Business plan guide What is a business plan and why do I need one? A business plan is a written document that describes your business, its objectives and strategies, the market you are targeting and your financial forecast. It is important to have a business plan because it helps you set realistic goals, secure external funding, measure your success, clarify operational requirements and establish reasonable financial forecasts.
Microfinance and poverty[ edit ] Financial needs and financial services. In developing economies and particularly in rural areas, many activities that would be classified in the developed world as financial are not monetized: This is often the case when people need the services money can provide but do not have dispensable funds required for those services, forcing them to revert to other means of acquiring them.
Common substitutes for cash vary from country to country but typically include livestock, grains, jewelry and precious metals. As Marguerite Robinson describes in The Micro finance Revolution, the s demonstrated that "micro finance could provide large-scale outreach profitably," and in the s, "micro finance began to develop as an industry"p.
In the s, the micro finance industry's objective is to satisfy the unmet demand on a much larger scale, and to play a role in reducing poverty. While much progress financial aspect of a business plan been made in developing a viable, commercial micro finance sector in the last few decades, several issues remain that need to be addressed before the industry will be able to satisfy massive worldwide demand.
The obstacles or challenges to building a sound commercial micro finance industry include: Poor regulation and supervision of deposit-taking micro finance institutions MFIs Few MFIs that meet the needs for savings, remittances or insurance Limited management capacity in MFIs Institutional inefficiencies Need for more dissemination and adoption of rural, agricultural micro finance methodologies Members lack of collateral to secure a loan Microfinance is the proper tool to reduce income inequality, allowing citizens from lower socio-economical classes to participate in the economy.
Moreover, its involvement has shown to lead to a downward trend in income inequality Hermes, Building a new home may involve saving and protecting diverse building materials for years until enough are available to proceed with construction.
Because all the value is accumulated before it is needed, this money management strategy is referred to as 'saving up'. A poor family might borrow from relatives to buy land, from a moneylender to buy rice, or from a microfinance institution to buy a sewing machine.
Since these loans must be repaid by saving after the cost is incurred, Rutherford calls this 'saving down'. Rutherford's point is that microcredit is addressing only half the problem, and arguably the less important half: Microcredit institutions should fund their loans through savings accounts that help poor people manage their myriad risks.
Recent studies have also shown that informal methods of saving are unsafe. For example, a study by Wright and Mutesasira in Uganda concluded that "those with no option but to save in the informal sector are almost bound to lose some money—probably around one quarter of what they save there.
The new paradigm places more attention on the efforts of poor people to reduce their many vulnerabilities by keeping more of what they earn and building up their assets. While they need loans, they may find it as useful to borrow for consumption as for microenterprise.
A safe, flexible place to save money and withdraw it when needed is also essential for managing household and family risk. This microfinance project functions as an unofficial banking system where Jyothi, a "deposit collector", collects money from slum dwellers, mostly women, in order for them to accumulate savings.
Jyothi does her rounds throughout the city, collecting Rs5 a day from people in the slums for days, however not always days in a row since these women do not always have the funds available to put them into savings.
They ultimately end up with Rs at the end of the process. However, there are some issues with this microfinance saving program. One of the issues is that while saving, clients are actually losing part of their savings. There is also the risk of entrusting their savings to unlicensed, informal, peripatetic collectors.
However, the slum dwellers are willing to accept this risk because they are unable to save at home, and unable to use the remote and unfriendly banks in their country.
This specific microfinance project is an example of the benefits and limitations of the "saving up" project Rutherford, Everyday 15 women would save shillings so there would be a lump sum of 1, shillings and everyday 1 of the 15 women would receive that lump sum.
This would continue for 15 days and another woman within this group would receive the lump sum. At the end of the 15 days a new cycle would start. This ROSCA initiative is different from the "saving up" example above because there are no interest rates affiliated with the ROSCA, additionally everyone receives back what they put forth.
This initiative requires trust and social capital networks in order to work, so often these ROSCAs include people who know each other and have reciprocity.
The ROSCA allows for marginalized groups to receive a lump sum at one time in order to pay or save for specific needs they have. Microfinance debates and challenges[ edit ] There are several key debates at the boundaries of microfinance.
Timing of the Sale | Spring cleaning for your finances AskTheMoney. |
The Beginner’s Guide to Writing a Business Plan to Attract Investors or Get Loans | A major contract that spans several years 2. Timing of the Sale Prepare for the sale as early as possible, preferably a year or two ahead of time. |
This program was established in as one of the only microfinance lenders in the country. One of the principal challenges of microfinance is providing small loans at an affordable cost. Indeed, the local microfinance organizations that receive zero-interest loan capital from the online microlending platform Kiva charge average interest and fee rates of For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa credit risk for microfinance institutes is very high, because customers need years to improve their livelihood and face many challenges during this time.
Financial institutes often do not even have a system to check the person's identity. Additionally they are unable to design new products and enlarge their business to reduce the risk.
The high costs of traditional microfinance loans limit their effectiveness as a poverty-fighting tool. According to a recent survey of microfinance borrowers in Ghana published by the Center for Financial Inclusion, more than one-third of borrowers surveyed reported struggling to repay their loans.If you are just starting a business, having a well-written business plan shows that you have really done your homework.
And if you are planning to expand an already established business, it demonstrates that you have carefully considered the pros, cons and odds; and focused on the development of the business.
8) Financial Plan.
A description of your funding requirements, your detailed financial statements, and a financial statement analysis. This part of the business plan is where you will present the three main financial documents of any business, the balance sheet, the income statement and the cash flow statement.
(In the case of a new business, this last document will be a cash flow projection.).
This Restaurant Business Plan has been written to use a starting point for developing your own business plan. You are free to edit and use this business plan and its contents within your organization; however, we do ask that you don't distribute this business plan on the web without explicit permission from us.
Financial management is at the heart of running a successful business.
It affects every aspect, from managing cash flow and tracking business performance. The financial part of a business plan includes various financial statements that show where your company currently stands and where it expects to be in the near future.
This information helps you. The National Council of Higher Education Resources (NCHER) is the nation’s oldest and largest higher education finance trade association.
NCHER’s membership includes state, nonprofit, and for-profit higher education service organizations, including lenders, servicers, guaranty agencies, collection agencies, financial literacy providers, and schools, interested and involved in increasing.