PBS have many years of experience in managing complex teams and initiatives in national and international companies, in a variety of situations, and on building budget files and business plans. Risultati immagini per business plan

We can support you in communicating (internally and externally) your idea and drafting, with your support, a credible and cohesive business plan. The importance of business planning is widely documented; however, guidance as to what constitutes good business planning is less clearly defined. While the business-planning process is in itself a very worthwhile pursuit, most business plans are produced for a specific purpose. The plan is used as a means to convey an idea with a view to achieving a specific goal, e.g. securing funding.

Hence the plan needs to be tailored with the audience in mind, and good knowledge of their requirements will help shape a winning plan. For example, the requirements a Venture Capitalist will have in assessing a plan seeking to secure a big investment will differ considerably from those of a local bank manager who needs a plan to support a small-loan application. While the former will be primarily looking for capital growth, the latter will be more concerned with security. Regardless of the specific purpose of the plan, these following business plan lessons will apply, i.e. you should avoid these following top mistakes:



  • What is the issue or pain point?
  • What is the proposed solution?
  • What are the benefits of the solution?
  • Why are these benefits compelling?
  • Who will benefit the most from these?


4. Overestimation of revenues: Another key element of the plan will relate to the size and value of the opportunity. Does the business plan describe a small local business-to-business opportunity with limited scalability/return or is it a concept with widespread or even potentially global consumer appeal? While the description of the market opportunity will undoubtedly be couched in positive terms, an obvious danger relates to the innate optimism of entrepreneurs and their tendency to exaggerate every business opportunity. Hence the general interpretation of sales forecasts is that they will be optimistic but not excessively optimistic. Admittedly what constitutes ‘excessive’ is subjective, but the numbers will need to be justified and if it emerges that the figures are mere fantasy, the author will lose all credibility and it will significantly undermine any confidence the potential investor might have in the plan. It is important to guard against this by use of proxies and conservatism when it comes to sales projections. Placing some rigor around the process of deriving credible revenue figures also serves the entrepreneur well by enhancing their awareness of some of the key drivers for revenue growth in their business. It will also help them to produce a more plausible business plan and will ensure that the author is confidently able to answer questions regarding the market opportunity – questions that will top the list of any prospective investor or bank manager. Statements like “the Market is worth £10 billion and growing and we are focusing on capturing just 1% of it” set off alarm bells in the minds of prospective investors. A more appropriate method is to calculate the number of customers the business intends to capture and their average revenues. These two inputs are easier to calculate and also to justify in a wider discussion. For example, a restaurant can easily use comparables from other restaurants as reference points to calculate average spend per person. Hence the focus turns to predicting the number of covers likely per week which can then be scaled up to obtain projected monthly revenue figures.


6. No clear objective: What is the main purpose of the plan? If it is to seek investment in the business, it is important to clearly describe the investment opportunity. As mentioned previously there is a tendency amongst entrepreneurs to focus myopically on ‘the product‘ or ‘the idea‘. This is where they expend most energy but alas that is only one part of the process. While the plan describes the concept in detail, it must also address the purpose of the plan. If it is to secure investment, one needs to recognize that investing is the investor’s area of expertise and they will be seeking an appropriate risk/ return for their investment. Their primary interest will quickly shift from the product once they ‘get it‘ and ‘like it‘ to assessing the ability of the company (including management) to generate free cash flows to enable the business to grow while also returning cash to them. They will also seek to understand:

  • Why they would be better off investing in this business rather than leaving money in other asset classes?
  • When will they recoup their initial investment?
  • What is their expected return on investment?
  • Is the investment merely cash or do they need to bring additional things to the table?

7. No evidence of real demand: Another main area of interest when planning (linked to Point 4) is justifying the sales forecast or demand levels for the product or service. There are two main elements to forecasting – the use of facts and the use of subjective assessment/ judgment. However, no matter how unique a concept is, if the market is defined widely enough, it is likely that figures from alternative offerings (facts) can be used to help assess likely demand levels (judgment). The aim of sales forecasting is to come up with some revenue figures that can be considered to be credible in the wider context. While earlier we countenanced against excessively optimistic estimates, here we are delving deeper to ensure there is, in fact, real demand for the offering. Prospective investors will not want to invest at the very start where the risk is highest. Is there poof of concept in the guise of sales or firm orders? Have some sales occurred already? If not, why not? Unless there is verifiable demand for the idea, the risks grow out of all proportion, particularly if the initial start-up or investment costs are high. Is it possible to test the idea in real time, either by identifying comparables in other geographic areas or analyzing Google search logs or selling via eBay? Again the business plan has to convincingly address the issue of demand rather than concentrate in isolation on ‘the idea’. For some investors, firm orders or evidence of sales will be the level of proof required and allusions to proxies or comparables will not be sufficient. Conversely if there are already strong sales volumes of the product and the company is facing financing or resource constraints which have forced them to seek investment, then the power shifts from the investor to the plan author.




  • Someone removed from the process has independently proofed the plan.

In summary, business plans generally have a purpose of communicating a course of action so as to garner support for the plan. Support inevitably means resources with the primary aim of the plan often being to secure financial investment. With this comes a certain obligation on the business plan author to ensure that the plan is prepared in as thorough a manner as is possible. By ensuring the above lessons are adhered to, the chances of the plan objectives being met increase substantially.

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