Time Inputs & Elapsed Times for Business Planning

When asked about the elapsed time required to research and write their plans, about one-third of respondents completed these tasks within one month and a further one-third took two to three months. As indicated in Figure 5 below, the elapsed time to prepare comprehensive plans was considerably longer than that for basic plans.

 

Over one-third of all plans compiled within an elapsed time of one month were used to seek bank loans or approvals from shareholders/directors, or they were compiled for internal/personal use. In contrast, about one-third of all plans used to raise venture capital/equity took least three months to research and write. Note: Elapsed time refers to the total time interval and not to the actual time expended on researching and writing a plan.

 It  indicates that about half of all respondents spent much more time researching than writing their plans. Only a small proportion devoted little or no time to researching their plans prior to writing them. For almost two-thirds of plans used to assess the viability of business, the time was spent researching was much greater than that for writing. In the case of plans for the other specified purposes, time spent researching was usually somewhat greater than time spent writing.

Use of External Advisers for Business Planning About two-thirds of respondents used external advisers/consultants when preparing their plans. Figure 7 below shows that the use of external help was somewhat greater for comprehensive plans than for basic plans.Use was made of external advisers by over two-thirds of respondents who prepared plans to raise bank loans or venture capital/equity. At the other end of the spectrum, respondents who compiled plans for internal/personal use, to assess viability or to secure approvals were least likely to use external advisers.