Business acumen is not my forte; nor do I have much of a burning passion for business studies of any kind (and that's an understatement), but as my husband is creating his own company as a retirement venture, I thought it was about time I showed willing and took an interest. Therefore, for the last couple of days I've been writing a Business Plan for the files of Farmhall Aviation Training Limited, just registered as a new enterprise in the province of Ontario.
It reminded me of writing Lesson Plans in the days when I used to be a teacher. I remember thinking at the outset what a waste of time those were, but having been forced into writing down my Aims and Objectives, etc. for each class, in the end I was forced to admit that the requirement did impose structure on my ideas and probably led to some insights I wouldn't otherwise have had.
Last Friday, what's more, I spent an hour at a free seminar—a STARTING YOUR BUSINESS INFO SESSION—at the Entrepreneurship Centre, run by OCRI at Ottawa's City Hall. I found the power point presentation boring, but that was probably because I hadn't done my homework before going along and couldn't even remember whether our business was supposed to be a sole proprietorship or a partnership or a corporation (we are a corporation). Also, some of it was irrelevant to a one-man consultancy run on-line from our basement. We do not have to worry much about workplace safety or about regulations concerning the signage for our waiting rooms, nor about having to register with the municipal authorities before we are allowed play background music in our chip van! That's one blessing.
My Business Plan for Farmhall Aviation Training consisted of:
- an Executive Summary
- a Company Profile
- a Trends in General Aviation page
- a Market Research analysis
- a definition of the Target Market
- Products and Services offered
- an analysis of the Competition
- a Pricing Strategy
- a Distribution and Promotional Strategy
- a page on the company's Operating Procedures
- Human Resources (i.e. Chris) and Suppliers
- a (very short and incomplete) Financial Plan
- a note about Future Prospects for the company
Really though, I only bothered with this because it gave me the opportunity to play around with some new words.
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