This service can be broken down into two main phases – strategy and goal setting, and detailed business planning. Put another way, we can help you establish where you want to go, and how to get there.
Essential to any successful growing business is the development of a clear strategy and explicit goals to be achieved. We work with businesses to establish long-term goals, assess the business’s capacity to deliver those goals and establish key issues relating to the market for the product or service concerned. With your management team and key staff we can develop a one-day agenda designed to develop a forward strategy for your business. Agreements reached on the day are written up into a brief and succinct strategy document.
We can then develop a robust and detailed business plan, addressing how these goals can be achieved. The plan will cover all issues facing the business in the key areas of market, finance and operations. The business plan may be required for internal purposes only, to provide a ‘blueprint’ for the business, and targets against which progress can be measured. It may also be required to support applications for public sector funding or commercial financial support.
Click below to read more, or click here for more details of our experience in this area:
Award-winning Pendennis Shipyard Ltd is one of the world leaders in the construction and refit of multi-million pound superyachts. Pendennis was planning a significant expansion of its facilities to meet growing international demand for its boat-building and fit-out services, but it became clear to the management that the proposed project did not ‘stack up’ financially without grant funding assistance. That is when they approached us for help.
We worked with Pendennis to secure funding of £2.9 million towards the cost of the project from the DTI's Regional Selective Assistance scheme and from Finance Cornwall. Our application to the DTI included a supporting business plan covering the following elements:
The management team of the brewery were proposing to improve the viability of their brewing operation by extending its range of bottled beer and reducing the cost of production through the installation of a bottling line. In parallel, an investment was required in marketing and tasting facilities in order to improve customer awareness of the brands.
Without grant support, however, the company was unable to justify the required investment. We liaised closely with the company's accountants to produce financial projections and wrote a detailed business plan to accompany our application for funding. Our plan ensured that funding of £190,000 for the project was secured from the DTI's Selective Finance for Investment programme. Our business plan included the following elements:
Crepe Cuisine manufactures and supplies premium quality crepes, pancakes, blinis and speciality bakery products. Formed over 25 years ago, the company is a market leader, supplying the UK's top supermarkets, caterers and wholesalers.
Historically reliant on two major food service contracts, Crepe Cuisine decided to invest in new product research and development aimed at the retail market and successfully launched two niche product lines in three major retailers.
The company needed grant funding to help them capitalise on the opportunity to realise their full potential. We helped them to develop the project, prepared financial projections and wrote a business plan to accompany funding applications. We successfully secured the necessary funding from the DTI's Selective Finance for Investment fund.
This client invented a unique water recycling system that he has developed and brought to market. We have worked alongside him over several years, contributing to various stages of the development of the project to launch the product successfully. One aspect of our work has been to apply for funding and finance, and in the course of this we researched and wrote a detailed business plan containing the following elements: