Service or Product Line, Funding Request, Financial Data-Buy Cheap Essay Online
Part 5: Service or Product Line (part 5)
20 pts _____ A detailed description of your product or service
- include information about
- Specific benefits of your product or service
- Product/service’s ability to meet consumer needs
- Advantages your product has over that of the competition
20 pts _____ Product’s life cycle (how often will you have to change or introduce new items)
20 pts _____ Information related to existing, pending, or anticipated copyright and patent filings along with any key factors
20 pts _____ Information pertaining to existing legal agreements, such as nondisclosure or noncompete agreements
20 pts _____ Research and development activities
- include any in-process or future activities related to the development of new products/services
100 pts _____ Total
Part 6: Funding Request
Request the amount of funding you will need to start or expand your business.
- Include different funding scenarios, such as a best and worst case scenarios
- your current funding requirement
- Your future funding requirements over the next five years, how you will use the funds you receive, and any long-range financial strategies that you are planning that would have any type of impact on your funding request.
- be sure to include
- the amount you want now and the amount you want in the future, the time period that each request will cover. (A time phased budget)
- The type of funding you would like to have (i.e., equity, debt), and the terms that you would like to have applied. (What type of investor are you looking for)
- Is the funding request for capital expenditures?
- Working capital?
- Debt retirement?
- Acquisitions?
- Include any strategic information related to your business that may have an impact on your financial situation in the future, such as:
- Going public with your company
- Having a leveraged buyout
- Being acquired by another company
- The method with which you will service your debt
- Whether or not you plan to sell your business in the future.
- Each of these are extremely important to a future creditor, since they will directly impact your ability to repay your loan(s).
- be sure to include
100 pts _____ Total
Part 7: Financials
Historical Financial Data
If you own an established business, you will be requested to supply historical data related to your company’s performance. Most creditors request data for the last three to five years, depending on the length of time you have been in business.
The historical financial data you would want to include would be your company’s income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements for each year you have been in business (usually for up to 3 to 5 years).
Financial Data
All businesses, whether startup or growing, will be required to supply prospective financial data. Most of the time,
creditors will want to see what you expect your company to be able to do within the next five years.
Each year’s documents should include forecasted income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, and capital expenditure budgets. For the first year, you should supply monthly or quarterly projections. After that, you can stretch it to quarterly and/or yearly projections for years 2 through 5.
Make sure that your projections match your funding requests; creditors will be on the lookout for inconsistencies. It’s much better if you catch mistakes before they do. If you have made assumptions in your projections, be sure to summarize what you have assumed. This way, the reader will not be left guessing.
Finally, include a short analysis of your financial information. Include a ratio and trend analysis for all of your financial statements (both historical and prospective). Since pictures speak louder than words, you may want to add graphs of your trend analysis (especially if they are positive).
- 75 pts _____Weekly schedule & Pay roll weekly, yearly, and monthly
- 75 pts _____Sales projection table
- 75 pts _____Opening inventory & cost
- 75 pts _____Capital budget table
- 100 pts _____Income statement monthly, quarterly, and yearly
400 pts _____Total
Part 8: The Appendix
The appendix section should be provided to readers on an as-needed basis. In other words, it should not be included with the main body of your business plan.
Your plan is your communication tool; as such, it will be seen by a lot of people. Some of the information in the business section you will not want everyone to see, but, specific individuals (such as creditors) may want access to this information in order to make lending decisions. Therefore, it is important to have the appendix within easy reach.
The appendix would include:
- Credit history (personal & business)
- Resumes of key managers
- Product pictures
- Letters of reference
- Details of market studies
- Relevant magazine articles or book references
- Licenses, permits, or patents
- Legal documents
- Copies of leases
- Building permits
- Contracts
- List of business consultants, including attorney and accountant
100 pts _____Total
1100 pts _____ Total
This outline was created with the help of the SBA and Entrepreneur .com