Business Plan Development

Developing a comprehensive business plan is one of the services that KCARD offers to its clients. A business plan is a company’s roadmap for success. An updated, comprehensive business plan increases the likelihood of success for new and existing businesses.

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

The business plan answers the key questions about the business: who, what, where, when, why, and how. For a developing business, the business plan begins the process of making an idea materialize into reality and determining whether or not an idea should become reality. The business plan establishes goals and benchmarks for the business. A comprehensive business plan makes it easier for a business to receive external support, especially in terms of financing from potential investors, lenders, and grant sources. Finally, and possible most importantly, going through the process of planning is very valuable because it forces the business owners and/or managers to think through every detail of the business.

“In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Dwight D. Eisenhower

A comprehensive business plan should cover the following:

• Description of Business (products, locations, ownership, structure, history)
• Marketing Plan (positioning, products, pricing, target markets, distribution, advertising, sales force)
• Management Plan (organizational structure, roles for management team, hiring & training personnel)
• Financial Management Plan (accounting system, inventory control, loans)
• Financial Projections (3-year pro forma cash flow and income statement projections)

KCARD staff are capable of facilitating the process of developing or updating a business plan for new and existing businesses. In this process, KCARD takes a very hands-on approach, but KCARD only plays the role of facilitator. KCARD will not just produce a business plan for a company without any input from the company’s owners or managers.

In assisting with the development a business plan, KCARD will:

• Facilitate a minimum of 3 working meeting with members (3-5 members is the optimal number involved) of the management team. Each of these meetings last around 2-3 hours, move very quickly, and are relatively intense. Two to three KCARD staff members will be involved in these meetings with one staff person taking notes and one staff person running the meeting;
• Ask members of the management team questions related to the basic components of business plan, and assigning homework to participating management team members on various aspects of the business;
• Develop financial projections based upon agreed upon assumptions by members of the management team;
• Write draft of the plan from the input of the participating management team members, and producing final copy after management members review and edit draft of plan;
• Give oral report of the completed business plan;
• Complete the business plan in 4-6 weeks—the speed in which completed is determined by how quickly management team members can meet and work through the key questions.

At the end of this process, KCARD is very confident that a business will not only a very comprehensive business plan, but a plan that is truly theirs. KCARD believes that all businesses benefit from going through this process because of the value of just going through the planning process that is required to develop a comprehensive business plan.

Click here to learn more about the business plan development process. To find more information about business plans, please review the information found on the Resources page.