The ultimate business plan hack

In ‘normal’ business a bank, financier, investor, supplier or other stakeholder might very well ask for your business plan.

This is a natural request if they’re evaluating whether to do business with you in some way.

Such a business plan helps demonstrate:

  • that you actually have a plan for your business
  • that there’s a degree of stability to your venture
  • that you’ve thought deeply about what and how your enterprise intends to operate

But the very nature of being an entrepreneur can make the creation of a business plan feel far too daunting.

After all, getting your business off the ground is a heck of a battle. And attempting to generate a business plan with so many unknowns at the beginning of any ambitious exercise is a huge challenge.

However, if entrepreneurs give themselves a different start point, then producing a business plan can be productive, useful and fun.

The best start point is ‘Bizezi’, an app-based means to understand your business model, customers, suppliers, revenue and expenditure and other factors which may impact on your enterprise.

Bizezi deliberately gamifies business plan production.

Its first level is the use of a Business Model Canvas - an excellent tool to reflect on and validate various aspects of a proposal.

Once a simple Business Model Canvas has been developed, entrepreneurs can then move to level two, a SWOT analysis. This is an examination of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats which provides a clear oversight of actions a business owner needs to take.

Continuing the gamification process, Bizezi enables entrepreneurs to obtain more clarity about their cashflow expectations.

This doesn’t necessarily need to show money movement over three or four years, but demonstrates a business is aware of cashflow over a 12 month period, and of possible seasonal variations in this flow. One important component of cashflow, which must be included, is an indication that the business owner realises the necessity of putting food on their own table and also indicates this figure.

Level four sees much of the automation aspects of Bizezi kicking in, and simplifies the creation of a business plan. Many of the results and understanding from the first three levels are transferred to your business plan. Other parts of the business plan are then much easier for an entrepreneur to outline having gone through the previous three levels.

The Bizezi business plan hack is designed to provide business owners with a blueprint they can polish.

Modifying your business plan having employed the Bizezi platform app is so much easier than attempting to create a business plan from scratch.

That’s why we call Bizezi the ultimate business plan hack.

Try it for yourself, and show those potential business partners you really have thought about your enterprise.

Tony Henderson-Newport Chief Kiwi - Founder Semaine Group Ltd and Bizezi.com