Читать книгу Business Plans For Dummies - Paul Tiffany - Страница 28

Your financial review covers both where you stand today and where you expect to be in the future.

Describe your current financial situation by using several standard financial statements. True, these statements don’t make for the liveliest reading, but the people who are interested in the financial part of your business plan expect to see them, and some of these folks will have a magnifying glass in their hands. For everyone else, make certain that your financial statements are referenced and support the assumptions and arguments that you make in the other sections of the business plan. The basic financial statements include the following:

 Income statement: A list of numbers that adds up all the revenue that your company brings in over a month, a quarter, or a year and then subtracts the total costs involved in running your business. The total is your bottom line — the net profit that you make during the period.

 Balance sheet: A snapshot of your financial condition at a particular moment, showing exactly what assets your company owns, liabilities that exist including money it owes, and its net worth.

 Cash-flow statement: A record that traces the flow of cash in and out of your company over a given period, tracking where the money comes from and where it ends up. The cash-flow statement only tracks money when you actually receive it or spend it. Potential investors are particularly interested in when you plan to achieve “positive cash flow” status — that is, cash inflows become greater than outflow and you are not reliant on outside injections of cash to pay bills and stay solvent.

Your projections about your future financial situation use exactly the same kind of financial statements. But for projections, you estimate all the numbers in the statements based on your understanding of what may happen. These are called pro forma statements. Make sure to include all the assumptions you made to come up with your estimates in the first place.

To get a head start on your financial planning, flip to Chapters 11 and 12.