How to Develop a Service Financial Plan
A financial plan is designed by financial analysts or business owners to predict and plan a business' financial strategies for years to come. Developing a financial plan for a business offering services, such as writing or Web design, is the same as developing a financial plan for a product-based business. This is because the five main steps in financial planning apply to all types of businesses, whether it is selling products, services or offering general support. Follow the five steps when designing your financial plan for your service-based business.
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Instructions
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1
Organize the business' income and spending for a single month. This will give you a good idea of how much money you can use to make plans for your business. Divide your receipts, income statements and additional expenses into four piles. One pile should include the company's assets, the second pile the liabilities and the third pile the expenses. The fourth pile should include income information.
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2
Create an operational budget for your business. The budget should tell you how much you are pulling in each month, how much you are spending each month in operational expenses, how much the business owns in assets and how much it owes in liabilities. The final operational budget will reveal how much funding you have left over each month.
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3
Identify the financial goals of the business. For example, the business may have more liabilities than assets, which sets the business in a negative net worth. One of the financial goals could be to eliminate these liabilities to improve the business' net worth in hopes of attracting investors and shareholders, for example. Write a detailed list of the goals so you know exactly what you will be working toward.
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4
Compare the financial goals to your budget. Determine whether your budget supports your goals. For example, if you have a loan of $50,000 and you want it paid off within five months, you may not be able to reach your goal if you have only $5,000 available for the loan each month. Make adjustments to your goals so they become realistic to your business budget. In the example just mentioned, adjust the loan period to 10 months.
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5
Create a financial plan based on your financial goals and your budget based on the information in the previous step. Write out the plan by combining all other goals in the financial plan. Check the financial plan monthly to ensure you are paying off your loans but keeping a positive operational budget. If your business budget cannot handle your payments, adjust the financial plan to suit your budget.
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