Summary:

All companies need to prepare Business Plans and/or Budgets on a regular basis, in order to set out what direction they are expecting the company to go in and what they need to do to get there. The discipline of preparing a Business Plan or Budget will help raise relevant questions and relevant answers.

Our Approach:

SMS will interview the management of the client and establish the Objectives they are aiming to achieve, which could range from the establishment of a new enterprise to the expansion into new areas of operation. Once these are agreed, we look into what Strategy needs to be adopted to achieve these Objectives, which could include: investment in equipment, taking on additional staff, setting up a new marketing campaign, etc.

Usually at this point, a decision will be taken as to whether a detailed Business Plan needs to be prepared or a Budget. The option taken will normally be dictated by what the process is trying to achieve. For example, if the company is being set up or significant changes or investments are going to be made, a detailed Business Plan will be prepared to perhaps support a request to raise finance from a third party.

There are no hard or fast rules as to what is included in a Business Plan but the following Contents Page is a good indication of what is normally involved.

Alternatively, a Company may simply want to prepare a forecast for the next twelve months for use internally. In this situation a Budget would be prepared, however, we would always recommend that this exercise is carried out each year.

Following on from the analysis already carried out, or using financial information that may be available from previous trading periods, a Trading, and integrated, Cash Flow Budget would be prepared.

Whichever option is chosen, the fees and time-scale for preparing the Forecasts are agreed in advance. If the client has an on-going agreement with Saxford Management Services, the preparation of annual Budgets is included in the fee.