2.1 Project and Business Planning

​Project Plans
Project Plans are often seen as a stage before the Business Planning stage, as a lighter version which allows you to think through the project without some of the finer detail.  The project plan can help guide you in setting out a timeline for how the project is going to get off of the ground. It is often a good way to start thinking about things such as the feasibility of the project, looking at the existing market and how your organisation will fit in. The bonus of a well thought out project plan full of great research is that it gives you the bones of your business plan, another really important element of the development process.
You can find a Project Plan template which includes guidance notes in the Resource Library
 
Business Plans
There any many reasons that might lead you to be writing a business plan.  You might be at the start-up phase and looking to plan you first few years’ activities and trading or you might have been requested for one by an Investor or Funder.  No matter the reason, business plans are a really important part of the development process in an organisation.
Your business plan should be a ‘living document’ that is in place right from the start but evolving, paving the way for how you are going to develop the project and is written in such a way that anyone can understand what exactly it is you are going do (be this potential investors, initial start-up funders etc.).   You can find a Business Plan template and a set of guidance notes in the Resource Library which may help you in thinking about how you want to set out your plan and what sort of details you may wish to include. 
1.0 Getting Started

2.0 Developing and Growing
  2.1 Project and Business Planning
  2.2 Recruiting Employees
  2.3 Voluntary Organisations and Tax
  2.4 Changing Legal Structures 

3.0 Taking on an Asset 

4.0 What is Social Enterprise?

5.0 Volunteering

6.0 Funding

7.0 Dissolving an Organisation