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Business plan needed for residency requirements - suggestions? [6]
Not sure about the three sources of income requirement. It seems at odds with established business practices elsewhere. With regards to business plans I would expect a self employed business plan to be no more than 15-20 pages. Typically it would cover the following.:
Introduction: this should put your business and your proposals in context. A summary of the entire document would be useful at this point.
Overview: information about the sector(s) in which you will be operating, showing an understanding of the market and of the competition.
Product: what are you offering, what differentiates it from similar items, what unique factors can you bring to the end result?
Objectives: what qualitative and quantitative targets do you have in mind?
Marketing plan: demonstrate that you know your customer base, you have identified a niche for yourself and you have a clear idea of how to move forward and corner a share of the market in the immediate, medium term and longer term future. You should describe a well rounded strategy for promoting your business using an appropriate range of methods and media.
Sales forecast: indicate costings, pricings, delivery, seasonal factors and other variables e.g. outlets for your work.
Operating plan: show how the whole process will work in practice and taking into account what resources you will need.
Quality control: how you will ensure that the product or service is of marketable standard? What checks will you apply?
Budget and cash flow: projections, models and specimen accounts could accompany this. You could also include an outline of how you will support yourself and the business while it is in its infancy.
Outcomes and evaluation: demonstrate how you will know if you have achieved/partly met your goals and how you are going to monitor progress. This is a good place to indicate milestones along the way where you can stand back and monitor the business’s development objectively at regular intervals.
Some of these are far more important in your case - marketing and cash flow Most likely. Others such as quality control are probably not relevant.
Contingency arrangements for keeping the company (i.e. you) afloat if things move more slowly are critical.
