Finance – BizDiagram

Business Plan Approach

Annual Business Plan Reviews. The business plan and goal setting that you completed as part of the application process will be a critical tool as you begin to build your business. This enables you to gauge your progress and to take corrective action when things don’t go according to plan.

7 Steps to a Perfectly Written Business Plan 1. Research, research, research. 2. Determine the purpose of your plan. 3. Create a company profile. 4. Document all aspects of your business. 5. Have a strategic marketing plan in place. 6. Make it adaptable based on your audience. 7. Explain why …

Business plans should be short and concise. The reasoning for that is twofold: First, you want your business plan to be read (and no one is going to read a 100page or even 40page business plan). Second, your business plan should be a tool you use to run and grow your business, something you continue to use and refine over time.

Accounting Ratios

Accounting Ratios – Financial Accounting Ratios – Accounting Ratio Analysis – List of Accounting Ratios including profit margin, gross margin, asset turnover ratio, current ratio, quick ratio and other key accounting ratios.

Financial accounting ratios help analyze company’s performance in any given year and through out the years. Balance sheet shows the financial position of a company at a given point in time. Income statement shows financial performance through a given time period, e.g. a year. Cashflow statement depicts the flow of cash through a given time period. Accounting ratios help connect the statements together and make sense of what is happening with the business.

accounting ratios

Net Present Value – NPV

NPV – Net Present Value – How to calculate net present value (NPV)? Net present value is calculated as a sum of cash flow through project life cycle adjusted to the discount interest rate. NPV is calculated to estimate the net benefit of a project and other types of multiyear engagements. NPV Calculation Diagram – net present value calculation methodology.

NPV is a key finance tool. Usually, the initial cashflow is negative due to the investment required (e.g. purchase of new equipment). As time progresses, the company starts to generate positive cash flow. The further away is the cashflow, the more discounted it becomes (i.e. cash today is worth more than the same amount of cash in the future).

npv calculation diagram

Supply and Demand

Supply And Demand – Supply And Demand Graph – Economics Graph – Supply and demand graphs depict the equilibrium between suppliers and consumers. The graph is an intersection of two curves mapped against quantity and price. The most famous economics framework of the supply demand equilibrium.

Consumers are willing to pay a higher price for a low quantity of goods. The price declines as the quantity demanded increases. Suppliers on the other hand are willing to supply a large quantity at a high price and a low quantity at a low price.

supply and demand graph

Business Case

Business Case – Business Case Analysis – Business Case Methodology – Business cases are prepared to help a company decide whether to proceed with a given project. To start off the preparation of the business case requires understanding of the key metrics or key drivers that help company either generate or spend money. The money can be generated by increasing revenues or sales and/or decreasing costs. The key revenue driver is increased sales, for example due to an increased number of sales agents. Decreased costs may be as a result of increased capacity in the back office, because some of the processes that used to be manual are now automated. The more data used for the assumptions the better. Another way to validate assumptions is to obtain the key stakeholder opinion or buyin.

Usually, any project also carries investment costs that are subtracted from the benefits. A good business case also has a multiyear view, e.g. creates 5 year projections. This future cashflow is discounted by the interest rates. The sum of these discounted cash flows is added to come up with a net present value – NPV for the project. Other business case metrics include the internal rate of return – IRR and average annual benefit.