I am an American English teacher who must create a business to satisfy residency requirements here in Poland. One of the requirements is to provide a business plan - however, I have never even seen one let alone written one. Any experiences from members on this forum? How detailed does it need to be? Are there any models I can cite online? Thanks to all with constructive input!
(BTW - I have sought TEFL business plans online and have searched "business plan" on this site, both to no avail...)
HI. If you do a search for 'business plan' on google you will get up a number of sites. I just checked and there are a lot o Business Plan template results which might be able to steer you in the right direction.
I did search Google before posting this thread - all I found were plans for larger businesses which require employees, advertising cost projections, future earnings reports, etc. However, I was not able to find a basic plan for an individual who will be teaching at a language school and nothing else - that is what I seek.
Thread attached on merging: Business in Poland - do I need income from three sources?
I was recently told that the business I plan to create in Poland will require at least three sources of income to stay legal. Since I am creating this business solely to remain in the country and teach at a language school, I understand this regulation as needing at least three language schools to hire me part-time - is this true? If so, can anyone help me understand ways to get around this if I only have one job offer?
Also - one of my residency requirements is to show a business plan, but I am unable to find any suitable templates online. Can anyone point me in the right direction? The plans online seem to be for large businesses with employees, overhead, etc. - I am but a simple teacher trying to eek out a living by providing a service. I hope there is a simple plan after which I can model mine.
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.
