Business Planning Guide Workshop - June 20th, 2025

Starting up or making changes to your current business? Discover the key elements of planning your business from start-up to business growth

As a business owner, you are thinking about the successful operation of your business just about every waking moment of your day. Every successful business requires continuous planning. A well-crafted business plan allows your company to stay on course and have a yardstick against which to measure its progress. A well-thought-out plan is necessary to provide a significant competitive advantage, achieve company goals, and obtain funding.

The Business Planning Guide Workshop is an interactive full-day session hosted in-person at the London Small Business Centre (900 King St. London, ON - The Grove at the Western Fair District).

Please note: if we do not have a minimum of 6 people, this event may be cancelled.

The Business Planning Guide Workshop will cover 4-key components of a business plan as follows:

1. Business Profile & Market Research

This component will assist you to achieve a candid assessment of your business concept, your market, and analyze your industry. It will also help assess your competitors and target market customers to improve and strengthen your business.

Questions to be addressed:

Who will pay you for your product/service?

How much are they willing to pay for your product/service?

What are your competitors charging for your product/service?

How often will your target market purchase your product/service?

What is your product/service's position in the marketplace?

2. Marketing and Sales

This component will help you determine how you will reach your target market and create strategies to promote the business. This includes pricing, product/service presentation, web & social media presence, as well as a consistent brand image and messaging.

Questions you will address:

How are you going to tell people about your product/service?

What are you going to tell them about your product/service?

How much will you budget for marketing?

What marketing strategies will you be using?

What are your metrics to measure effectiveness?

3. Operations and Start-Up Costs

This component will enable you to provide an overview of the "nuts and bolts" of your business, exploring how and where your business will operate, human resource considerations, legal considerations, costs, and associated risks.

Questions you will address:

From where will your business operate? (online, home, "brick & mortar")?

Will you be hiring employees or independent contractors?

What legal issues are concerning to your business?

How will you fulfill customer orders?

What administrative/accounting/inventory/POS systems will you be utilizing

What costs will you incur to start your business?

4. Financials

This component will introduce you to cash flow and income statements and help you plan financial projections for your business, including sales forecasts. The Break-Even Analysis will assist you to calculate how much you will need to sell to cover your expenses and provide insight to the viability of your venture.

Questions you will address:

Is there a seasonality to your business that impacts your sales either positively or negatively?

What will your monthly expenses be?

Are your expenses aligned with the fluctuations of your business?

At what point will your revenues cover your expenditures?

This workshop walks you through the entire process of creating your own business from scratch. We start by creating a business profile and determining the business model that will be best for your business. We will follow it up with market research to define your target market and competition. Then we will help you create a marketing and sales strategy to create, obtain and keep customers. We will then examine the operational issues related to your business, and lastly, we will examine the financial aspects of your business models through sales and cash flow projections.

“BUSINESSES THAT PLAN, PLAN TO SUCCEED. BUSINESSES THAT FAIL TO PLAN, PLAN TO FAIL”