the financial times essential guide to writing a business plan

The FT Essential Guide to Writing a Business Plan, 2nd Edition

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Book description

Table of contents.

• About the author
• Introduction
• Preparation
• A plan for SMEs
• Business mix by segment
• Segmentation in a start-up
• Market size
• Market growth
• Market demand for a start-up
• Market demand risks and opportunities
• Your competitors
• Competitive intensity
• Competition in a start-up
• Industry competition risks and opportunities
• Competitive position
• Strategy in a start-up
• Strategic risks and opportunities
• Operations and capital expenditure
• Resource risks and opportunities
• Historic financials
• Market-driven sales forecasts
• Competition-driven margin forecasts
• Funding the plan
• Full financial forecasts
• Forecasts in a start-up
• Financial risks and opportunities
• Meet the Suns and Clouds chart
• What the suns and clouds tell you
• Sensitivity testing
• Executive summary
• Investment highlights
• Focusing the content
• Using PowerPoint
• Delivering the message
• Choosing key performance indicators
• Setting milestones
• Monitoring your plan
• Appraising managerial performance
• Evaluating your plan
• Epilogue: Beware these characters!
• Appendix A: Deriving competitive position
• Appendix B: Structured interviewing of customers
• Appendix C: Alternative sources of funding
• Appendix D: An example business plan
• Appendix E: Further reading
• Endorsement

Product information

• Title: The FT Essential Guide to Writing a Business Plan, 2nd Edition
• Author(s): Vaughan Evans
• Release date: September 2015
• Publisher(s): FT Publishing International
• ISBN: 9781292085166

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The Financial Times Essential Guide to Writing a Business Plan 3rd Edition How To Win Backing To Start Up Or Grow Your Business

• Author(s) Vaughan Evans
• Publisher Pearson (Intl)

Print ISBN 9781292416175, 1292416173

Etext isbn 9781292416151, 1292416157.

• Edition 3rd
• Copyright 2022
• Available from £ 16.50 GBP SKU: 9781292416151R365

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The Financial Times Essential Guide to Writing a Business Plan: How To Win Backing To Start Up Or Grow Your Business 3rd Edition is written by Vaughan Evans and published by Pearson (Intl). The Digital and eTextbook ISBNs for The Financial Times Essential Guide to Writing a Business Plan are 9781292416151, 1292416157 and the print ISBNs are 9781292416175, 1292416173. Save up to 80% versus print by going digital with VitalSource. Additional ISBNs for this eTextbook include 9781292416168.

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Financial Times Essential Guides Writing a Business Plan: How to win backing to start up or grow your business (The FT Guides) Paperback – 16 Nov. 2011

Whether you seek financial backing or board consent, this book will give you the critical knowledge you need to get the go-ahead. Written by a seasoned practitioner with years of experience in both writing and evaluating business plans for funding, it will help you formulate a coherent, consistent and convincing business plan with your backer’s needs in mind. Follow its guidance and your plan will have every chance of winning the backing you need for your business to succeed.

FT ESSENTIAL GUIDES : THE KNOW-HOW YOU NEED TO GET THE RESULTS YOU WANT

• ISBN-10 0273757989
• ISBN-13 978-0273757986
• Edition 1st
• Publisher Ft Press
• Publication date 16 Nov. 2011
• Language English
• Dimensions 13.97 x 1.91 x 22.23 cm
• Print length 249 pages
• See all details

Product description

‘This guide cuts to the heart of what needs to go into a business plan – in any number of different scenarios. It is admirably clear and cleverly illustrated by real-life examples.'

James Brocklebank , Managing Director, Advent International

‘At last! A book that explains how to write the kind of business plan that investors and lenders actually want to read. Evans uses his vast experience in advising real companies and financiers to make this guide authoritative and authentic, yet also practical and easy to follow.’

James Courtenay , Global Head, Project and Export Finance, Standard Chartered Bank

‘Peppered with good examples it is an essential reference for those contemplating a start-up as well as existing businesses moving to their next phase of growth.’

Grahame Hughes , Co-founder, Haven Power Ltd (exited 2010)

‘Vaughan Evans's considerable experience in creating business plans and evaluating them on behalf of investors is very much in evidence in this eminently readable book. From my private equity perspective, a plan submitted along these guidelines will stand out from the rest. It will speak the language of potential investors.’ James Pitt , Partner, Lexington Partners

‘Whether a start-up, early stage or mature business, this book provides essential and in-depth guidance on how to prepare a compelling business plan.' Vince O’Brien , Director, Montagu Private Equity and Chairman of the British Venture Capital Association, 2005

‘Lively, contemporary case studies and essential tips, coupled with easy to follow writing, make it a perfect read for all levels of experience.’

Bill Priestley , Managing Director, LGV Capital Limited

‘This book is written from the viewpoint of the potential backer, targeting his/her key questions. It provides a no-nonsense, easy-to-follow guide that will ensure you deliver a persuasive plan.’

Robert Samuelson , Executive Director Group Strategy, Virgin Media

‘Over the years there have been many guides to what you should put in a business plan. The crucial difference with Evans’ book is that it tells you why and how as well.'

Richard Kemp , Managing Partner, Sephton Capital

From the Back Cover

'I particularly like this book’s emphasis on market and competitive analysis – often we entrepreneurs tend to go with our gut feel rather than proper analysis. Evans gets the priorities behind business planning right.'

Anthony Karibian, co-founder, XLN Telecom Ltd (exited September 2010)

'Vaughan Evans' excellent book shines a light on what suppliers of capital expect in a business plan and why. It is an invaluable resource for all managers and budding entrepreneurs.'

Hugh Lenon, Managing Partner, Phoenix Equity Partners, and Chairman of the British Venture Capital Association, 2010

'Evans has nailed it! Clear, readable, no-nonsense thinking about the fundamentals every business plan must address. If writing a business plan is your next step, this book's for you.' John Mullins, Professor at London Business School and author of The New Business Road Test

YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BUSINESS PLANNING

Whether you seek financial backing or board consent, The FT Essential Guide to Writing a Business Plan will give you the critical knowledge you need to get the go-ahead. By focusing clearly on your objective, it will help you to convey the necessary evidence and address your backer’s concerns. It will also help you develop your planning skills for the future by showing you how to coach yourself and improve your performance.

Written by a seasoned practitioner with years of experience in both writing and evaluating business plans for funding, it will help you formulate a coherent, consistent and convincing planwith your backer’s needs in mind. Follow its guidance and your plan will have every chance of winning the backing you need for your business to succeed.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ft Press; 1st edition (16 Nov. 2011)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 249 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0273757989
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0273757986
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.97 x 1.91 x 22.23 cm
• 653 in Professional Budgeting
• 892 in Corporate Finance
• 892 in Small Business Plans

About the author

Vaughan evans.

VAUGHAN EVANS is an independent strategy consultant, prolific writer and dynamic speaker (www.vaughanevansandpartners.com). He has specialised in strategy and business planning for business clients, small and large, and strategic due diligence for private equity clients, over four decades.

He is the author of the best-selling THE FINANCIAL TIMES ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO WRITING A BUSINESS PLAN: HOW TO WIN BACKING TO START UP OR GROW YOUR BUSINESS (FT Publishing, 3rd edition, 2022), a book that views business planning distinctively from the perspective of the backer. It guides the entrepreneur or manager on how to address each of the key concerns of the backer, whether banker, investor or board member. Its North American version, THE STANDOUT BUSINESS PLAN: MAKE IT IRRESISTIBLE - AND GET THE FUNDS YOU NEED FOR YOUR STARTUP OR GROWING BUSINESS (AMACOM, 2014), was co-authored with success guru Brian Tracy.

THE FINANCIAL TIMES ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO DEVELOPING A BUSINESS STRATEGY: HOW TO USE STRATEGIC PLANNING TO START UP OR GROW YOUR BUSINESS (FT Publishing, 2013) is a companion to the above guide on business planning. It has been exceptionally well reviewed by peers, who view it as a succinct, practical and highly readable guide to drawing up a business strategy - ideal for busy managers and entrepreneurs, intent on lifting their business to the next level.

STRATEGY PLAIN AND SIMPLE: 3 STEPS TO BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY FOR YOUR STARTUP OR GROWING BUSINESS (FT Publishing, 2018) cuts to the quick of strategy. In just 120 pages, with vivid examples, practical solutions and a jargon-free approach, he guides the reader plainly and simply towards creating a successful business strategy. "Entrepreneurs lack one precious commodity: time. This book - short, sharp, clear, lively, engaging - breaks that deadlock."

KEY STRATEGY TOOLS: 88 TOOLS FOR EVERY MANAGER TO BUILD A WINNING STRATEGY (Pearson, 2nd edition, 2020) is weightier. Its selection of strategy tools, rated as either useful or essential and slotted uniquely into a no-nonsense strategy development process, is innovative, instructive and practically applicable. The 1st edition was one of the top three selling business books in the UK in the first quarter of 2013. This 2nd edition brings it up to date with the inclusion of leading contemporary strategy thinkers such as Martin, Markides and McGrath to join established strategists such as Porter, Hamel & Prahalad and Kim & Mauborgne.

A more succinct version of this book, 25 NEED-TO-KNOW STRATEGY TOOLS (Pearson, 2014), pulls out the 25 most important tools and attaches an insightful case study to each.

LET THE SUN SHINE! HOW STRATEGIC DUE DILIGENCE IS KEY TO ACQUISITION SUCCESS (2015), could well have been Vaughan's first book - he has been highly active in this field since the terms LBOs, MBOs and MBIs first materialised in the mid-1980s. This book "pours sunlight onto the complex challenges of getting strategic due diligence right".

KISSTRATEGY: A KEEP-IT-SIMPLE GUIDE ON HOW TO BUILD A WINNING STRATEGY FOR YOUR STARTUP OR SMALL BUSINESS (2016), is short, punchy and unashamedly for the small businessperson. Readable on a one-hour plane or train journey, it shows how, with some simple analysis, you can take your small business to the next level. "At last, a book on strategy I can read!", opined one small businessperson.

He has also written on career development, on how thinking of yourself as a one-person business can advance or transform your career. He deploys the very tools he has developed in business strategy for the analysis of an individual's career prospects. Hence his BACKING U! range of books (Business & Careers Press), regarded by peers as innovative, insightful and win-win.

Vaughan Evans is a charismatic, humorous and inspirational speaker (see www.vaughanevansandpartners.com/speaking). His lively keynote speech KISSTRATEGY urges the audience to keep strategy simple, focusing on its three key components of Market, Advantage and Risk. He is the author of the instructive yet highly entertaining STAND, SPEAK, DELIVER! HOW TO SURVIVE - AND THRIVE- IN PUBLIC SPEAKING AND PRESENTING (Little Brown, 2015).

Finally, Vaughan is a keen amateur actor, with roles ranging from Tuppy in Lady Windermere's Fan, General Haig in Oh! What a Lovely War, Judge Balance in The Recruiting Officer and the Rev. Eli Jenkins in Under Milk Wood to Caiaphas in Jesus Christ Superstar. He has recently taken to playwriting and took his first play, INTEGRITY, up to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018, later producing it at the OSO Theatre in Barnes, southwest London. INTEGRATION and FU, EU! came next and the three plays were published as INTERESTING TIMES: A TRILOGY OF PLAYS ON THE 2010s (Krimson Kestrel Press, 2020).

An economics graduate of the University of Cambridge and an Alfred P. Sloan fellow with distinction of London Business School, he worked for many years at management consultants Arthur D. Little and investment bankers Bankers Trust. A former resident of exotic lands such as the British Virgin Islands, Borneo, Fiji, Java and Thailand, he hails from West Wales and lives alongside Richmond Park in southwest London.

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Financial Times Essential Guide to Writing a Business Plan, The Paperback – 12 November 2015

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In one engaging, outcome-oriented book, The FT Essential Guide to Writing a Business Plan gives you:

• The essential knowledge you need to write a winning business plan – quickly and without fuss
• Guidance on how to focus throughout on the plan’s purpose – to win backing
• Samples of what a good plan looks like, so you can benchmark your own as you write it
• Checklists, tips, examples and milestones to ensure you’re on target
• Prompts to reflect on, evaluate and learn from your experience

With advice that’s instantly applicable, whether your business is a start-up or a more established company looking to grow, this is the one guide you need to create a credible and persuasive plan.

• ISBN-10 1292085142
• ISBN-13 978-1292085142
• Edition 2nd
• Publisher Ft Pr
• Publication date 12 November 2015
• Part of series Financial Times
• Language English
• Dimensions 13.46 x 2.29 x 21.34 cm
• Print length 275 pages
• See all details

Product description

From the back cover.

‘At last! A book that explains how to write the kind of business plan that investors and lenders actually want to read. A clear and concise book – I haven’t seen one that approaches the subject so straightforwardly. Evans uses his vast experience in advising real companies and financiers to make this guide authoritative and authentic, yet also practical and easy to follow.’

James Courtenay , Head of Global Corporates, Standard Chartered Bank

'Vaughan Evans' excellent book shines a light on what suppliers of capital expect in a business plan and why. It is an invaluable resource for all managers and budding entrepreneurs.'

Hugh Lenon , Managing Partner, Phoenix Equity Partners, and former Chairman of the British Venture Capital Association

'Evans has nailed it! Clear, readable, no-nonsense thinking about the fundamentals every business plan must address. If writing a business plan is your next step, this book's for you.' John Mullins , Professor at London Business School and author of The New Business Road Test

YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BUSINESS PLANNING

Whether you seek financial backing or board consent, The Financial Times Essential Guide to Writing a Business Plan will give you the critical knowledge you need to get the go-ahead. By focusing clearly on your objective, it will help you to gather the necessary evidence and address all your backer’s concerns.

This brand new edition draws out the specific challenges faced by start-ups, particularly on pinning down your perceived market niche and determining your competitive advantage. There are new chapters on pitching the plan and performing against the plan, using key performance indicators and milestones. Finally new appendices outline alternative sources of funding and display an example business plan from start to finish.

Written by a seasoned practitioner with years of experience in both writing and evaluating business plans for funding, it will help you formulate a coherent, consistent and convincing plan with your backer’s needs in mind. Follow its guidance and your plan will have every chance of winning the backing you need for your business to succeed.

FINANCIAL TIMES ESSENTIAL GUIDES : THE KNOW-HOW YOU NEED TO GET THE RESULTS YOU WANT

About the Author

Vaughan Evans is an independent strategy consultant, prolific writer and dynamic speaker(www.vaughanevansandpartners.com). He has specialised in strategy and business planning for business clients, small and large, and strategic due diligence for private equity clients over four decades. He is also the author of FT Publishing titles: FT Essential Guide to Writing a Business Strategy, Key Strategy Tools, 25 Need to Know Strategy Tools and Strategy Plain and Simple.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ft Pr; 2nd edition (12 November 2015)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 275 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1292085142
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1292085142
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 454 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.46 x 2.29 x 21.34 cm
• #13,708 in Entrepreneurship (Books)
• #116,107 in Analysis & Strategy

About the author

Vaughan evans.

VAUGHAN EVANS is an independent strategy consultant, prolific writer and dynamic speaker (www.vaughanevansandpartners.com). He has specialised in strategy and business planning for business clients, small and large, and strategic due diligence for private equity clients, over four decades.

He is the author of the best-selling THE FINANCIAL TIMES ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO WRITING A BUSINESS PLAN: HOW TO WIN BACKING TO START UP OR GROW YOUR BUSINESS (FT Publishing, 3rd edition, 2022), a book that views business planning distinctively from the perspective of the backer. It guides the entrepreneur or manager on how to address each of the key concerns of the backer, whether banker, investor or board member. Its North American version, THE STANDOUT BUSINESS PLAN: MAKE IT IRRESISTIBLE - AND GET THE FUNDS YOU NEED FOR YOUR STARTUP OR GROWING BUSINESS (AMACOM, 2014), was co-authored with success guru Brian Tracy.

THE FINANCIAL TIMES ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO DEVELOPING A BUSINESS STRATEGY: HOW TO USE STRATEGIC PLANNING TO START UP OR GROW YOUR BUSINESS (FT Publishing, 2013) is a companion to the above guide on business planning. It has been exceptionally well reviewed by peers, who view it as a succinct, practical and highly readable guide to drawing up a business strategy - ideal for busy managers and entrepreneurs, intent on lifting their business to the next level.

STRATEGY PLAIN AND SIMPLE: 3 STEPS TO BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY FOR YOUR STARTUP OR GROWING BUSINESS (FT Publishing, 2018) cuts to the quick of strategy. In just 120 pages, with vivid examples, practical solutions and a jargon-free approach, he guides the reader plainly and simply towards creating a successful business strategy. "Entrepreneurs lack one precious commodity: time. This book - short, sharp, clear, lively, engaging - breaks that deadlock."

KEY STRATEGY TOOLS: 88 TOOLS FOR EVERY MANAGER TO BUILD A WINNING STRATEGY (Pearson, 2nd edition, 2020) is weightier. Its selection of strategy tools, rated as either useful or essential and slotted uniquely into a no-nonsense strategy development process, is innovative, instructive and practically applicable. The 1st edition was one of the top three selling business books in the UK in the first quarter of 2013. This 2nd edition brings it up to date with the inclusion of leading contemporary strategy thinkers such as Martin, Markides and McGrath to join established strategists such as Porter, Hamel & Prahalad and Kim & Mauborgne.

A more succinct version of this book, 25 NEED-TO-KNOW STRATEGY TOOLS (Pearson, 2014), pulls out the 25 most important tools and attaches an insightful case study to each.

LET THE SUN SHINE! HOW STRATEGIC DUE DILIGENCE IS KEY TO ACQUISITION SUCCESS (2015), could well have been Vaughan's first book - he has been highly active in this field since the terms LBOs, MBOs and MBIs first materialised in the mid-1980s. This book "pours sunlight onto the complex challenges of getting strategic due diligence right".

KISSTRATEGY: A KEEP-IT-SIMPLE GUIDE ON HOW TO BUILD A WINNING STRATEGY FOR YOUR STARTUP OR SMALL BUSINESS (2016), is short, punchy and unashamedly for the small businessperson. Readable on a one-hour plane or train journey, it shows how, with some simple analysis, you can take your small business to the next level. "At last, a book on strategy I can read!", opined one small businessperson.

He has also written on career development, on how thinking of yourself as a one-person business can advance or transform your career. He deploys the very tools he has developed in business strategy for the analysis of an individual's career prospects. Hence his BACKING U! range of books (Business & Careers Press), regarded by peers as innovative, insightful and win-win.

Vaughan Evans is a charismatic, humorous and inspirational speaker (see www.vaughanevansandpartners.com/speaking). His lively keynote speech KISSTRATEGY urges the audience to keep strategy simple, focusing on its three key components of Market, Advantage and Risk. He is the author of the instructive yet highly entertaining STAND, SPEAK, DELIVER! HOW TO SURVIVE - AND THRIVE- IN PUBLIC SPEAKING AND PRESENTING (Little Brown, 2015).

Finally, Vaughan is a keen amateur actor, with roles ranging from Tuppy in Lady Windermere's Fan, General Haig in Oh! What a Lovely War, Judge Balance in The Recruiting Officer and the Rev. Eli Jenkins in Under Milk Wood to Caiaphas in Jesus Christ Superstar. He has recently taken to playwriting and took his first play, INTEGRITY, up to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018, later producing it at the OSO Theatre in Barnes, southwest London. INTEGRATION and FU, EU! came next and the three plays were published as INTERESTING TIMES: A TRILOGY OF PLAYS ON THE 2010s (Krimson Kestrel Press, 2020).

An economics graduate of the University of Cambridge and an Alfred P. Sloan fellow with distinction of London Business School, he worked for many years at management consultants Arthur D. Little and investment bankers Bankers Trust. A former resident of exotic lands such as the British Virgin Islands, Borneo, Fiji, Java and Thailand, he hails from West Wales and lives alongside Richmond Park in southwest London.

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