Small Business Training

Presenter introduction.

How the series will work (10-15 minute video followed by discussion/exercise then post results on WhatsApp).

Objectives of the overall training.

Objectives of THIS video session.

First Topic: Business benefits and risk

1. Why have a business (what do you want to achieve)?

2. Decide on the type of business (eg. selling products or selling services).

3. Start small (that doesn’t mean it has to stay small).

4. Think about the advantages and disadvantages of owning your own business (as opposed to working for someone else).

5. Think about businesses you could run and think about the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Re-cap on the learning from last time.

1. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of owning your own business

2. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of different businesses.

3. Selecting a business you could do.

This session will start to focus on real, practical businesses.

Consider what kinds of businesses participants could start with, (sales or service).

Start small.

Understand the cost of setting up the business.

Understand when a proposed business is not feasible.

Next time we’ll look at how to keep the business running.

Review exercises from the last session and comment.

Re-cap on the learning from last time.

Choose a real business to start.

State what is needed and how much it will cost to start a real business.

Confirm that the chosen business is viable because the required resources and money are, or will be available.

The last session focused on getting started and the next few sessions will focus on managing money to keep the business going.

Analysis of start-up costs.

Income and expenditure.

Profit calculation.

Is the business viable? (income greater than expenditure?).

Re-cap on the learning from last time.

Analysis of start-up costs.

Income and expenditure.

Why it is important to manage business money properly. 

A model for managing money.

Explain different money pots.

Work through money pots for three business examples - Poultry, Milk ATM and Selling mango pots.

Re-cap on the learning from last time.

Managing money.

Different “money pots” for specific things.

Saving for infrequent items and business growth.

Introduce the balance sheet.

Complete the balance sheet for the example business using the estimates from previous sessions.

Re-cap on the learning from last time - balance sheets.

Introduce identifying risk.

Introduce mitigating risk

Introduce the risk analysis example.

Introduce the risk analysis exercise.

Re-cap on the learning from last time - managing risk.

The key to managing risk is planning ahead. This is the whole point of the business plan.

The business plan draws together everything we’ve covered so far into one place.

Introduce the business plan template.

Introduce the exercise.

Re-cap on the learning from the previous week including the 5 golden rules of presenting.

Today will cover the unique selling point.

Introduce the term and how companies can use straplines to reinforce their USP.

Consider some well-known straplines and USPs.

Consider a strapline and USP for your business.

Re-cap on the learning from the previous week.

The next three week’s sessions will work towards writing a proposal to grow the business that could be used for a loan application.

This week focuses on reporting the financial health of the current business.

Consider what factors would persuade a loan company to lend money.

Write a balance sheet for actual income and expenditure.

Consider reporting existing savings to support a loan proposal.

Re-cap on the learning from the previous week.

Today and next week’s session will continue to work towards writing a proposal to grow the business that could be used for a loan application.

This week focuses on writing an EXPECTED balance sheet and calculating the return on investment.

Consider what the impact of weekly loan repayments would be on your (expected) balance sheet.

Using the total loan value and the weekly loan payments, calculate the return on investment.

Understanding what the R.O.I. means.

Working through the estimated balance sheet and R.O.I. with an example (juice sales).

Re-cap on the learning from the previous two weeks.

Today will cover puting the proposal together into one document.

Overview of the parts of the proposal, then in-depth look at:

Business details

Loan purpose and value - how it will benefit the business

Current business - actual balance sheet

Future business - expected balance sheet

Return on investment and repayment period

What have we learned?

Re-cap on the learning from the previous three weeks.

Today will cover presenting the proposal.

Introduce “Dragon’s Den” TV show where entrepreneurs pitch to investors (dragons).

Five golden rules of presenting.

Introduce the exercise.