I’ve just completed the NEIS course including going to the panel and getting my documentation approved. It was very exciting leading up to the day and also a very long anticipation since finishing the course material two weeks ago. Over the last two weeks it was time to finalise the business plan and to compile any other documentations required. By the time you go to the panel, you will have submitted:
•2 bound copies of the business plan with attachments
•2 copies of the executive summary
What Do They Teach In The Course?
Each BEC (Business Enterprise Centre) is different and they will have different trainers with different teaching styles. Essentially they have to follow the course outline provided from the government agencies. By the end of the course you will have compiled a business plan. Don’t fret though, because they provide you with a template and you just focus on getting the information into the business plan. The topics they cover over the few weeks to assist you with the business plan are:
•Management and Finance
•Marketing and Promotion
•Operations
•Insurances
•Presentation skills for the Panel
Management and Finance
This was a crucial component of the course and I found it quite easy to grasp as I seemed to find crunching numbers fun and naturally part of me (I loved Maths at school by the way). In saying this the most important part of finance I learnt was being able to work out how much it will cost to stay afloat in my new business and when would breakeven point occur? Knowing this gave a good indication for how realistic my expectations were and it is a goal for me to achieve.
Apart from learning how to calculate the breakeven point, there were other calculations required such as:
•Personal & business assets and liabilities
•Startup funds required
•Personal & business cost analysis
•Personal & business cashflow forecast
•Personal & business balance sheet forecast
•Business profit and loss forecast
All of these calculations required us to find exact numbers from our personal finances to come to an accurate forecast and helping us see what is viable for our new business. By the end of this section I found a lot of people struggled in the class and had to come to ask me because the trainer kept using me as an example. (I felt privileged to help and it did reinforce what I needed to know for myself)
The management section dealt with the entry and exit conditions of the business. We looked at how to ask minimise business risk through purchasing insurance and also making sure we have protection for our intellectual property. A lot of times businesses overlook these small little things, and when issues arise it may be too late. These could have been easily avoided if the appropriate business protections were in place from the start.
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