Although community wood recycling enterprises have social and environmental aims they are also businesses, and every business should have a business plan.

Banks or other investors (and most grant funders) will invariably ask to see your plan before supporting you. But even if you are funding the enterprise yourself, it is essential to have one - as it will provide you with an invaluable “road map” A vital part of any business plan is the executive summary.  This goes at the beginning of your business plan but the best way to prepare it is after you have written everything else!  It is like a Dragon’s Den pitch and it needs to excite the interest of anyone reading it and be personal of where your enterprise is heading and how it is going to get there.

In terms of community wood recycling, before preparing your business plan you should have completed all the necessary steps up to and including carrying out a feasibility study. Armed with the information you have gathered from the study, you can set about preparing your business plan; confident that you have considered the key issues and that your business has a clear route to sustainability.

What should the business plan contain?

Although the contents might vary a bit, most business plans follow a pretty standard format. For a wood recycling enterprise, your plan should contain at least the following:

Executive summary: This goes at the beginning of your business plan and is the whole thing boiled down to one or two sides. It is like a Dragon’s Den pitch and it needs to encapsulate the key points and excite the interest of anyone reading it. It is usually the last thing written and draws upon the other sections.

Introduction: How you got into it in the first place, what you hope to achieve from it and the work/research you’ve done to date.  

The Opportunity: In this section you could outline the business model, how it works and what the opportunity is in your area and how it fits into the national context.     

Operations: Outline how you would carry out the work; what infrastructure, tools and equipment you will need; the actual services you will offer to your customers; how you will develop the retail and products side; what you will charge and why you will be competitive.

Sales & Marketing: Outline how you are going to market and sell your services; break it down into the different areas – collections, retail, products, PR etc.

Financials: Explain the logic behind the income/expenditure figures and put in your 3 year p/l and cash flow forecasts.

People: Introduce the people who will be involved, their background/strengths and what they will do for the enterprise. Explain where you will source the volunteers and how many etc.

Competition: Outline what you see as competition and how you will win business from them.

SWOT Analysis: Complete a list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

What If: Consider and find answers to some  “what if” questions – for example, “what if we don’t achieve the budgeted sales in the first three months.

Business Plan templates are widely available from banks and on the Internet. For any further information on business plans, please contact the NCWRP check out the following link http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/printguide?r.l1=107

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