How to make a good business plan?
How to do good market research?
How to establish the financial file and the financial forecasts?
Conducting your market research: where to start?
Any business creation project requires the prior conduct of a market study that the company can carry out itself.
As a general rule, when carrying out a market study, several options are available to the company, in particular the use of service providers in this area, which are certainly quite expensive, but which save time. Nevertheless, the company can carry out its own market study because it alone has perfect knowledge of its objectives and aspects to be developed. Before conducting its own market research, the company must pay attention to two key points:
The reason for the study: knowing the needs of the market, finding a suitable clientele for the project.
The purpose of the study: competitive analysis, identify consumer profiles.
How to do good market research?
To start a business, it is necessary to carry out a market study to ensure that the project meets the expectations and requirements of evolution and profitability.
Market research refers to the collection and analysis of information with the aim of determining the characteristics of a market. It is a tool to assess the feasibility and potential of a new activity. To carry out a market study, this study must revolve around the following four aspects:
Identification of the market, its developments, its players but also the main competitors (direct and indirect).
Analysis of the offer, identifying the main leaders in the sector and studying the different products and services present on the market.
Demand: studying consumer behavior (trends and developments)
The project environment: identify the favorable or unfavorable influence factors on the market/activity.
Take advantage of our offers for the creation of your business with monthly packs without obligation!
What steps should I follow for my market research?
Market research is a must in the launch phase of a project. Quantitative or qualitative, here is a guide that allows you to put this study at the service of your objectives
Set a goal: clear and precise to determine the purpose of its market study because this involves the mobilization of financial and human resources. In practice, such a study makes it possible to respond to certain hypotheses relating to your project and therefore to better understand your customers.
Establish the market research plan: choose the best approach to study your market by dividing your overall objective into several sub-objectives. Favor the quantitative method when it comes to quantifying information and obtaining numerical data and opt for a qualitative study when it comes to studying a phenomenon, purchasing behavior for example.
Collecting information: once the nature of the study is established (quantitative/qualitative) comes the choice of tools to use for collecting information. Most often, questionnaires and surveys are used to quantify the data. For qualitative questions, interviews are preferred in order to know the prospects in depth.
Analysis and interpretation of results: establish the various existing relationships between the data collected with a view to interpreting them. The results obtained are written in the form of reports or matrices which make it possible to verify that the product to be marketed is suitable for the intended target.
Why define a Business Model?
A Business Model makes it possible to identify the economic interest and level of profitability expected from a business creation project.
The business model materializes the economic model to be developed when setting up a company. It therefore consists in closely studying two fundamental aspects, namely the creation of value for customers, but also the profitability of the company. As a general rule, a business model is built in three phases:
Register your company in just a few clicks!
Discover our 100% transparent, non-binding offers
Market and competition study: learn about customer needs and existing offers.
Company positioning: determine your target and develop a strategy that is appropriate for it.
Profitability study: how to generate profits while respecting your commitments.
Business Plan and Business model: what differences?
The Business Model and the Business Plan are documents to be drawn up before the creation of the company, often confused. It is essential to make the distinction between these two notions.
The business model is the economic model of the company, that is to say the mechanisms for creating wealth and added value. It is a variation of the strategy to adopt in terms of target target, positioning against the competition or even the choice in terms of distribution...
The business plan is the operational and quantified concretization of the business model. It is a document that formalizes the strategy of the company as well as its future financial situation. The latter aims to describe a project but also to translate it into a forecast to ensure its viability.
How to define your offer?
During a business creation project, it is necessary to identify its marketing positioning, in other words to define an effective offer in terms of commercial development.
The success of a business rests on the product or service it seeks to market. They come to satisfy a very specific customer need. To do this, it is therefore necessary to develop its offer taking into account several elements:
Customer expectations and needs.
The expected level of profitability
The main market leaders as well as new entrants.
The different strategies deployed by competitors in terms of communication, commercial actions, development prospects, etc.
What is Marketing Mix?
The implementation of a marketing plan must allow the company to achieve the objectives resulting from its marketing strategy.
The Marketing Mix is the set of marketing decisions and actions to be deployed to ensure the success of a good or service. Traditionally, these decisions relate to four main areas:
Here are our no-obligation accounting offers!
Product Policy: characteristics of the product and the services that may be associated with it.
Price policy: requirements in terms of price and margins
Communication policy: advertising and sales promotions
Distribution policy: choice of distribution channels to use
Business Plan: how to make good forecasts?
Making forecasts is a key phase in checking the financial consistency of a project. The purpose of forecasts is to determine a company's ability to generate enough revenue to cover financing expenses.
The presentation of the project: explain what his project idea consists of, give an idea of the sector of activity and the needs related to the project.
A good market study and competitive analysis: all the information collected makes it possible to constitute good forecasts of sales and purchases.
Determine the necessary financial means: be careful when estimating expenses and income.
Determine the product/service offer: position its product and service offer, for it to be effective it must differentiate itself from the rest of the competitors and meet the needs of the customer segments
Why and how to make a cash flow forecast?
The cash budget is a forecast table that translates income and expenditure into projected cash flows.
In the business creation phase, it is wise to use a cash flow forecast. The purpose of this plan is to visualize the activity over a well-defined time horizon, so as to release the company's net cash and issue forecasts for better cash management and anticipate any decline in activity. The construction of a provisional cash budget is organized as follows:
Identify receipts: First, identify all the amounts that the company will collect, in particular trade receivables, subsidies to be received, sale proceeds, etc.
Identify disbursements: this part of the cash flow plan focuses on the amounts that the company will disburse, namely supplier debts, social charges, reimbursements, etc.
Identify payment terms: supplier payment terms, customer payment terms, etc.
Determination of the projected cash balance: allocate each cash flow to the period that suits it.
Final cash balance = Starting cash balance + Receipts-Disbursements
What are the key components for building a financial case?
The financial file is an integral part of the Business Plan which provides an overall view of the economic model to be developed within a company.
The financial file is the quantified part of the Business Plan, which makes it possible to express the economic model to be adopted. The financial file is as follows:
Financial plan : it quantifies and compares the essential needs for starting the business with the resources to be mobilized. It makes it possible to identify the financial policy and strategy deployed by the company.
The forecast income statement: which describes the company's economic model by anticipating annual expenses and determining objectives relating to turnover.
The cash flow monitoring table: which makes it possible to anticipate cash flow and working capital requirements for starting the business.
Adequacy Report : depending on the economic model engaged, it makes it possible to forecast debts and receivables at the close of each financial year.
Be accompanied and advised.
Delegate your accounting.
Discover our 100% transparent, non-binding offers