Why Cash Is King
A cashflow forecast is a plan that shows how much money you expect your business to receive and pay out over a set period of time. They’re a crucial tool for businesses because they enable you to:
- Identify potential shortfalls in cash balances – for example, if the forecast shows a negative cash balance then the business needs to ensure it has a sufficient bank overdraft facility
- See whether the trading performance of the business (revenues, costs and profits) turns into cash
- Analyse whether the business is achieving the financial objectives set out in the business plan
We won’t have time to look at a detailed cashflow forecast on this 3-day experience, so we’ll be focusing on the basics of cashflow – the money that flows in and out of your business (shown as ‘Cost Structures’ and ‘Revenue Streams’ on the business model canvas).
Pitching
A pitch is delivering a business plan verbally.
A pitch typically takes the form of an entrepreneur or group of entrepreneurs presenting or describing their ideas to prospective investors to persuade them to invest in their business.
In today’s session, you’ll look at two different types of pitches…
Investor / Business Pitches
Take a look at the below video from Dragon’s Den. What do you notice about the content of the pitch, and how they deliver it? Use the checklist below to identify how many of these key points they touch on.
| 1. Introduction: Should have your logo, business name and tagline. |
| 2. Summary: Summarize all the information before you present it. |
| 3. Team: List your team. Investors are not putting money in just for your idea, they are investing in your team as well. |
| 4. Problem: You need to be able to explain the problem your concept is going to solve. |
| 5. Solution: This should solve the problem you just mentioned |
| 6. Marketing / Sales: Show the market size for your product, this includes target customers and any sales you already have made (if any). |
| 7. Projections or Milestones: If you don’t have financial history your projections are really an educated guess. Include milestones you have already reached (if any). |
| 8. Competition: List your competition and why your product/service is different from their model. |
| 9. Business Model: Tell the panel how you plan on generating revenue. |
| 10. Financing: If you have raised money talk about how much, who invested and what you did. If you have not, mention your accomplishments with minimal funding or if you have yet to launch, how you would use the grant if you were to win. Mention any personal investment as well. |