarifying your actions to achieve those goals.
If you haven’t created a Business Plan, we can facilitate this. You’ve got the smarts on your business, what’s working and what might need to change. Our expertise lies in stress testing the numbers and pulling everything into one concise plan of attack – so if the unexpected happens, you’re prepared. Contact us today.
Contracting or freelancing requires you to wear a lot of hats. Relationship-building, keeping track of your time, marketing your skills and actually doing the work. But one of your priorities should also be establishing how you handle your money and setting the groundwork for good habits.
The UK’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has wasted no time making new tax policies since taking office, having announced a tax cut to remove VAT from domestic electricity bills from 1 October. While this measure is primarily targeted at households, some smaller businesses will, importantly, also be eligible for relief.
When you’re operating and managing a small business, you have a finite pot of cash to work with. Because of this, it’s incredibly important to manage your cash well and to have clear budgets and spending limits for every area of your business operations. Let’s take a look at why budgeting is such a vital part of your financial management, and what you can do to keep your company on budget and in a positive cashflow position.