Strategic Advising Resource Library

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Dr. J. Howard (Jim) Kucher, author of “Social Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach to Social Innovation,” shares with us best practices in social entrepreneurship and financial modeling for building a sustainable social enterprise. Additionally, we discuss how LivePlan can be used to appropriately layer diverse funding sources, from charitable donations to traditional capital sources, and effectively balance their distinct interpretations of return.

Key Takeaways: 

  • Increased effectiveness in social entrepreneurship education and advising
  • Improved financial modeling skills for social entrepreneurship
  • Insights from Dr. Kucher’s book “Social Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach to Social Innovation”
  • Knowledge of how to use LivePlan for social enterprise financial modeling

Slide presentation

LivePlan Learning — Growth Planning

Introducing growth planning—a process to help you continuously plan, forecast, review, and refine your financial strategy to better manage your business. Whether it is a start-up or a business you have been running for years, growth planning is the answer to the frustrating, time-consuming, and inflexible task of putting together a traditional business plan.

Growth Planning Basics (Session 1)

 

Part 1 of this series showcases the starting points and basics of growth planning for any entrepreneur, at any stage of business. 

Learn the growth planning process:

  1. Create a plan: Quickly size up the potential of your idea and set goals to make it work.
  2. Build your forecast: Develop an expense budget and financial projections to better understand where your business is now and where it is headed.  
  3. Review the results: Compare your forecast against your actual sales and expenses each month to stay accountable and uncover new ideas.
  4. Refine your strategy: Adjust your business plan and forecast based on your learnings.

Skill level: Novice – Intermediate

Resources:

Growth Planning Applied (Session 2)

 

Part 2 of this series shifts to the application of the forecast to ongoing problem-solving, client cases, and the cyclic nature of growth planning. 

Deeper-dive topics will include:  

  1. Review & Compare Plan vs. Actuals: Add accounting data to a LivePlan forecast to track progress and adapt to change each month. Explore techniques to keep your entrepreneurs accountable over time and uncover new ideas.
  2. Build What-if Scenarios: Explore the real-life questions and problems that entrepreneurs face, and how LivePlan’s Forecast Scenarios can help you explore their options and set a path for their desired Growth Planning goals.  
  3. Using Benchmarks: Discover the additional benefit of a forecast by comparing Plan vs. competitors, and uncover competitive advantages or areas for strategic improvement.  
  4. Refine your strategy: Adjust your business plan and forecast based on your learnings.

Skill level: Intermediate – Advanced

Resources:

Financial forecasting

Learn how to use LivePlan’s extensive forecasting features to inform and guide your client’s business management and growth processes.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Reporting

Providing real-time insights for your clients is the best way to help them define and reach their business goals. Learn how to use LivePlan’s reporting capabilities and dashboards to better serve your clients.

 

Advising services

Learn how to develop your advising services, initiate a kick-off meeting, and build stronger more engaged relationships with your clients.

 
 
 

Business planning

Learn how to use LivePlan’s Pitch tab and planning features as part of your advising service offerings.

 
 

Additional resources for strategic advisors

 
 

We’ve streamlined advisory work into a simple process, known as the LivePlan Method

This recurring system not only brings value to your clients each month and helps them grow their business, but ensures that you remain profitable and consistent. With this method, you’ll learn to optimize your advising services and provide the greatest value for your clients at every step. 

You can start learning the LivePlan Method for Strategic Advising by reviewing the following help center articles linked below.

The LivePlan Method: Kickoff Phase

In the Kickoff phase, you’ll set up several sections of LivePlan to help you demonstrate the benefits of having an ongoing strategic advisory relationship. Most of these steps will be very quick, consuming only a few minutes. The bulk of the time will be spent meeting with your client.

The LivePlan Method: Plan Phase

In the Plan phase, you’ll have a one-hour meeting with your client to complete a Lean Business Plan, using the Pitch tab in LivePlan.

The LivePlan Method: Build Phase

In the Build phase, you’ll build your client’s forecast in LivePlan and update the mapping to the Scoreboard.

The LivePlan Method: Advise Phase

In the monthly advisory meetings with your client, you’ll present a review of the previous month’s performance, show how it compares to the goals set out in the forecast, and discuss any adjustments that may be needed to help the business stay on track toward those goals.