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Doing the Financials in my Business Plan

kamolahykamolahy subscriber Posts: 27
edited September 2006 in Business Planning
Anyone have any good advice for this? I`m starting a service company and I`m tryin to put together a  respectable financial plan. I know my basic costs, but I don`t know how to term and tag everything. I can do a very simple one, but I don`t know how well i can make it look. Any good resources out there about how to structure this? For example, my pro forma income statement currently has a section for operating revenue and operating expenses. However, I just put all my expenses in operating expenses because frankly, as a service business I don`t produce anything and figure it`s all operating. Any good ideas or resources?

Comments

  • ideaanalystideaanalyst subscriber Posts: 0
    Hi Colleen,I would be happy to assist you with this. I would imagine you are trying to put together three years of financial projections,,,profit and loss? Is this correct? You are going to have mainly operating costs, but there will be a difference...fixed and variable. It is best to start by determining what your fixed costs are monthly. Then the variable costs will include costs that will increase as our output (increases)...do you have any costs which will increase as you increase revenue (therefore offering more services. For Revenue (income) determine how many different line items you provide (line items being each service) and then how many units of that service in a particular month. Hope this is a start in helping you. Let me know if you have questions. My company website is theideaanalyst.com. Take a look and if you need someone on a consulting basis (just answer questions and refine your docs til you get through it, we can do that) AND if you need someone to do it for you, we can do that. Probably with a little guidance you will do just fine on yoor own for putting together the bulf of your pro formas.best,Lisa
  • KatherineKatherine subscriber Posts: 2
    Hi, everyone. This is my first time posting (except for answering a couple of polls, I think). There`s so much good information here! I`ve already learned a lot...
    I`m working on the business plan for our new startup, Starlight Books (a children`s book publishing company), and I`m struggling with the financial section as well. The template I downloaded from the SBA includes the following parts in the financial section: (1) 12-month profit and loss statement; (2) four-year projection (optional); (3) projected cash flow; (4) opening day balance sheet; and (5) break-even analysis.
    My question is--are all of these items necessary for the majority of businesses or does the need depend on the type of business you`re creating? We all have other jobs and are doing most of the content creation, design, layout, and pre-production work ourselves--our major expense will be in printing, distribution, and marketing. This startup phase is really all about getting our initial line launched. But maybe I`m not thinking "long-term" enough...
    What will a potential funder want to know about our business in order to determine whether we`re a good risk? And which of these statements will best communicate that?
    I`d appreciate any ideas, suggestions, or stories you may have about this kind of thing.
    Katherine
    ========================Starlightbks.com on Office Livepublisher@starlightbks.com</A>Katherine2006-9-25 20:26:3
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