Just before I start on the Buisness plan...

I just wanted to talk about Ltd Companies and also Plc Companies.

Ltd (Limited Company)

• Organised Power system within a company, (Often initially Family run) with a small amount of shareholders.
• Limited Liability. e.g, if the company goes bust, it's value in assets is sold in order to pay off debts, if there's any left over nobody is liable, and therefor no one is in trouble.
• Generally bigger in size than a self employed company and it is also easier for LTD's to access money from the bank because they are seen as a better risk for the very reason of being a bigger company.

PLC (Public Limited Company)

• Almost the "next step up" from an LTD, Big company, for example, Coke-a-Cola.
• Could be millions of shareholders within the company.
• Have Organisations dotted around the planet, on a somewhat larger scale to an LTD.
  

Planning a Buisness Plan?

I was wondering how I could tackle this buisness plan, and I decided that the best way to go about this would be to do a plan, for my buisness plan! I was talking to my dad, whose previous job was actually to go to companies and help them write buisness plans (financial advisor). He gave me a couple of key tips in terms of what to do when embarking on a buisness plan.

I told him I was a little lost in terms of what to be looking at when writing a buisness plan and he gave me a "Pre Meeting Questionnaire" This questionnaire was what my dad's company used to all members of staff in a company - this was done in order to pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses and act as an indicator for what to put into their SWOT analysis.

After filling in the PMQ, I will do a SWOT analysis on myself, based on the questions from the questionnaire. (this will be put onto the next entry I do, but the questions follow the same tone as e.g "How do you set objectives/targets/plans? Who does this? -And- What is your appropriate product mix". I think it will be a good thing to fill in this questionnaire because it will give me a really good idea on what my standing is as a designer and then how it becomes relevant in terms of buisness.

So, Post SWOT, I want to pinpoint my key objectives, this is also called a Stragergy Link because it links the information from your SWOT analysis with the basis for the Buisness Plan and is basically a refined breakdown of the SWOT analysis. Whilst approaching my stragergy link, I need to be aware of SMART objectives. This is an anagram for :

• Specific
• Measurable (Success rate/Key Performance Indicator or KPI)
  
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Ttimed (expected results)
  

The key aspects will be:

• Financial - How much money do I have? How much will I need for X? Where can I get money from?
  
• Customer - Who is my target audience? What do they relate to? What can I do for them to benefit?
  
• Process - What do I do? How do I do it? Why do I do it?
  
• Learning/ Development - What are my weaknesses? How can I get constructive progress from my weaknesses?

After this I will then go on to fill in my Buisness plan, based on the understanding of all the information I have gathered throughout this process. By approaching my Buisness Plan this way, I will be able to collect a strong set of information in order to base an informed and able buisness plan.