Five-Year Entrepreneur - Guide 03

business
planning
03
Dom Moorhouse
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the guide i wish id had to building and selling a professional service business.
I had the privilege of sharing the Moorhouse journey with

Dom, as one of his co-directors, and can relate only too well to
everything he describes so brilliantly. If only wed had a guide
like this to help us on our way! The outcome may not have
been any different, but wed have avoided so many false turns
and blind alleys en route. These guides are essential reading
for anyone setting up in business, particularly in the field of
professional services. I strongly recommend them.
bob hendicott, hendicott partnership ltd

These guides were not around when we embarked on a similar
journey. If only they had been - it would have saved us years in
terms of the journey, 000s in terms of avoiding the common
pitfalls and a head full of grey hair in terms of frustration!
pete austin, director, suiko ltd

Dom has absolutely captured the need to manage the
growth of a business like a project with clear objectives and
deliverables, supported by robust and effective systems. The
sales guide is a must for any professional service firm leader.
paul wilson, managing director, provelio limited

I found the Five-Year Entrepreneur Guides an excellent
summary of the practical solutions required to building a
successful, small-to-medium-sized consulting business. I can
see them becoming a well thumbed text.
tim phillips, global partner, molten and winner of the

london and south east iod director of the year 2012
If running a successful consultancy or small business is
your aspiration then this practical, how to series is highly
recommended. For me, the guides on business planning
and how best to structure your teams and motivate them
were of particular interest. Doms willingness to share his
experience, both good and bad, brought these guides to life
whilst maintaining a pragmatic approach and providing simple
templates and examples.
tanya lightbody, director, ingenuity inspired limited
about the author

Dom Moorhouse, a former Royal Marines Officer, is the Founder of Moorhouse a
leading management consultancy business. Dom started the company as a singleton
in 2004, grew it to a c. 10m/annum revenue business and sold it to BT in 2008 all
within the five-year target he had set himself. At the point of his departure as MD, the
business was a firmly established presence in the UK professional service sector (and
at the beginnings of an international presence in the US and Far East). The firm, which
continues to thrive, has built a reputation as a trusted partner in the realm of business
transformation and received consistent accolade for supporting such efforts in close
to 50 premier organisations (major government departments/agencies, FTSE/NYSE
100 etc). During his tenure as the MD, Moorhouse won a major national award (MCA,
APM, IBC) every year of its existence in recognition of such work, including multiple
firm of the year plaudits. Dom now enjoys a portfolio career writing and speaking
on the subject of entrepreneurship, mentoring business owners and angel investing in
start-ups. He lives in Bath, England.
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First published in Great Britain in 2012

1
Published in the United Kingdom by
Always Onwards Ltd, The Business Studio, 128 Bloomfield Roadm, Bath, ba2 2as
www.dommoorhouse.com
Content copyright Dom Moorhouse, 2012
Illustrations copyright Dom Moorhouse, 2012
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise,
be lent, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is
published. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior
written permission of the publisher.
The right of Dom Moorhouse to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN 978-1-909310-02-5
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Designed and typeset by James Nunn in association with Traffic Digital
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DOM MOORHOUSE
Guide 03
business planning
Foreword
This book tells the remarkable story of the founding, growth and ultimate sale
of Moorhouse Consulting, a UK-based professional services firm. That this was
achieved within five years is testament to the vision and drive of the author,
Dom Moorhouse. Zero to 10m in sales and 20m in value in five years is the
stuff of dreams for most entrepreneurs in the professional services world but
in this book you will not only find the blueprint but also the detailed how to
instructions to mimic this success.
My name is Paul Collins and I first met Dom in late 2005, almost two years
into the Moorhouse story. I was presenting a seminar for my firm Equiteq called
Proven Strategies to Build and Sell your Consulting firm. This two-day event
was based on my own personal experiences and the material obviously resonated
with Dom. After the seminar we talked about Doms ambitions to build a 20m
value firm within five years of founding; remember, he was two years in at this
stage. Whilst I could not quote many examples of firms who had achieved such
a feat (it took me 15 years of growth to achieve a sale of my own consulting firm)
Dom was resolute and he impressed me with his infectious drive and ambition.
Within a few months I was signed up as a Non-Executive Director and two
and a half years later, in August 2008 (six months earlier than planned), Dom
realised his dream and sold Moorhouse to BT, a UK Telecoms plc and a client
of Moorhouse at the time.
Moorhouse were the perfect client for Equiteq. They devoured all the advice
we and others had to offer and executed with military precision probably
something to do with Doms first career in the Royal Marines! They seemed to
get everything right and still to this day they are the only client we have worked
with who consistently met their quarterly revenue and profit targets throughout
our partnership. It is not an exaggeration to say they became legendary in our
circles and are still now the most quoted firm on best practice from our client
portfolio. If your desire is to build and sell a professional services firm, or even
to understand how to generate sustainable growth in sales and profits, you could
do no better than to follow the Moorhouse example as described in meticulous
detail in this book.
When I was building my own firm, WCI Group, I yearned for a guide to
help show me the way to rapidly grow profits and value. For the first 10 years we
did what most firms do ... we grew by trial and error ... lots of error! We made
every mistake in the book. In 1995, we tried to get external advice and spent
six months searching for books, mentors and advice from academics, the City
and the business world. Nothing seemed to fit our situation so we created our
own plan based on what we called our Eight Levers of Equity Value. That plan
accelerated our growth by a factor of 15 over the next five years and enabled the
sale of WCI in 2002. In this book you will read about the Moorhouse Multiple
Enhancement or ME programme which was their version of the same idea.
Every firm needs an ME programme. It works and in this book you will learn
how to create your own.
This book is the guide I wished Id had in the first 10 years of WCI. Every
page would have stopped us from making expensive and time-consuming errors.
It is written at a level of detail and with links to further resources like video clips,
tips and templates to make it an indispensable how to guide to grow your firm.
Whether you are just thinking about going it alone or your current growth has
stalled or you want to know what to do beyond just growing profits in order to
build future equity value, this book has everything you will need to keep you on
the right path to a saleable business.
If I am honest, this is also the book I wish I had written myself and I suppose
there can be no better personal recommendation than that! Dom has written
this book in the same way that he built Moorhouse with meticulous planning,
a talented team of contributors and advisers, disciplined execution to aggressive
timescales and with great humility and leadership style. Characteristics that you
will all need to build your Moorhouse story and probably the reason why my
book started but was never finished!
Enjoy reading it; I wish you good luck with your own entrepreneurial dreams.
Paul Collins, Managing Partner, Equiteq LLP (www.equiteq.com)
August 2012
Preface
You have in your hands now, one of the guides from The Five-Year Entrepreneur
series. If you are the owner of a professional services business or are contemplating becoming so in the future and you want to maximise the chances of
growing such a business to create personal wealth, then this guide is for you.
The Five-Year Entrepreneur series represents the information I wished Id had
ten years ago when my entrepreneurial ambition first started to stir and the
foundations for my own professional services venture (and personal adventure)
were formed. It is the reference I would have loved to have read and dipped
repeatedly back into during the critical years of building my own companys
value. Finally, it is the pragmatic checklist I sought when I entered the most
foreign, and demanding, of experiences the sale process.
I know all this because I had the most incredible of entrepreneurial journeys
progressing from start-up to a multi-million value realisation moment in
less than five years. As always, such a tale of business success is graced with good
fortune and I certainly had the wind on my back at a couple of critical moments (you will get to read more on this part of the story as the series unfolds).
More significantly, however, I was fortunate to have a great team around me
colleagues and external advisors to traverse this path with real focus, structure,
research and discipline. It is these gathered insights, experiences, anecdotes and
practical steps that I want to pass on, plus some signage to the inevitable holes
in the ground we occasionally stumbled into.
I recognise fully having been there just quite how time-poor you probably are. As such, I have broken the series down into individual subject guides,
and each guide is made up of elements that can be digested in part you just
need to pick and choose what works best for you. I know that the technical description can be a bit dry at times so I have also worked hard to mix this up with
the more human story such that you derive the benefit of knowing how such
aspects actually work (or not) in practice. This specially tailored series organisation, and formatting, is all described further within this Introduction.
Why read on?
Well, with the approach that this book series details, coupled with some hard
graft (this is not a get rich easy scheme!), you will significantly, and positively,
alter the forward path of your business in terms of its growth rate and inherent
value. This, in turn, will shorten the time it takes to get you to a point when
such value is of real-world, material significance. A point in time when you can
potentially trade such ownership for a life-changing, freedom-bearing financial
reward.
I have designed the structure of this book series to be a useful companion
to you on your journey. At a high level, it follows the phases you will embark
on understanding (what the journey will entail, where value lies etc), planning,
building (the guts of the series) and selling. Each of the detailed guides will sit
within one of these phases and, whilst there is a logic to consuming the information in this order, it is all perfectly accessible to the reader who just wishes to dip
in to gain insight in a specific area only.
This brings me onto the overall design. You may have found this sample on
my website (www.dommoorhouse.com) or an e-book store? If you return to my
website, you will see that you can get access to all the currently published guides
in the series. If your interest takes you further and you seek to derive further
value from this structured learning then please note also that each guide has
been specifically configured to work in reference with a number of supporting
resources (tools, templates, interviews, links, discussion boards etc) organised
on the same subject basis. Details on how to subscribe to these additional assets
are to be found on the website.
Finally, a heartfelt wish; however you seek to digest these guides and wherever you are in the entrepreneurial process good luck. You have my utmost
respect and the world certainly needs more people like you. I just hope that this
book coupled with your spark, vision and industry contributes in a small
way to the decisions you take and the success you deserve.
Dom Moorhouse
Bath, 2012
Who is this Book for?

The simple answer is that this book is for you.
You that is, if you are the owner full or part of a professional services
business or aspire to become so. Indeed, this book is for you if you are just keen
to explore the idea of setting up your own such firm.
Before we go much further, some definitions. By owner, I mean a shareholder in a limited company, or a partner in a limited liability partnership, who
has equity (shares, stock, options) in the business and is, as such, able to direct influence over it and derive gain from it (dividend share and/or a capital gain from
selling shares). I should also perhaps expand on what I mean by a professional service firm as this book is very much focused on the unique characteristics of such
an endeavour. No one definition will suffice here but such firms are primarily
business-to-business and involve the marketing, selling and dispensing of a professional service as opposed to, say, the production and retail of material goods.
Capable people, qualified to discharge such services, are clearly central to such a
business and the billing typically but not always involves a function of their
time. The definition is, however, broad and covers a panoply of service types
from business consulting, accounting, law, advertising, web design, architecture,
engineering, recruitment, financial services, marketing, public relations, research
and so on. Generally speaking, if your firm harnesses the talents of skilled, knowledgeable individuals to provide advice and support to other businesses it is to be
included under this broad umbrella and this guidebook is for you.
Your professional service business may be long-established or, indeed, may
not yet even exist. Starting up such an enterprise may just be, at this point, part
of your future dreams and plans. You may well be, at this current moment, languishing as an employee in a large company wondering if the jam tomorrow
promise is ever going to materialise and looking to take more control over your
career, and future wealth, through such an ambition.
Moreover, The Five-Year Entrepreneur series is really focused on the leaders
who are committed to growing such businesses such that they afford themselves the option of potentially realising capital value from it in the future. This
is perhaps the critical raison dtre for this series of guides and, hence, serves as
the key test as to whether it is really worth reading on.
This is an important and not obvious point so lets pause briefly to discuss
it in more detail.
For some business owners, there is no deep desire to grow their firm (in terms
of people employed, revenue, profit etc). For such business leaders, the potential
upside of growth is just not deemed sufficient enough to justify the inevitable
effort and complication involved. They are simply content with where they are
and enjoy the regular income stream their business provides them. That is fine
if they are, indeed, enjoying a regular profitable income (putting aside the obvious concern that it is, in practice, very difficult to stand still and not actually go
backwards). It is a perfectly acceptable career, or work-life, choice and certainly
I do not seek to be self-righteous about the deliberate alternative. Its just that
this series really talks to those who have, or plan to have, an explicit ambition to
grow their business.
This does not mean, however, that you will only get value from this book
series if you intend to make a cast-iron commitment to, or goal of, the act of
selling your business; although if your plans are explicit and time-bound in this
regard, it is most certainly for you! As a minimum, I just anticipate that you
want to, through a disciplined plan-to-build approach, position strategic options for such a potential eventuality in the future.
Behind such an intent lies a myriad of personal drivers and goals. This should
include the professional satisfaction and personal growth journey involved in
leading a successful firm. There are few satisfactions greater than knowing that
your entrepreneurism, vision, drive, industry and force-multiplying enthusiasm
is responsible for a small economy on which other livelihoods (and their dependants) prosper also. For certain, such people are needed in abundance to
rescue modern economies from their recent malaise! There will also be a driver,
invariably, for self-determination be that in the form of a greater influence over
your own career path and/or a desire for greater wealth on which such future
flexibility can be based. There is nothing to be ashamed of in such an admission conversely, candour with yourself and key others is important here. It is
perfectly possible to reconcile such personal ambition with sustainable, ethical
business development and that is the sweet spot on which this set of books is
going to linger.
In summary, this book (as part of the overall The Five-Year Entrepreneur series) is for anyone who is, or who aims to become, an owner of a professional
services business and has a targeted intent to grow such a business in order to
potentially at least derive a personal wealth-creation point in the future.
The Five-Year Entrepreneur Series

The Five-Year Entrepreneur series is organised into four parts and contains 21
guidebooks that cover everything you need to know to create ownership wealth
in a professional service business.
The two guides in Part 1 (Understanding) show you the personal attributes
and commitment you will need for the journey ahead (Guide 01 Personal
Motivation and Circumstance) and the fundamental components of value in a
professional service business such that you can embed this knowledge in every
future, firm-growing decision you make thereafter (Guide 02 The Fundamental Components of Value).
In Part 2 (Planning), I introduce you to professional service business models
and describe the business planning you need to do at start-up and embed as a
critical, repeating capability thereafter (Guide 03 Business Planning). I also
look at how to optimally organise your business for growth and value (Guide
04 Business Organisation).
Part 3 (Building) is the heart of the series. Here you will find multiple guidebooks that describe at a practical level how to establish and manage all the
components of a well oiled professional service operation.
Finally, in Part 4 (Selling), three guidebooks will cover this pivotal phase on
the wealth creation journey in order that your firm is well presented to the market, the optimal deal is achieved for all involved parties and your wealth creation
goals are realised.
The overall series is as follows:
Part 1:
Understanding
Guide
Guide
Personal Motivation and Circumstance

The Fundamental Components of Value
Part 2:
Planning
Guide
Guide
Business Planning
Business Organisation
Part 3:
Building
Business Development
Guide
Guide
Guide
Guide
Management Information and Decision Making

Service Propositions and Thought Leadership
Marketing
Selling
Knowledge, Culture and Communications

Guide
Guide
Establishing a High-Performing Team

Knowledge Management and Intellectual Property
People/Talent Management
Guide
Guide
Guide
Guide
Talent management Recruitment to Exit

Continuous Professional Development
Building the HR Function
Developing the Leadership Team
Operations
Guide
Guide
Guide
Guide
Financial Control
Service Delivery and Quality Management Systems
IM/IS Capability
Estate/Office Management
Part 4: Selling
Guide
Guide
Guide
Preparing for the Firms Sale

The Sale Process
Post Sale and Beyond
Readers Note
The respective guides are being published as they are completed. As such, you
may have your hands on one of the early, foundation books with the remainder
of the series still to be written. Indeed, if this is the case, you can head to the
website (www.dommoorhouse.com) and influence the chronology in which the
remaining guides are produced.
Guide Elements
This series is designed for the time-poor. Whilst you will get most from it by
reading cover to cover (and any such investment in time to do so will be well
rewarded), it can also be dipped into as per your business challenge of the moment. However you approach it, each guide will have a consistent set of information blocks to further assist the rushed reader so you should look out for the
icons of each:
Aims:
Objectives you should achieve in reading this guide.
Top Tips:
Simple, practical guidance from the coalface.
Links to Resources/Tools:
References to relevant assets contained on the books website or links to
external resources.
Activity:
Signposts an activity you are recommended to undertake to cement your
knowledge or improve your business. These activities will be collated into the
guide checklist for summary reference.
Checklists:
A simple tick box list for those key things to do now.
Motivation Moment:
Quotes and anecdotes that teach or inspire.
Cautions:
Things to watch out for, traps to avoid.
Case Study Corner:
A relevant aspect of the Moorhouse story to illustrate a point.
As a minimum:
Final section giving you the least you need to know.
PLANNING
Cheshire Puss, she began, rather timidly, as she did not
at all know whether it would like the name: however, it
only grinned a little wider. `Come, its pleased so far,
thought Alice, and she went on. `Would you tell me,
please, which way I ought to go from here?
That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,
said the Cat.
Ì dont much care where ... said Alice.
`Then it doesnt matter which way you go, said the Cat.
`... so long as I get SOMEWHERE,
Alice added as an explanation.
Òh, youre sure to do that, said the Cat,
ìf you only walk long enough.
Lewis Carroll, Alices Adventures in Wonderland
GUIDE 03
Business Planning
AIMS
In this guide, you should aim to:

U Learn why having a plan, and a planning capability, is so
fundamental to your future business success.
U Leave with a sense of what the right balance is between
planning and doing.
U Develop a business planning process configured to work for you.
U Know what a good business plan looks like.
U Understand the fundamental role that leverage plays in a
professional service firm; identify the basic leverage model for
your venture such that it is designed into your plan.
U Leave with a plan for the plan!
Why Plan?
So, why plan?
Of course, there is the rather glib answer to this question of the he who fails
to plan, plans to fail variant. That said, an oft-voiced retort to this, purloined
from the military, would be no plan survives contact with the enemy. Or, put
another way, no plan survives the transition from conceptual conjecture to actual
engagement with the real world. So, are you better just to save the energy, potentially wasted in dreamy flights of fancy, and get on with the doing? Simply put,
no. Which is why the military, for example, who fully recognise that detailed
planning rarely goes to plan, also recognise, and invest large sums of money in,
the development of their planning capabilities. Why so? Well, because when the
fog of the real world is all around you, a key success factor is having a shared,
baseline understanding of your ultimate goals, your parameters for movement
and everyones roles and responsibilities. The value is not just in the bit of paper
BUSINESS PLANNING
you have labelled Plan but, rather, in all the preceding analysis, scenario/contingency planning and shared conversation that gets you to this point.
If I had to point to one, single determining factor as to whether a business
owner is going to achieve their goal of value release within a defined period of
time it would hinge on this whether they can point to an actual, shared plan.
Not a conceptual one in their head, or an un-captured set of discussions (that are
invariably remembered differently by everyone) but some actual documentation
of clear targets, timelines and responsibilities.
Frankly, it astounds me how many professional service firm owners particularly in the management consultancy field (who supposedly advise their clients on such matters) do not have this. It is, of course, no wonder that any
whimsical ambition they potentially have to release value in the coming years
rarely manifests. Whilst a positive response to the question Do you have a plan
describing how you are going to build and release value? is no guarantor of success, I can assuredly say that answering it in the negative is a near guarantee such
an event will never happen.
I am, however, still guilty of mild hyperbole here. Your time is precious so
you deserve to know the tangible reasons why it should be, partly at least, allocated to both planning and the ongoing development of a planning capability
within your forming team. I would cite the following reasons:
Foundation for Performance Management

First, and foremost, your plan should ultimately through structured analysis
and working get you to the point where you have clear targets. The most
important targets will be your financial ones specifically, though not solely,
revenue and profitability. Once set, these targets should be left alone for a concerted period of actual delivery, performance assessment and variance control.
Most companies will work on the basis of a main planning exercise annually
(with, say, a forward horizon of two to five years) with the potential to refresh
baseline targets quarterly if something truly anomalous comes along. It is only
with these clear targets, that you get practiced in the honest endeavour of measuring what you actually do such that you can compare it with your plan. It
is only, furthermore, in the honest conduct of this (plan cf. actual) comparison
that you can engage in, and continuously improve, the activity of analysing why
the difference came about and taking the decisions and actions, if there is a negative variance, to redress it. If you dont engage in this performance management
activity you will never get any good at it both from a forward forecasting perspective and an in flight correction perspective. Both are invaluable capabilities
within a successful business. In short, the first reason for planning is such that
you have a foundational baseline on which to assess, and continuously improve,
your own performance.
THE FIVE-YEAR ENTREPRENEUR
Team Motivation
The best professional services firms have an open, engaged culture where every
member of the team understands the firms vision, mission and objectives and
their contribution within this. You can only enable a positive psychological contract (or positive motivation over, and above, an actual employment contract)
with your colleagues if they can see the golden thread that coherently connects
their objectives and efforts with those, ultimately, of the firm. The best way to
bring this to life is to involve for as long as size allows the whole team in the
planning exercise. At the very least, in my opinion, everyone in your firm should
have possession of the plan. Only then do you have the potential to truly engage
their best labours in the prosecution of it. You have to remember that you seek
to attract the brightest, the most motivated, in your sector and such individuals
will not stay for long if your firm has no plan, or, has a plan but a culture that
keeps it hidden away in the owners drawer.
Recruitment
For all the reasons stated in the preceding paragraph, you will only attract the
best staff if you can demonstrate you have a pre-considered sense of what you
stand for and a clear direction of travel. In the early stages of start-up, there is
probably no better indication as to the mental faculty and intent of the leadership team (maybe just you for now) than this document. From my own experience, I certainly know that, in the early days, my initial plan was of huge value
in attracting the right calibre of person to join me. During this initial period
when you are a very small company you are almost inevitably in a hard-sell
mode as there is always wariness in the mind of the courted new joiner. They
are joining something small, untested, with manifest continuity and solvency
risk; more often than not, they will be leaving somewhere far more secure to do
so. The best way of persuading them you are serious, and likely to succeed, is to
share such a worked-up plan with them. In short, in the early days at least, a plan
is the best recruitment tool you can have.
Facilitates the Sale Process

Looking to the other end of the timeline as our ultimate goal is to keep the option of a value release point open you should envisage entering a competitive
bidding exercise at some point in the future. I will cover this in detail in Part , but
suffice to say now that an onerous component of this will involve putting together
a detailed Information Memorandum (IM) on your business. This document
will be scrutinised by potential acquirers of your firm who will have an insatiable
appetite for the detail that concerns your business operation and performance. In
many ways, the IM is an aggregation of your companys preceding business plans.
Even, however, with the existence of detailed, annually revised plans this is a very
BUSINESS PLANNING
time-consuming affair. Without pre-existing plans, it is a virtual non-starter. Just

believe me when I say you would not want to even enter this exercise, if you had
no pre-existing, related documentation to call upon.
Purchaser Due Diligence

Further to all these points, any serious, potential purchaser is clearly going
to want to evidence the management capability inherent within the business.
Again, there is no more potent evidence for such disciplines than that of a set
of well-structured, historical plans (used in the context of your performance
management processes). If this is coupled with evidence of a regular, well-run
planning process that involves your whole team thus securing their engagement you will tick a mighty big box in the buyers mind.
Psychology
I am no psychologist, but I would argue there is a tangible, motivational
value inherent in setting planned objectives. The classic self-help book PsychoCybernetics, written by Maxwell Maltz, set out this theory and it now forms the
basis of much self-help literature, personal development and elite athlete training
methods (, Psycho-Cybernetics Foundation). There is a real mindbody
connection, and potency, in visualising and documenting positive outcomes.
Developing a positive inner goal is the means to developing a positive outer goal.
Simply put, the better you are at visualising your business goals internally (with
all the conversations and contemplations that lead to plan creation), the more
chance you will have of outer (actual) success.
Planning versus Doing

Getting the Balance Right
Whilst I hope I have achieved my initial aim of convincing you that a plan is
necessary, there is perhaps a more interesting question of proportionality
here. That is, just how much time should be spent on this, how detailed a plan
do you need?
In giving guidance on this question, I want to look specifically at alternative
perspectives that can be erroneously and unhelpfully positioned as complete
counterpoints. Namely, the schools of lean thinking and agile development. The
former practice stems from the revolution that Taiichi Ohno and Shigeo Shingo
are credited with pioneering at Toyota. Simply put, it assigns as wasteful any activity that is not adding value to the end customer and ruthlessly seeks to locate and
remove such waste from the system of production. There are a number of lean
techniques to support this principle such as a real focus on engaging the knowl-
edge and creativity of your staff, just-in-time production and accelerated cycle
times. Agile development, which has its home in the software industry (but a wider applicability also), seeks to address the grand failures so frequently experienced
in this arena the build of monolithic software products that are over-budget,
late-to-market and ultimately not valued by their intended audience. It, rightly,
critiques the historical waterfall (big, sequential steps) method of software development as being a key contributor to such failures. In such a (waterfall) model,
plans feature large (but give false succour to the developer) and, in a worst case
parody, the approach is one of taking a gamble on a costly design stage up front
with minimal customer interaction involved. Agile, rather, focuses on the continuous, frequent, time-boxed iteration of software releases (built by self-organising,
cross-functional teams) in order to rapidly test-and-adjust any product to address
a customers actual, and potentially evolving, needs.
These schools of thought, and their related method progenies, are uncontroversially sound; they have, undoubtedly, been responsible for manifest advances
in productivity and entrepreneurial efficiency gains in recent years. Experience
has taught me, however, to be very wary of the methodology zealot who, with
near-religious fervour, argues that advocacy of such a method leads you to a
conclusion that business planning is completely nugatory (or, at an even more
extreme position, dangerous). This conclusion is profoundly wrong.
It is manifestly the case that the world is becoming increasingly complex,
more unpredictable and that change is the new order. A variant on that statement is the pass foreword to the average business article. The corollary is not,
however, a facile one of throw out all your plans, go agile. Protagonists of this
logic almost always either emanate from one blinkered-silo of a business (e.g.
software/product development) or are business-book authors seeking to sell a
deliberately edgy, bold, new approach to the world.
The answer, however, as is often the case, is that the reality is not so black and
white. To juxtapose the practice of sound planning with agile development (as
some type of ideological battle) is to falsely conflate management approaches that
are often operating at different levels, for different reasons. It is like the most grating case of a mixed-metaphor or, to strain a metaphor myself its worse than
comparing apples with pears; its akin to comparing apples with washing powder.
Rather, it is about recognising the different management domains in which
these respective methods best lie and the balance required in their optimal configuration. I would, for example, absolutely advocate a plan-centric approach to
your overall goal of building a successful business, but strongly commend you
also to lean thinking in relation to your operational processes and to an agile
mindset in the ongoing development of your services portfolio.
In relation to balance, your business plan, ultimately, has to be of sufficient
granularity to give you a meaningful sense of purpose and direction of travel but
BUSINESS PLANNING
not be so stiflingly granular that you cant pivot upon it at frequent intervals as
and when required to deal with the twists and turns of the real world.
In final analysis, entrepreneurship involves building an enterprise based on
human interaction. Such enterprises thrive when there are clear goals, efficient
processes and a management discipline. As trendy as it is to talk about a new
paradigm that throws out such concepts for the new order of the just wing it
school, I strongly encourage you to retain some perspective. It may not be a
popular view but entrepreneurism involves the balance of an unfettered, creative
spark along with real management disciplines (including planning). One without the other is a recipe for chaos.
What a Good Plan looks like

Of course, there is no definitive answer here, and its important you tailor this to
your own design, but by way of an illustration, the diagram below sets out the
key elements of a comprehensive business plan.
Later on in this guide, I am going to cover some of the key sections of this
illustrative plan. My intent, however, is only to do so at a high-level. There are
many excellent books focused on the topic of business planning and this is not
seeking to be one of them. Also, there is a risk this all becomes too prescriptive.
My aim, rather, is for you to finish this guide knowing how fundamental a plan
is to your wealth-creation ambition and having a sense of the aspects to consider
within such a planning exercise. Only you can then determine its actual structure, contents and the rigour you apply in its completion.
I should also say that getting this right from the start is critically important.
If you are in pre start-up mode, do not convince yourself to leave all this for
later; your time for such activity will only become increasingly sparse. Conversely, if you invest in quality thinking and planning up front it will pay real
dividends downstream. All subsequent reversions of your plan will then have a
quality document as their starting, reference point and you will soon, with
a few refresh iterations, have embedded a key discipline within your business.
ACTIVITY
If you are reading this pre start-up then get your diary out and if
not already done schedule a contiguous block of time to produce
this first plan. I say contiguous as you really need three to five days,
of uninterrupted time, to do this justice. From a future/wealth
creation perspective, it could well be the most important time
investment you will ever make!
Figure 3.1: Illustrative contents of a business plan
BUSINESS PLANNING
TOP TIPS
Developing a good business plan is assuming a number of core skills
from strategic analysis, marketing awareness, financial fluency etc.
No one is going to be an expert in all of these fields; indeed, one
of the positive features of running your own company is the intense
learning it encourages. Every day can feel like another day at the
bottom of a steep climb. That all said, you will do well to enter this
process with a working understanding of the fundamental areas.
If you are coming at this completely cold, start reading into entrylevel business strategy and the fundamentals of finance. Make sure
you have working knowledge of an office software tool suite (word
processor, presentation etc); most importantly for your plan get
very familiar with a spreadsheet application!
The Planning Process

Alas, the essential start-up plan is likely to involve just yourself as the sole author.
As your business grows, however, I am strongly advocating that you develop
a collaborative planning ethos and capability that includes your entire team.
Well coordinated, such an approach is eminently feasible even with large numbers of staff (certainly up to, say, eighty people). The fundamental value of this
exercise as I hope I am making clear now is all the shared discussion, alignment and buy-in that occurs as a function of this communal activity en route.
A plan will always need a final author, or a few controlling minds, to give it an
overall coherence and direction but, that said, this team approach is not just a
contrived hearts and minds exercise. Conversely, opening up the exercise to all
your colleagues will invariably broaden and enrich the idea generation (and the
quality of thinking overall) as well as priming the engagement levels needed to
deliver it.
Regardless, therefore, as to whether you are a singleton or eighty-strong, you
should seek now to configure and embed a repeatable planning process.
A simple way of coming at this is to agree the structure of your company plan
(as per the previous section). If you are more than a singleton, then allocate colleagues to different elements as fits their own interest and expertise. The process
of building the plan then consists of iterations of work done by these sub-teams
(to research, explore and propose sub-plans) with collective integrate and review sessions (as clearly the plan needs to work as a coherent, aggregate whole).
By way of illustration, in the early years at Moorhouse, the ME Team
(Finance, Business Planning and Management) owned the objective of build-
ing a planning capability and producing the annually revised plan. They would
initially develop a process and timeline by which everyone in the firm would be
allocated to a component of this exercise.
Typically, this would be a four-month exercise pivoting around our annual
out-of-country, team Escape (when all the preceding research and draft plans
would be brought together, discussed and refined collectively). Thereafter, the
final plan would be collated and reviewed by our Board for sign-off, baselining
and distribution. It should be noted that this was four months of elapsed time
with the actual work being very part-time and in the margins of client delivery
(for example, during end-of-the-day sessions back at the office).
The figures on the next page illustrate how we went about the decomposition of plan elements (assigned to sub-teams with a clear lead owner), and the
high-level timeline for bringing it all together, during an actual year of practice
at Moorhouse.
It is, perhaps, worth drawing out some elements of this process as per our
practice of it.
First of all, it did evolve; no one year was exactly the same. Rather, key
principles were maintained such as small-team project oversight, whole-team
involvement, clear pre-communication of elements and timeline, the bringing
together at the annual escape, firm-wide dissemination of plan etc.
You will also note, from the figure above, that we took the exercise right
down to a personal plan level. At our Escape event away from the distractions of everyday demands everyone was encouraged to revisit and make a
record of their personal objectives. We would encourage such exercises to be
holistic (career, health, personal development, relationships with family/friends
etc) and honest. With regards to career ambition, we celebrated the integrity of
everyones different ambitions; it didnt matter that Moorhouse might just be a
transient stepping stone along their professional journey. If, indeed, someone
said they wanted to set up their own business in due course, and that time with
Moorhouse was about learning the ropes, we would say great, join the business planning team to really get some insights that will be useful for you in this
future. This uncontrived, grown-up conversation meant that we were left with a
real understanding of how best to match people-to-task (minded of their talents
and ambitions).
Hopefully, you also spotted the key section focused on building our internal
capabilities as per my emphasis on these Multiple Enhancers in the previous
guide. Part of this series, Building, will give you all the ideas and insights you
need to populate these plans. Suffice to say in this section that everyone in the
firm was allocated to one of these project teams and charged with developing
their sub-plan (details on which I cover in the Strategy and Execution section
later in this guide).
BUSINESS PLANNING
Figure 3.2: Illustrative decomposition of a plan into key elements (assigned to team leads)
Figure 3.3: Illustrative plan-for-the-plan timeline
As we grew, so an organisational emphasis switched to industry sectors (e.g.

Government, Transport, Health, Pharmaceuticals, Financial Services etc). Planning by sector became essential and, accordingly, everyone in the firm was allocated to one such sector planning team. I would commend, however, that you
start with a narrow sector focus and only introduce this discipline when you
have built foundations.
So, in summary, this is all for you to configure. Firstly, nominate a team
to design and drive the process. Under your lead (this is one of the key efforts
you really shouldnt delegate not in the early years at least), design the plans
structure, decompose this into its key elements and allocate these out to wholefirm involvement. Typically, the business planning team might take on the core
sections (market/competitor analysis, financials etc) but everyone should play a
part in developing, say, sector and capability-build plans. Bring it all together at
a whole-firm communication event such that sub-plans can be peer-reviewed,
challenged and elements stitched together. Finally, time-box the whole process
such that the resultant plan has a defined start-point (clearly, it makes sense to
align this with your financial year).
ACTIVITY
If your business is up and running, take time (with senior colleagues
as relevant) to review your business planning process. Does it
inculcate ideas from across your firm? Does it engender collective
ambition and buy-in? Is it comprehensive enough to give rise to
meaningful action? Are the objectives SMART and, therefore, is
success measurable? Is it shared? If you are left with a residual sense
of we could do better then put corrections in train as this will be
one of the smartest things you ever do.
TOP TIPS
U Be really deliberate with the time-framing of your personal
ambition as to when you seek the option at least of a
potential value realisation point. When I penned my start-up
plan, I set this as a five-year-from-start objective and made it
an explicit firm goal (cf. a private one). Others will disagree
with my approach, but I wanted to share this with everyone
from the outset as I felt it would inculcate an open and
constructive internal dialogue and make any eventual pre-sale,
BUSINESS PLANNING
team conversations immeasurably easier. With my experience

of having done so, I would strongly commend this as the
optimal approach.
U As I hope you are gleaning from this guide, there is a great
benefit to be had in tasking small teams in the effort of
bringing your plan together. I always found that such teams,
populated with bright colleagues, needed only high-level
parameters in order to come back with some really inspirational
ideas and energy. One successful variant on this theme was our
concept of Explore Teams that we would initiate as part of the
market analysis. Essentially, if a market aspect really intrigued
us (say, working into sector X, or in country Y, or deploying
service Z) we would task an Explore Team with the open remit
of finding out as much as they could (primary and secondary
research) for a report back to the wider firm. Many of these
would lead to a not now conclusion but others were catalysts
for key moments of organisational development and growth.
U A great concept we often deployed during the planning
sessions of our company Escapes was that of the Market Fair
idea. For example, when we sought to bring back together all
of the sub-teams (e.g. ME Teams or Sector Teams) we would do
this in a marketplace setting. Essentially, we would take over a
large room and every team would lay out its stall with relevant
presentational materials. Keeping the desk manned at all
times, with at least one team member, everyone would just go
on a free-flow mingle around all the other tables. We would
often spice it up with some mild humour (fancy dress on
occasion) and competition, but the fundamental objective was
to maximise discussion and feedback such that all the plans
got reviewed, challenged, integrated with others and
improved. I recommend this as a far more interactive, fun and
beneficial approach than the standard Death by PowerPoint
variant.
CAUTION
A fascinating area of modern research concerns the psychology of
decision making and all the mental traps that abound in this area
the sunk cost trap, the anchoring trap, the confirmation trap etc.
One such trap I really want to draw your attention to in the

context of overdone plans is that of cognitive dissonance. In this
setting, it can refer to the total blindness planners can experience
when assumptions wired into their analysis and plans manifestly no
longer match the real world. The more time invested in the plan,
the more detailed the plan, the more resistant the author will be to
accepting the brutal reality that the real world has just moved on
the plan no longer has value. They simply cannot bring themselves
to accept that the time spent building the beautiful plan was in vain.
In worst case, they just plough on regardless towards their inevitable
corporate self-destruction.
Again, this is a caution to get the balance right but, also, to always
remember your susceptibility to this psychological frailty; few are
immune from it. The best way to guard against it is to have critical
friends within your top team (ideally, objective non-executive
directors) who constantly challenge assumptions and lay brutal
counterpoints down at your feet. Never, ever, court sycophants or
colleagues too timid to challenge forming plans as this is a recipe
for cognitive dissonance on a messy scale.
If this area interests you and I can strongly recommend it as
an invaluable area of management knowledge, you cant do much
better than reading the works of Daniel Kahneman (Nobel Memorial
Prize in Economics) and his collaborator, Amos Tversky. They are the
recognised experts in this field.
TOP TIPS
A military planning concept that has relevance in both business and
sport is that of Mission Command; it is a doctrine used by many
NATO forces. Essentially, it advocates decentralising freedom of
action to the lowest level possible right down to each individual.
The key principle here is that everyone understands not only their
own mission but also the mission of the commanders one, and
two, levels up (such that their tasking has context and they know
the ultimate ends being sought). Once this is understood, the idea
then is to impose the minimum amount of detail as sufficient to
facilitate a safe coordination between autonomous units in order
to maximise the freedom of decision-making on the ground. In
summary, you communicate what is to be done, the resources
available and the context in which they have to do it but not how
they do it.
BUSINESS PLANNING
The ethos translated to that of the business world is to set

outcome-based objectives for teams and individuals but not to
prescribe how they get there and to be clear about how team goals
nest into those of the overall company. Done with the right touch
this engenders the flair and imagination of everyones talents.
And, it translates to the sports field also. Years ago, I was part
of a Royal Marines team that hosted the England Rugby Team
then being coached by Sir Clive Woodward. Sir Clive sought for
us to get this principle across to his elite squad; the idea being
that when the game plan goes awry in the heat and intensity of an
actual international match, individuals and teams-within-the-team
have a mental robustness and flexibility that enables them to
adapt-and-adjust as per this ethos. Successful? Well, maybe, only
he can answer that; but, I would like to think that, in a very small
way, that training camp was a contributory step in their journey to
becoming world champions in 2003.
CASE STUDY CORNER
Dream like a Visionary, Plan like a Pedant

I have always put stock in the power of the plan. Not in any over-zealous way
but, I think subconsciously, as a counter-weight to my natural proclivity to meander in the absence of one. I can still remember sitting lonesome on a large
boulder in the Zimbabwe bush in the early s, for some time, looking wistfully into a sunset and sketching out some goals for my twenties. Indeed, this
exercise probably set me on the path to joining the Royal Marines.
On leaving the military, minded of the risk of being bewildered by the opportunities outside, I did a similar exercise. Nothing drastic but a few evenings
spent penning a fifteen-page plan outlining what was important to me, my key
personal values, what I wanted to do, where I wanted to live, key milestones
I wanted to aim for etc. The resultant plan would go away in the drawer and
maybe get re-examined once or twice a year; notwithstanding, its an excellent
tool that nags away at your subconscious and keeps you more honest to your
ambitions that you perhaps otherwise might be. I thoroughly recommend such
a device to you. Especially as the brutal reality is that most people spend more
time planning their summer holidays than they do their own careers or life journeys. Clearly, such a personal device is not about planning out the magical serendipity that life actually serves up; rather, you will be amazed at how much
circumstantial fortune comes your way when you have set some purposeful,
indicative tramlines.
Anyway, I digress within the personal plan I wrote on leaving the Royal
Marines, I stated an intent to lead my own business within five years. As per my
commentary in Guide , I concluded with an initial self-awareness that
this was ample time to acquire the relevant commercial skills (including finishing a distance-learning MBA I had embarked on), experiences and networks I
so lacked at that point. Three years in to this, I knew it was time to get serious
about setting off on my own. The plan in the drawer kept me honest to this
intent; helpfully so, as its so easy for years to go quickly by, and dreams to fade,
in the face of the incessant demands of the day.
I was working long days at Deloitte Consulting at the time so I decided
to book a week off work. It was late . In the tiny confines of my attic office
(just large enough for a single desk but you couldnt stand up), I sketched out
the plan for a new professional services firm (as per the recommended business
plan structure I have laid out for you) and methodically worked my way through
the logic of this process. I researched the market and the competitive landscape;
there was something interesting going on in the US at the time with a number
of smaller, niche companies starting up in the area of programme management.
I was confident the UK would follow suit; the government was investing significant monies in major public sector reform and the economy generally was on
the ascendancy. There was evidentially a growing demand for specialists in this
area. I set out a vision (to be the premier programme management specialist
consultancy in the UK), a three-fold mission statement and a set of clear objectives. The process of articulating these thoughts was exhilarating and daunting
in equal measure. The confidence would occasionally wobble as I recognised the
brazen ambition; I was sketching out in some detail what a successful firm would
look like in three to five years hence and here I was on my own, in a cramped
room without a single client! But believe me it is amazing what can awaken
when you render the ambition with more and more levels of conceptual detail.
I worked through the leverage model I would need, the services I could provide
and really importantly the values and principles we should stand for. Finally,
I worked through the financial plans and a risk analysis. After five constructive
days, in pages, I had put real dimension to the ambition.
As an aside, I realised a couple of days into this process that I really needed
a company name in order to be able to open bank accounts, commence the
incorporation process etc. I did the usual one-man brainstorm. I recollect shouting down the stairs, at sporadic intervals, a stream of suggestions to my wife. She
hollered curtly back to the effect that I was still some way wide of the mark. The
clock ticked down against a self-imposed deadline. With a stack of suggestions
(rightly) rejected, and minutes to go, I opted for the surname. I was fortunate
in having a name that felt reasonably solid and wasnt already taken. Through a
BUSINESS PLANNING
Figure 3.4 - The cramped office (through the round window) where I penned the start up plan. I subsequently
named it the Business Studio to give our first company premise some gravitas!
complete dearth of imagination and a lack of time, Moorhouse (the firm) was
born.
The next step with my start-up plan was to share it with a few trusted friends
and advisors. This led to some minor amendments but, primarily, to a reinforcement of the confidence this exercise had given me. It was time to set a date for
setting off on this journey and to serve my notice to my employer which I did
almost immediately after.
I hope you have gleaned from my description of the planning process, that
as soon as a team started to grow around me, planning then became a deliberate,
collective effort. In this regard, I cant emphasise enough the importance of taking some quality time out to do this justice. In Guide , I will talk in detail
as to how the Moorhouse Escapes were so essential to the development of the
firm in many aspects. One such critical aspect was the time taken, away from
distractions, to engage everybody in the company in a conversation about where
we had been and where we were heading. Essentially, to collectively review and
reset the company plan. These events became increasingly costly (not least from
a consideration of opportunity revenue foregone) but, from the perspective of
gaining firm-wide alignment to the next twelve months of ambitious targets, the
investment was always repaid many, many times over.
Figure 3.5 - As important as why you plan, is how (and where) you plan. A planning sub-team hard at it during
one of our company escapes (in the Atlas Mountains).
LINKS TO RESOURCES/TOOLS
Books on start-up business planning abound. Whilst I certainly
havent reviewed them all, one that I personally found useful is The
Definitive Business Plan (Richard Stutely, 1999, Prentice Hall/Financial
Times). I strongly recommend this to anyone seeking a user-friendly,
comprehensive companion to the process.
On a related point, a business plan is (as I explained earlier) a key
communications tool. Like any such product your company develops,
especially so client documentation, its effectiveness is a factor of how
well you structure your argument and present your data.
In this regard, I thoroughly recommend the following books,
and authors, as key protagonists in this often poorly done area.
Taking an interest in such work, and encouraging your colleagues
to do similar, will lead to more impactful communications generally.
And, what better place to start this pursuit of excellence, than with
your inaugural company plan?
BUSINESS PLANNING
Book
Why useful/relevant?
Publication details
The Minto
Pyramid
Principle
A classic text in relation to

how to structure any business
writing. Provides a clear, logical
approach as to the structuring
of the content of a professional
argument/report.
Barbara Minto, ,
Minto International
How to make
an Impact
This book focuses not on the

structure/flow of your work but
on how you present information.
It is full of ideas as to how to
present and format information
so as to make it clear and
impactful.
Jon Moon, ,
Prentice Hall/Financial
Times
The Visual Display

of Quantitative
Information
Voted one of the best nonEdward R. Tufte, ,

fiction books of the th century, Graphics Press LLC
this is a beautiful book. Perhaps
best placed on the coffee table,
it is one of the classic references
as to how quantitative information should (and should not) be
displayed.
Information is
Beautiful
Like Tufte, McCandless is

another masterful exponent of
information visualization, that is
using innovative visuals to better
see and understand information.
Like Tuftes classic, this is not
a reference guide per se; just a
beautiful book to own.
David McCandless,
, Collins
Table 3.1 : Some recommended books on the topic of impactful communications
TOP TIPS
If you havent already done so, how about starting your firms
professional library (or even one in your own study/home)? What
about, as a starter wish-listing some of these recommendations
with your favoured book store and dropping some unsubtle hints to
friends and family as your birthday or Christmas comes around.
Professional Service Leverage Models

The following guide is going to look at best practice models of organising a
professional services firm. There is one aspect of professional service firm organisation, however, that is so fundamental to your forming growth plans that I need
to cover it in detail here; it is the topic of leverage. As touched on in Guide ,
this is the factor that dictates the shape of your organisation the ratio of junior,
middle and senior staff in your firm.
As a prelude to a more detailed case study we will now consider the basic
leverage models for professional service firms. Regardless of the type of service
you aim to provide, a premeditated consideration of your firms target leverage
model is of critical importance to all aspects of your business planning.
This shape is primarily determined by the skill/experience requirements of
the work that you typically undertake. There are three simple leverage model
categories you may have heard reference to: Brains, Grey Hair and Procedural.
In the former (Brains), the clients problem will be of an extremely technical,
esoteric nature. A professional service business that operates under this model sells
itself on the basis of exemplar technical competence; essentially, its message is hire
us, because we are smart. Brain projects, commensurately, typically involve bespoke solutions developed by a few highly skilled (and paid) professionals. Whilst
there may be some scope for junior-staff activity (data collection/analysis etc), the
ratio of junior/middle-level-staff to senior-staff time tends to be very low.
Grey Hair projects conversely involve less one-off innovation; the general
nature of the client issue is something that has been seen before by the firms
staff even if some of the specifics are, invariably, unique. The client is seeking out
a firm with relevant experience as opposed to super-smarts. A grey hair model
requires the firm to sell its knowledge and client delivery track record; essentially
its message to market is hire us because we have done this before. As there is a
degree of pre-familiarity in this work, this model allows for more middle-level
and junior staff into the leverage structure.
Finally, the Procedural project is one that involves a familiar client problem; the solution to which can be fairly systemised. Whilst they will still require
BUSINESS PLANNING
bright people, these types of projects can be staffed by high numbers of juniors
(who have learnt the procedures) under relatively light levels of senior supervision. An example of such a project might be the configuration, and roll-out, of
an enterprise software solution. Essentially, its message to the market is hire us,
because we can deliver this effectively. Such firms can be very highly leveraged.
Characteristic
Brains
Grey Hair
Procedural
Clients
problem
Extreme complexity
at forefront
of professional
knowledge.
Diagnosis intensive.
Not unfamiliar Well-recognised

and familiar type
of problem.
Execution Intensive.
Key elements Pioneering,

of professional creative,
service
innovative.
Client requires
someone who
has been there
before.
Programmatic.
Client may be able
to perform but lacks
resources.
Professional
sell
Hire us because we
are smart.
Hire us because
we have been
through this
before.
Hire us because we
know how to do this
and can deliver it
effectively.
Types of
professional
Highly skilled;
highly paid. Few
qualified
vendors.
Experienced.
Many qualified
vendors.
Project types
Each project
is a one off.
Most projects
have
precedents.
Highly repetitive
projects.
Fees
High fees.
Middle range.
High fee sensitivity.
Characteristic
Brains
Grey Hair
Procedural
Leverage
ration (ratio
of junior to
senior time)
Low
Medium
High
Examples
McKinsey
Capita
Accenture
Table 3.2: - The three types of professional service leverage model
As I mentioned in the previous guide, one of your first important points of

understanding is to assess what type of project work you seek to deliver.
Economically, you should seek to make your firm as highly leveraged as realistic
delegation can allow for but no more. The challenge is to match an estimate
of your typical clients need with the skills/experience available to you. To
undershoot or overshoot on this is equally unwelcome. By example, the figure
below shows these two consequences. In the first, the work is too procedural for
the leverage structure in place; the consequence: an under utilisation of senior
staff. In the second, there is a lack of qualified staff to undertake the work; the
consequence: serious quality and client dissatisfaction issues are likely to arise.
Figure 3.6: Examples of leverage mismatch
So, getting this right is key at the planning stage. You should also consider this
important topic through the lens of future joiners to your firm. Whilst there are
many different ways of dividing up the grade levels there are always three broad
classes as already touched on senior, middle-level, junior. Or, to use common
parlance, the finders, minders and grinders in the business.
Professional development and career progress in a professional service firm
typically works on a craftsmanapprenticeship model with the senior finders
repaying the junior grinders for their hard work by teaching them their craft.
Junior and middle-level members will be willing to put in this effort in return
BUSINESS PLANNING
for fulsome professional reward (client work, remuneration, training) in the moment and opportunities for promotion in the future. Your promotion regime,
therefore, becomes a critical element of this leverage planning especially so in
relation to how long you see a typical member staying at each level, and, the
probability of someone making the next. Clearly, promotion in a higher leveraged business (higher ratio of juniors to seniors) is going to be more competitive
than in a lower leveraged business. I will cover promotion systems in more detail
in Guide ; suffice to say here that you need to strike the balance between (a)
not promoting too quickly (as this can quickly damage your leverage shape and
result in under-developed staff in critical client roles) and (b) not making the
process so onerous that your best staff eventually seek more ascendant opportunities elsewhere. This is all part of the mix of leverage planning.
Finally, to reinforce the point, leverage is central to your profitability. The
more you can do to deliver your services with a higher proportion of junior to
senior staff, the lower your effective hourly rate is going to be (i.e. an efficiency
you can pass onto your client) and the greater the profit per owner figure. In
short, dont skip the thinking, and planning, required to get this right!
TOP TIPS
I would strongly encourage you to keep your grade/level structure
simple in terms of the number of levels. Organisations with deep
hierarchies tend to be bureaucratic and obsessed with grade status;
at the very least, you introduce a level of complication in your own
systems (and, more importantly, in your clients mind) for every new
level you introduce. At Moorhouse, we kept it really simple. We
had four levels the directors of the business along with Principals,
Managers and Senior Consultants (our junior/entry level).
CASE STUDY CORNER
Leverage at Moorhouse A Worked Example

I have, hopefully, got across to you just how central the concept of leverage is in
your forming plans it impacts how you serve your clients, how your team will
grow and, fundamentally, your potential profitability.
Perhaps the best way to step you through the process of actually planning
your leverage structure is to take you through a worked example of my attempt at this when I penned my original start-up plan.
First off, against the three types of client service work I have just described, I
envisaged that Moorhouse would be best structured along the grey hair variant.
I was positioning the firm to be the preferred partner of a client seeking support
in complex, large-scale transformation programmes. Such work required experienced practitioners first and foremost.
Next, I conjectured that a typical grey hair client project (for example, the
establishment of a programme management office for a client) could feasibly be
structured as follows:
Level
Level Characteristics
Average Project Requirements
Principal
Graduate with previous

(c.1012 years) consulting
experience.
x Principal
Manager
Graduate with previous (c.

years) consulting experience;
typically spend c. years at
this level. promoted to
next level.
x Manager
Senior
Consultant
Graduate with previous (c.

years) consulting experience;
typically spend c. years at
this level. promoted to
next level.
x Consultants
Table 3.3: Conjectured staff structure and typical project shape 2
This structure was also grounded in a desire to grow an organisation that was
relatively flat (i.e. only three levels initially) and with a clear promotion path
through it. This latter concept was key in terms of attracting, and motivating,
the requisite calibre of colleague I sought.
Next, I needed to consider target utilisation for each level; this resulted in the
following proposal:
BUSINESS PLANNING
Level
Target Utilisation
Justification for Deficit
Principal
50%
50% business development
Manager
70%
20% training delivery; 10% self-development
Senior
Consultant
80%
10% training delivery; 10% self-development
Table 3.4: Proposed utilisation targets for each level 3
With these organisational design parameters set, I could estimate that to run,
say, four consecutive projects, would require the following staffing composition:
Level
Average Project
Requirements
Target Utilisation
Levels
Staff Required to
Run 4 Projects
Principal
Manager
(.)
Senior Consultant
Table 3.5: Indicative staff breakdown (to run four consecutive projects)
This gave me an indicative leverage structure of Principal: . Managers: .

Senior Consultants.
I knew then that to attract the right calibre of staff (i.e. consultants motivated
to progress through this business structure), I needed to ensure that the promotion timetable was achievable. This, in turn, demanded a certain level of firm
growth to allow for these professional development opportunities. Indeed, this
is a fundamental aspect of a professional service business. Growth per se does not
lead to greater profitability (if the same owner-to-staff leverage structure is maintained). Growth is, however, a pre-requisite if talented staff are to be attracted to,
and rewarded within, your firm.
I moved next, therefore, to how this structure could be developed, with
initial block recruitment in year two and subsequent recruitment/promotion

along the lines presented. The numbers against the arrows show the transfer
between levels of promotees.
Table 3.6: Indicative staff growth profile (target)
Clearly, such an initial model was a simplification (for example it did not account for any staff attrition or at least assumed any such staff loss would be
regained in year) and was predicated on revenue growth opportunities being
secured from the off (significantly so in year two). Notwithstanding all this, it
provided an invaluable reference baseline.
Flowing this leverage logic through, the pyramid below shows how I wanted
Moorhouse to look in our year five.
All this planning was based on client service practitioners solely; I projected
also a requirement for a supporting infrastructure team (envisaged as c. staff).
This then was the organisation growth schedule that predicated much of the
financial analysis of my original plan. It is a form of internal, bottom-up logic;
that is you are designing growth as a function of what it needs to look like to
sustain the right level of service for your intended clients, the right level of career
development for your future colleagues, and, the right levels of overall profitability. Self-evidently, this all needs to be pressure tested against a top-down
analysis (is there sufficient demand?) before you become settled with it; notwithstanding, it is absolutely critical you plan with these leverage dynamics in mind.
And, how did we fare against this plan? Well, we smashed these projections.
I arrived at the year five projection at the end of year two! I make this point,
however, not to undermine my point about planning but to reinforce it. Without such foundation planning, I wouldnt have had a target to march towards
or a leverage design to manage to. I doubt whether the best of my team would
have been sufficiently attracted to the firm in the first place if this form of career
development planning was not in evidence. Indeed, we may well have misfired
on the client delivery side of the equation had this been poorly thought through.
In summary, leverage planning was key and it sits at the heart of your forward
success too.
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Figure 3.7: Illustrative schematic of Moorhouse Consulting at year five client serving staff
Key Plan Element Vision,

Mission and Objectives
This should be a key element of your plan. You may use alternative labels (dont
allow yourself to get too hung up on terms used) but visionmissionobjectives
(VMO) describes a coherent hierarchy, or flow, from a longer term, aspirational
image to the SMART targets of here and now.
Taking each in turn. Your vision statement sits at the top of your strategic planning process. It should be a short, captivating statement that articulates the
idealised end point you seek. It might describe the
desired state of the business at this point, the client
situation or, indeed, the world in which it operates.
It should be long-term, emotive and designed to be a
source of energy and inspiration. Good vision statements will leave some room for individual interpretation and be of a quality that always seeks for you to
reach beyond your everyday grasp.
A mission statement is more grounded, in that
it should describe the fundamental purpose of your
organisation; that is, why it exists and what it does to
achieve its vision. To be successful and enduring, a
professional service firm must ultimately serve three
key constituencies: its owners, its clients and its people. As such, professional service firm mission statements invariably have three dimensions facing each:
Figure 3.8: Vision, Mission
and Objectives
Figure 3.9: The three-fold dimensions of a typical mission statement
Finally, objectives. I commend you to have a balanced set that addresses all of
your three core constituencies, but keep it simple; certainly no more than eight.
These objectives need to be SMART as they are the items you measure and analyse obsessively asking yourself: did you achieve them, if not why not, what
lessons were learned in the process, how can you improve performance in this
objective area? In that this objective planmeasureanalyselearn cycle is core to
any successful business, so taking your time in this first objective-setting iteration is time very well spent.
By way of illustration, the next Case Study Corner looks at a typical cascade
of visionmissionobjectives. It should go without saying, however, that this
thinking needs to be tailored to, and owned by, you (and your team).
CASE STUDY CORNER

VMO at Moorhouse
The visionmissionobjective cascade for Moorhouse would be revisited annually during our planning round. Its format, as of the inaugural start-up plan, was
structured along the lines shown below (clearly, with actual numbers!). Over
time the objective set evolved but there was a key principle to have no more than
eight primary corporate objectives such that we didnt dilute our attention away
from core items.
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Figure 3.10: VMO at Moorhouse (with illustrative objectives)
ACTIVITY
Crafting your objectives will take some time; ultimately, they are derived from your Strategy and Execution section and your supporting analysis (market, competitor, financial). It is possible, however, to
frame the Vision and Mission(s) of your forming company early on.
Have a first attempt at doing so now and take a note of it.
Key Plan Element Values and Principles

A professional service firm will live or die on the strength of the culture it has;
fundamentally, one of the challenges you are taking on is a human one that of
building a high-performing team. At the heart of this effort, sit the firms values
and principles; that is, what you stand for, your behavioural code.
The distinction between the two is that values underpin principles; that is,
values will be ideals you hold true, whereas a principle is closer to being a pragmatic guide to action (based on one or more values). In the first instance, you
will probably just want to communicate the core values that sit at the heart of
your persona and ambition; principles can evolve from there. I suggest no more
than five values and no more than eight subsidiary principles. A good test as to
whether you have too many, down the line, is to ask a colleague if they know
what they are!
Guide will cover this aspect in some detail; suffice to say here, this is far
more than a set of words on paper. Anybody can post a shopping list of platitudes on their office wall or website. It is also really important that such items are
forged from collective discussion as opposed to being mandated from the top.
That all said, you as the leader of the business have a priority voice. They have
to be values and principles you personally care about and live to; else, people
will quickly see the sham that is the gulf between espoused rhetoric and actual
behaviour. At start-up, it is important, therefore, that you put thoughtful, initial
voice to this. What do you want your firm to stand for? Your clients, and future
colleagues, will want to know this.
Try also to be different. This is not always easy as, clearly, many values are
universally sought integrity, collaboration etc. So, dont sweat uniqueness at
the altar of relevance and authenticity; far better that your values are heartfelt
than innovative for the sake of differentiation. Its just that when they are heartfelt, and unique, something very special starts to form.
ACTIVITY
During your next bath soak, spend a while pondering what you
believe in; often these beliefs sit so deep inside us, you take them
so for granted, that you do actually need to pause and reflect to
pull them up to the surface. List ten such items, then strike off the
one that you would drop if you had to reduce the shortlist to nine.
Repeat this, slowly, until you reduce the set to, say, your top four.
Then go about trying to put your initial words to these values what
do they look like in practice and why is it important that your firm
embodies them?
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Key Plan Element

Service Proposition Framework
Another crucial area of pre-consideration obviously is the services you plan
to offer. This will be the subject of Guide . As your successful firm grows and
develops, so your service propositions will, inevitably, grow and adapt also. This
is less, therefore, about defining a static offering but more about the initial foundation suite on which your companys core, early marketing messages are based.
The skill in this regard is to address the question through the eyes of your potential clients; to have real proximity and empathy with the client requirement
you meet, the anxiety you help salve, in the context of their situation, constraints
and language. Language is really important. You have to be able to communicate
your services in a form that is meaningful to them.
The other key skill here is that of structural design and formatting. Probably,
you have the potential to offer an array of services but do you package this as one
holistic offering or a set of twenty, modular items? This is worth some thought.
I would encourage you to provide some decomposition as this, clearly, increases
both the choice a client has and the chance of a connection moment (when they
see/read/hear about your services and it really resonates with their situation). Too
much breakdown and you risk confusing your audience; they might not be able to
see the wood for the trees. What exactly do these guys and girls stand for?, they
will ask. Similarly, if the development of your services becomes too wide, and you
are perceived as offering all things to all people you will quickly lose your audience. Clients value specialism. In some instances, as scale demands, the big client
might seek the big firm that can offer the one-stop shop set of services across the
globe. The market is very wary, however, of the small start-up that seeks to project
an over-blown, bland, generalist statement of this ilk. By structure, I also mean
that your services are best presented within an overall narrative or framework
which makes sense to your potential client base. For example, you provide a number of services mapped to the start-to-finish lifecycle of a typical client situation
(e.g. diagnosis, solution development, solution build, capability development/
handover etc); alternatively, they might be mapped to different industry sectors
(e.g. accountancy support for veterinary practices, accountancy support for dentists etc) or just represent a coherent set of related skills (e.g. brand strategy, brand
development, web design/build and digital marketing).
So, in summary, this section of your plan should put forward a digestible,
relevant set of services within a rational, easily communicable framework. A
good way of presenting the specific service modules is to capture for each:
t The typical client anxiety/need you are addressing.

t The actual service proposition that addresses this.
t Potential resources/tools/IP used in the service.
t Description of what a typical service intervention might look like.
t The benefits for a client who experiences this service.
ACTIVITY
Before you embark on this element of your plan, have a really good
look around competitors websites with a sharp pencil to hand (and,
indeed, other service companies in completely different fields). Find
some you really like where there is a clear, compelling description
of the services offered and take note of their structure and
description. I am not advocating you mimic, rather that you glean
sound design principles and ideas on which your unique proposition
can be based. Even better, speak to some potential clients and ask
them what key challenges they have, what support services they
recognise and value.
This is a large area. We havent touched on the related aspects of your service
delivery model (how you take such services to market) or pricing. Lets leave that
for Guide . Notwithstanding, if you leave this guide with a crisp, clear view
of your initial presentation of services captured in your plan you will be far
ahead of many start-ups.
Key Plan Element

Market and Competitor Analysis
If you have got this far with your ambition, you clearly have an intuitive belief,
at least, that your firms offering is competitive. That is, there is a need for it and
you can offer a more compelling alternative to the market in this regard than any
incumbent, or future, competitor.
All entrepreneurs will carry this belief as a given. However, before you waste
any further precious time, money and emotion on a hunch remind yourself of
the chasm between belief and knowledge. Whilst beliefs can potentially be true,
BUSINESS PLANNING
by accident; knowledge is justifiable, or reasoned, true belief. Without getting

too philosophical here (epistemologists argue as to whether true knowledge can
ever exist!), I am just making the point that your great adventure should be
predicated closer to the knowledge end of the continuum than the hunch end!
To assuage yourself (and others, e.g. future firm joiners) that you are onto
something you really need to address two key question areas:
. How big is the potential market for my services (is it growing/shrinking)?
. How can I compete successfully against market competitors?
In relation to the first question, you should look at the macro (economic trend
data) as well as the micro (will there be enough potential clients in my immediate vicinity seeking my services?). For a small start-up, it is easy to buck
the macro if the micro is sound but you should be minded of it nonetheless.
Most service areas will have professional representative, or members associations, undertaking regular research in this area so shop around for a relevant,
contemporary report. You should also do your own strategic analysis here; what
trends do you see, what does an extrapolation of this trend do to market need,
and, what are the opportunities/threats implicit in this?
In relation to the second question, I encourage you to also examine it both
broadly (the types, or classes, of firms you will compete against) and specifically
(the actual companies you will compete against). For the first part, you should
take a forming view as to how the market is divided up, is it highly consolidated
(around a few key players) or fragmented? You need to have a handle on this, to
understand whether you are different, disruptive or likely to be successful. For
the second part, endeavour to get as rich a dataset as possible. Clearly, the web is
an excellent resource here (competitor websites etc) but seek also to find relevant
surveys and reports. You ideally want to list all your key competitors (within a
certain, relevant space at least) and capture their revenue size/growth and key
service attributes. What will make you different and more relevant to certain
clients? Which firms do you admire and seek to match/better in due course?
From this analysis, you are drawing out your chances of success. Indeed,
better to abandon, or re-cast, your plans at this point if the data points to a
declining, over-populated market. Hopefully, however, it puts substance to your
hunch and sets you up nicely for your next key planning consideration how
to optimally pursue the opportunities you have spotted.
ACTIVITY
Have a search online for surveys and reports relevant to this analysis.
Some may only be accessible to members of a relevant professional
association. Maybe now is the time to subscribe?
Key Plan Element

Strategy and Execution
After market and competitor analysis, you should be in a position to determine
how you best obtain competitive advantage over others. Competitive advantage
can be sourced in multiple areas your service offering, your service style, geographic reach, industry expertise, relationships, proprietary tools/methodologies, recruitment/training strategy, pricing etc. The list is long.
This part of the plan is for you to describe a business strategy or the stepping
stones you seek to traverse in relation to the establishment and ongoing build of
competitive advantage. Another way of looking at it is to describe the capabilities you seek to explore initially, and then build upon, to grow your business.
Three primary dimensions of this question are: services offered, client sectors
you specialise in and geographic reach. As such, your plan could seek to give
initial definition to how you see your firms footprint develop across these dimensions. For example, in phase one you might envisage the provision of a basic
set of services to sector x in geography y; you might then envisage the logical
progression to be sector expansion in the same geographic market or, perhaps,
you reason that competitive advantage will come more from being a specialist in
sector x but this is easily developed in terms of geographic expansion. The point
of this plan is not to give you an immutable roadmap, but rather an intelligent
sense of direction around which you can assess, review and pivot in the future.
Remember, though, all the other potential dimensions of competitive differentiation and advantage. Where there are service delivery aspects that you plan
to accentuate over and above the competition then use this part of the plan to
describe how you will do so. Often, your differentiation will only come about as
a combination of these elements so it is important you consider them all.
As your firm grows and matures, so you will need to give more thought to
how your business development capability (marketing and selling) is going to
continue to develop and excel in terms of organisation, reward mechanisms,
capability development programmes, potential partnering etc.
Of course, as well as being competitively differentiated, this part of your plan
should also focus on building all the solid components of a sound operation.
Step-by-step you need to develop the operational capability areas that are such a
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significant aspect of any ultimate valuation on your business the Multiple Enhancers (MEs). There is little point in having a brilliant service proposition in a
growing market, if the basic infrastructure of your firm is unable to support and
sustain it. As I mentioned in the Planning Process section, we would have planning sub-teams covering each of these ME dimensions. This level of detail can
evolve as your firm grows (an inaugural plan clearly has to delimit its ambition
in this area to the resources immediately available to it). In the fullness of time,
however, you should expect such ME Plans to detail the following aspects:
t Team (and lead person).
t Current situation.
t Recognised best practice description of any benchmark organisations or
exemplar practices.
t Objectives and budget SMART targets (with particular focus on forthcoming financial year).
t Targeted End State a description of the intended capability (say, for
example, at the time you are targeting for a sale).
Finally, the objectives you laid out in the VisionMissionObjectives part of the
plan should be directly linked to this strategy. Essentially, achievement (or not)
of the objectives you set should be the critical test as to whether you have been
successful in your stated, strategic intent.
CAUTION
Your Strategy and Execution section describes some of the
most critical thinking, and planning, you need to do pre start-up
(and beyond as it is a topic in constant review). It is a huge area
of its own; a topic on which I could not possibly provide a truly
comprehensive guide. Rather, in the preceding section, I seek for
you to acknowledge the type of thinking that is involved here and
the importance of capturing some initial analysis and intent.
If you really dont know where to start here, a classic (albeit very
heavy) text is Robert M. Grants Contemporary Strategy Analysis
(1999, Blackwell Business). Alternatively, this is where an experienced
non-executive director, or business mentor, can add their weight in
gold as somebody to bounce ideas off.
Key Plan Element Financial Analysis

This section of your plan brings together multiple strands and is where it all becomes grounded in the reality of money. Over the horizon of your plan, broken
down by sub-period (e.g. monthly for first year, then annually thereafter), it
should include projections of:
t Sales (and Cost of Sales).
t Capital Spending.
t Operating Costs.
t Profit and Loss (P&L) Account (including net profit per owner estimates).
t Balance Sheet.
t Cash Flow and Funding Requirements (see next section also).
t Valuation.
Taking each in turn:
Sales (and Cost of Sales)

As your firm grows, so the sophistication, and accuracy, of your sales forecasting
should grow. Even in the first iterations, however, it should be predicated on
some set of probability-weighted assumptions concerning the number of client
engagements you can win (top-down analysis) or the size of firm, and utilisation levels, you can match work to (bottom-up analysis). This coupled with a
proposed rate card, and year-on-year growth targets, gets you to the headline
revenue estimates. Remember that your sales will, invariably, be also affected by
a seasonality, so make sure you factor this in. You should also, in this section,
calculate the Cost of Sales; that is the salary (plus on cost) of the billed staff in
each period to arrive at your Gross Profit and Gross Profit figures.
Capital Spending
Most professional service businesses have minimal capital outlay; certainly so in
the formation years. There will, inevitably, be some such as: office infrastructure,
IT equipment, capitalised start-up costs etc. You should list such items here
along with the asset depreciation schedule (e.g. straight-line over x years).
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Operating Costs
This section requires some attention to detail. You should work through all the
potential areas of operating cost (for example, as per table below) and estimate
costs per period. Forecasting is a skill in itself so take care here; some aspects will
have a fixed relationship with another cost item (for example, laptop costs will
correlate with the number of staff you employ), other costs may just change (invariably upwards) at a certain rate and others may have a seasonal pattern. Note
all the assumptions you make in building this projection.
#
Heading
Examples
Staff Costs
Support Staff Salaries/Costs, Staff Bonus

Provision, Recruitment Fees, Training, Staff
Communication/Entertainment Events,
Professional Subscriptions, Staff Bonuses
Start-up Costs
Incorporation, Website, Professional Advisors Fees
IT/Computing
Server/network, Laptops, Software Licences,

Computer Consumables, Outsourced IT Support
Office
Furniture, Equipment, Small Equipment

Purchases, Stationery and Printing, Professional
Subscriptions, Books and Periodicals
Communications Telephone and Fax, Online Collaboration Tool

Licences, Postage and Courier, Internet Services
(Email, Web Hosting etc.)
Occupancy
Premises Rent/Tax/Utilities, Ad hoc Facility Hire
Marketing and
Sales
Website Development/Maintenance, Brochures

and Printing, Advertising, Direct Mail, Exhibitions
and Seminars, Promotional Items and Events, PR
Professional Fees
Accounting/Audit Fees, Legal Fees, Other

Professional Fees
Travel
and Subsistence
Un-claimable Travel/Hotel/Subsistence,
Entertainment
Heading
Examples
10
Other Fees and

Costs
Insurance (Professional Indemnity etc), Bank

Charges, Sundry Expenditure
Table 3.7: Typical operating cost categories
Remember, there is always an element of you dont know what you dont know
in this kind of exercise so you are well advised to add a contingency row to this
analysis (say, an additional of overall operating cost).
Profit and Loss (P&L) Account

This is where you bring together a critical business performance metric as covered in the previous guide. That is, of course, your EBITDA (Earnings before
Interest, Tax and Depreciation/Amortisation) as a function of subtracting your
operating costs from your gross profit row (Sales minus Cost of Sales).
Following your EBITDA row, you deduct the costs of interest, corporation
tax and any depreciation/amortisation charges (normally negligible in a professional service business) to ascertain how much net profit is actually available for
potential disbursement to owners.
Balance Sheet
Whilst your profit and loss projection is a central component of your plan, it
is only half of the story. An external valuator will also seek to know the state of
your balance sheet which, at a snapshot in time, shows the companys debt position, how solvent it is, how liquid are the assets. Projecting your balance sheet,
managing it towards a strong position and, generally, getting familiar with what
it represents (if you are not a bean counter by nature) is important.
In simple terms, the balance sheet shows, at a moment, the matching balance between your assets and your liabilities plus owners equity. Assets, and
liabilities, are considered as either current (relating to the current year) or longterm (relating to payments/consumption that takes place beyond the end of the
current year). Owners equity is made up of paid-in share capital and retained
profits. In summary, therefore, a balance sheet can be represented schematically
as follows:
BUSINESS PLANNING
Figure 3.10: Balance sheet: left side = right side; assets = liabilities + owners equity
Projecting a balance sheet, and a cash flow, is actually reasonably simple once
you work through the mechanics. Spending is always financed in one of three
ways either you pay cash on receipt of a good or service, you accrue an expenditure (i.e. pay for it later) or you prepay and expense it later. As such, you
can allocate all the capital outlay and expenditure items from your P&L to your
Balance Sheet dependent on which type of financing is involved. I do not wish
to digress into the detail of this; rather you are best served reading a dedicated
financial planning text at this point (such as the excellent The Definitive Business
Plan previously referenced) if you need further guidance here.
Cash Flow and Funding Requirements

Your cash flow projection is where the rubber really hits the road. There are
numerous cases of profitable businesses that go out of business because they
run out of cash. So, you ignore this aspect at your peril; especially so when your
primary creditors are going to be your own staff (whose salaries you must settle
each month)!
Your cash flow projection shows your cash position at the end of every period
and, therefore, your cumulative funding requirement or surplus. Developing this
projection allows you to see the point where your cumulative cash flow reaches
a trough and changes direction. This, in turn, points to your maximum funding
requirement. It is such an axiomatic point, the next section expands on this.
Valuation
If you are as per my counsel deliberately keeping alive the option of a value
realisation point as part of your ultimate ambition, then it is a good idea also
to start a self-assessment of this aspect from the off. As I described in Guide ,
there are some threshold levels to cross before you are potentially saleable but,
beyond this point in your firms growth, you can start to estimate its value (as
per the EBITDA x multiple logic). It is best to look at scenarios here both as
concerns your ability to actually grow profit and the kind of multiple you can
achieve. The figure below illustrates the kind of schematic I would produce to
explore this set of scenarios:
Figure 3.12: Valuation scenarios; this example produced in Moorhouses year two looking ahead to end of year five
All of this clearly represents quite an effort but a carefully considered financial
baseline is essential else you will have no reference point for commercial success cf. failure; that is, of course, unless you become insolvent (a definitive fail).
Such an outturn is of heightened probability in the absence of a financial plan.
Finally, having come so far in this part of your plan make sure you apply some scenario, or sensitivity, analysis to some of your key assumptions. This
involves producing conjectured pessimistic, expected and optimistic variants
against some of your key items your sales forecast is an obvious target for this.
Examine the implications of each scenario especially with regards to cash flow
BUSINESS PLANNING
and funding. Such analysis will better prepare you for the road ahead; for example, do you need to examine contingency funding routes now perchance sales do
not materialise as fast as you anticipate?
TOP TIPS
There are a number of financial rules of thumb that you pick
up with experience. For example, a model professional service
business with sound finances will typically have a gross profit % of
50% or better. Once their operating costs (typically around 30%) are
deducted they are, therefore, left with a net profit of c.20%. This
is clearly only a rule of thumb and will vary by service sector and
levels of competition but, in the absence of other guides, it is a
commendable financial achievement to aim for.
Another such reference I picked up early speaking to
experienced professional service owners was that ascendant
firms were allocating about 3% (of their revenue target) to marketing
activity (i.e. an investment for future sales growth). Again, you
need to take all such guides with a pinch of salt but such points
of business lore can serve as useful starting points for your own,
independent thinking on the topic.
Funding J Curves and Peak Cash Needs

A professional services firm can be started up with very little capital outlay. It is
one of the real advantages of this type of business. That said like every new venture expect to see the cash go down (as you set the firm up and hunt for your
first clients) before it goes up. That cash flow projection mapped to a timeline is
known colloquially as a J curve or the hockey stick.
Smart entrepreneurs always seek to get a detailed feel for this before they
commit to their investment. As a key part of your financial analysis at start-up
you need to estimate how long it will take for revenues to start building and,
consequentially, how long to get to an operating cash flow break-even point.
Make sure you pressure test this with some pessimistic scenarios. An example
J curve is shown below.
Figure 3.13: Example J curve expected cash flow profile
In this example, noting this is a cumulative projection, you can see that the
(monthly profitloss) break-even point comes in month three when the curve
turns (when cash in exceeds cash out for the first time). Importantly, this also
indicates your peak cash need; that is the amount of cash reserve you will need
(equity or bank loan/facility) to ride out this period of your companys early
development. In this example, it is around ,.
Figure 3.14: Example J curve showing peak cash flow need
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It is surprising how many budding entrepreneurs are either unaware of this simple concept (or who are aware but just choose to dodge the analysis). In start-up
planning, having an informed view of your peak cash need is critical as you will
see that with even relatively modest changes to the expected size and timing of
projected revenues, the curve can deepen significantly.
CAUTION
If you are reading this in pre start-up mode, one of the critical questions you will need to address having undertaken an assessment
of your initial funding requirements is how to actually fund your
business.
This is a question of financial strategy or, at its simplest framing,
a question of the proportionality between funding by equity and
funding by debt. This is another potentially detailed area and I dont
want to get too sidetracked by this (any half-decent accountant
will be able to advise you here) suffice to highlight some axiomatic
points.
Firstly, you clearly want to keep this early funding requirement to
as low a level as is tenable to get your business properly established
and revenues flowing. Indeed, one of the real advantages of professional service businesses is that you can start up with very modest
levels of initial expenditure. Notwithstanding, the hockey stick is
near inevitable; that is, there will nearly always be a lag period before your client revenues catch up with your incorporation costs, so
you will need to fund this gap from external sources.
So, the key choice you have is whether to fund via equity or debt.
The simple point I want to make here is that you should be very, very
wary of giving away any personal, founder equity at this pivotal moment. Any founder shareholding will only be worth nominal amounts
initially but it is this holding that you are seeking to multiply many
times over as you grow value in your business on the journey ahead.
Looking ahead, equity in your profitable business will be a very, very
precious commodity that you can use, judiciously, to incentivise/
reward those colleagues who make material contribution to business sales/growth (more of which in Guide 14). You will always rue
the day you gave away equity up front to a passive investor just to
get you through the start-up months. Rather, if additional monies are
required initially look far and wide to get the best debt deal you can
from a bank, or private investor, rather than diminish, from the off,
your ability to derive personal wealth from a shareholding.
Key Plan Element Risk Analysis

We are nearly there now. This has been a long guide but, hopefully, you have
now got a sense of the basics your plan should cover. In final analysis, however,
being a successful entrepreneur is about managing risk. This section, therefore,
is about you stepping back from all the preceding analysis (market, competitor,
financial etc) and asking yourself where the key risks (and opportunities!) lie.
The activity of managing risk in your business is an existential, permanent
one but the function of penning (and updating) your plan is an ideal opportunity to review the landscape. A risk management discipline is the ongoing iteration of an identifyassessplanimplementmonitor process. So, this section
of your plan addresses the first three (risk analysis) activities and the output of
this thinking is best represented as a risk log, or register.
Figure 3.8: Illustrative risk log structure (where L, M, H means Low, Medium, High)
By now, you should have little problem identifying risk types they come from
everywhere. It is useful to apply some categorisation to them; for example: financial, people, reputation, operational, economic etc. An actual risk is then an articulation of a potential occurrence that could jeopardise the success of your business.
The assessment is about judging each risks main characteristics specifically, the
probability of it manifesting and the impact on your plans if it does. Finally, this
leads you into response planning; the effective so what? you draw from this exercise. Response planning comes in many variants. You can seek to prevent risks
(e.g. changing your course of action to avoid completely), reduce them (e.g. actions to lower probability and/or impact), transfer them (e.g. an insurance policy),
contingency plan (in response to the risk coming about), or simply ignore them.
The value of this part of your plan is not about the words you set down on
paper (albeit this is a useful reference point) but the quality thinking you should
have applied to arrive at this point. Keep all of this proportionate, however. It is
easy to become paralysed as a result of risk analysis and, in worst case, you see
some people acquainting risk management with long list administration. Keep it
simple; say, the capture of your top ten strategic risks with considered mitigating
actions resulting.
BUSINESS PLANNING
CHECKLIST
F
If pre start-up, schedule a contiguous block of time (say three

to five days) to research, develop and write-up your own plan.
If your firm is up and running, review your business planning

process. If it can be made more disciplined, comprehensive,
relevant or inclusive then set in train actions for its revitalisation.
If pre start-up, make an initial attempt at developing your firms

vision and mission statements.
Have a first go at developing your firms values; in a quiet

moment, list your ten dearest beliefs then, slowly, pare these
down to a core set of, say, four essential ones.
Start to build your evidence base for your market analysis;

search for relevant surveys and reports online. Your local library
can be another great resource here. Consider joining any
relevant professional membership bodies to gain access to
such information.
Spend time exploring competitor materials (websites,

marketing literature etc) as well as service companies generally.
Make a note of company features you admire (e.g. clear service
and value propositions, features of differentiation etc) and,
conversely, take mental reference of those you seek to better
(e.g. offering too bland/generic).
Start to build your professional reading list and library;

especially so where you know you have gaps in your business
planning skills. You might want to start with some of the books
referenced in this guide.
Re-read the case study on the initial planning for organisational

leverage at Moorhouse. Have a first attempt at modelling this
for your company.
In preparation for the Strategy and Execution section of your

plan, undertake an initial SWOT analysis based on your forming
ideas now. Run the findings past a critical friend before
getting too advanced with the more detailed planning that

flows from this.
AS A MINIMUM
U Acknowledge the reasons why a plan is so integral to your
chances of success; it is the foundation of your performance
management, key to team motivation and early recruitment, it
facilitates the sale process and purchaser due diligence and,
finally, is a powerful self-actualisation tool.
U Have a rounded idea of what a good plan looks like (see Figure
3.1).
U Understand the concept of leverage as it applies to a
professional service business including the high-level variants
(Brains, Grey Hair and Procedural) and the cost of leverage
mismatch.
U Understand the linkage between a companys vision, mission(s)
and objectives.
U Understand the fundamental components of the analysis you
should undertake as part of this planning process market,
competitor and financial in order that your forming strategy is
sound.
U Understand the importance of all the financial analysis
components; with a particular regard at start-up to the concept
of peak cash need (from your cash flow) which will, in turn,
inform you of your funding requirement.
U Acknowledge the importance of looking at all of this through
the lens of risk management; your initial plan should detail
mitigation of the major risks you face.
LINKS TO RESOURCES/TOOLS
Check out the Guide 03 Resource Folder on interviews with Busness
Leaders and www.dommoorhouse.com for more resources including
some basic business plan templates.
BUSINESS PLANNING
GUIDE 03 ENDNOTES
1
2
3
4
5
6
As referenced in guide 02, this section also owes much to David Maister and I borrow terms he
first penned in his excellent text (Managing the Professional Service Firm, 1997, Free Press).
At this start-up stage, I envisaged the principal grade being the senior-most grade (in which the
companys owners would reside). In the fullness of time, I actually introduced the fourth grade of
director to make this ownership (and board role) distinction.
It should be noted that when we introduced the director level (as the primary finder grade), the
utilisation target for principals was raised to adjust for the fact they were now the main minders in
the business.
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound.
A classic strategic analysis tool for this type of analysis is PESTLE. It requires you to contemplate
trends in the following areas, for aggregate so what? analysis Political, Economic, Sociological,
Technological, Legal and Environmental.
There are many strategic analysis tools that can facilitate this thinking. One of the simplest, but
most effective, is the SWOT tool a systematic analysis in the round of your firms strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats as a precursor to setting your strategic plans.
Acknowledgements
Writing a book like building a business is a team sport. In the same way that
I used to feel awkward taking solitary, personal plaudit for Moorhouses successes (recognising, always, how many people had contributed to this), so I feel that
the singular descriptive of author belies the massed efforts of contributors, advisers, reviewers, family and friends who truly keep such a project on its tracks.
To this end, as a newcomer author (and publisher), I am particularly grateful
to the support of my editor, Lynda Watson, and typesetter, James Nunn. They
introduced a complete novice to the nuanced craft of writing a book and showed
commendable patience and professionalism as I blundered my way through the
early stages of this process. In a similar vein, thanks go to Jonny Perl, and his
team at Traffic Digital, for the illustrations that help bring this series to life.
I set off on this book series aiming to produce content that was genuinely
relevant and useful to professional service firm entrepreneurs cf. being a complete vanity project (there may still be shades of the latter). If I have got even
close to achieving this aim, then the many expert contributors and reviewers
deserve fulsome plaudit also. Thus far (in the part complete series), this illustrious group includes: James Appleby (Bluefin Solutions), Pete Austin (Suiko), Paul
Collins (Equiteq), Jon Everett, Nick Fletcher (Vivendi Consulting), Bob Hendicott, Tanya Lightbody (Ingenuity Inspired), Andy Marsh (Suiko), Martin Powell
(Cambridge Market Research), Tim Phillips, Jon Russell (Moorhouse), Lars Tewes (SBR Consulting), Rupert Tobin (100%Cotton) and Paul Wilson (Provelio).
There would not have been any content or story to tell in the first place,
however, had it not been for the simply awesome team that was the firm Moorhouse during my tenure of MD-ship from 2004 to 2011. Leadership is an absolute privilege and pleasure when you discharge it amidst such a talented
group of colleagues. For any pearls of motivation or knowledge I was able to dispense, I received ten-times back in return from all of those I worked with. There
are too many to name in person here but they all know who they are; collectively,
they are the founders of what will, hopefully, be a great firm for many years to
come. To all of them, a heartfelt thank you for supporting me in building such a
tremendous business and for having such immense companionship and humour
en route. It is a very special thing indeed when your primary reflex, on reflection
of a period in your life, is simply to smile.
Finally, a long overdue thank you to my wife and children. Building a team,
a business or a book can too easily result in a single-tracked restriction of ones
overall vision. I have certainly been guilty of such mildly obsessive pursuits. As
such, Roz, Finlay, Claudia and Annika deserve all concluding credit for their
loving tolerance of an imperfect husband, and father, and for their daily demonstration to me of what is truly valuable in life.
to
entrepreneur
is to
dare...
e,
Informativ onal,
ti
a
ir
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s
practical, in is on the
based as it rience of
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genuine ex o has done
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someone w on the tin.
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giles johrn,scil
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That said, successful entrepreneurs also

have a very clear game plan. In this unique collection of Guides,
Dom Moorhouse explains how to go about building a sustainable,
profitable and, ultimately, valuable professional service company.
Written specifically for business leaders who seek to methodically grow
their service companies, the Guides provide a trove of insights, tips,
checklists, ideas and case studies that will significantly de-risk the process
of owner wealth creation. If you want to arrive at a point where your
business has material, life-changing value, and you want to get there in
short order, then the Five-Year Entrepreneur series is for you.
Dom h
condensed as
of critical e a wealth
xperience,
anecdotes
a
n
d
advice into
a really pra
c
guides rele tical, concise set of
va
profession nt for any aspiring
al
owner or fr service business
ankly thos
eo
who have
been doing f us
this
for a few y
ears!
andy
managingmdarsh,
ir
suiko ltdector,
dom
moorhouse,
the founder of Moorhouse, a leading
UK professional services business,
led the company from singleton
start-up to a c. $30m (20m) sale in
less than five years. In these unique
Guides, that give an unprecedented
and detailed how to analysis,
he explains how such a journeys
reward is within the reach of all
who approach their entrepreneurial
ambition with a deliberate,
structured intent.
the guide i wish id had to building and selling a professional service business.

Five-Year Entrepreneur - Guide 03

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business

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I had the privilege of sharing the Moorhouse journey with

bob hendicott, hendicott partnership ltd

pete austin, director, suiko ltd

paul wilson, managing director, provelio limited

tim phillips, global partner, molten and winner of the

tanya lightbody, director, ingenuity inspired limited

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about the author

First published in Great Britain in 2012

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Who is this Book for?

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The Five-Year Entrepreneur Series

Personal Motivation and Circumstance

Management Information and Decision Making

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Knowledge, Culture and Communications

Establishing a High-Performing Team

Talent management Recruitment to Exit

Preparing for the Firms Sale

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In this guide, you should aim to:

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Foundation for Performance Management

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THE FIVE-YEAR ENTREPRENEUR

Facilitates the Sale Process

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time-consuming affair. Without pre-existing plans, it is a virtual non-starter. Just

Purchaser Due Diligence

Planning versus Doing

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THE FIVE-YEAR ENTREPRENEUR

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What a Good Plan looks like

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THE FIVE-YEAR ENTREPRENEUR

Figure 3.1: Illustrative contents of a business plan

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The Planning Process

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THE FIVE-YEAR ENTREPRENEUR

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Figure 3.3: Illustrative plan-for-the-plan timeline

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THE FIVE-YEAR ENTREPRENEUR

As we grew, so an organisational emphasis switched to industry sectors (e.g.

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team conversations immeasurably easier. With my experience

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THE FIVE-YEAR ENTREPRENEUR