A good business plan should stand at the start of every entrepreneurial journey and should both serve as a road map to the entrepreneur and a device to communicate plans and objectives to employees, clients, partners, investors and other stakeholders. The creation of a successful business plan includes the following important elements:

• Definition of business activities
  
• Definition of current business status
  
• Definition of external market, competition and market positioning
  
• Definition of objectives for the plan period
  
• Identification of risks and opportunities
  
• Development of a strategy for risk limitation and opportunity exploitation
  
• Refining of strategies into a working plan
  
• Cost and revenue projections and development of a financial plan
  
• Concise documentation

The business plan should serve the entrepreneur/company as an actively-used guide and benchmark for operating actions and strategic decision. The plan should be regularly updated and evolve with the company, reflecting changes in market conditions, strategic developments and new opportunities.

Central European Capital's entrepreneurial finance practice is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and start-up companies develop and continuously adapt a comprehensive business plan based on detailed analysis. For more information about our business planning services please contact us on E-mail businessplan@ce-capital.com.

For the entrepreneurial business access to capital is often among the most difficult strategic growth factors to secure. Despite the dynamic growth of the Venture Capital and Private Equity industry in Europe during the past three to five years, internally generated capital and bank loans remain the almost exclusive sources of capital available to start-up companies and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Start-up financing is typically secured from a mixture of:

• Own resources
  
• Family, friends and fools
  
• Business angels
  
• Entrepreneurship support programmes (government-sponsored grants, subsidized loans, etc.)
  
• Business incubators

"Bootstrapping" or the art of getting maximum mileage out of every penny is a highly valuable ability during the start-up phase of any business.

More established SMEs typically have a somewhat wider range of financing options providing financial leverae including:

• Bank loans
  
• Customer financing
  
• Vendor financing
  
• Leasing
  
• Factoring

Central European Capital's entrepreneurial finance practice advises entrepreneurs and SMEs on the most suitable financing strategy based on a detailed financial plan and supports the capital raising process from different capital sources and providers.

For more information about our entrepreneurial finance capital raising services please contact us on E-mail capitalraising@ce-capital.com.

Business development is a term covering a broad range of activities and aspects in relation to the growth of a business. In order to achieve value-creating corporate growth, a large number of key resources such as

• Capital
  
• Human resources
  
• Technology
  
• Equipment
  
• Suppliers

must be acquired, secured and purposefully deployed in sales and marketing, production, research and development and other business areas.

Central European Capital's entrepreneurial finance practice supports entrepreneurs and SMEs in their business development by supporting the operating planning process, seeking strategic partners and developing access routes to growth resources. For more information about our business development services please contact us on E-mail bizdevelopment@ce-capital.com.