On April 28, 2016, Frank Dixon, President of Black Business Alliance (BBA), was the featured speaker for the Business Plan Writing workshop. It was a very successful workshop with attendees engaged in discussions, asking lots of questions, and absorbing the information provided.
If you were not there, you missed the richness of the discussion and the depth of the knowledge that was imparted, but here are some highlights for you:
- Business Plan overview – business plan is a working flexible guide which outlines your business strategy, business milestones, and financial projections. Anyone in business needs a business plan whether you have an existing or start up business. You definitely need a business plan with any effort(s) requiring major investment time, money, and resources. A business plan serves to map you business future, support growth and secure funding. It helps to assess the future opportunities and course of action, manage cash flow and funding requirement in advance and it supports an investment plan or strategic exit.
- Business Plan – Before you start – you must put some thought into it, such as who’s the business plan for. Do you need it for your internal or external customers or for investors? It is strongly recommended that you consult with some knowledge people such as an accountant, business consultant, attorney, banker, financial manager to guide you through your business plan development.
- Business Plan Structure – a standard business plan outline includes executive summary, general company description, productions & services, market analysis summary, management & organizational summary, operational information, financial plan and appendix.
If you get nothing out of this workshop, this is the take away – YOU NEED AN ADVISORY TEAM TO ADD CREDIBILITY TO YOU BUSINESS PLAN and a BUSINESS PLAN IS A MUST and should be taken seriously. This is where WISC Small Business Marketplace and Black Business Alliance (BBA) can help you. But you must act by taking the initiative to design a successful path to economic prosperity. These are support systems in your community that you did not have before. The business mixer is monthly (4th Thursday of each month at 6:30 PM) and you can contact us at westindiansocialclub@gmail.com and BBA at http://www.bbusinessalliance.org or bbusinessalliance@gmail.com or by phone 203-859-8880. Use your resources to grow you business – this is how you make money!