Guides

Six short pieces on planning a business. Plain English, worked examples, no jargon for its own sake.

These are written to go with the free tools on this site, but they stand on their own — you can read the whole set without making an account or opening anything. Start at the top if you are building a plan from scratch; each one links to the next.

1.How to build an org chart that people actually use Most org charts are drawn once, printed, and never looked at again. Here is how to draw one that answers questions. 5 minute read 2.Counting headcount properly: FTE, part-timers and people with two jobs Two people can look at the same team and get 20, 18 and 24. All three can be right. It depends what you are counting. 5 minute read 3.Price times quantity: a revenue forecast you can defend Almost every bad forecast starts with a percentage. Almost every good one starts with a unit. 6 minute read 4.SG&A: what belongs in overheads, and what does not The overhead list is where a budget is usually too small. Not because anyone lied, but because things were forgotten. 5 minute read 5.Reading a profit and loss statement A P&L answers one question: did the company make money, and where did it go? Every line is a step in that answer. 6 minute read 6.Why profitable businesses run out of money More small companies die with a profit on paper than with a loss. This is the arithmetic of how that happens. 6 minute read

Once you have read a couple of these, the worked example puts them together: a whole coffee shop plan, twelve months, every number explained.

Something missing that you wanted explained? Say so — info@minekop.com. The list grows based on what people ask for.

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