Philtech Business Acedemy

BUSINESS PLAN

PART I – THE BUSINESS

Dear entrepreneur, we are thrilled to welcome you as one of our successful start-up founders and we cannot wait to see your business achieve great results within your industry. In this particular part of our entrepreneurship program, we will educate, equip and empower you as a business owner to write a comprehensive business plane, which you will be able to use as a supporting document while applying for seed funding at a later stage of your entrepreneurial journey.

However, before you complete this online form to generate a professional business plan that you can start using, consider the following:

“Do your market research. You will definitely need to make quite a few decisions about your start-up including structure, marketing strategies and finances before you can complete this online form. By having the right information at hand, you also can be more accurate in your forecasts and analysis.”

Lastly, we highly recommend writing your answers on a separate document as a backup before submitting this form in order to avoid any unrecoverable loss of important information.

What is your current username on our e-learning platform? *

The username you chose when you created your account on our website

What is the Order Key associated with your username? *

The Order Key was provided to you by email after you successfully enrolled in our programme

Founder's full name: *

First

Last

Founder's Cellphone Number(s) *

Ideally, please provide your WhatsApp number. Thanks!

What is your current position at the company? *

For example: CEO, CFO, CIO

Enter your business Email *

The email address you monitor the most

Business name: Enter your business name as registered in your state/territory. If you have not registered your business name, add your proposed business name *

Please submit the legal, registered name(s) of your company

Products/services: What products/services are you selling? What is the anticipated demand for your products/services? *

Describe in details your offering as well as your expected market share

Trading name(s): . *

The trading name is the name most people call or refer to your business and may not be the actual registered name of the company

Date registered: business name registration. *

When exactly did your register the company? Write N/A if not applicable

Location registered: Province & City you are registered in. *

Where do you intend to operate from?

Business structure: Sole trader, partnership, trust, company. *

The legal structure you intend to adopt for your company

Company Registered Number, if applicable. *

Please, input your company registration number as showed on the official documents issued by the Government

Domain name(s): Registered domain name(s). *

If your company has an active website, please provide the URL here. Example: www.MyCompany.com

Licence(s) & permit(s): List all the licences or permits you have registered. *

Example: Real Estate license

Business location: Describe the location and space occupied/required. What is the size of the space you occupy/require? Which city or town? Where in relation to landmarks/main areas? If you have a retail business, where are you in relation to other shops? What is the retail traffic like? *

Attempt to answer all the above questions the very best you can in order to justify your choice for this specific environment as a location for operating a business

Buy/lease: If you have purchased a business premises or are currently leasing, briefly outline the arrangements. If you are still looking for a lease, outline your commercial lease requirements and any utilities/facilities required. *

Whether you own or rent your place of business, please provide the details of the arrangements

Organisation chart: Outline your business structure (organisation chart). *

What is the hierarchy of the organization? And where does each person fit in?

Names of owners: List all of the business owners. *

Founders, Co-founders, Equity Investors

Details of management & ownership: As the owner(s), will you be running the business or will a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) be running the business on your behalf? What will be your involvement? If it is a partnership briefly outline % share, role in the business, the strengths of each partner and whether you have a partnership agreement/contract in place? *

Please, attempt to answer all the above questions as it will help investors assess your personal contribution to the company

Experience: What experience do the business owner(s) have? How many years have you owned or run a business? List any previous businesses owned/managed. List any major achievements/awards. What other relevant experience do you have? Don’t forget to attach your resume(s) to the back of your plan. *

This is where you are allowed to show off as an entrepreneur by highlighting your entrepreneurial achievements, rewards and recognition

Current staff: List each employee's Job Title, Name, Expected staff turnover, Skills or strengths. *

Sell your team's potential and explain why they are the best people for each position they hold at the company

Required staff: List key staff's Job Title, Quantity, Expected staff turnover, Skills necessary Date required. *

The core team: who are they? What can they do to promote the company's growth and by when do you need to hire them?

Recruitment options: How do you intend on obtaining your required staff? Advertising in the local paper, online advertising, and/or training current staff members? *

Think of creative ways of attracting new talents for your startup. Example: Facebook now allows company pages to promote posts aiming at hiring new talents

Training programs: Are there any training programs you will be organising in the event you cannot find the required skills? Are these in-house or external providers? What training will you as the business owner/manager undertake to keep your skills current? *

In the event that your effort to hire new talents does not pay off, can you think out-of-the-box to get the required skills?

Skill retention strategies: What procedural documentation will you provide to ensure the skills of staff are maintained? Do you have an appropriate allocation of responsibilities? How are responsibilities documented and communicated to staff? What internal processes will you implement to regularly check that the current skills of staff members are still appropriate for the business? *

These questions are important as they will help you design and develop strategies to build a culture where employees' skills and performance are valued

Products/services: Provide a full Product/Service Description & their Prices. *

Describe all the features and characteristics of your product, process or service as well as how much they each cost customers

Market position: Where do your products/services fit in the market? Are they high-end, competitive or budget? How does this compare to your competitors? *

Example: Luxury and highly customized items with few competitors

Unique selling position: How will your products/services succeed in the market where others may have failed? What gives your products/services the edge? *

It is all about the value you bring to the market, which other market players either do not offer yet, or simply deliver something of less value than you do

Anticipated demand: What is the anticipated quantity of products/services your customers are likely to purchase? For example, how much will an individual customer buy in 6 months or 12 months? *

Do you have any assumptions which can help you make sales projections?

Pricing strategy: Do you have a particular pricing strategy? Why have you chosen this strategy? *

Example: premium pricing, penetration pricing, economy pricing, etc.

Value to customer: How do your customers view your products/services? Are they a necessity, luxury or something in between? *

Example: during covid-19 global pandemic lock-down, would your startup be classified as providing "essential products/services" ?

Growth potential: What is the anticipated percentage growth of the product in the future? What will drive this growth? *

Market Growth rate is defined as the rise in sales or market size within a given customer base over a specific period of time.

Research & development (R&D)/innovation activities: What R&D activities will you implement to encourage innovation in your business? What financial and/or staff resources will you allocate? *

Research and development – R&D – is the process by which a company works to obtain new knowledge that it might use to create new technology, products, services, or systems that it will either use or sell. The goal most often is to add to the company's bottom line.

Intellectual property strategy: How do you plan to protect your innovations? List any current trade marks, patents, designs you have registered. Do you have confidentiality agreements in place? *

An IP strategy is simply a plan—consistent with the company's business goals—to acquire IP assets and leverage the most value from existing IP assets.

Workers compensation: Provide details if you have workers compensation insurance? This is mandatory if you have employees. *

Workers' compensation or workers' comp is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence.

Public liability insurance: Provide details if you have public liability insurance? This covers any third party death or injury. *

Liability insurance is a part of the general insurance system of risk financing to protect the purchaser from the risks of liabilities imposed by lawsuits and similar claims and protects the insured if the purchaser is sued for claims that come within the coverage of the insurance policy.

Professional indemnity: Provide details if you have professional indemnity insurance? This covers any legal action taken out as a result of your professional advice. *

Professional indemnity insurance, often referred to as professional liability insurance or PI insurance, covers legal costs and expenses incurred in your defence, as well as any damages or costs that may be awarded, if you are alleged to have provided inadequate advice, services or designs that cause your client to lose money.

Product liability: Provide details if you have product liability insurance? This covers any legal action taken out as a result of injury, damage or death from your product. *

Product liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the injuries those products cause.

Business assets: Provide details if you have insured your business assets in the event of a fire, burglary, or damage? For example: building, contents, motor vehicles. *

A business asset is an item of value owned by a company. Business assets span many categories.They can be physical, tangible goods, such as vehicles, real estate, computers, office furniture, and other fixtures, or intangible items, such as intellectual property.

Business revenue: Provide details if you have insured your business in the event of business interruption where you cannot trade because of a particular event and are unable to make money? *

In accounting, revenue is the income that a business has from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. Revenue is also referred to as sales or turnover. Some companies receive revenue from interest, royalties, or other fees.

Risk(s): List the potential risks (in order of likelihood) that could impact your business and describe what actions will you take to minimise/mitigate the potential risk to your business. *

The term business risks refers to the possibility of a commercial business making inadequate profits due to uncertainties - for example: changes in tastes, changing preferences of consumers, strikes, increased competition, changes in government policy, obsolescence etc.

Legal considerations: List the legislation which will have some impact on the running of your business. For example: consumer law, business law, or specific legislation to your industry. *

Legal consideration refers to the exchange of two or more things of value in a legally binding contract. Usually, money is exchanged for some type of goods or services in a contract.

Production process: What is the process involved in producing your products or services. This process will vary depending on your product or service. Here are some examples of questions you may consider. Is there a manufacturing process? Who is involved in the process? Are there any third parties involved? What is involved in delivering the service to your customers? *

The production process is concerned with transforming a range of inputs into those outputs that are required by the market. This involves two main sets of resources - the transforming resources, and the transformed resources.

Suppliers: who are your main suppliers? What do they supply to your business? How will you maintain a good relationship with them? *

A supplier is an entity that supplies goods and services to another organization. This entity is part of the supply chain of a business, which may provide the bulk of the value contained within its products.

Plant & equipment: List your current plant and equipment purchases. These can include vehicles, computer equipment, phones and fax machines. For each one, provide Purchase date, Purchase price, Running cost. *

A fixed asset is a long-term tangible piece of property or equipment that a firm owns and uses in its operations to generate income.

Inventory: List your current inventory items in the box below. If you have a substantial inventory, you may prefer to attach a full inventory list to the back of this business plan. Please, make sure to provide Inventory item, Unit price, Quantity in stock, Total cost. *

Inventory or stock is the goods and materials that a business holds for the ultimate goal of resale.

Technology (Software): What technology do you require? For example: website, point of sale software or accounting package? What will be the main purpose for each? Will they be off-the-shelf or purpose built? What is the estimated cost of each technology solution? *

Technology is the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of business goals and objectives

Trading hours: What are your trading hours? What are your expected peak trading times? Which times do you expect to be more profitable? How will this change over different seasons? How do your trading hours accommodate these changes? *

The hours during which an exchange is open for the buying and selling of goods and services

Communication channels: How can your customers get in contact with you? These channels can include: telephone (landline/mobile), post box, shopfront, email, fax, internet blog or social media channel. *

A communication channel refers either to a physical transmission medium such as a wire, or to a logical connection over a multiplexed medium such as a radio channel in telecommunications and computer networking.

Credit policy: What is your credit policy for customers/suppliers? How long is the credit period? What are your collection strategies/procedures? What credit does your business receive? What are the terms? *

Simply put, a credit policy is a set of guidelines that: Are used to determine which customers are extended credit and billed.

Warranties & refunds: If you manufacture certain goods, what are the warranty terms? What is your business refund/exchange policy? *

Depending on the terms and conditions, these warranties may entitle consumers to a refund, replacement or repair if there is a problem. Voluntary warranties usually apply for a set period – typically 12 months.

Quality control: Describe your quality control process. What checks or balances do you have in place to ensure the product or service you offer is produced to the same standard of quality? What steps do you take to meet product safety standards? *

Quality control is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production.

Memberships & affiliations: Is your business a member of any particular industry association or club? Do you have any affiliations with any other organisation? *

A professional affiliation is an organization or group a person belongs to based on involvement in a particular profession.

Environmental/resource impacts: Describe the impact your business could potentially have on the environment. E.g. a particular manufacturing process may contribute negatively on the local water supply. *

Environmental impact is defined as any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organization's activities, products, or services.

Community impact & engagement: How does your environmental impact affect the local community? How can you engage the community in minimising your impact? *

Community engagement is a way of ensuring that community members have access to valued social settings and activities, feel that they are able to contribute meaningfully to those activities, and develop functional capabilities that enable them to participate fully.

Risks/constraints: List any risks/constraints to your business resulting from this environmental impact? *

Constraints are risks because they limit your ability to grow, deliver and respond to client and market demands. When you can't address those demands, your business risks not only the loss of critical staff members and clients to competitors, but potentially deadly stagnation.

Strategies: What strategies will you implement to minimize/mitigate your environmental impact and any risks to your business? Will you conduct an environmental audit? Have you introduced an Environmental management system? *

Strategy is a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty.

Action plan: List your key sustainability/environmental milestones below. Please, each sustainability milestone, Target and Target date. *

An action plan is a detailed plan outlining actions needed to reach one or more goals.

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Business Plan: The Business – PART I

BUSINESS PLAN

PART I – THE BUSINESS