Create a Robust Financial Plan - Part 3 (Staffing and Expense Models)

The success of your business depends on the people you employ, and preparing to bring the right talent on board just when you need it will be crucial to a successful launch and ongoing growth. The more you know in advance about when you’ll need to hire, for which positions, and at what rate, the better you’ll be able to forecast staffing expenses and put management structures in place to prevent turnover. And developing an accurate model for predicting how much each member of the staff will contribute to income generation helps you create realistic revenue forecasts. 

We’ll not only cover how staffing plans interact with the rest of your financial reporting, but we’ll establish guidelines for whether to build staff or hire contractors, how to set pay rates and predict costs of benefits, and calculate the ROI of positions across the organization. Using the accompanying spreadsheet tool, you’ll develop a staffing plan that matches your talent needs with the right personnel at the right time. 

“Where did all the money go?” may be a common refrain when paying the monthly household bills, but expenses should never be a mystery when you’re launching a business. A thorough understanding of the costs of doing business – from rent to trade show marketing collateral – is essential to keep track of income and cash flow; you can track actual expenses against the projections as you move past launch and adjust activities accordingly.  You also need to know baseline expenses so that you can price your offering appropriately and eventually realize a profit. 

This course also details potential expenses and their classifications, along with their potential tax implications, and offers a detailed worksheet for breaking out and tracking all the costs involved in running your business. Armed with this information, you’ll not only build solid financials for your business plan you’ll also build a buffer against overspending.

Learning Objectives

• How do I know when to hire for which positions?      
• When should I make a staff hire, and when should I use contractors?      
• What kinds of costs should I capture in the expense model?

About Your Instructor

Ken Burke, founder and CEO of The EntrepreneurNOW! Network, is a speaker, serial entrepreneur, mentor, and author. Ken founded MarketLive, a market-leading, enterprise class eCommerce software platform used by major merchants generating $2b in online sales through the platform. He sold MarketLive to Vista Equity Partners in 2016. Ken authored the book, “Intelligent Selling: The Art and Science of Selling Online,” as well as hundreds of industry articles. He earned his MBA in Entrepreneurship from University of Southern California -Marshall School of Business, which later awarded him the honor of Entrepreneur of the Year.