Summary of Business Plan for OOL & Entrepreneur Pathway
Business plan is a document that describes overall action plans of a business in key areas such as marketing, human resources, financial, legal, operations and risk management. The plan also provides a quick summary of the whole plan in a section called executive summary.
Clients who are interested to immigrate to Canada through Owner-Operator LMIA and/or entrepreneur pathway are usually required to provide a well-constructed business plan in order to proceed with their immigration. In this article, we will discuss about what a business plan is, so that all people who are preparing to immigrate through these programs can understand better of what the requirement is.
Part 1: Business Overview
On the first part of the business plan, numerous individuals start with a general description of the business. For instance, this can be a simple one to three paragraphs that portrays about the overall business activities, location of service, products offered, its goals and more.
The overview can also articulate the main products and services the business offers, so that the readers can start the read by first understanding what the business provides. Inclusion of materials such as major players, industry trends and major demographics, social, cultural and economic factors regarding the business is important as well.
Part 2: Marketing Plan
Marketing plan and strategy is one of the most important section to discuss because this area provides further details about who the customers are and how they are going to be reached.
This section provides a market segmentation that depicts a general yet detailed description of an ideal customer (persona, customer segmentation, beachhead market). Moreover, advertisement and promotion strategies are outlined as well. For example, the main marketing channel that the business will use and how its performances are going to be measured are discussed.
Part 3: Human Resources Plan
Human resources plan is all about people; corporation structure (shareholders, directors, officers), key employees, suppliers and stakeholders. The company’s policies and procedures that employees and other related parties need to follow are also outlined. In addition, main communication channels between each stakeholder are included in this section.
One essential topic to discuss in a HR plan is how the jobs are going to be created for local Canadians and permanent residents. This is because one of the main purposes of providing immigration streams through programs like owner-operator LMIA and entrepreneur pathway is to benefit the labour market in Canada.
Part 4: Financial Plan
The financial plan outlines a revenue model, fixed and variable expenses and financing or investment channels.
Under the revenue model, pricing of each product and service are described. A revenue goal for the next 5 years can be generated based on the price of each product multiplied by the sales volume per year.
Fixed expenses (such as business location lease fee and utility fee), and variable expenses (such as travel expense and advertisement fee) are also outlined, so that the overall net profit (or loss) of the company is clearly articulated.
Lastly, financing and investment plans are also described to indicate who will invest how much to initially start the company (or purchase the existing business), and how the firm will pay back the shareholder and/or investor by when.
Part 5: Legal Plan
Legal plan is to ensure the business and its related stakeholders are aware of what regulations to follow, so that all required due diligences are met. To take an example, legal plans can include topics like incorporation of a business vs sole proprietorship vs partnership, annual return requirement from a province and/or federal government and annual corporate tax return requirements. This section can be heavily weighed depending on which type of business it is as each business nature have different legal requirements to follow.
Part 6: Operation Management Plan
Operations management is one of the key areas of a business plan as it outlines a general action plan of the company. For instance, a critical path or work assembly lines are created that portrays a description of the business’ key milestone activities, its due dates, bottlenecks and more. Together with the action plan, the fees that are required for each activity can be calculated to make a more accurate financial plan and when the first customer is going to be reached to start creating a cash flow to offset the expenses.
Other information such as business location, lease agreement, equipment to purchase and technologies to use can also be explained under this section.
Part 7: Risk Management Plan
Risk management plan is all about identifying the potential risks and how each risk can be mitigated, avoided or controlled. These risks can include but not limited to, government regulations, terrorism, IT software shut down, cyber hacking, natural disasters, threats of new entrants and substitutes, position in the market, competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, competitive advantages against competitors and more.
Part 8: Executive Summary
As the name suggests, the executive summary provides an overall summary of the business plan.
The summary clearly articulates the main points about the whole plan in a few sentences, so that the reader can focus on the most essential part of the business plan.
The executive summary can either go in front of the business plan even before the business overview or at the last section of the business plan.
Conclusion
There are several immigration pathways for entrepreneurs and investors who wants to immigrate Canada by starting or purchasing a business in Canada. These immigration programs usually require the candidate to provide a flawless and thorough business plan, so that the assigned officer can analyze if the candidate is qualified or not. As a result, preparing a well-constructed business plan is essential for the qualified applicants.
If you are interested in these programs or wants to know more about business plans, then please don’t hesitate to contact us anytime by using our contact us page or sending us a free assessment.
