Understanding Finance for business planning (QAA3) #FEEUK

Objective:

• Understanding financial terms
• Help put together the financial elements of a business plan
• Support with pricing your product or service 
• Understanding business viability
• Creating a cash flow forecast..
• To help make decisions around business viability 

Introduction:

A workshop designed to support the production of financial elements and pages of a business plan, helping understand and create narrative around pricing and costing. Leading to the production of a cash flow forecast and profit and loss. This workshop breaks down and simplifies how to work out the break even and supports the evaluation of risk prior to starting a venture. The workshop is designed for both curriculum and for start up. 

It is important that at the start of the workshop the learners are thinking around a business model, although the workshop is a stand alone session, it is usually part of a series of workshops designed to be used once the learner has a business idea, or has attended the initial business planning workshops. 

The session can be delivered as a 2 hour session but is enhanced by the exercises being 20 mins each which turns the workshop into 3 hours. 

Exercises are within the PP.

Activity:

A 2 hour workshop with 3 separate exercises delivered by PowerPoint.

• The activity is delivered usally via a PP, its starts by setting out the primary objectives and learning outcomes.
• It gives a brief overview of a full business plan and how the workshop fits into business planning and start up
• It then takes you through a step by step guide around finance and what’s needed within the planning stage.
• Initially drawings with an example of a survival budget: to show minimum income needed at start up. 
• It works through some advice and practical steps around pricing and costing. Showing 2 adequate examples 
• An exercise allowing the learners to create a pricing example and draw out questions
• A 2^nd 2 min exercise asking learners to list examples of business expenses that relate to their business idea- which will be used in the 3^rd exercise
• All expenses relating to business are then broken down and correct terminology are explained
• Leading to a 3^rd exercise around showing learner understanding by using exercise 2 
• This leads into the cash flow forecasting and the importance in business planning
• Further terminology is introduced around finance and importance of understanding the profit and loss, break even and gross profit
• The session culminates in using the 3 exercises to input figures into a cash flow forecast and how to build the forecasting tool
• Reflection is then shown via the cash flow producing the break even figures, which is broken down into number of sales needed to break even and how this affect the whole planning process.
• The workshop ends with a Q+A of 10 mins to allow learners to go through any issues that arise, and also the offer of a 1-1 for any students in need of further support. 

Resources:  

• Cash Flow Forecasting spreadsheet
• Power point
• Stationary for learners

Pictures:

References:

• Press articles
• Key authors
• Books
• Web -sites