The Blueprints Business Plan - Case Study Example

Name: Tutor: Task: Date: Entrepreneurship and SME’s The Blueprints Business Planning Pty ltd is a business that is intended to be started by three friends namely; Stephen Molloy, Jessie Jones and Andrew St John. Jessie Jones came up with a business plan that would be used by the business. The two other friends did not agree with Jessie Jones on the kind of business plan that had been presented to them because of the shortcomings that the business plan had. A business plan is expected to address all the interests of the business stakeholders, this is to mean that the ideas of everyone involved in the starting up of the business should also be included in the process of drafting a business plan. Therefore there are various shortcomings that have been noted in the Blueprints business plan. The first shortcoming is the fact that in the business goals, Jones has indicated that the business will employ only one person at the full time basis who happens to be himself. A good business plan requires that the individual interests should be separated from the business interests. In this case therefore, Jones has put forward his own personal interest in the drafting of the business plan by employing herself without consulting the other business partners on the way to go on matters of employment. The other members might have had a different agenda on how they wanted this to be done. For example, they might be of the opinion that the business employs someone else who is not a stakeholder so that he or she can be able to oversee the business issues without being bias or acting in the interest of any body. The other issue is the fact that Jones went a head to allocate himself a pay package that may be considered to be very high by the other stakeholders. Jones was expected to consult the other stakeholders so that they can get to know how much one is expected to be paid. This will be arrived at after considering various factors in the business, for example, the amount of work one is expected to be doing. The other weakness that has been noted in this business plan is the fact that the business SWOT analysis has been done based on one individual in the business who happens to be Jessie. A good business plan is one that has the views of everyone in the business in terms of their strengths, weaknesses they may be having, the kind of opportunities they have seen so far for the business to exploit and even the threats that they may find that the business may face. All these information should be obtained from every individual and analyzed so that the business can come up with a collective SWOT analysis to be used in managing the affairs of the business. In this case therefore, Jessie did not involve the other stakeholders in coming up with the SWOT analysis and that his own opinions are reflected. This will make the business plan to be biased and not inclusive in any way. This is so because the strengths and weaknesses of one person is not the same as those of another person and that the weakness of one person may be the strength of the other person and vice versa. The SWOT analysis is also not very exhaustive. An exhaustive SWOT analysis is one that has adequate information on all the strengths and the weaknesses of the business and may be how the business is planning to improve on them. It should also be able to detail out the business opportunities and the threats and the ways in which the business will be working to counter these threats and making good use of the opportunities which are available to them. In this case therefore, Jessie did not detail out all the information that is required of an exhaustive SWOT analysis in a business plan. He has just given some very brief description on the whole analysis which may not be very sufficient for the purpose of planning in the business. This therefore means that an exhaustive SWOT analysis in a business plan will help the business to achieve its goals and objectives without any problem. The other weakness in the business plan is on the marketing plan. Marketing plan is a very crucial component since this is the part that will determine how the business will go i.e. it is through marketing that the business will realize adequate cash inflow. A good marketing plan should have in place the four marketing strategies i.e. place, promotion, price and the pricing strategy. These strategies should also be well detailed so that the business can be able to know the way forward in running and managing of the business affairs. In the case of the Blueprints business, Jessie is of the opinion that active promotion should not be used in the promotion strategy. This may not be to the advantage of the business because active promotion is one of the crucial modes of promoting any kind of a business because the services of the business will get to be known by many people across the globe (DeThomas. & Derammelaere, 2008). This will therefore increase the levels of the cash inflows into the business. So if the business does not use the active promotion to make the business known to the community, the services which the business offers to the people may not be known and this may pose a risk to the business in terms of the cash inflows. In this business plan also, there is a problem with the business premises. In the business plan it is indicated that the business will be undertaken in the premises of Jessie and that all the furniture necessary for the running of this business will be provided. This is seen as a shortcoming in the business plan because it will interfere with the independence of the business. When one individual in the business decides to provide very crucial services or assets in the business at no pay, the other partners in the business may feel very difficult to oppose the views of that other partner or even become very difficult to give an opinion that is contrary to that partner. In this case therefore, it is not advisable that Jessie offers her own premises for the purpose of undertaking the business because this may not give the other two partners in the business an opportunity to give there own issues irrespective if they are in line with what Jessie thinks or contrary. A good business plan is one that allows all the stakeholders in the business to always feel free and also have a sense of belonging in the business. This is to mean that all the matters that are shown in the business plan reflects the views and opinions of all the stakeholders and should appear like certain individuals in the business are being favored than others. The other issue on this business plan is the fact that the financial part. Matters which deals with financing of the business which comprises of more than one partner requires that the partners should meet and discuss so that they can agree on some issues conclusively. Therefore in this case it was not the right thing for Jessie to go ahead and make the business financial plans without including the other businesses partners because they are suppose to contribute also to the business and should therefore be included in the in making decisions that deal with the business’ finances. The coming of the financial statements also in the business should be something that is done by all the business partners and not one individual (DeThomas. & Derammelaere, 2008). The financial statements may be having some errors and therefore cannot be detected by only one individual but it is easy to detect errors when the financial statements are being prepared by many people. Therefore it was wrong for Jessie to prepare the financial statements without involving the other two partners who may be having a different view altogether as far as these financial statements are concerned. A good business plan therefore is one that has included all the partners of the business in the decision making process and that they are aware exactly of how their money is being used in the business also the financial projections of the business should be done by all the business partners so that every partner contributes what he wants the business financials to look like. The business goals in the business plan are not well stated. The business goals should give information on how the business is going to attain the expected profits. This is so because it is the core business of any business to hit the highest profit level so that it is able to manage its operations very well and also to increase the shareholders wealth. All these information should be provided in the business plan of which Jessie has not done.Infact he has just concentrated on the matters that has to do with the running of the business and not the generation of income into the business. The other thing that has not been shown in the business plan is the mission and vision statement of the business. The mission and vision enables the business to know where it is heading to and what it wants to achieve in future (DeThomas. & Derammelaere, 2008). This will ensure that all the partners in the business are reading from the same script, this is to mean that all the partners have the same objectives and goals as far as the running and management of the business is concerned. A good business plan therefore has a mission and vision statement for the business. Without this the business may not be in a good position to plan well for the future. As much as the above the business plan have got some shortcomings, there are many other alternatives which Jessie could adopt when going into the business. One of the alternatives is that she should take her time to consult on the way forward in the business with her other two partners in the business. Consultation ensures that all the partners in the business agree on certain critical issues before beginning the business. This will help solve some conflicts that may arise in the course of the business. The other alternative that Jessie could adopt when going into business is to undertake a comprehensive research into the business. This research will ensure that all the business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and the possible threats are exploited. If this is done very well, then it would be very simple for the partners in the business to know exactly what they want in the business and may be how they will achieve the same. This will also help the business partners to know the kind of the environment in which the business is based and also to know what is expected of them as the partners in the business. Researching will also mean that the business partners does good marketing plan so that they can be able to improve on the level of income in the business. When comprehensive research is done on marketing, the business will be able to come up with good marketing strategies and also getting to know how the competitors in the same business also perform in the market. Another alternative which Jessie could adopt in going into the business is to make comparisons of the business plans of other successful business of the same magnitude and borrow on how they made to be that successful. This will enable the partners to have an idea of what is expected of them in the business and therefore try and focus on the future of the business. This does not mean that they adopt everything that the other company has in their business plan but should just obtain what they find to be important and necessary to them. Comparing the business plans will also enable the business to learn on the weaknesses and strengths of the competitors in the market and be able to work on ways countering their strengths and at the same time capitalizing on the areas of weakness. The other thing that the business partners could do is to hire an expert who can be able to assist the partners in coming up with a good business plan that can best fit their business. If an expert is hired, he or she can accurately determine the SWOT analysis of the business, come up with a good marketing plan and also be able to prepare some good projections on the financial statements. In conclusion, a good business plan is one that is not personalized but includes all the ideas of the people party to it. Work cited: DeThomas, A. & Derammelaere. A. S. (2008).Writing a Convincing Business Plan. Barron's Business Library Series. Pp. 67-82 Read More