Business Planning Services

The mission is the “why” you are doing this. Why does the world need your business? It addresses the problem you are solving for your most important target customer. The vision is the “where you’re going” and what your business will look like in the future. The values are the “how” you will do business philosophically that will make you distinct from others.

In this stage, we’ll get more granular about how your efforts should be divided among different types of of your target customer – by demographics (e.g. age, gender), geography (locations), or psychographics (how they think).

Whether you have a product line or services, or a blend of both, we need to make your offering as air-tight as possible, so that your customers don’t need your competition to get part of their problem solved. We’ll design your offering to make it as uniquely strong as possible, tailor it for various target markets, and maximize its appeal based on the research gathered.

Making the best possible offering may mean you cannot physically create every part your product or service by yourself. In this stage, we will determine what portions may need to be outsourced, and where you will get supplies, equipment, materials and services to make your offering accomplish its intent. 

This is why it is important to have your mission/vision determined first. Do you aim to be the low-cost/accessible provider or the premium/high-end provider? This affects how you handle your operations.

Clients often participate actively in the operations side of the planning – shopping for equipment (new or used), finding reliable suppliers,  and forming lists of starting inventory needed.

Along with operations, you will need to convince your lenders that you have the skill sets required to accomplish what is needed for those in-house portions you’ll be handling. Tenato includes expertly-written bios for your key personnel, and clear job descriptions for the key roles needed to run the business.

Once you know what you’ll need to accomplish in-house versus outsourced, you can decide what you need for space and equipment. Many businesses can operate virtually, not needing official office space. However, they will still need to decide on an official business corporate address, and whether they want this out in the public.

Like with the operations, our clients take an active role in searching out real estate options and facility features. We also have many connections and resources we can offer to support this process. 

At this stage, we know what we’re offering and how we’ll be producing it. This allows us to figure out costs, and then determine pricing structures and the levels of the pricing that will maximize repeat-buying and the value per sale. If needed, we’ll also discuss any discounting policies and payment terms for customers.

We already have a sense of what makes you business unique, but we’ll now refine a clear, simple, overall message that answers “why you” versus the competition. In addition, we’ll clarify and tailor it for each of your target markets. This will become a direction for visuals and creative campaigns. 

We usually do a brainstorm of direction with the client to get the right slant on the message, and then come back a few days later to present visual sketches that get it across clearly and distinctly. 

You may think “this is beyond what I’d expect in a business plan” but often these creative ideas determine the types of promotion related – e.g. do we need to shoot videos, photos, or create animated visuals? These things also affect the budget, so we work to get very clear at these stages as well.

We are now at the stage where we can determine how we will reach the target market with the creative selling messages. This stage covers not only marketing/branding costs, but also sales recruitment, sales training, sales compensation, sales materials, and expenses. The point here is to consider all the promotional activities required to actually start generating the revenue needed.

At this stage we finalize the budget for all the launch costs, time it into a launch schedule and set milestones. Within the budget, there will be role assignments for the launch team, so we know who is doing what actions and when. The budget is built in a very well-organized spreadsheet with assumptions all laid out and linked. It includes a monthly income forecast for 12 – 18 months, usually annual forecasts for years 2 – 5 or longer.

Once we know what we need to spend, and exactly how we’re spending it, we determine both the goals/milestones and the financial needs. This will show us where cash is required, and for how long until the revenue begins to turn around. This is done with detailed financial modelling. 

At this point, the business owners must decide how much they want to invest personally, and how the rest of the capital should be gathered. This is articulated in a section of the business plan that defines their ideal lending model.