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Table of Contents
Starting a Business For Dummies®, 3rd Edition
Introduction
Chapter 1: Preparing for Business
Chapter 2: Doing the Groundwork
Chapter 3: Can You Do the Business?
Chapter 4: Testing Feasibility
Chapter 5: Structuring Your Business
Chapter 6: Preparing the Business Plan
Chapter 7: Getting Help
Chapter 8: Finding the Money
Chapter 9: Considering Your Mission
Chapter 10: Marketing Your Wares
Chapter 11: Employing People
Chapter 12: Operating Effectively
Chapter 13: Keeping Track of Finances
Chapter 14: Managing Your Tax Position
Chapter 15: Doing Business Online
Chapter 16: Improving Performance
Chapter 17: Exploring Strategies for Growth
Chapter 18: Becoming a Great Manager
Chapter 19: Ten Pitfalls to Avoid
Chapter 20: Ten People to Talk to Before You Start
Chapter 21: Ten Ways to Cut Costs
Chapter 22: Ten Steps to Prepare to Move On
Business Plans For Dummies
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Starting Your Business Plan
Chapter 2: Charting the Proper Course
Chapter 3: Setting Off in the Right Direction
Chapter 4: Checking Out the Business Environment
Chapter 5: Taking a Closer Look at Customers
Chapter 6: Dividing Customers into Groups
Chapter 7: Scoping Out Your Competition
Chapter 8: Establishing Your Starting Position
Chapter 9: Focusing On What You Do Best
Chapter 10: Figuring Out Financials
Chapter 11: Forecasting and Budgeting
Chapter 12: Preparing for Change
Chapter 13: Thinking Strategically
Chapter 14: Managing More than One Product
Chapter 15: Planning in Turbulent Economic Times
Chapter 16: Making Your Business Plan Work
Chapter 17: Learning from Others: A Sample Business Plan
Chapter 18: Ten Questions to Ask About Your Plan
Chapter 19: Top Ten Business-Planning Never-Evers
Understanding Business Accounting For Dummies
Chapter 1: Introducing Accounting to Non-Accountants
Chapter 2: Bookkeeping 101: From Shoe Boxes to
Computers
Chapter 3: Taxes, Taxes and More Taxes
Chapter 4: Accounting and Your Personal Finances
Chapter 5: Profit Mechanics
Chapter 6: The Balance Sheet from the Profit and Loss
Account Viewpoint
Chapter 7: Cash Flows and the Cash Flow Statement
Chapter 8: Getting a Financial Report Ready for Prime Time
Chapter 9: Managing Profit Performance
Chapter 10: Business Budgeting
Chapter 11: Choosing the Right Ownership Structure
Chapter 12: Cost Conundrums
Chapter 13: Choosing Accounting Methods
Chapter 14: How Investors Read a Financial Report
Chapter 15: Professional Auditors and Advisers
Chapter 16: Ten Ways Savvy Business Managers Use
Accounting
Chapter 17: Ten Places a Business Gets Money From
Chapter 18: Ten (Plus One) Questions Investors Should Ask
When Reading a Financial Report
Chapter 19: Ten Ways to Get a Better Handle on the
Financial Future
Appendix A: Glossary: Slashing through the Accounting
Jargon Jungle
Appendix B: Accounting Software and Other Ways to Get
the Books in Good Order
Business Plans For Dummies®, 3rd Edition
Introduction
Why You Need This Book
How to Use This Book
How This Book Is Organised
Part I: Determining Where You Want to Go
Part II: Sizing Up Your Marketplace
Part III: Weighing Up Your Company’s Prospects
Part IV: Looking to the Future
Part V: A Planner’s Toolkit
Part VI: The Part of Tens
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Part I: Determining Where You Want to Go
Chapter 1: Starting Your Business Plan
Getting the Most Out of Your Plan
Looking to the future
Accounting for your history
Anticipating your different audiences
Putting Your Plan on Paper
Executive summary
Company overview
Business environment
Company description
Business strategy
Financial review
Action plan
Chapter 2: Charting the Proper Course
Developing Your Company’s Vision Statement
Thinking big
Using the power of passion
Building a brand
Creating Your Company’s Mission Statement
Getting started
Defining your business (in 50 words or less)
Introducing Goals and Objectives
Using goals to manage the plan
Looking at goals versus objectives
Setting Your Own Goals and Objectives
Guidelines for setting goals
Guidelines for setting objectives
Getting it right
Avoiding the pitfalls
Stretching for targets
Timing is everything
Chapter 3: Setting Off in the Right Direction
Wondering Why Values Matter
Looking at tough choices
Avoiding being lost and unprepared
Valuing having values
Identifying Your Organisation’s Values
Thinking about investors
Considering the rest of the crew
Existing beliefs and principles
Putting Together the Values Statement
Developing a values statement
Preparing a values statement – the full Monty
Part II: Sizing Up Your Marketplace
Chapter 4: Checking Out the Business Environment
Defining the Business That You’re In
Analysing Your Industry
Structure
Markets
Relationships
Finance
Researching Your Market
Establishing your knowledge gaps
Carrying out desk research
Getting into the field
Using the Internet – wisely
Recognising Critical Success Factors
Technology
Manufacturing
Operations
Human resources
Organisation
Services
Location
Marketing
Distribution
Government regulation
Outsourcing
Preparing for Opportunities and Threats
It’s a beautiful morning
Dark clouds on the horizon
Chapter 5: Taking a Closer Look at Customers
Checking Out Who Your Customers Are
The good customer
The bad customer
The other guy’s customer
Discovering Why Your Customers Buy
Understanding needs
Determining motives
Monitoring complaints
Finding Out How Your Customers Make Choices
Realising that perceptions are reality
Finding the five steps to adoption
Remembering the Big Picture
Dealing with Business Customers
Sizing up secondhand demand
Thinking of decision making as a formal affair
Judging the forces to be reckoned with
Chapter 6: Dividing Customers into Groups
Defining Market Segments
Ways to Make Market Segments
Looking at who is buying
Looking at what they buy
Wondering why they buy
Finding Useful Market Segments
Is the segment the right size?
Can customers be identified?
Can the market be reached?
Chapter 7: Scoping Out Your Competition
Understanding the Value of Competitors
Identifying Your Real Competitors
Competition based on customer choice
Competition based on product use
Competition based on strategy
Competition in the future
Predicting Your Competitors’ Moves
Figuring out their goals
Uncovering their assumptions
Competing to Win
Organising facts and figures
Choosing your battles
Part III: Weighing Up Your Company’s Prospects
Chapter 8: Establishing Your Starting Position
Sizing Up Situation Analysis
Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses
Finding your frames of reference
Counting up your capabilities and resources
Coming up with critical success factors
Analysing Your Situation in 3-D
Taking a glance at competitors
Completing your SWOT analysis
Measuring Market Share
Chapter 9: Focusing On What You Do Best
Describing What You Do
Constructing a typical value chain
Comparing different value chains
Forging your own value chain
Staying in Business
Searching for competitive advantage
Focusing on core competence
Sustaining an advantage over time
Earmarking Resources
Chapter 10: Figuring Out Financials
Understanding a Profit and Loss Account
Revenue
Costs
Profit
Margins matter
Building the Balance Sheet
Settling on layout
Assets
Liabilities and owners’ equity
Examining the Cash-Flow Statement
Cash in and cash out
What’s left over
Evaluating Financial Ratios
Short-term obligations
Long-term responsibilities
Relative profitability
Understanding Break-Even
Chapter 11: Forecasting and Budgeting
Constructing a Financial Forecast
Pondering the pro-forma profit and loss account
Looking at the estimated balance sheet
Projecting cash flow
Exploring Alternatives
Using the DuPont formula
Exploring the what-if analysis
Making a Budget
Wondering what’s in the budget
Discovering how budgets are made
Using ratios to improve your budget
Analysing variances
Flexing your budget
Budgeting for capital expenditure
Deducing payback
Discounting cash flow
Calculating the internal rate of return
Part IV: Looking to the Future
Chapter 12: Preparing for Change
Defining the Dimensions of Change
Looking at economic trends
Taking heed of technological trends
Poring over political trends
Considering cultural trends
Anticipating Change
Trying out trend forecasting
Seeking out scenario planning
Looking at demographic time bombs
Doing a PEST analysis
Assessing the Effects of Change
Rolling the dice
Winning or losing
Chapter 13: Thinking Strategically
Making Strategy Make a Difference
Thinking what strategy means
Wondering when strategy works
Applying Off-the-Shelf Strategies
Learning low-cost leadership
Standing out in a crowd
Focusing on focus
Checking Out Strategic Alternatives
Going up, down, or sideways
Leading and following
Looking at the Marketing Mix
Coming Up with Your Own Strategy
Chapter 14: Managing More than One Product
Facing the Product/Service Life Cycle
Starting out
Growing up
Coping with middle age
Facing the senior stretch
Judging where you are now
Milking cash cows
Finding Ways to Grow
Same product/service, same market
New market or new product
New product and new market
Understanding the adoption cycle
Protecting intellectual property
Managing Your Product Portfolio
Looking at strategic business units
Aiming for the stars
Looking strong and attractive
Hastening slowly
Extending Your E-Penetration
Buying Out Competitors
Knowing why you want to buy
Investigating and approaching
Valuing the business
Limiting the risks
Part V: A Planner’s Toolkit
Chapter 15: Planning in Turbulent Economic Times
Cycles and the Multiplier Effect
Downturns galore
Cycles are different
Anticipating trouble
Preparing for the Worst
Deleveraging balance sheets
Containing working capital
Pricing under pressure
Maintaining market share
Conserving cash
Keeping key employees
Selling off assets
Preparing for the Upturn
Acquiring competitors
Planning short term for the long term
Chapter 16: Making Your Business Plan Work
Shaping Your Company
Living the plan
Putting together an organisation
Developing procedures
Preparing Your People
Encouraging leadership
Developing skills
Creating a culture
Building a team
Rewarding results
Assembling your finances
Planning for the exit
Chapter 17: Learning from Others: A Sample Business Plan
Safari Europe: Business Plan
Part VI: The Part of Tens
Chapter 18: Ten Questions to Ask About Your Plan
Are Your Goals Tied to Your Mission?
Can You Point to Major Opportunities?
Have You Prepared for Threats?
Have You Defined Your Customers?
Can You Track Your Competitors?
Where Are You Strong (and Weak)?
Does Your Strategy Make Sense?
Can You Stand Behind the Numbers?
Are You Really Ready for Change?
Is Your Plan Clear, Concise and Current?
Chapter 19: Top Ten Business-Planning Never-Evers
Failing to Plan in the First Place
Missing Out on Assumptions
External assumptions
Internal assumptions
Second-Guessing the Customer
Underestimating Your Competition
Ignoring Your Own Strengths
Mistaking a Budget for a Plan
Shying Away from Reasonable Risk
Allowing One Person to Dominate the Plan
Being Afraid to Change
Forgetting to Motivate and Reward
Cheat Sheet
Understanding Business Accounting For Dummies®
Introduction
About This Book
Conventions Used in Financial Reports
Foolish Assumptions
How This Book Is Organised
Part I: Accounting Basics
Part II: Getting a Grip on Financial Statements
Part III: Accounting in Managing a Business
Part IV: Financial Reports in the Outside World
Part V: The Part of Tens
Part VI: Appendixes
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Part I: Accounting Basics
Chapter 1: Introducing Accounting to Non-Accountants
Accounting Everywhere You Look
The Basic Elements of Accounting
Accounting and Financial Reporting Standards
The emergence of international financial reporting
standards (IFRS)
Why accounting rules are important
Income tax and accounting rules
Flexibility in accounting standards
Enforcing Accounting Rules
Protecting investors: Sarbanes-Oxley and beyond
The Accounting Department: What Goes On in the Back
Office
Focusing on Business Transactions and Other Financial
Events
Taking a Closer Look at Financial Statements
The balance sheet
The profit and loss account
The cash flow statement
Accounting as a Career
Chartered accountant (CA)
The financial controller: The chief accountant in an
organisation
Accounting branches: Treasury, tax and audit
Chapter 2: Bookkeeping 101: From Shoe Boxes to Computers
Bookkeeping versus Accounting
Pedalling through the Bookkeeping Cycle
Managing the Bookkeeping and Accounting System
Categorise your financial information: The chart of
accounts
Standardise source document forms and procedures
Don’t be penny-wise and pound-foolish: The need for
competent, trained personnel
Protect the family jewels: Internal controls
Keep the scales in balance with double-entry
accounting
Check your figures: End-of-period procedures checklist
Keep good records: Happy audit trails to you!
Look out for unusual events and developments
Design truly useful accounting reports for managers
Double-Entry Accounting for Non-Accountants
The two-sided nature of a business entity and its
activities
Recording transactions using debits and credits
Making Sure the Books Don’t Get Cooked
Chapter 3: Taxes, Taxes and More Taxes
Taxing Wages and Property
Putting the government on the payroll: Employer taxes
Taxing everything you can put your hands on: Property
taxes
Working from home
Getting to Grips with Value Added Tax
Taxing Your Bottom Line: Company Taxes
Different tax rates on different levels of business
taxable income
Profit accounting and taxable income accounting
Deductible expenses
Non-deductible expenses
Equity capital disguised as debt
Chapter 4: Accounting and Your Personal Finances
The Accounting Vice You Can’t Escape
The Ins and Outs of Figuring Interest and Return on
Investment (ROI)
Individuals as borrowers
Individuals as savers
Individuals as investors
An Accounting Template for Retirement Planning
Part II: Getting a Grip on Financial Statements
Chapter 5: Profit Mechanics
Swooping Profit into One Basic Equation
Measuring the Financial Effects of Profit-Making Activities
Preparing the balance sheet equation
Exploring the Profit-Making Process One Step at a Time
Making sales on credit
Depreciation expense
Unpaid expenses
Prepaid expenses
Stock (or Inventory) and cost of goods sold expense
So Where’s Your Hard-Earned Profit?
Reporting Profit to Managers and Investors: The Profit and
Loss Account
Reporting normal, ongoing profit-making operations
Reporting unusual gains and losses
Putting the profit and loss account in perspective
Chapter 6: The Balance Sheet from the Profit and Loss Account
Viewpoint
Coupling the Profit and Loss Account with the Balance
Sheet
Sizing Up Assets and Liabilities
Sales revenue and debtors
Cost of goods sold expense and stock
SA and G expenses and the four balance sheet accounts
that are connected with the expenses
Fixed assets and depreciation expense
Debt and interest expense
Income tax expense
The bottom line: net profit (net income) and cash
dividends (if any)
Financing a Business: Owners’ Equity and Debt
Reporting Financial Condition: The Classified Balance
Sheet
Current (short-term) assets
Current (short-term) liabilities
Costs and Other Balance Sheet Values
Growing Up
Chapter 7: Cash Flows and the Cash Flow Statement
The Three Types of Cash Flow
Setting the Stage: Changes in Balance Sheet Accounts
Getting at the Cash Increase from Profit
Getting specific about changes in assets and liabilities
Presenting the Cash Flow Statement
A better alternative for reporting cash flow from profit?
Sailing through the Rest of the Cash Flow Statement
Investing activities
Financing activities
Free Cash Flow: What on Earth Does That Mean?
Scrutinising the Cash Flow Statement
Chapter 8: Getting a Financial Report Ready for Prime Time
Reviewing Vital Connections
Statement of Changes in Owners’ Equity and
Comprehensive Income
Making Sure that Disclosure Is Adequate
Types of disclosures in financial reports
Footnotes: Nettlesome but needed
Other disclosures in financial reports
Keeping It Private versus Going Public
Nudging the Numbers
Fluffing up the cash balance by ‘window dressing’
Smoothing the rough edges off profit
Sticking to the accounting conventions
Browsing versus Reading Financial Reports
Part III: Accounting in Managing a Business
Chapter 9: Managing Profit Performance
Redesigning the External Profit and Loss Account
Basic Model for Management Profit and Loss Account
Variable versus fixed operating expenses
From operating profit (EBIT) to the bottom line
Travelling Two Trails to Profit
First path to profit: Contribution margin minus fixed
expenses
Second path to profit: Excess over break-even volume
× contribution margin per unit
Calculating the margin of safety
Doing What-If Analysis
Lower profit from lower sales – but that much lower?
Violent profit swings due to operating leverage
Cutting sales price, even a little, can gut profit
Improving profit
Cutting prices to increase sales volume: A very tricky
game to play!
Cash flow from improving profit margin versus
improving sales volume
A Final Word or Two
Chapter 10: Business Budgeting
The Reasons for Budgeting
The modelling reasons for budgeting
Planning reasons for budgeting
Management control reasons for budgeting
Other benefits of budgeting
Budgeting and Management Accounting
Budgeting in Action
Developing your profit strategy and budgeted profit
and loss account
Budgeting cash flow from profit for the coming year
Capital Budgeting
Deducing payback
Discounting cash flow
Calculating the internal rate of return
Arriving at the cost of capital
Reporting On Variances
Flexing your budget
Staying Flexible with Budgets
Chapter 11: Choosing the Right Ownership Structure
From the Top Line to the Bottom Line
What Owners Expect for Their Money
Companies
Partnerships and limited partnerships
Sole proprietorships
Limited companies (Ltd) and public limited companies
(plc)
Choosing the Right Legal Structure for Tax Purposes
Companies
Partnerships, limited liability partnerships and sole
proprietorships
Deciding which legal structure is best
Chapter 12: Cost Conundrums
Previewing What’s Coming Down the Road
What Makes Cost So Important?
Sharpening Your Sensitivity to Costs
Direct versus indirect costs
Fixed versus variable costs
Breaking even
Relevant versus irrelevant (sunk) costs
Separating between actual, budgeted and standard costs
Product versus period costs
Putting Together the Pieces of Product Cost for
Manufacturers
Minding manufacturing costs
Allocating costs properly: Not easy!
Calculating product cost
Fixed manufacturing costs and production capacity
Excessive production output for puffing up profit
A View from the Top Regarding Costs
Chapter 13: Choosing Accounting Methods
Decision-Making Behind the Scenes in Profit and Loss
Accounts
Calculating Cost of Goods Sold and Cost of Stock
The FIFO method
The LIFO method
The average cost method
Identifying Stock Losses: Net Realisable Value (NRV)
Managing Your Stock Position
Appreciating Depreciation Methods
Collecting or Writing Off Bad Debts
Reconciling Corporation Tax
Dealing With Foreign Exchange
Transaction exposure
Translation exposure
Comparing performance
Two Final Issues to Consider
Part IV: Financial Reports in the Outside World
Chapter 14: How Investors Read a Financial Report
Financial Reporting by Private versus Public Businesses
Analysing Financial Reports with Ratios
Gross margin ratio
Profit ratio
Earnings per share, basic and diluted
Price/earnings (P/E) ratio
Dividend yield
Book value per share
Return on equity (ROE) ratio
Gearing or leverage
Current ratio
Acid-test ratio
Keeping track of stock and debtor levels
Return on assets (ROA) ratio
Using combined ratios
Appreciating the limits of ratios
Frolicking through the Footnotes
Checking for Ominous Skies on the Audit Report
Finding Financial Facts
Public company accounts
Private company accounts
Scoring credit
Using FAME (Financial Analysis Made Easy)
Chapter 15: Professional Auditors and Advisers
Why Audits?
Who’s Who in the World of Audits
What an Auditor Does before Giving an Opinion
What’s in an Auditor’s Report
True and fair, a clean opinion
Other kinds of audit opinions
Do Audits Always Catch Fraud?
Looking for errors and fraud
What happens when auditors spot fraud
Auditors and the Rules
From Audits to Advising
Part V: The Part of Tens
Chapter 16: Ten Ways Savvy Business Managers Use
Accounting
Make Better Profit Decisions
Understand That a Small Sales Volume Change Has a Big
Effect on Profit
Fathom Profit and Cash Flow from Profit
Profit accounting methods are like hemlines
The real stuff of profit
Govern Cash Flow Better
Call the Shots on Your Management Accounting Methods
Build Better Budgets
Optimise Capital Structure and Financial Leverage
Develop Better Financial Controls
Minimise Tax
Explain Your Financial Statements to Others
Chapter 17: Ten Places a Business Gets Money From
Stock Markets
Private Equity
Business Angels
Corporate Venture Funds
Banks
Bonds, Debentures and Mortgages
Leasing and Hire-Purchase
Factoring and Invoice Discounting
Grants, Incentives and Competitions
Using the Pension Fund
Chapter 18: Ten (Plus One) Questions Investors Should Ask
When Reading a Financial Report
Did Sales Grow?
Did the Profit Ratios Hold?
Were There Any Unusual or Extraordinary Gains or Losses?
Did Earnings Per Share Keep Up with Profit?
Did the Profit Increase Generate a Cash Flow Increase?
Are Increases in Assets and Liabilities Consistent with the
Business’s Growth?
Can the Business Pay Its Liabilities?
Are There Any Unusual Assets and Liabilities?
How Well Are Assets Being Utilised?
What Is the Return on Capital Investment?
What Does the Auditor Say?
Chapter 19: Ten Ways to Get a Better Handle on the Financial
Future
Sales Forecasts versus Sales Objectives
Dealing with Demand Curves
Maths Matters
Averaging Out Averages
Looking for Causes
Straddling Cycles
Surveying Future Trends
Talking To The Troops
Setting Out Assumptions
Making Regular Revisions
Part VI: Appendixes
Appendix A: Glossary: Slashing through the Accounting Jargon
Jungle
Appendix B: Accounting Software and Other Ways to Get the
Books in Good Order
Sourcing accounting and bookkeeping software
Cheat Sheet
Bookscreen
