Requests for written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce any part of this publication should be directed to the publisher. I particularly like the boxes with the most important statements and the easy-to-read and clear summaries - ideal for busy people.
Introduction
How to use this guide
The “stop and think” questions in this book will help you answer these and many other questions about your business. The guidelines I develop throughout the book will also show you how to make it "work for you".
What you will learn from this guide
What this Guide covers
Chapter one
What is a plan and what does it contain?
However, if you are a functional manager in a large organization and are reading this book from the perspective of planning for a functional department, you should still consider each of the factors listed above. However, there is one more factor we need to guide our business plan (one you may have mentioned in your original answer).
In Summary
Chapter two
Where are we now?
Imagine you have been asked to present your organization to an important government minister. For example, you may not want the Minister to know that you have not completed your VAT return, but take the opportunity to tell him about the growing red tape you have to deal with.
SWOT Analysis
Therefore, the objective information contained in a SWOT analysis will be invaluable to your business plan. Now add to your list by conducting a SWOT analysis for your organization or department.
Chapter three
Where are we going?
Weaknesses are gaps in the action steps or bridge planks that need to be addressed to avoid falling through to the sharks. Would you say they are memorable, written in plain language and short enough for everyone in the organization to remember?
A balanced view of objectives
Customer satisfaction - the ability to provide an improved level of products and services to current and potential customers. Financial ability - the ability to achieve financial objectives and satisfy the needs of the current business and its investors (if any).
Chapter four
What about our Products?
Look back at your SWOT analysis and identify the factors you wrote down that relate to your products or services. While you may have written down several observations about your products, the only people who can really tell you how good your products are, now and in the future, are your customers. This means that in order to get an objective view of your products, you need to talk directly or indirectly with your (potential) customers.
Market research
However, your market research should also target the range of people who might use your product. TDC decides to conduct its own market research targeting existing and other customers. Your market research should aim to show how well your products fit the business need to have "the right products, at the right price, in the right place at the right time".
Chapter five
Customers and competitors
Customer risk factors and loyalty factors
Do you have a sense of the purchasing characteristics of your customers, for example from market research information? The purchasing characteristics of your customers are important when we look at promotional activities in the next chapter. This does not apply to new customers who buy according to specification and price compared to other suppliers.
Competitors
Sometimes it is said that products or services are sold according to quality or price. Therefore, you cannot accept that your products or services are sold simply on the basis of low price. This is also a good time to go back to your product analysis and decide if your products or services are of a higher quality than the customer needs and if your price level should be adjusted up or down to provided that 'value for money' '.
Competitor research
There is no evidence that the challengers intend to make any major changes to their products or price levels that are comparable to TDC. In this chapter, we have continued to look at the "boards" that need to be put in place to achieve our future objectives. The final part of the marketing/sales function in this chain is product promotion.
Chapter six
Promoting the business and selling the products
Internal promotion activities
External promotion activities
When you engage in advertising, make sure your ads are clearly targeted to the customers you want to attract. Targeted advertising targets specific customers, or a specific group of potential customers, who are likely to become loyal to your products and therefore require less advertising maintenance in the future. The advice is therefore to clearly identify the customer base you want to attract and use the right promotional activities to target that customer base as precisely as possible.
Distribution
It's not much use spending money on advertising if you can't deliver the products within the time the customers demand;. The above system has worked well for TDC in the past, but TDC recognizes the need for a significant Internet presence and plans to hire a specialist to design and continually update an effective website. In this chapter I have outlined the issues you need to look at in your promotional activities.
Chapter seven
People
But how do you make sure you have the right people in the first place. No matter how good your goals, products, and promotional activities are, it's often the employees who can make or break an organization's reputation. Let's be clear about the issues here - the points you listed above, both positive and negative, are the result of staff characteristics and your decisions.
Getting the right people
My answer is always the same - you don't have time NOT to do them unless you want the wrong person in the workplace and the damage they may have caused. Does the candidate need to have any personal qualities to be able to do the job. If you've designed your job ad objectively, all applications should be reasonably well focused.
Keeping the right people
You may be surprised that there is no mention of money or performance payments as a means of retaining good people. Therefore, personal growth and career advancement opportunities are likely to be far more important than money to motivated people – performance payments often cause more problems than they solve.* Good training and a clear promotion path in a pleasant work environment are more likely to encourage key employees to stay in your organization . TDC has always had a policy of hiring and retaining the right staff and has included this strategy in the organisation's objectives.
Chapter eight
Finance
Money from Sales
Total Absorption Costing
Competitive Costing
Cost apportionment
If so, it might be a good time to revisit all your cost calculations and recalculate them to ensure your products/services are showing the level of contribution you think they are making. Once costs have been allocated and calculated using the methods recommended above, your organization will know which products or services produce an appropriate level of contribution, and you can check prices against competitors to determine the products you are producing most efficiently. Once you know you have a range of cost-effective products, you can complete the financial requirements of your organization's business plan by preparing financial projections or budgets for the foreseeable future.
Budgeting
The cost of managing equipment resources needed to produce and support the work (eg lighting; electricity; . stationery; telephones, etc.). Costs of providing and maintaining the place of work (e.g. rent; prices; insurance; cleaning, etc.). Hopefully, you also realized that the numbers need to be as accurate as possible if the organization is to be successful.
Budgeting Techniques
However, you have already seen how product costs can be recorded, and you may have cost lists ready for budgeting. Your plan should also try to address future financial pressures that were not immediately apparent at the time the products were evaluated. The overall business plan should reflect the costs of future opportunities to expand operations or move into new operational areas, while focusing on issues that may result in rising costs and/or difficulty increasing revenue to cover existing cost patterns. .
Incremental Budgeting
Zero-based budgeting
You may be wondering how to stay on top of unknown emergencies that may arise in the future. With some attention it may be possible now to identify the development of factors that you will call emergencies in the future. Do you have a system for recording the daily events that you didn't expect or take into account?
Keeping a budget journal
As a result, revenues were significantly reduced during the strike, to the extent that they could not be recovered for the remainder of the fiscal year. As the Budget Journal investigation was the first process in the preparation of all subsequent budgets, the result was that forecast accuracy was maintained at a very high level, without the use of contingency allowances. If so, now might be a good time to start it and write down as many unexpected events of the past year as you can remember.
Flexed Budgeting
To provide a safety net for yourself and other managers, but also to provide the maximum amount of information in your business plan on which to base business decisions, you can 'bend'. Include an effective budget in your business plan, which will likely be based on a zero-based budget. Include in your business plan a Flex Budget for the coming year, thereby providing maximum information to decision makers about the opportunities available to the organization in different business environments.
Chapter nine
Making it happen!
An overview of the distribution channels you use and any recommendations for change and improvement (Chapter 6). An assessment of the people in your organization and your plan to get and keep the right people, and providing training to support your business plan (Chapter 7). A financial analysis of the business and a flexible budget for the lifetime of your business plan (Chapter 8).
Managing the plan
As you may have realized, this schedule provides a clear outline for managers of when activities must be completed in order to meet the organization's objectives. Of course, the business plan should contain an activity plan for each activity, specifically detailing all new activities that are vital to success. For example, the need for more staff at some point during the year would have a plan of activities for recruitment, appointment dates (taking into account the need for new staff to complete the term of the resignation contract), training time and time of starting work.
Changing the plan
In this guide: how you can effectively determine, analyze and allocate costs to ensure you understand your resources;.
Motivating your Staff for Better
9532987 7 9 Paperback 216mm x 135mm
Recruiting the Right Staff
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