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Business Plan

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    Business Plan

    I need to put together a Business Plan to send off to the VAT office before i can get my number (another loop). Never written one before so was wondering if there are any recommendations out there for sections i should have in my plan.

    My accountant suggested the following
    Overview of the Company and what line of work it is to provide
    Overview of the Director and experience of any other staff employed
    12 month Plan
    5 year plan.

    Now i'm ok with the first 2 but 12 month plan is simple to make money and 5 year plan is to continue to make money. But i think in a plan you put a lot more into it.
    Thats the way the cookie crumbles

    #2
    Never had to do one of these...is this the norm or have I missed something?

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by angusglover
      Never had to do one of these...is this the norm or have I missed something?
      VAT office have asked for it before they continue with my registration. Accountant thinks it is simply just to prove that you are for real
      Thats the way the cookie crumbles

      Comment


        #4
        Never heard of that before. You usually have to send a copy of a contract you have signed or an invoice etc.

        I sent a copy of the invoices MyCo received for flyers, business cards etc and one of the flyers. They were fine with that.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by Cooperinliverp00l
          I need to put together a Business Plan to send off to the VAT office before i can get my number (another loop). Never written one before so was wondering if there are any recommendations out there for sections i should have in my plan.

          My accountant suggested the following
          Overview of the Company and what line of work it is to provide
          Overview of the Director and experience of any other staff employed
          12 month Plan
          5 year plan.

          Now i'm ok with the first 2 but 12 month plan is simple to make money and 5 year plan is to continue to make money. But i think in a plan you put a lot more into it.
          That's crazy. I applied for my VAT number in February and got the number, no problem.

          I've written business plans before (but not for my own co.)

          I think part of the difficulty you may be having is that there's no reason why the VAT people would want it. Imagine that you've asked the bank for a 30k loan and they want a business plan.

          As well as what you have above, I'd include:

          Your planned pricing against the market
          Projected sales
          Projection of income, expenditure (including start up costs and wages), and profit.
          Estimates of sales required to break even.
          High level risks (e.g. your illness) and mitigation
          All over the first year only.

          It sounds like a right pain (and it is) but if you do it in a way that makes sense to you, you might even get something out of it yourself. Having said that, I wouldn't bother writing one myself unless I had to - that's one of the reasons I took up contracting. Good luck.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Cooperinliverp00l
            I need to put together a Business Plan to send off to the VAT office before i can get my number (another loop). Never written one before so was wondering if there are any recommendations out there for sections i should have in my plan.
            I believe that you can register for VAT without having any coherent business plan. However HMRC are probably asking for this to avoid giving VAT Reg Nos to people doing EU carousel fraud.

            I didn't have to provide a business plan, but I did have to answer a question about how the Ltd Co Reg Address seemed to be a residential address, and how was this consistent with running a business? I just told them.
            God made men. Sam Colt made them equal.

            Comment


              #7
              So if the excise man issues a VAT number then it must mean that at least one part of the HMRC believes that you are a ‘proper business’. Do I smell an IR35 defence here? (Not that I care anymore)
              Drivel is my speciality

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Buffoon
                So if the excise man issues a VAT number then it must mean that at least one part of the HMRC believes that you are a ‘proper business’. Do I smell an IR35 defence here? (Not that I care anymore)
                No, it doesn't mean that at all. There are no qualifications for being VAT-registered. (Anyway, re IR35 it has been told to death that being a business/employee/whatever for one purpose has no bearing on another).

                No, they do not "grant" you a VAT reg. no. You don't have to qualify in any way.
                God made men. Sam Colt made them equal.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Old Greg
                  ....It sounds like a right pain (and it is) but if you do it in a way that makes sense to you, you might even get something out of it yourself...
                  he's not wrong. why would you not want to create a business plan and keep it going even if not prompted by the vat man? makes perfect sense to me.

                  i like to be able predict and monitor the fiscal future of my company so i have a simple spreadsheet that has four sections in an extending timeline: invoicing, outgoing, incoming and balance. with predicted and actual versions i can track expected and achieved and then monitor and adjust as necessary. i think it helps to know where you expect to end up and whether or not you will achieve it.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Cooperinliverp00l
                    VAT office have asked for it before they continue with my registration. Accountant thinks it is simply just to prove that you are for real
                    When my co went for VAT registration a couple of years ago they asked for evidence but gave a long list of things (of which business plan was one), any of which would be acceptable as evidence of intention to trade.

                    In the end I sent them copies of a couple of invoices for stuff that the company had bought and they were perfectly happy with that. Obviously the invoice has to be to your company not yourself.

                    Comment

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