Setting Up My Business: Working with The Templates
You need to understand that some of these spreadsheets are only used in setting up a business model so as to allow you to make comparisons and informed judgements. To increase the reliability and accuracy of the spreadsheets, please use accurate figures when filling them out.
You will only need to use what spreadsheets are relevant for your proposed business and by completing the required spreadsheets you will effectively have a business model costing. By making adjustments to stock levels, equipment leases, premises overheads, wages etc., you can actually model a business model costing matrix that will work (if it can in fact work that is....).
Please always check that the formulas are working and that they haven’t been inadvertently corrupted.
The Templates
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Asset Calculator.xls
Personal Debt Calculator.xls
Business Set Up Costs.xls
Hourly Rate & Overheads.xls
Reverse Engineered Stock List.xls
Stock Line Costs.xls
Photography.xls
Loan Calculator.xls
Office Quotation Form and Post Mortem.xls
Quotation Form.xls
Acceptance Form.xls
Invoice Form.xls
Discount Reverse Engineered Stock Lines.xls
Tear Off Sheet Blank.xls
Tear Off Sheet Template.xls
Travel Overheads in Kilometres and Miles.xls (2 spreadsheets)
Template 1: Asset Calculator.xls
This is available with both eBooks. Essentially you need to know what your asset base is when going into business of any kind as you may be asked for security against a loan or credit. This spreadsheet has a column for your assets (Description). Enter in each asset you have down this column. In the next column (Cost New), put in the cost of each asset when purchased new. Then alongside this column (%Depreciation) put in what you believe to be the depreciation on each asset in percent. This allows for individual percentages to be put against each asset as they were obviously not all purchased at the same time.
You will see in the light blue cells on the right of the spreadsheet the Total Replacement Costs and under this the Current value.
You may need access to these figures when generating a Business Model.
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Template 2: Personal Debt Calculator.xls
Under the Description column you enter your outstanding debt descriptions. I have put in generic names that you can type over, such as Car #1, Car #2, Boat, Medical, etc. Next to this in the tan column put in the Monthly payments. If you are unsure of particular payments put in one that is slightly higher rather than lower.
Then move to the right and put in any incomes (under the Income column) by using the generic descriptions or just type over them. Enter a monthly figure in the light blue column under Monthly Income.
Below this you will now have:
Outgoings per month,
Income per month,
Balance per month.
These figures you may need to include in Hourly Rate & Business Overheads.xls
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Template 3: Business Set Up Costs.xls
In this spreadsheet you put down all your setting up costs that you have established while planning this new business. It should include stock, plant and equipment. The total cost of setting up will show in the top tan coloured cells.
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Template 4: Hourly Rate & Overheads.xls
Here you have the monthly costs of operating your business. As there are a number of different formulas in this spreadsheet, I have protected it so you can only type in the yellow cells. You will see a generic list of expense items on the left, use what you need and type over what you don’t. Enter the monthly costs to the right under the Monthly Costs column and put in slightly higher costs rather than lower in the case where exact amounts are unavailable.
Work out the wages for staff and put them in as required. Put in a figure for contingencies.
You should now have a Total Monthly Outgoings amount in $.
Next put in the hours (average) worked by each person (this is NOT the total hours of everyone, but the average of everyone).
Then enter how many staff. This must equal the number of people on the payroll. You will now see the total of man hours worked per week and per month, together with the cost per hour for the business.
Under this in the yellow column next to Efficiency, put in what you estimate the efficiency will be. For example, if there are only two of you and you are repairing cars, then your efficiency may only be 80% due to time lost ordering parts and quoting etc.
You can put in 100% if you are sure that you can book out every hour.
The result now will show revised monthly hours booked out and revised hourly costs to break even. Next to the ‘Trial figure’ cell, put in what you feel would be a marketable hourly rate. Once you do this you will see the profit per month on the lower cell. If your hourly rate is too low then expect to see a deficit here in this cell. By changing the hourly rate you will see that you generate a different monthly profit or loss scenario.
You will also notice that if one of your staff goes on holidays or is absent, by removing them from the Total Staff cell that your bottom line reflects the loss of income. With certain models like this it may be prudent to get everyone on holidays at the same time to avoid losing money. You need to play with this spreadsheet some to get the hang of how the bottom line is generated. A very quick overview when looking at costs.
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Template 5: Reverse Engineered Stock List.xls
This spreadsheet is basically for a shop owner who is doing a business model. The running costs of the proposed business are entered as they are in the Hourly Rate and Business Overheads spreadsheet.
Now enter the staffing levels and wages in the right hand side of the spreadsheet. This will give you the Total Monthly Outgoings in Red. The shop owner needs to know this figure to enable a projected sales figure to be predicted for a break even status.
Quite simply put, if the Monthly outgoings were (say) $25,000 with an average mark-up of 40%, then total sales would need to be $62,500 gross to break even. The number of working days must be entered at the bottom.
If there are several varying percentages, you can do this several ways.
One way is to average the percentages yourself and put in only one Major Stock Line % and the other way is to fill out the required cells as in the spreadsheet. If you do not have a number (1% or above) in the yellow cells, do not leave a 0 there, you must delete the 0. If you don’t, the formula treats it like a percentage and will then average it.
Example: Line #1 : 40.00%
Line #2 : 0.00%
Average of all % :20.00%
Now this is incorrect if you leave in a 0% so be careful and delete it. I will alter the formula on this for my next update when I will give you a whole new spreadsheet.
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Template 6: Stock Line Costs.xls
This spreadsheet is handy when working out your initial costs. You will see a column with the retail prices in it. Next to this you put in your discount and the Nett total appears next to that. The spreadsheet will accept different discounts.
The total cost of stock together with taxes is displayed on the right side of the spreadsheet.
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Template 7: Photography.xls
This spreadsheet is used to assist anyone who is going to sell photos or photo services by splitting up the services. By entering into the relevant columns you can soon devise a budget cost for any particular photography subject including digital imaging services.
The spreadsheet can also be used to support a quotation.
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Template 8: Loan Calculator.xls
This calculator will work out just about any loan amount or term you can imagine. Use the yellow cells only.
Top cell asks for the amount of the loan.
Next you put in the % rate of the loan.
Next is the period of the loan in years.
Then the start date (Day/Month/Year).
Lastly it asks if you wish to put an additional amount in each month. You will see what your repayments are before you fill this in so you can then make a judgement call.
All your costs are now visible.
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Template 9: Office Quotation Form and Post Mortem.xls
This is an office quotation spreadsheet for your eyes only! Goods and services description are entered on the left, then the Nett cost which is YOUR cost, followed by what % of mark-up you want to work with. Then put in any labour hours you feel are required.
Down on the lower right hand side you will see Hourly Rate in yellow. Enter the rate you want to run with here.
You will see that the costs are listed in the Sub Total column and totalled at the bottom of the column. You will also see a breakdown of costs including tax, profit on goods etc., in the Quick Reference box on the left. This allows you to take a snap shot of your costs as a reference.
Now onto the Post Mortem section.
In the green Cost column, enter the final costs to you of the quoted goods on the same line with the said goods. If the costs are slightly higher than you quoted you will see a deficit in the end column under Goods Balance. This identifies whether your buying price is accurate. The same applies for the Actual Labour column.
The purpose of doing a post mortem on larger jobs is to establish losses WITHIN the overall job. You can still make a profit while losing money in certain areas and this helps establish which areas are over or under your quote.
Try a sample using figures like $100 for goods, 20% Mark-up and 10 hours for labour with a $40 hourly rate. Now put down actual costs as being $109 for the goods. You will see -$9 on the far right. Next put in 8 hours as the job took less time than quoted. You will now see 2 hours in the labour balance column.
If you look at the Quick Reference, you will see the difference in cost of Goods supplied as reading -$9 and the Difference in Labour Hours as 2.00 (actually this is +2.00). In my eBook on Micro businesses I give an example of why it is important to use this post mortem spreadsheet on larger jobs. Just add a zero or even two zeros the example and you will see where we are going with this.
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Template 10: Quotation Form.xls
This form is what you give to the client. Put your name and logo over the generic ones I have there now – you will need to unprotect the sheet first – 1961.
Now enter all the client details and special instructions if any. The quotation date is valid at +30 days by default. You can change this at any time.
When putting in Site Works, do not itemise anything if possible, use a lump sum. This is so you don’t do the work for someone else.
The quotation shows GST (Goods and Services Tax). This can be changed or deleted, whatever. Again you will need to unprotect the sheet first before making changes.
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Template 11: Acceptance Form.xls
This is the form I like to use when I get the ‘go-ahead’ from a client. I use the term Acceptance rather than Deposit as it does not have some of the legal conditions attached to it that a Deposit does.
Treat this the same as the Quotation Form and make changes to reflect your own business. You will see the terms in the lower grid; these can be changed to suit your business. Effectively you would print out 2 of these and get the client to sign the one which you keep. As he makes payments you then enter them onto the Acceptance form and they get updated likewise. You then print out the update and give it to the client as you move through the job.
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Template 12: Invoice Form.xls
For smaller jobs you can go straight to the invoice and miss the Acceptance form altogether. This is a straight forward spreadsheet and treat it as any other, by putting in your company details and saving it as a template.
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Template 13: Sale Discount Reverse Engineered Stock Lines.xls
This is a quick reference spreadsheet to help a shop owner who is doing a sale. First enter a description under Description of Goods. Then enter your Nett Cost in the right hand yellow column. In the left hand column put your mark-up % and this will now reflect your Retail price in the centre column. Put a % in the light blue column that you want to run as a discount and then the profit and loss column in the far right will reflect the outcome, either a plus or minus.
A pretty basic spreadsheet designed for speed and crosschecking sales discounts. It can be used as a mark up sheet for incoming stocks too, your call.
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Template 14: Tear Off Sheet Blank.xls
This is a basic template for targeted advertising for a Macro Business whereby the owner fills in the tags by hand.
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Template 15: Tear Off Sheet Template.xls
This is another example of tear off sheet advertising only this time the services are entered in by computer.
Template 16: Travel Overheads in Kilometres and Miles.xls (2 spreadsheets)
These spreadsheets are designed to assist those of you who have a significant amount of travelling to do in the course of your business.
It calculates the costs involved of going to work each day and also caters for those of you who take employees with you, such as contractors.
The significance of this spreadsheet is to bring to the attention of the reader that travel costs are real and while they seem insignificant when viewed on a daily basis, they are in fact quite influential when viewed annually. Just fill in the yellow cells and you will get the answers you want at the bottom.
Where this spreadsheet is also useful is when looking at leasing (say) shop premises. You may be offered premises some distance from your home and the lease may seem very competitive. However, when you add on the travel costs over a year the shine may come off this ‘cheap’ lease option. Closer premises, though they may be more expensive, may work out cheaper in the long run due to savings in travel overheads.
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