Human beings, since the beginning of life, have been created with the ability to think and tend to make plans using this ability. Our brains are like a constantly planning machine, even if it's simple, for our short and long-term actions, based on experience and accumulated knowledge. Planning by making plans has become a subconscious reflex that has settled in the cultures of all countries. The content of the plan includes evaluating beforehand, data and analysis, consultation, and foresight, essentially emerging as a continuation of a complex process.
Strategic planning, financial planning, budget planning of states, employment planning, sales and marketing, social media, and communication plans, etc., are made continuously and monitored in many areas. Thus, a transition from a fixed situation to dynamic situation management can be achieved.
Beyond all this, the most vital plan is the Business Plan or feasibility studies. Because these plans are not the planning of an existing process and experience but generally the plan of a business planned to be done for the first time, and in this respect, it carries the highest risk. Most entrepreneurship programs and additional business development studies put feasibility as a condition, and it is a very accurate requirement. However, possible oversights, excessive risks, and mistakes at this stage can cause a lot of trouble in subsequent implementation studies. Therefore, it is always beneficial to scrutinize the important points more when preparing these plans.
In the first stage, a good study should be done between the business idea and the business project related to the job. The idea generally develops on feelings, observations, research, and examples. Many young entrepreneurs jump from the idea stage to implementation and may experience big problems because studies need to be done for an idea to turn into a project related to the job. These studies require thinking about legal status, competition and market, technical requirements, price, feasibility, and most importantly, suitability for the individual's own motivation. After this stage, the business project should be clarified in terms of research, knowledge-skill-ability, needs, and differentiation axes. If this stage is successful and satisfying, the next study should be Market Research. In this research:
Will there be profit?
Can continuity be ensured?
s there a customer at the determined price and conditions?
Competitors' products?
Strengths and weaknesses of competitors?
Market size, segmentation?
Trend? In which direction is supply and demand?
Region?
Promotion?
It is essential to achieve clarity and consensus on these issues. After that, the operational and technical planning stages should be studied, and a management plan, marketing plan, risk analysis, and legal plans should be created as separate parts. In the final stage, a Financial Plan that takes into account all of these and a Business Plan as a Road Map should be worked on.
The financial plan will result from a detailed and collective work such as investment costs, sales forecasts, expense items, scheduling, break-even point calculations, capital requirement, financing conditions. The most important point at this stage is to create a Cash Flow Statement in harmony with the Profit and Loss Statement, otherwise, the beginning of a profitable business can create a premature birth due to cash unpredictability. Between these two, the points to be considered are:
Separation of VAT calculation and related payments
Calculation of working capital requirement independently of investment cost
Inclusion of bank repayments in cash flow in addition to interest
Ratios calculated based on cash flow
Self-financing and the percentage of its risk
Post-tax profit and available cash
Inventory turnover and its impact on cash flow
Taking these issues into account, making a detailed financial analysis will eliminate possible risks and problems and allow you to start with a healthy plan during the implementation of the Road Map.
Thus, it will prevent us from encountering the question of "Oh God! What went wrong?".
In conclusion, in addition to the importance of planning, how it is prepared and what it includes plays an essential determining role and is inevitable.
Dr. Bilinç Dolmacı
Comments