Introduction

Give your reader a brief overview of what your franchise is and

how you plan to run it.

Business structure
Use this section to deal with the who’s who of the business and
their roles.

Outline who is responsible for what, whether the franchise will

have sole or multiple owners and if you’ll be involved in day-to-
day operations.

What your product or service is

Go into more detail about what you’re offering and why you
think it’s the right time to put out what your product or service.

Market analysis
Examine current market conditions: whether it’s a growing
market, who your competitors are and how future-proof it is.
Remember to include relevant facts and figures as well as
referring to expert forecasts.

Operations
Cite your sources of supply, labour and materials. It’s also vital
to mention resources you’ll be using to operate your business.

Define:

 What you have and what you need to acquire

 Critical procedures and sensitive issues along with possible alternatives
 Current premises and future requirements
 Your health and safety policies
Marketing plan
Run through your marketing objectives, such as number of
sales or market share as well as where your product will be
positioned in terms of things like price and quality.

You should also cover planned marketing communications,

how the product will be distributed/sold, what your customer
care policy will be and how said policy will work.

Premises
Decide on the best premises for your business needs with your
franchisor in advance. Consider location, business growth,
running costs and uniform business rates as well as insurance
and planning consent.

Financing
Are you looking at financing? If so, how much and where will
the money come from?

Highlight your ‘break even’ sales figure shown as percentage of

anticipated sales.

You’ll also need to include the amount of money you’ll need to

take out of your business to live on.

When writing your financial projection, you should be

conservative. Outline when the lender can expect the loan to be
repaid by using graphs, figures and charts. Just note that for
legal reasons, your franchisor might not be able to tell you
about projected earnings.

Profit and loss forecast

Base your profit and loss forecast on anticipated sales, taking
away direct costs and overheads. Include as much detail as
possible about anticipated sales and direct costs like materials
and overheads.

Cash flow model

Try and give an idea of how much money will be coming in and
going out of your business. Remember to account for cash
flow fluctuations like getting materials when you’re setting up
versus volume of sales at launch and beyond.

Appendix
Use the appendix for items that will enhance your presentation.
Include things you feel would be necessary – CVs of key
management personnel, tax returns, media clippings –
important nuggets like that.

Keeping your business plan up-to-date

Remember to continually update your business plan so that it
reflects the developing needs of your business. At the very
least, it should be updated when something in your business
changes.