Business plan template: what to write for an Irish allowance, grant or loan

What each funder asks for

Citizens Information says there is no standard format for a business plan, and that each bank or support body may have its own template. These are the published requirements of the four you are most likely to meet.

A business plan outline you can use

This outline covers the questions all four ask. Write a short plan for a small business. Credit Review says a simple microenterprise needs a simple business case.

1. Summary. One page, written last. What the business is, who owns it, what you are asking for and why it will work.
2. You and the business. Your name, the business name and the legal structure: sole trader, partnership or company. Where you will trade and when you start. Your experience, training and any earlier self-employment. Microfinance Ireland and the banks both ask about your track record.
3. What you sell. Each product or service, and its price.
4. The market. Who your customers are. The research you have done. Who your competitors are and how you differ from them. If there are already businesses like yours nearby, say why there is room for one more. The Department of Social Protection checks for exactly that.
5. How you will operate. Premises, equipment, suppliers and staff. The licences, registrations and insurance your kind of business needs, and where you are with each.
6. Marketing and sales. How customers will find you, and what that will cost.
7. Start-up costs and where the money comes from. Every cost, with quotes. Then every source: your own money, family, a loan, a grant. Microfinance Ireland's form has a table for this.
8. Financial forecasts. A cashflow for the next 12 months, month by month, with a note of how you worked out each figure. A Local Enterprise Office also wants a profit and loss forecast and a balance sheet.
9. Appendices. CVs, quotes, bank statements, accounts if you are already trading, and a tax clearance certificate if you have one.

Part 8 is where the figures have to add up. We show how to build the 12-month cashflow, row by row.

For an enterprise allowance: what the Department looks for

Both enterprise allowances are decided on the business plan. The Department of Social Protection's guidelines set a minimum for it, and it is nearly the same for both:

• a full description of the business idea, including how and where you will trade
• a business cashflow. The guidelines name public liability insurance, rent, business rates, stock and equipment as typical outgoings
• an answer to any concern your Employment Personal Adviser has raised, such as taking trade unfairly from local competitors, or a local market that is already crowded
• for the Short-Term Enterprise Allowance, how the business will comply with all statutory requirements

The plan has to show that the business is viable, can last and will trade all year round. Seasonal or part-time self-employment is not accepted.

Do not count the allowance as business income. The guidelines say so for both schemes. If you want the Enterprise Support Grant too, the costs you want help with have to be in the plan.

The two schemes handle the plan differently. For the 9-month allowance for people on Jobseeker's Benefit, help from a Local Development Company is optional. For the longer allowance for people who have been on a jobseeker's payment for 9 months, you are referred to one. Its Enterprise Officer helps you prepare the plan, and it goes in with a 1-year financial projection and proof that you completed a Start Your Own Business course.

For Microfinance Ireland: Part 3 of the form

Microfinance Ireland does not ask for a separate document. Part 3 of its loan application form is headed "Your Business Plan". It asks for:

• what the business does, how long it has been trading and your experience in the sector
• your products or services, your customers and your key suppliers
• any key employee the business depends on
• the market research you have done to show there is a market
• who your competitors are, and how you will be different
• how the loan will be used
• your own background: education, skills, training and work experience

Part 2 of the form has a table of where all the money is coming from: your own funds, family, other investors, a bank loan, grants and the loan itself. It sits beside what you plan to spend.

For loans of €5,000 or more you also send a cashflow for the next 12 months. See Microfinance Ireland's rates, limits and rules.

For a Local Enterprise Office

Local Enterprise Offices publish their own templates. Dublin City's has seven sections: executive summary, introduction, market, market strategy, organisation and management, production and operations, and costings and finance. Its appendices hold financial projections for the first two years (profit and loss, cashflow and balance sheet), the promoters' CVs, an equipment schedule and a tax clearance certificate. South Dublin's template has ten headings, including a sales pipeline and funding requirements, and comes with a spreadsheet for the forecasts.

With a grant application, Dublin City asks for CVs, three written quotes for each item over €5,000 and one for cheaper items, recent accounts, 3 years of projections and an up-to-date tax clearance certificate.

Be realistic about the grants themselves. The start-up grant that Local Enterprise Offices give to manufacturers and exporters is closed to most shops, cafes and trades. The templates, training and mentoring are open to everyone.

For a bank

Credit Review, the State body that reviews bank refusals, publishes a guide to applying for a business loan. It starts with one question: can the business generate enough cash to repay the loan over the term? It says not to approach a bank until you can answer yes.

Its suggested headings add several things to the outline above:

• how many days of credit you give your customers, and how many your suppliers give you
• your business assets, including stock and money owed to you
• every loan you already have: the lender, the amount outstanding, the term left and any security
• for an asset purchase, the price, how much of it the bank is being asked to finance, and the extra cash the asset will bring in
• how much you want to borrow, and for how long

Credit Review says a bank will normally want around 30% of the funding to come from you, and will normally finance no more than 70% of an asset. Banks also ask for a tax clearance certificate.

What weakens a plan

• Figures with no working shown. Microfinance Ireland asks you to explain how you calculated your sales, purchases and staff costs. Credit Review asks for the assumptions behind your projections.
• Sales that start too fast. Microfinance Ireland's cashflow template warns that sales may not commence immediately, and that a business may be seasonal.
• Costs left out. The ones funders name are insurance, rates, replacing stock, your own drawings, VAT and the repayments on the loan you are asking for.
• A plan that does not match the application. A cost you want grant help with must already be in the plan.

Common questions

Keep reading

• the enterprise allowance plan in more detail, with the two reviews
• the plan boxes inside the Microfinance Ireland form