Unit 1&2 Research - Wed 9th Oct 2019

Wednesday 9th October 2019

Business Plans and Models.

·       What is a business plan?

·       What is a business model?

·       What is meant by the term 'sustainable business model'?

·       If you want to start a creative enterprise, where does / can the money come from?

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a formal document that sets out a plan for how a business is going to work and what has to be done to ensure the business is successful. It’s important to understand that a business plan doesn’t have to be miles long. As long as all the main points are answered then it doesn’t matter if your business plan is only two pages long.

A business plan should include the following:

§  An executive summary

§  A company overview

§  Information about the service or product

§  Marketing plan

§  A l major company milestones (timeline of events)

§  Details of the company’s financial plan

-          Bplans, (2019), What is a business plan?, https://articles.bplans.com/what-is-a-business-plan/, [09/10/2019]

What is a business model?

A business model is a business’s plan for making a profit. The model looks at the product/service the business is selling, the target market the product/service is aimed at and the expected expenses for the business. It’s important for businesses that are both new and existing to have up to date business models because it’s important to understand possible trends and challenges ahead. Investors and banks will also use business models to look at how successful the business could be.

-          Investopedia, (2019), Business Model, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/businessmodel.asp, [09/10/2019]

What is meant by the term 'sustainable business model'?

Well, a business model is what a business is doing to make money, so a sustainable business model would be a businesses plan to maintain their profits and even improve them.

-          Lexico, (2019), Sustainability, https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/sustainability, [09/10/2019]

If you want to start a creative enterprise, where does / can the money come from?

For a lot of creative enterprises the funding comes from personal finance, crowd funding and profits from small jobs in the beginning.

§  Personal Finance.

Personal finance is the money that the ventures owner puts into the business throughout the duration of the business.

§  Crowd Funding.

Crowd funding is where a large number of people donate money to a business venture to help it get started in return for something from the business, for example; a free sample or discount.

§  Profits.

As someone begins to build their creative venture they will begin doing small jobs for customers. The money made from these jobs is then put back into the venture to help pay for the next step in growing the business.

Larger creative businesses would have to use business and bank loans because they would require more money to begin their creative venture.

§  Business/Bank Loan.

A bank loan is a popular option for getting capital for a new business. After presenting a business plan and proving to the bank that they will be able to pay them back the bank then decides the interest rate and the timing and amount of the repayments.

-          Investopedia, (2019), Crowdfunding, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/crowdfunding.asp, [09/10/2019]

-          Tutor 2 u, (2019), Q&A – What is a bank loan?, https://www.tutor2u.net/business/blog/what-is-a-bank-loan, [09/10/2019]