Writing a Business Plan

Why create a business plan?

A business plan is essential if you are seeking funding from an outside source, like a bank.  Though, a business plan is also useful for yourself as it allows you to:

  1. Analyse your whole business
  2. Manage finances
  3. Plan for and manage change
  4. Set milestones and realistic regular reminders to stay on track
  5. Hold yourself accountable

Writing your business plan:

We will now get into the different sections that you will need in your business plan.

Section 1: Your Background

This section should consist of:

  1. Why you want to run your own nursery/ business
  2. Your previous work experience
  3. Your qualifications and education
  4. Any training you have undertaken
  5. Any training you plan to do

All of these should be relevant to you opening a nursery or a business.  It is good to be clear on what you can offer and why you can make this a success.

Any lender will want to know more about you specifically and how capable you are in making the business successful.

Section 2: Market Research

There are two types of research you can do:

  1. Desk research – this is any research you do from your computer or online
  2. Field research – this where you actually go out and talk to people.  This can involve visiting nurseries, conducting surveys, questionnaires and interviews, holding focus groups etc

The first section of the full course ‘How to Open a Nursery – The Complete Guide’, guides you through doing extensive research into the demand in your area, which is extremely useful to add to this part of the business plan.

Section 3: Financials

You will need to have some sections in your business plan which shows your costs – to start-up as well as ongoing costs.

You will need to list any suppliers you will use e.g. for cleaning, food etc and the costs.  As well as any items you plan to purchase.

You will also need to create various financial documents to help supplement your business plan, these include:

  1. Cash flow forecast
  2. Break even analysis
  3. Balance sheet
  4. Profit and loss accounts

Section 4: Competitor Analysis

You should note a few different competitors and find out their:

  • Name
  • Location
  • Size
  • Services Offered – e.g. full time childcare, term-time only,
  • Price Charge
  • Strengths
  • Weaknesses

This will let you know what works in the area and allow you to see areas where you can differentiate yourself.

This leads on to the next section.

Section five – SWOT analysis

Here you simply put what your strengths, weaknesses, potential opportunities and potential threats are. These include both long term and short term strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Section six – Your USP

What is your unique selling point and how are you going to achieve this?

Your unique selling point could be your:

  • Costs
  • Facilities
  • Times
  • Style of teaching
  • etc

Section seven – Back-up plan

If the business doesn’t reach the targets set, what are you going to do next? What are your short-term, long-term and plan B?

Summary

Doing all of these will put you in a better position to open your nursery.  It will make things clearer for you and help you to plan your next steps.

As mentioned, if you are going to a lender it will help get financial help.

After starting or completing your business plan you then need to start opening your next steps.  The steps to open are covered in the next lesson.

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