social business plan template

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Social Business

Plan Template

January 2007

This template will give you an idea of what your social business plan will

need to include. Each business is different so each social business plan willbe different, but you can use this as a guide.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember when writing your plan isthat you need to engage your reader we would suggest that someone is

much more likely to invest in your social enterprise if they have enjoyedreading your social business plan. You need to tell a story your plan needsto make sense.

Similarly, you and other people involved in your organisation are more likely

to read the plan again if it is easy to digest.

Social business plans vary in length, depending on the type of business butif your plan is more than 20 pages long, its worth asking yourself whether

you can shorten your plan.


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Contents

How we wrote this social business plan....................................................3

Summary............................................................................................3

Market research...................................................................................3

Vision, mission, objectives and activities..................................................5

How we will deliver our service...............................................................5

Suppliers and partners..........................................................................7

People.................................................................................................7

Premises and logistics...........................................................................7

Marketing and PR.................................................................................7

Legal issues.........................................................................................7

Financial projections.............................................................................8

Financial management and reporting.......................................................8

Sources of finance................................................................................8

Social accounting..................................................................................8

Appendix 1..........................................................................................9

Appendix 2..........................................................................................9

Appendix 3..........................................................................................9

Appendix 4..........................................................................................9

Appendix 5..........................................................................................9


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How we wrote this social business plan

This may not be relevant, but we often include this section to give people an

idea of how you wrote the plan particularly if you involved other people, egservice users, members of the local community.

Summary

Write this section at the end, once youve completed your plan. It should be

no longer than one page, and should give someone who is short on time areal feel of what your social business is about. One way to do it is to have ashort paragraph for each of the sections of your plan.

Market research

The Market

Include information about the market for your service or product, eg thenumber of people who may benefit from your service, or any info on age

breakdown. You may well get broad market information from the BusinessLibrary at Leeds Central Library have a look for a Mintel or Keynote reporton your chosen market (or on a very similar market).

Customers

Include information about your customers, particularly results of any marketresearch you have carried out with them. If you have undertaken somemarket research using www.surveymonkey.com, you could include a resultssummary as an appendix. You may also wish to include demographic

information.

You could get this from the 2001 census and other sources, including anACORN profile from www.upmystreet.com.

http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk is a good source of info, as is

www.leeds-statistics.org. If you are going to target a particular area, includeinformation about that area, from ACORN and other sources.

Competitors

Include information here about who your competitors will be/could be -

remember to think creatively. Try to anticipate who may enter the market inthe future. Try to analyse competition, perhaps in terms of strengths and
http://www.surveymonkey.com/http://www.upmystreet.com/http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/http://www.leeds-statistics.org/http://www.surveymonkey.com/http://www.upmystreet.com/http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/http://www.leeds-statistics.org/


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weaknesses. Then think about how you could manage the threat.

Partners

Include information here about any other organisations you will work with

think creatively not just within your sector.

Rough estimate of the size of the market

Try to estimate the size of the market. How many people are in the market

for a service like yours? Is this number likely to increase/decrease? Onceyouve come up with a figure for the size of the market, estimate how much

of that market you might take.

For example our research suggests that 5000 people in Leeds are in the

market for a veg-box delivery service such as ours. Potentially the value ofthe market for deliveries is 5000*12*10 (12 months, 10 charge per

delivery) ie 600,000. We think that 20% of people may choose to buyfrom us. Therefore our market share could be worth 120,000. (This is a

very rough example but thats the idea).

Other useful information

Usually when youre doing market research, youll come across little nuggetsof information which dont fit anywhere else. Include them here.

Market research to do

You may well have things still to do re market research. List themhere.


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Vision, mission, objectives and activities

VisionThis is the big big picture it may never be fully achieved, and you will onlyplay a part in it.

Mission

This is your big goal what youre trying to achieve socially.

Objectives

In three years time, what will be the headlines in the newspaper, detailingyour achievements? No rules about how many you can have, but remember

that you will manage your business and judge success based on yourobjectives, so try to keep it manageable. Any more than six can get a bit

complicated. You may wish to group them into categories social, financial(and maybe environmental although many people include environmentalobjectives with social objectives).

Activities

The main activities to achieve objective 1: write it here

List here what youll do to achieve objective 1





How we will deliver our service

Tell the story of what youll do here. Write it in an engaging way, sosomeone can get a feel of what youll do. Include a case study/example if

thats helpful. How will it work from a customers perspective? Talk usthrough your process, from when the customer realises they need a service

like yours, through to them getting the service and paying for it. Inspire meto invest!


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As a guide, this section may be around two pages long.


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Suppliers and partnersTell us about who your suppliers will be. Have you spoken to them? What

will be their terms for trading with you? If you dont know who they are yet,

mention what suppliers you will need, and what youll be looking for fromthem.

Similarly, talk about partners here. Who are they? How will you worktogether? What extra added value will you bring to customers by workingtogether? Convince me as an investor that the partnership is a good thing.

PeopleTell us about who is involved. If you need to attract more people, tell us whatkind of skills you are looking for. Eventually, you should have person specsand job descriptions in this section, but, depending on what stage youre at,

this may not be realistic at this stage.

Premises and logistics

Where will you trade from? Do you have any transport needs? Where willyou store any goods that you are selling?

Marketing and PR

Tell us about how youll develop relationships with customers.

Focus particularly on benefits what benefits will you bring both to

customers and to other stakeholders.

You could include the one page marketing plan that we have developed.

Legal issues

Put down information about your potential legal structure. Dontassume that your reader will understand what a particular structure is.If youre going for a CIC, outline the key features of that. Focusparticularly on who the directors are, whether people will take out

profit, and arrangements for governance (planned monthly meetingsetc)

Think also about insurance and CRB checks etc


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Financial projections

Include notes on how you have arrived at your financial projections such as

assumptions you have made etc. A spreadsheet full of figures with no

explanation will alienate the reader, and will suggest that youve just pulledfigures out of thin air.

Attach the projections as an appendix. Include projections for a realisticperiod 3 years is the standard but its better to include one yearsdetailed projection than 3 years of complete guesswork.

Financial management and reporting

Robust financial management procedures are important in any business,

particularly in those early, chaotic, days. Tell us how you will manage andminimise risks.

How will you keep financial records? Will they be reported monthly or

quarterly at Board meetings? Have you got an accountant in place? Will youknow easily how much money is or isnt in your business?

Sources of finance

If you need investment or grants, outline what you need here. Tell us whoyou are approaching for support, and what the timescale is for decisions.

Social accounting

Tell us about any plans you have for social accounting.


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Appendix 1Appendices are likely to include things like financial projections, jobdescriptions etc.

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Appendix 4

Appendix 5

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