MODULE 3b

1. Business Planning for the cooperation

If you are lucky to have found a feasible cooperation partner with whom you found an agreement on proceeding together for detailed planning and implementation of a cooperation then it is time to start business planning.

Especially when several companies/ entrepreneurs work together, there is a multitude of uncertainties and aspects that need to be thought through in advance to minimize the risk a bad start or of early unplanned termination of cooperation.

With the presentation of a business plan, the entrepreneurs prove that they are familiar with the many aspects of business and cooperation.

The business plan is thus a written business concept in which companies, which want to cooperate, take into account all the factors that are crucial for the success of the project. Careful planning allows the review of the business idea on feasibility and goal-reaching.

planning tool:
for the strategic development of the business idea

support for decision:
clarifying the way forward

business card:
important medium to convince third parties of the cooperation project

control instrument:
for the ongoing review of goals and outcomes.

It is advisable to take enough time to formulate the business plan as a written concept for the cooperation project. A well-designed business plan can serve for:

  • Convincing third parties of the cooperation project. The business plan shows that the companies can handle the complexity of a cooperation formation. The transcript forces you to think clearly and deeply.
  • Strengthening the position towards negotiating partners such as banks, investors, suppliers etc.
  • Representing a guideline to which the objectives and activities can be reviewed. The business plan is the starting point for any controls, because without a plan there is no control.
  • Fostering a systematic approach to the implementation of the cooperation project. When creating the plan, knowledge gaps and problems become visible.
  • Giving an overview of the project: putting the single pieces together to a whole picture.
  • Increasing the chances of success of the cooperation project. The implementation of it will be done a lot easier with the help of a business plan.
  • Assessing risks and weaknesses.
  • Showing dependencies. Even if the individual parts of a business plan are separated, it is important that all chapters match in the overall content.

CHECK OUT THE COFARM CASE STUDIES TO GET TO KNOW THE IMPLEMENTATION OF BUSINESS PLANNING IN ENTREPRENEURIAL PRACTICE!

A cooperation business plan has of course specific content different for instance than a business plan for an innovation project. Despite its various applications, business plans have some similarities.

A business plan should always be a comprehensive assessment of opportunities and risks of a project  and be clear. Important in its creation is to keep the whole thing in mind and not to loose yourself in detail.

The reader of a business plan should get clear answers when reading it. All interesting topics should be concise but fully addressed. Despite the enthusiasm to be able to present your own business idea, the business plan should always be written in a factual language.

It is important to identify weaknesses, develop approaches to anticipate and eliminate them.

In addition to the content, the look of a business plan should be appealing. It should look visually uniform and be presented clean.

A cooperatioA business plan basically consists of three parts:

Part 1: is a brief description of the business idea and the measures to achieve the goal.

Part 2: includes objective factors such as customers, competitors and location, which are not directly influenced or dependent of the promoters of the cooperation

Part 3: quantifies the cooperation project. It indicates how much money is needed, how much is expenditures are done or which yield the cooperation project can achieve

 

Please take the following elements as a suggestion and adapt to your own needs and circumstances:

  • Goals, vision and mission statement of a cooperation: This point contains the formulation of a guiding idea and a mission statement for a cooperation project and the definition of common cooperation goals. It also includes the planning of cooperation activities.
  • Organization of cooperation: The following questions are answered: How can the cooperation be designed? How should roles, tasks and responsibilities be distributed ? How can the rights and obligations of cooperation partners be managed?
    In addition to the organizational structure the processes in the organization are regulated. The interfaces and the rules of the game and communication between the partners are set.
  • Legal forms for cooperation: There are different legal forms which are feasible for cooperation projects. The bandwidth ranges from temporary cooperation, which is only regulated by a written or verbal cooperation agreement to the founding of a new company.
  • Financial planning and financing: In addition to the legal framework, it is also important for cooperations to carry out an economic analysis of the business concept and to check the profitability of the project. It should created a profit and loss statement, an investment-, a liquidity- as well as a financing-planning with minimum 3 year forecast
  • Cooperation control: In addition to a precise planning, the control of the achievement of goals is very important. Because without planning no control or course correction is possible and planning without control is meaningless.

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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
CO-FARM: Enhancing COoperation amongst FARMing entrepreneurs
Project Number: 2016-1-IE01-KA202-016870

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