THE BUSINESS PLANNING PROCESS
1. UNIT 10. Текст «THE BUSINESS PLANNING PROCESS», стр. 107-111 читать, переводить, выписать незнакомые слова.
2. Выполнить упр-я .
Учебник: Агабекян И.П.
А23 Английский язык для менеджеров/ И.П. Агабекян, —- Mосква: «Проспект», 2019 — 352 с (Высшее образование).
TEXT 3. THE BUSINESS PLANNING PROCESS
■ Identify your vision. What is your vision for the future? Use your imagination to plan the future you want. Is it to develop a revolutionary new product or is it to help others gain their peak potential. Perhaps it's as simple as gaining financial independence. Once you have defined your vision, develop a plan and set goals and objectives. Identify the different ways you can reach your goals and objectives.
■ Seek agreement. Whether you are starting a business or expanding one, hard work is involved. Resolve any differences with your partners or colleagues before you begin writing the business plan.
■ SWOTs&MECAs are business tools, which will help you determine whether or not your business idea works in the “real” world.
■ A SWOT analysis is simply an analysis of both you and your business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
■ A SWOT analysis contains four steps:
■ S Identify strengths. What are your strengths? Consider: ability and potential, persistence, confidence, imagination, sales ability, track record, financial stability, expertise, and others.
■ W Identify weaknesses. What are your weaknesses? Consider: lack of time, health, financial instability, no management experience, don't enjoy working with the public, and others.
■ O Identify opportunities. What opportunities exist for you? Consider: work in a related field, business development assistance, and others.
■ T Identify threats. What threats exist for you? Consider: financial crisis, loss of job, etc.
Oftentimes, to determine your business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, you must gather information from outside of your business. This is where a MECA (Market, Environmental, and Competitive Assessment) is used.
A well-researched MECA will provide you with better information for your business's SWOT analysis while, at the same time, providing you with valuable data for developing your strategic plan. MECA is a “bigger picture” analysis. It helps looking for trends, opportunities, etc. related to the market, environmental issues, and the competition.
■ Make some “assumptions”. Although it is impossible to predict the future, it is important to make some assumptions related to your business's future performance. This is the only way that you will be able to convince others to become involved in your business - especially if you are asking for capital.
■ Develop operating plans. Include key risk assessment. What happens if? How will you reach those goals? What do you need to produce or sell? How much? At what price? Who are your clients? Where are they? How do you reach them? How much competition do you have, and how will you compete successfully?
■ Develop financials. Financials include balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement. To prepare these (or update them), ask yourself questions like:
■ What are the day-to-day and month-to-month requirements (costs) of running the business?
■ What is business's “break-even” point? (The point in the operation of a company when revenues and expenses are exactly equal?)
■ Is there enough capital to run the business or there is a need to raise it?
■ Is there a need to make bank borrowings?
■ When the cycle begins again. Constantly revise your business plan to see how your business is performing. A good rule is to work on specific goals and objectives within your business plan on a weekly basis and revisit the entire plan once a month. On a yearly basis, you can see if your business is performing the way you want it to.
Assignment. Answer the questions:
1. What is a SWOT analysis?
2. What is a MECA analysis?
3. What questions have to be answered while developing operating plans?
4. What is business's “break-even” point?
Assignment. Write a short essay on:
1. How to write a business plan.
2. The process of business planning.