Todays News from Gill:

Friday 21^st November – The Peas

Many of you will know the peas approach to business planning – and that involves writing a basic paragraph about a selection of ’Ps’ – which are listed below.

People often get daunted by the thought of writing a business plan and end up overdoing it. The best business plans to me are the short and simple ones. Also the more you can get the feel of your product or service into the plan the better – so if you are struggling to do that, try to imagine the product or service as a person – is it Katie Price (Jordan), Joanna Lumley, Natasha Kaplinsky, Kate Garroway etc. When you read that list of names you can probably hear ‘product differentiation’ i.e. each one will conj our up a different look and feel, there are different market positions, brands, and distribution methods and so on.  

So get clear about who or what your product is and then write paragraph on each of the following – and there’s your business plan! Remember not all questions or p’s are relevant to every business.

•         Purpose – why are you doing it?

•         Position in the market place – go back to the list of ladies above and spot where your business fits.

•         Proposition – to provide employment – charity? Ethical? Body shop?

•         Product – clear definition.

•         Price – is it sensitive – test the price.

•         Profit – all the financial stuff – do spreadsheets.

•         Profile – the specific brand/marketing stuff – follows on from position in the market place.

•         Place of distribution – where, how – local, national?

•         People – who are going to do:

•         Control the business

•         Sell the product

•         Do the transactions

•         Report and record what goes on.