+1 862 207 3288 Writing a Business Plan
“Far Horizon” has been trading successfully for 15 years and is now poised for expansion. Starting out
as a supplier to the marine leisure market, the company subsequently began the manufacture its own
sailing dinghies, initially for novices.
Imagine you are the Managing Director of this small manufacturing business. Encouraged by the company’s
success in building dinghies and small yachts over the past eight years, you decide to broaden your
customer base to include the more experienced yachtsman. Clearly you have worked for some time in the
marine leisure industry, acquiring a detailed knowledge of the UK inshore yacht market, and now you are
looking at the somewhat different market of medium sized yachts. Deep water sailing is not an area with
which you are so familiar.
Your business enjoys a strong financial base and a stable and loyal workforce. However the credit
crunch caused a dramatic loss of confidence in some sectors of the leisure market and you predict
future sales to be somewhat sluggish. Despite the continuing pessimistic economic outlook you consider
it is a good time to embark on a bold new venture. It has always been your ambition to grow your
company and you have felt that a way of achieving this is to design and construct a 4 to 6 berth sea-
going sailing yacht, offering a much higher sales value than your current products and with a much
greater level of contribution. You believe this to be the best way to improve the long term
profitability of your business. Before proceeding any further you draw up a business plan to convince
yourself, and any investors whose support you may need, that your passion is not misplaced, that there
really is a sound business case for your proposed expansion.
Make certain assumptions about the current size of your business, typically as shown below:
• a current turnover of £1,250,000
• employs fifteen people full time, and two people part time
• the mould costs £160,000
• there is a marked seasonal bias to your sales
You may wish to develop your own name/brand identity.
For this undertaking you should consider whether to contract out the design work for the new yacht or
to have this done in-house, requiring additional skills plus set-up costs, including a software design
package. You must analyse the options open to you and decide which approach to take. State the
conclusion you reached, together with evidence of your reasoning.
Assume your new venture may also require:
• additional skilled workers
• a mould for the hull, at a significant cost
• further additional staff in the future as production of the new yacht commences
• targeted advertising
To increase the likelihood of success you aim to ensure that prudent assumptions are made about costs
and projected sales. Show how you have done this. Your answers should clearly set out how your
business growth is expected to happen, in terms of: resources required; projected sales; and
timescales.
You are to provide a logically compiled and integrated business plan based on the above points and the
issues discussed during the unit, and consider the following (% marks in brackets):
Opening statements (10%)
Marketing plan, including market analysis and strategies (20%)
Annual profit and loss accounts and balance sheets for the two proceeding financial years (20%)
Detailed costs and break-even analysis for your new product (25%)
SWOT analysis (5%)
Gantt chart – using Microsoft Project (10%)
Cash flow forecast – using Excel (10%)
