SEE PRODUCTS
The Best Business Planning Software for Your Startup

The Best Business Planning Software for Your Startup

by | Guidance

Business planning software is all the rage these days, with smart features, cloud access, and a series of tools to mix your financials in with your plans. But for start-ups, building the best business plan starts with the basic numbers of your business.

What Is A Business Plan?

Business plans are documents that tell an ongoing story about your business. They are often ‘living documents’ meaning they are dynamic and responsive to changing marketing conditions and your business’s needs. Business plans help owners and founders have direction and set goals. They also help investors understand if the business is going to make money and is therefore worth their time and investment.

Find Business Planning Software that Is Founder-friendly and Investor-friendly

If you’re looking for the best business planning software for your start-up, make sure you find something that really fits your needs. Start simple, by inputting numbers for your business to help build your forecasts. You don’t need long tutorials or to be an expert in fancy jargon. Make sure that you understand each element of the financial forecasts you’re building and why they are important.

Lengthy plans consisting of pages and pages of hopes, dreams, and a few business assumptions are no longer appropriate for investors. Instead, find a business planning software that will radically transform your ideas into actionable steps, making it easy for you to follow your strategy, and for investors to see where you’re headed.

Top 5 Best Business Planning Software

1. LivePlan

Pros: This program is probably the most well known of all business planning software. LivePlan is super customizable, integrates with Xero and Quickbooks, and offers financial services too that calculate your financial outcomes for the next five years. You can build a step-by-step plan using templates that are built to reach specific goals.

Cons: Rigid templates mean you are forced to shoe-horn your business into a template that might not be appropriate for your start-up. Also, sometimes too much detail can ruin your business plan. 

Costs: Free trial available and then either monthly or annual subscription. 

2. GoSmallBiz.com

Pros: A cross-over between a self-onboarding platform and a consultation service, GoSmallBiz offers multiple tools from website design through to legal support. Business plan reports are customizable and there is also a business mentoring service available too with help from real CEOs. There’s online calendar management to schedule appointments and events and you can generate financial projections and statements for your business.

Cons: Whilst there are hundreds of sample business plans available, you may be forcing your business to fit a template, rather than finding a template to enhance your business. You cannot export your data and many users are so familiar with Google or Microsoft Calendars that GoSmallBiz’s calendar functionality can seem a little obsolete.

Costs: A cancel-anytime monthly subscription is available. 

3. BizPlan

Pros: Another good contender that’s really user-friendly is BizPlan. Like LivePlan, you can sync your data with accounting software. Use drag-and-drop industry-specific templates to build in-depth presentations with really nice graphics. Share your financial plans with investors online in just a click of a button or use the real-time collaboration features to work on your plan with your team. 

Cons: PDFs can be fiddly to export and the platform isn’t responsive so you may have difficulty accessing it on mobile devices. You may also need to have a certain degree of knowledge regarding all the financials to get the most out of this program.

Costs: Monthly or annual subscription or a single lifetime payment.

4. PlanGuru

Pros: PlanGuru is stuffed full of excellent features, grounded in financial forecasting software with rolling forecasts and strategic planning. Learn everything you need from PlanGuru University and build flexible budgets to suit your start-up of any size. For established businesses, you can import historical data to help build some of your financial forecasts. Get stuck? Use their services (charged by the hour) to help bring expertise to your models and business plans.

Cons: You might get a bit lost with the snazzy features of PlanGuru, depending on your own financial forecasting knowledge levels. You may need to invest time using their learning tools to get the most out of your business plan.

Costs: PlanGuru is at the more expensive end of the spectrum with monthly subscriptions available.

5. Numberslides

Pros: Whilst Numberslides is not strictly a business planning software, the platform offers the fundamentals of all that business planning really is. It helps you answer the questions; is your business viable and what does your cash flow look like? The features of the online platform include building financial forecasts and using live market sensitivity analysis on your predicted financial outcomes. You can also create a bespoke set of financial documents that help you build your best ever business plan. By simplifying the steps for inputting all your numbers, Numberslides helps you optimize your business plan. You don’t need to be an expert in accounting, economics, or business strategy. There are no templates to force your business into, and you can give anyone (business partners and investors) access to toggle your numbers.

Cons: This is financial forecasting software with limited business planning software. If you need software to help you build your business plan (including strategies and actions, your competitive edge, products and services, marketing strategy), you may be better off with software that focuses mostly on business planning.

Costs: Multiple plans, billed monthly or annually.

Getting the Most Out of Business Planning Software

It might seem tempting to sign up to business plan platforms and start plugging your numbers and goals into the website, but be warned, sometimes the sense of busyness we get from this is actually a trap. Before choosing a software, you need to ask yourself what you want out of the software in the short-term and the long-term.

Short-term goals might be:

  • Understanding if your ‘back-of-a-napkin’ business plan is viable
  • Collecting all your ideas for this business down on paper to check each potential ‘limb’ of the business

Long-term goals will look a little different:

  • Understanding your business’s viability over the next 5 years
  • Accurately forecasting your business’s cash flow for the next 2-5 years
  • Predicting your business’s growth over the next 5 years to help secure investors

Find the Right Business Planning Software for Your Business

So, there you have it, five good options to consider for your business. Remember that before you start thinking about your marketing strategy or what your team will look like, at the very heart of every business are the numbers. If you don’t get those right, you’ll be struggling with an uphill battle every step of the way. Frequently, we sign-up to software without understanding what we want from it and without realising the true potential of the software either. Pick a software that will allow your business plan to speak to your financial forecasts, and you’ll be able to build your business with confidence in your numbers and your goals.

How to Combat Stress as a Founder

How to Combat Stress as a Founder

by | Guidance

When we think of start-ups we don’t often think or talk about the stress and anxiety that comes with being a founder. There’s a never-ending list of relatable feelings, situations, and events that can and do happen in the start-up world. Here’s an overview of some of the challenges of being a founder, with tips on how to combat stress and help you find a path towards better mental health.

As a Founder, Any Situation Can Get Stressful

Entrepreneurs can experience high levels of stress and anxiety when their start-up isn’t doing well and when it is doing well. Sounds ridiculous? It actually makes sense.

Start-ups frequently hit problems like running out of money, failing to deliver to a client or not making as much money as hoped. On the other hand, start-ups that are doing absolutely fine can also be extremely stressful environments to work in. There’s a huge pressure to continue growth momentum, hire the right people, secure more rounds of funding and make your business actually work.

Anti-stress tip: stress causes us to physically tense up all the time. As you read this, unclench your jaw and relax your mouth. Unfurrow your brows and wiggle your nose. We spend so long in physically tense states that it’s important to check in and give yourself two minutes to relax. This is the first step to managing stress, especially if you can’t peel yourself away from your computer.

1. Founders Are More Likely to Have Mental Health Conditions and Developmental Disorders 🧠

You may have experienced working with a founder and perhaps thought they were brilliant, wacky, intelligent or eccentric. The reality is that, as well as all their good traits, many founders have mental health conditions and developmental disorders. Issues such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and ADHD present daily challenges for founders. One study found that entrepreneurs are 50% more likely to have one or more of these conditions. These developmental and mental issues make founders far more vulnerable to substance abuse, suicidal thoughts, self-harm, and impulsive damaging behaviours. 

Anti-stress tip: take your mental health seriously. No one is born to handle intense pressures that come with running a start-up. Learning coping mechanisms takes time and is a skill you must work on. Talk to your friends, partners, and family members, even if you don’t feel like you need the support.

2. Founders Are Likely to Encounter Isolation 🪑

Loneliness is a silent killer in many countries and studies show that ‘chronic loneliness’ affects millions of people. Founders are affected by loneliness too. Unplanned and unwanted Isolation is hellish and for those who’ve never experienced it. 2020 has been the year in which millions of people have been plunged into loneliness. We can experience horrible feelings of being left out or always being busy with an endless list of tasks. We can feel disconnected or too depressed to be worth talking to. These are experiences that we can often relate to. It’s common for founders to encounter these feelings at some point in their start-up career.

Start-ups always require so many things to be done to make them work. As a founder, you probably have lists that are never-ending and cause you to regularly miss out on social events with loved ones. When the pressure increases, you respond by doubling your workload. It’s—oddly—the natural response to how we handle most emergencies. However, by making ourselves horrendously busy, we ignore our basic needs of rest and social connection.

Anti-stress tip: take time out and reconnect. Other founders can especially relate to how you’re feeling so dive into Reddit or Google and look for communities that speak to you. Talking to a friend can help boost serotonin, the chemical that research shows helps motivate people to perform better. So, take your mind off your business, and give your brain a break from running over-time all the time. 

3. Founders Can Lose Their Identity Within Their Company 🕳️

For some founders, being so close to their start-up can result in them becoming the company. Ever happened to you before with a school or work project? It can be good in that you can pour your heart and soul into your tasks. However, the flip side is that you can start to take any event or outcome within your business really personally. You lose sight of your team, you lose sight of external factors that affect your business, and you become personally bound to the company’s success and failures. This is an emotional rollercoaster that you have to get off.

Anti-stress tip: cultivate emotional intelligence. There are plenty of books on the topic and you can build up your sense of self independently from your company, without losing your passion for your project. Also, make sure you have other things happening in your life that you enjoy. Give yourself time to be with family. Pursue one or two other hobbies or responsibilities that gives you time away from your start-up. These are important steps you can take to grow your self-esteem an identity independently from your start-up.

4. Founders Can Suffer from Acute Financial Stress 💳

Launching a start-up involves risk, comes with highs and lows, and often requires an endless volume of cash. Founders are the first to go without a pay check or sell or re-mortgage their homes. Founders are also much more likely to take on additional work to save costs. They are often also mentally prepared to land in financial ruin at any given moment.

Anti-stress tip: learning how to use your excitement to stimulate you to build your business is key. Long-term low-levels of stress (chronic stress) and short bursts of high-stress (acute stress) are scientifically proven to damage your health. You need to aim for ‘eustress’—the feeling you get when you’re really excited. This is a positive stressor, driving you to achieve your goals in a healthy way.

5. Founders Can Suffer from Imposter Syndrome 👨‍⚖️

The crippling fear that one day you’ll be exposed as a fraud can be absolutely terrifying. Jacinda Ardern recently admitted that she suffers from Imposter Syndrome and it’s thought that 70% of the US population suffers from it too. Regardless of the evidence that you’re capable of delivering excellent results, as a founder it’s easy to think your entire start-up is a hoax. The fear that it’s only a matter of days before the gig is up often is very real and impacts negatively on your performance and decision-making. 

Anti-stress tip: it’s really important to accept that Imposter Syndrome is real. Support yourself (and others) by verbalising the achievements you have accomplished. Get help if your Imposter Syndrome is causing you to flounder or become depressed. Above all, don’t believe the voice in your head telling you “it’s all going wrong”.

6. Founders Are More Vulnerable to Burnout 🔥

Once a badge of honour, now a sign of overworking and physical, emotional and mental exhaustion; many founders have experienced or come close to burnout. Overloading yourself with work, burning the candle at both ends and trying to fit more hours into your day all result in burnout. The never-ending days and your never-resting mind will actually decrease your productivity in the long run and make you unwell too. People turn to stimulants, legal and illegal, to keep them going, resulting in addictive behaviours, low levels of sleep, and a more emotionally reactive style of leadership. Eventually, you crash and can’t get up for weeks because of it.

Anti-stress tip: break the mentality that burnout is something to aim for. Instead, go for a balanced approach with smart working hours and lots of time to rest and recuperate. Our best ideas tend to occur outside of work. Also, the time you invest in avoiding burnout will almost certainly be half of the time you’ll take to recover, should you hit the wall.

7. Founders Can Suffer From Anxiety Disorders 💭

Start-ups are by nature incredibly inconsistent. Nothing is ever certain, from your next pay check, to what your company will look like in the next few months. It’s the perfect breeding ground for new or underlying anxiety disorders to emerge. Anxiety can greatly impact a founder’s ability to perform basic tasks and function normally; the constant worry, the overthinking, and the overwhelming uneasiness consumes a lot of time and energy.

Anti-stress tip: build healthy behaviours by taking your anxiety seriously and giving yourself the support you need. Exercise, relaxation, and meditation help release endorphins, focus the mind, and build healthier habits to reduce anxiety.

As a Founder, You Are Not Alone 

A quick Google will give you a handful of helpful resources. From support for anxiety to Reddit threads with tips on how to recognise and avoid burnout, there are practical steps you can take to protect your health. In a nutshell, connect with your friends and family, give yourself time to rest, and seek help where you need it. Meditation and exercise can help you find balance and quiet in busy months of start-ups. Above all, remember that you are not alone. Call your friend, take a break, and prioritise your mental health. Your business will thank you for it.

11 Biggest Forecasting Mistakes People Make

11 Biggest Forecasting Mistakes People Make

by | Guidance

Here is our rundown of the 11 biggest forecasting mistakes people make when working on their financial projections.

1. Treating Forecasts As If They Are Static ⚠️

Forecasts are dynamic! We’ll say it louder for the people in the back; forecasts are dynamic! So many founders we have worked with think that their forecasts are a line in the sand. Once it’s finished, they head off to raise finance with it, but this is where they go oh-so-wrong. The market is not static, your business is not static, so why should your forecasts be static? Make sure when you build your forecasts that you’re prepared for them to change. If you’re worried about constantly adjusting your numbers, try online financial forecasting software like Numberslides. We make toggling numbers really easy.

2. Treating Business Plans As If They Are Static 🛑

If you take a business plan and assume nothing will change, you set yourself up for all kinds of problems down the line. Suppliers’ prices change, your customers will give you feedback, and the market will shrink or grow. Your business plan must be prepared to adapt to these changes. Your financial projections must work hand-in-hand with your business strategy. Don’t make the mistake of creating rigid business plans and inflexible budgets; the world is always moving, so be prepared to go with the flow.

3. Confusing Profit and Loss Statements with Cash Flow Forecasts 💸

We’ve written about the difference between cash flow forecasts and financial forecasts because this is something that regularly get people confused. This is one of the biggest forecasting mistakes founders regularly make. It’s really important that you’re able to understand the difference. Cash flow forecasts track money coming in and out of your business. Financial forecasts typically refer to a 3-part collection of documents; the cash flow forecast, the company’s income statement, and the balance sheet. Confusing cash flow forecasts with financial statements often results in founders failing to understand what a great tool cash flow forecasts can be.

4. Focusing on Profits and Ignoring Cash Flow 🧮

Many founders fail to extrapolate their numbers past expected profits. As a result, the cash flow forecasts are overlooked, and these are a fundamental tool to understanding your financial status. When you take the time to map out your cash flow projections for the foreseeable future, you will be able to identify and plan for periods of cash shortages. Most businesses will encounter them in some form or another and its vital you’re prepared to handle them when they hit. Cash flow is vital to your business. For example, you can use your cash flow projections to identify months where your growth may be forced to pause as you cover your basic costs.

Investors value cash flow forecasts (we’ve explored the 8 actions you need to take to secure an investor here) and as a business owner, you will too.

5. Creating Generic Forecasts for All Audiences 📢

Your financial forecasts need to deliver different levels of detail to each member of your audience. As the business owner, you should be able to understand it all; what cash is coming and going, where your profits are coming from, how much of your product you plan on selling…the list goes on. 

Your forecasts mean different things to different people. For clients, your forecasts are all about profits. If they’re taking a chance on you and trusting that you will provide a certain service or product, they want to make sure you’re set to make profits enough to fulfil your obligations to them. For investors, their interests lie in your cash flow as well as your profits. They will need a much more granular insight into your business.

Make sure your build forecasts that are appropriate for each audience.

6. Providing Far Too Much Detail 📚

Following on from the previous point, try to find the sweet spot of the right amount of information. A finger in the air or a memo with a few scrawled numbers lack statistics to support your claims and is far too high-level. Conversely, noting expenditure down the last paper clip (believe us, we’ve seen it), may be useful to you, but actually is overkill for most investors. Going too deep into your numbers is one of the biggest forecasting mistakes you can make.

If you’re unsure about how much detail you should include, try Numberslides to see the different data we ask for when populating your financial forecasts. The numbers that you are required to fill in are a good indicator of the sort of detail you must provide.

7. Omitting Market Data 📡

Your business plan and financial forecasts may look excellent on paper, but dropping it into the thick of the market may put all your projections out of place. Make sure you get all the data you need when building your financial market. This starts with Google research and should lead you to discover people who are actually operating in the market. Talk to them. Ask for help. Many founders adopt an attitude of self-reliance, which can only get you so far. Watching founders do things in silos is painful, especially when market context then invalidates a lot of what they’ve projected.

Use Numberslides to make critical assumptions on the market and how your business will perform within it.

8. Not Knowing How Much Funding They Want 💵

You’ve drawn up your business plan, you’ve worked out your financial projections, and even done your cash flow forecasts. The next thing to figure out is, how much money do you want? Asking an investor for £200k “as an investment in your business” isn’t enough to bag the cash. You’ve got to work out where you need cash, and how much you expect you’ll need. Look at your revenue and costs, take into account your cash flow, and come up with a number that’s specific to your needs.

9. Relying on Advisors 🦜

Founders and business owners often approach advisors for help with their financial projections. Whilst financial advisors can be extremely helpful, their input is often short-lived. After a thorough investigation into your numbers, they deliver a single model for your business. As good as this may look, without the context of the market and the flexibility to move with the market, these financial projections have their limitations.

As soon as founders take this set model to a bank to enquire after a loan, or to the investor community to enquire after funding, they risk losing credibility. Why? Because financial advisors build (excellent) models for unique purposes, such as applying for a loan. Financial models that don’t answer questions that audiences are asking, will make most founders look underprepared and a bit clueless.

Regardless of how good the advisor may be, or how effective the Excel template or financial model, the results are often not a bespoke and flexible collection of forecasts. 

10. Falling Into the Black Hole That Is Excel 🕳️

Whilst we love Excel (we’re accountants and lawyers by trade, so we really mean it when we say it), we also are aware that it can present challenges. 

Excel is a software program. It is designed to be used for data management and manipulation. Excel allows users to understand trends, costs, volumes, and all kinds of statistics and outcomes. Yet most people just see Excel as a place to dump some static numbers.

Excel is not a fancy word document. Far from it. We’ve frequently seen ‘models’ created by start-up and business owners, which equate to nothing more than a list of numbers in a column. 

Investors expect spreadsheets that are functional and that speak when spoken to. They will often query the numbers and want to edit inputs, like predicted revenue, or costs; perhaps the services or suppliers’ fees.

Once a founder starts using Excel as a listing platform, it becomes a little tricky to evolve the mode into something more substantial. The other end of the spectrum, of course, is a spreadsheet that’s so diligently created, it takes a while before investors can unlock certain aspects and make their necessary tests.

Don’t fall into the black hole that is Excel.

11. Making Your Financial Forecasts Indigestible 🍝

Make sure your financial forecasts are digestible. If it’s indigestible it’s inaccessible. Remember the previous point about Excel? With hardcoded numbers, your data is safer. It’s easier to read and manipulate. However, if you’re not sure how to populate this, turn to an advisor, or better, try Numberslides. If you can give all your investors exactly the same model, correctly formatted, with clear consistency in your numbers and style, you give your investors the best possible chance to correctly interpret your forecasts. Avoid fancy formats, weird highlighted sections, and butchered tables. Focus on a clean, easy-to-read look that gives your investors the best chance to learn about your projections.

Use Numberslides to Build Your Financial Forecasts

Skip the mayhem caused by Excel malfunctions. Save time and avoid repeatedly requesting advisors to update your model to satisfy each new investor’s inquiry. With Numberslides, you can create your own financial forecasts, quickly, easily, and with support and guidance each step of the way. Our online software stores all the data that you input, and walks you through all the numbers you must include. Once you’ve put your data in, you can populate your forecasts and analyse them against the market. Our market data is live and offers a critical sensitivity analysis to give your business the best chance of success.

Build pitch-ready financial forecasts now

start building
    How to Forecast Sales to Show Growth

    How to Forecast Sales to Show Growth

    by | Guidance

    You’ve worked through the numbers and still, somehow, your sales forecast doesn’t show growth. We’ll look at the reasons why this might be happening. Then, we’ll offer a list of tips on how to forecast sales to show growth.

    What Is Growth in Sales?

    Ultimately, you want to demonstrate growing revenues and profits each year. (You’ll also want to demonstrate a well-planned cash flow). You do this by producing financial statements that predict year-on-year growth.

    Why Investors Need to See a Sales Forecast That Shows Growth

    Investors might love the idea of your business, but they’ll only ever invest if you can demonstrate good returns on their investment. Investors want reassurance that they can get their money back. The company needs to grow in value, in order for the investor to enjoy the returns when either someone new buys the company or the company goes public.

    What Happens When Your Sales Forecast Doesn’t Show Growth?

    So what’s happening that’s causing your forecasts to fall short of the growth you’d like to see?

    There are two key questions to explore when encountering a poor growth forecast.

    1. Are You Being Ambitious Enough? 🦸

    Do you have big goals, or are your predictions for profits a little low? Make sure you give yourself a chance when doing your financial forecasts. Sure, there’s no point in fabricating your numbers to something completely unattainable, but equally, you can set reasonably high targets for your profits.

    2. Are Your Goals Strategic? 🔀

    Do you have a fixed point in a longer-term (for example in 3 or 5 years) where you plan to be? Is this point arbitrary, or does it arrive at the end of an extensively thought-through plan? What happens beyond this marker? What makes this an important milestone? Sometimes the profits never materialize because your business plan is hastily re-investing assumed income on the next step of your journey.

    You Need a Long-term Strategy for Good Sales Growth

    As a founder, you need to have a plan to play the long game. In other words, you need to be able to look ahead in 3 to 5 years from now and be clear about your strategy. There’s absolutely no point in picking a number or having a lofty goal, without thinking your plans through. To build an effective long-term view of your business, you must have smaller steps built into your plan. If you don’t have an incremental view of how to grow your business, you will struggle to quantify your goals and explain the practical steps that will get you there.

    A healthy business should always be growing in some way or another.

    How to Build Your Long-term Strategy for Growth

    If you’ve fiddled with your numbers and still are hitting poor profits margins or volumes with little growth, don’t panic, there’s still hope. You can reset your business strategy to ensure your sales forecasts show growth by going back to basics with price and volume.

    • What are you selling?
    • How much are you charging for it?
    • How much are planning to sell?

    Think about our earlier points on your ambitions for the business.

    • Do you need to increase prices?
    • Perhaps you’re not being bullish enough on the volumes you plan to produce.
    • Can you increase production?

    Build Flexible Financial Forecasts to Find Your Optimum Growth Strategy

    As you try to work out your optimum business strategy, you’ll need a forecast where you can easily adjust your numbers. If you don’t have a forecast where you can toggle these variables, you won’t be able to test all your possible outcomes. Business plans, financial forecasts and cash flow forecasts are not rigid, yet our strategies to build these tools typically are. So, we created Numberslides. It’s a clever software, available online where you can add your numbers, adjust your variables and find and fix any problems in your sales forecast.

    Numberslides can help you build credible financial projections and sales forecasts that show sustainable and achievable growth. Plus, you can understand your projections and share them with future investors too.

    Start-up Business Financial Projections Explained

    Start-up Business Financial Projections Explained

    by | Guidance

    Every start-up business needs financial projections. They provide the numbers that back up your business plan. Here, we explain how start-up business financial projections work. We also look at why it’s important that you find the right solution to your financial forecasting needs.

    What Are ‘Financial Projections’?

    Financial projections are forecasts for your business’s financial health, including planned profit and growth. This could be projected over the next one, two, or five years’ time. Financial projections help you as a business owner, or start-up founder, to better understand what money (funding) you need, so you can get your business off the ground.

    Why Are Financial Projections Important?

    The two most obvious and important reasons are: 

    1. Financial projections help secure funding
    2. Financial projections help you assess the viability of your business

    1. Financial Forecasts Can Help Secure Funding 🔒

    As a general rule, start-ups need funding. Most start-ups and businesses will at some point, require an injection of cash to keep things going or to hit a milestone of self-sufficiency. There are plenty of investors looking to invest in start-ups that are changing the world. Reviewing financial forecasts, profit projections, and cash flow projections is an important part of due diligence that an investor will perform when assessing your start-up as a potential investment. Without a solid financial forecast, you will struggle to find anyone willing to invest substantial amounts of money in your idea.

    2. Financial Projections Help Assess the Viability of Your Business ✔️

    Just as investors need to see where their investment is going, so do you need to understand where your business is going. Is your business model viable? Is your market big enough? Do you need more cash? Are you able to deliver a sizable return on investment, or is your idea not really ready for the market yet? Financial projections force you to look at the numbers of your business and check that it all makes sense.

    What Are the Challenges with Start-up Business Financial Projections?

    From overwhelming financial terminology to hours of endless model adjustments, building start-up business financial projections can present a range of challenges. Here are our top three relatable hurdles that many entrepreneurs have faced.

    Figuring Out Start-up Business Financial Projections Can Be Scary

    Trying to work out if your business idea is good or not can be pretty intimidating. Trying to assess if your existing business is going to be profitable in the following years can be downright scary. Financial projections are often fiddly to produce and a nightmare to understand.

    As a founder of a start-up or owner of a business, you may be an expert of a particular field and have extensive knowledge that you can bring to your business. However, just because you are starting, or running, a business, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be good with numbers. We’ve worked with plenty of brilliant founders who are anxious about the economics of their business and have absolutely no clue about how to manage their accounting. This is normal, but what happens next?

    Getting Financial Projections for Your Business Can Be Costly

    Few founders or business owners have the money to bring in a team of colleagues or consultants to assist with the financial modelling or management of the business. That means that you, as the CEO, are left without team members, experts or even a CFO (Chief Financial Officer) to guide you on the finances of your business. It’s your responsibility to count every penny coming in and out of your business. It’s your responsibility to know when cash will be available to spend, and when salaries or supplier’s bills need to be paid.

    Constantly Adjusting Financial Forecasts Can Be Time Consuming

    Financial forecasts aren’t set in stone. They are a snapshot of your financial intentions, in some future time. They are vulnerable to the ever-changing market conditions, and the multitude of changes and challenges that your business will face. As a result, you need to be able to adjust your financial projections regularly. The Excel template that you’ve found won’t always allow you to do so, and the advisor you’d like to use will most likely have to start again on your financial model to give you the most accurate up-to-date projections.

    We, at Numberslides, are accountants and lawyers by trade, so trust us when we say we’ve seen some truly beautiful spreadsheets in our time. We’ve found that very many founders and business owners become consumed and overwhelmed with their spreadsheets. There are so many variables that can affect your business plans. A simple late payment in or out can really knock your projections sideways. 

    Start-up Business Financial Projections Are Different from Established Business Projections

    If you’re a founder with a start-up, your business financial projections are probably going to be created from scratch whilst if you an established business, you will have some operating data – how much money you have made and spent which you can then project forward. Sure, there are templates and other business models you may wish to copy, but your business is unique. This means your path to profits and financial projections won’t be the same, even if you’re one of 1,000 cafes in Manchester. The challenge for start-ups is taking a blank template and building your financial projections from nothing. Established businesses are fortunate in that they are able to reflect on previous years of business and use their financial history as templates to build next year’s projections.

    If you’re building a financial projection for your start-up, then without any historic data, you’ve got to go to the fundamentals of your business. 

    Key questions you’ve got to answer include:

    1. What is driving your revenue?
    2. How do different aspects of your business build into the revenue?
    3. Does your market exist? If so, how big is the size of the market?
    4. Can you take a part of that market? Are you able to meet an existing or slightly new need?
    5. What’s your cash shortfall from day one to the day you make money? 
    6. How are you going to manage your cash shortfall? Do you need a loan? An investor?

    Once you start to explore your financial projections, you should realise that financial forecasts are not a check box exercise. Instead, they are the first step in a long path to securing funding, launching your business, finding your first customers, and eventually making a profit to sustain your business.

    Use Numberslides for Your Start-up Business Financial Projections

    Numberslides offers an inclusive platform where you can add your numbers and build your own financial forecasts yourself. The software is coded to be simple and straightforward. You simply fill in the boxes, adjust a few details, and our platform generates the reports you need to understand your business’s finances. You can also learn the meaning behind the jargon as you work through your model, and go back and make changes to your numbers if your end result isn’t what you expected. For a founder starting on a blank slate, Numberslides is perfect for building your start-up business financial projections and taking your business plan from zero to one.