SETTING UP IN BUSINESS

TARC 2010 CONSTRUCTION PROFESIONAL STUDIES SIMON MCLEAN MRICS EXT 6232 S.N.MCLEAN@SHU.AC.UK

BEFORE STARTING UP A BUSINESS

How much money do you have? Can you attract outside investment? Can you borrow money, (Assets/Security)? What return do you expect on your capital? What expertise do you have? What interests you? Are you prepared to work long hours? What are the market trends in your region?

SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Local Chamber of Commerce Trade Shows Suppliers Networking Meetings The internet Local knowledge/connections

WRITE A MISSION STATEMENT

A mission statement is a business's formal declaration of its purpose and reason for existence. A good mission statement captures its purpose, customer orientation and business philosophy in a clear concise language. A typical mission statement would be 1 to 2 sentences long.

NAME YOUR BUSINESS

Your business name should be straight forwards descriptive and distinctive.

TYPE OF BUSINESS
Sole Traders Partnership Limited Liability Company

SET UP A MANAGEMENT TEAM

The strength of the management team must be articulated in your business plan. Balance within a management team include behavioural, technical and conceptual skills applicable to the development, production and delivery of both current and future products and services. The management team must have skills in management, marketing, finance and operations.

CURRENT AND PROJECTED FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Determine your cash needs, project your expenses, and review your sales and profit objectives. Prepare a preliminary balance sheet. List your assets and liabilities to create a snapshot of what your company looks like at a given moment. Your balance sheet is a necessary tool for your banker and for your accountant. Include financial projections on:

Profit & Loss Statement Balance Sheet Cash Flow

ESTABLISH YOUR PRODUCTS & SERVICES

Discuss your unique and specific characteristics of your products and services. How do they differ from similar products or services? What customer reactions may be anticipated due to these characteristics? How will you satisfy customer needs and wants? Describe any unique value-added characteristics your products and services provide to the customer and how these will give your company a competitive edge. Describe how the product works or the service is used. Will your product save your customer time or money? Have any tests or case studies been performed that help you back up your claims? (Obtain that vital information and document it in your plan). What is your product or services life cycle? Explain it to the investor. Include the time factors influencing your ability to make money and the effects of economic cycles. Discuss your plans for the next generation of products and services that will be introduced in the near future.

PRODUCE A BUSINESS PLAN

The business plan should be clean, conservative, simple, clearly written and properly bound. Your business plan is a reflection of the quality of your business. A business plan is a written document that describes a business, its objectives, its strategies, the market it is in and its financial forecasts. It has many functions, from securing external funding to measuring success within your business.

PRODUCE A MARKETING PLAN

Who is your competition. What can they do/not do. Can your product outsell them, is it cheaper, is it better, do you offer higher quality service/products? Do you have a unique selling proposition that none of your competitors have?

You need to account for:

Your product's features Nature of your customers Geographical issues Cyclical Issues List any advantages you have:

Actual performance Quality and reliability Production efficiency Distribution Pricing Promotion Public image or reputation Business relationships or references

MARKETING STRATEGY
Marketing strategies are designed to enhance, promote, and support the advantages, features and benefits of your products and services

UNIQUE SELLING POINT

Everybody within an organisation should have a solid understanding of what sets you apart from the competition. Your USP is that single, unique advantage, benefit, essence, appeal, or big promise that holds your product or service out to the prospective customer one that no other competitor offers or advertises. You should be able to articulate, in one or two crisp, clear paragraphs, the USP of your businesss product or service. You should consider the following comments: Your USP is literally the unique advantage that distinguishes your business from everyone elses. This is a concept that your entire enterprise should be built around. Without a USP, you cannot build a consistent and effective marketing campaign. Identify the unique advantage you should build your marketing efforts Go ahead! Create a USP that lets people feel like they cannot live a moment longer without your product or service.

QUALITY CONTROL PLAN 1

Clearly understand Customer requirements, make sure the requirements can be met, keep the Customer informed and track Customer satisfaction; Collect information, determine its meaning and make improvements; Control and maintain necessary measurement and test equipment and use the equipment in the appropriate work environment; Control Customer property to prevent damage; Create and maintain a satisfactory workplace, prepare people for the job and provide resources for the system; Define a quality policy, provide a vision and demonstrate commitment; Define and measure important product, process and service characteristics against requirements; Determine process functions and interactions ahead of time, then control the processes; Determine the root cause of problems, fix the cause of the problem and verify the corrections are permanent; practice, Implement continuous improvement your system to achieve quality;

QUALITY CONTROL PLAN 2

Establish the responsibility for providing quality products and services and keep everyone informed; Examine internal operations and report the results to management; Identify good and bad items, preserve good items, keep bad items away from good items and determine what to do with bad items; Keep track of delivered products and services and ship only what was ordered; know what you need to purchase and check-out your Suppliers; Know what you are designing and create a design plan, identify measures for the success of the plan and review the design as it progresses, verify the design does what it has promised and control changes; Make instructions available to Operators, keep the instructions upto-date and maintain necessary records of activities; Say what you do and do what you say; When the product can't be checked then check the process to ensure it remains capable; Write down the important functions, match the spec to the task and organise

SEMINAR ACTIVITY
TASK ONE Form groups of 4 students. You are each a specialist in one of the following professional disciplines: Quantity Surveyor, Construction Manager, Site Engineer, Business and Financial Manager. Architectural Technologist, You wish to come together to start a construction industry focused business. TASK TWO Produce an A1 /A2 poster, including: Company Name Describe the individual roles of your management team Target a customer market, and identify your unique selling point How you will fund your company start-up Your Mission Statement Type of company chosen with justification for choosing it A bullet point summary of your Business Plan, and Marketing Plan TASK THREE You will display and explain your poster in tomorrow's seminar session.