Analyzing Growth Opportunities and Funding Sources for SMEs

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Planning for Growth
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Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3
LO1.................................................................................................................................. 4
LO2.................................................................................................................................. 7
LO 3................................................................................................................................. 9
LO 4............................................................................................................................... 12
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 14
Reference.......................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
This assessment describes the growth and development of small and medium
enterprises (SMEs). There will be described approaches for analyzing the growth
opportunities and evaluating for growth options consisting of collaboration. There will be
also available the investment finance sources and considering the SME planning for
attracting the investors. Here will be provide an understanding of SMEs options
regarding family businesses, exit, succession and being able for the essentiality of
informed choices appreciation at the time of selecting the ways to the growth and
understanding the possible risks vs prizes included with growth. SMEs are businesses
that are known as starting businesses or small and medium size of organizations
(Ancikevics & Lagat, 2019). These companies normally consist of less than 250
employees, and it has 50 million pounds average revenues. In this, various key tasks
will be identified for opportunities of growth along with the evaluation of many funding
sources. After that, growth’s business plan is also designed. In this assessment, there
will also discuss business vision, mission, objectives and aims along with the budget of
marketing. Later, effective strategies of marketing will be developed and applied for the
business. In the last, different existing opportunities and procedures are also described.
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LO1
Rebellion development is an organisation which works in the field of gaming sector and
magazine. It has been seen that the sales of the company have increased from the last
year by 0.12%. Company is focused on growing its overall revenue and wants to
produce a development plan for its growth. For this, the organisation needs to take into
account some of the key considerations for the growth of the organisation. These points
are related to increasing the overall growth of the organisation at every level, along with
the growth of an individual employee.
Relationships are one of the most important considerations for an organisation in the
planning of growth (Arregoces, et al., 2019). Having a good relationship with the
customers and employees help the organisation during their growing period.
Direct access to the customers is needed by the organisation to take the feedback and
make them aware of any new product launched by the organisation; this will help in the
sales which will eventually help in the growth of the organisation.
Passion is something that is required by every employee from the small worker to the
CEO of an organisation as this will help in giving the organization their 100%, which can
be very helpful for the company.
Skilled labours are very much required from the developing stage to the marketing
stage of any product. This will help in making the company attain a higher position in the
market.
Validating skills are one of the skills required by an organisation, as they need to know
how a person can be able to validate the interviews taken from the customers.
Cash flow is a must in an organisation to grow. As if at any point in time, cash flow is
hampered, it can cost the position of the company in the market. As every work will be
stopped.
Diversification is one thing needed by an organisation, as investing only in one product
can cause a huge loss to the company. So at least investing in more than one product
can save the company.
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Size of the market is essential for the company to grow. This should be looked upon at
first before introducing any project into the market. This will help in knowing the potential
customer and their demands and expectations from the product.
Porter’s Generic Strategy
Besides these, key considerations, Porter’s generic strategy can be involved and looked
upon for the growth of the opportunities and eventually the organisation. In Porter's
generic strategy, three things are focused upon, differentiation, focus, and leadership.
There is cost leadership and cost focus. In leadership, the price of the product is
lowered for the betterment of the organisation. Lowering the cost of the product is done
upon seeing the competitors in the market who deals with the same types of product.
Expenses which are being done for the product should be cut down to reduce the
overall cost. Cost focus means that the focus is entirely on the cost and everything is
done depending on it.
In differentiation, different products are being developed. Different products are seen
and researched. The company tends to innovate different products for the growth of the
organisation. This can be very beneficial for the organisation, as developing different
products from the competitors will help in attracting customer’s attention (Barbour, et al.,
2019). Thus this will help in the evolving of the organisation. Differentiation focus means
that the focus is on producing different products rather than looking towards the cost.
Maintaining and achieving a different place in the market, differentiation strategy should
be adopted.
PESTEL analysis
The competitive advantage can be made good by implemented PESTEL analysis.
PESTEL analysis focuses on the external factors which affect the working of the
organisation and can come in between the growth of the organisation. P in PESTEL
stands for Political factors, which plays an important role, as politicians can change the
working or the tax of a product or any service charge at any time. This will impact the
exporting and importing of the work. Economic factor affects the Rebellion development
as it is directly proportional to the exchange and interest rate being charged on the
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product and the raw material needed for it. Social factor has a great role in the growth of
the organization, as the company deals in games and magazine, so a large customer
base is required by them which is achieved only when the company is socially active
and stable. Next comes the technological factor, which is also essential for the company
as the company work on the gaming sector, which requires huge attention from the
technical side. The environmental factor is seen when the work comes to the magazine
product produced by the organisation. As in this type of product, the paper is being
used, which has a direct effect on the environment. The last is the legal factor which is
needed for every organisation as some rules need to be followed by every organisation
in terms of ever process done by them (Chen, 2019). These rules can be related to the
exporting of the factor or the working done by the company or the employee's welfare
towards the company, for which the company is responsible.
Ansoff’s Growth Matrix
This matrix is related to the risk involved during the marketing of the product in the
market. Market penetration, product development, diversification and market
development is seen in this matrix. Every column has its own risk. In the development,
old product is being sold in the new market for which the marketing is being done. But
the risk is that the new market may not be comfortable with the old product. The next is
the product development is which new products are being sold to the old market. This is
riskier as the old market is comfortable with the old product only. Next comes the
diversification in which new product is being launched in a new market, which is a huge
risk for the organisation and needs to be looked upon. But the best thing for the
organisation is to use market penetration in which the old product is sold in the old
market only but new ways of marketing are needed for this. It includes advertising at a
huge level.
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LO2
Funds are required by every organisation so that they can implement new technologies
and new methods in their products and processes. There are many sources of funds
available for every type of organisation. Also, there are two types of funding external
and internal. Internal funding is mainly from friends and families while the external
factors cover governments, bank loans, angel investors, venture capitals, and so on.
Some funding is common for both the type of organisation, irrespective of them being
large or small.
The internal funding, which includes friends and family are mostly preferred for a small
organisation. There is only one risk involved in this, which is the breaking of the
relationship between the families or with friends (Christodoulou & Langley, 2019).
Funding from them is mostly taken after the completion of personal funding. As there is
no interest rate on the funding provided by them, so it can be considered as beneficial.
Friends and families are the first contacts everyone thinks of getting the fund from. So
the risk is mostly overshadowed by the emotion in this case.
For the external funding, the first comes the bank loan, which every organisation thinks
of. This is the most common type of funding which can be thought by any type of
organisation. Usually, those banks are preferred who has the least interest rate. But for
the loan, the organization has to put some asset which is valuable to the organisation.
This is done so that the bank can sell the asset and take their loan from that money if
the organisation fails in providing them with the money in the given time. Usually, a
small organisation can get the loan from the bank, but it is difficult for a startup to get
funds from them.
Angel investors are another type of external factors which are seen by the organisation.
Usually, it is not easy to get angel investors. They are those people who have an
interest in the organisation and have been watching clearly about the ups and downs of
the organisation. They even have in-depth knowledge about the organisation, which
includes the upcoming product or project of the organisation (Gardiner & Scott, 2018).
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They are usually from a financial background. The risk involved in this is that they want
a share of the company in return for the fund provided by them.
Venture capitals are very much similar to the angel investors, but they usually are a
group of people and not a single entity. Venture capitals, just like angel investors want a
share in the company. They want to know about every process which is ongoing in the
company. There is one difference between the two is the requirement of the exit
strategy by the venture capitals at the starting, whereas angel investors do not require
this stuff. The exit strategy is needed so that they can know how can they be saved if
the company goes into loss. This will help them to know how they will get paid.
Government funds are one of the other common funds in the external funds. In this, the
organisation applies for the government funds and tells them how their product is
necessary and can be beneficial for the country's economy and growth. This is very
much helpful as the government did not want anything in return (Gurcaylilar-Yenidogan
& Aksoy, 2018). The only problem in this is the good presentation of the product or the
project that will be started by the organisation so that the government can be easily
convinced.
Crowdsourcing is basically a group of people, who invest in the idea of startup business
if they like the presentation given by the person from the organisation. Just like
government funding, this is entirely based on the presentation given by the organisation.
This idea is a boom for the people who want to start a business and have a very great
idea for it.
There is another type of fund available knows as an overdraft. This works like a credit
system provided by the bank to the organisation. In which if the organisation does not
have that much money in their account, they can still spend a huge amount. But they
have to return it and usually the interest rate on the amount taken is low as compared to
the interest rate set on the direct bank loan (Hardy, et al., 2018).
Above discussed are some different types of funding available for the Rebellion
development. An overdraft can be useful for the organisation looking upon the recent
sales graph which has been increased by 0.12% from the previous year.
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LO 3
Business planning plays a very important role in organising the work model and
structure. It is key to a successful business of an organisation. It helps the organisation
to plan strategies to evolve the business and increase the profit. For Rebellion
Development, the business planning helps the organisation to create new and
developed games according to the requirement of the customers, which is a major part
of the business plan. The business needs to be reviewed in a short period to make sure
that the needs of the plan are met by the employees (Henderson & Scott, 2018).
Reviewing methods and tools of the business plan helps the organisation to determine
the development and improvements in the model through the business plan initiated by
the organisation.
Current business plan
The current working business plan helps the organisation to implement the tools and
techniques which are identified by the organisation to improve the gaming tools for the
customers. Also, it develops the content for the magazines to determine the new
content and matter according to the improvements and updations of the used
techniques. The Rebellion Development needs the current business plan to initiate new
funding for the investment in new gaming modules and magazines. The current
business plan provides better vision to follow the current working and implementation of
the working model of the organisation.
The major aim of the current business plan is to work for the funding and further
investment in the organisation. Also, it helps the organisation to allocate the resources
and monitor the working model (Koma, et al., 2019). These planning techniques use the
methodologies which look throughout the working and implementation of the allocated
resources in the organisation. This attracts the new investors in the business to initialise
new systems and working model for the organisation. It ensures that the organisation is
never too short of investment and funding when it comes to implementing new
technologies in the organisation. The current plan also helps the organisation to
determine and analyse the real-time data in the organisation. This helps the
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organisation to monitor the real-time growth of the organisation through the
implementation of the working models discussed in the business plan. The Rebellion
Development uses these business plan strategies to determine new techniques and
technologies which can be used in developing new games which will automatically
create new content for the magazines. These data are then used to analyse the
contribution of the organisation in the field of the organisation, which also helps the
organisation to understand the growth. Also, the current business plans use various
reviewing techniques to determine a path to continue working for the growth of the
organisation.
Contents of Business Plan
The contents of the business plans are chosen very carefully for any organisation as it
may differ and are dependent on the field of the working of the organisation (Lewison, et
al., 2018). The content also focuses on current business models and plans to determine
many efficient techniques for the organisation. The Rebellion Development needs to
focus on various factors which are defined below to create a successful business plan.
Marketing objectives: The information about the product which needs to be delivered
or is being developed should be shared with the consumers to increase the sale of the
product. The marketing strategies for the new product are being made after providing
and sharing the information with the consumers. The marketing strategies help the
business plan and the product to create a sudden increase in the sale of the
organisation.
Operational Information: The dependency of the business plans are also based on the
suppliers who are contacted by the organisation to provide equipment for implementing
the business plan in the organisation. This equipment also helps the organisation to
develop new techniques to use the business plan in different departments of the
organisation.
Information about the finance: This information in any organisation, majorly in
Rebellion Development, plays a significant role for the organisation. This is used in the
organisational system to develop new methods and business plan according to the
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financial status of the organisation. This information also helps the organisation to
develop and upgrade the business plans according to the funds provided by the
investors to the organisation. Also, the real-time working business model and plan can
be affected by the change of financial status of the organisation.
Objectives and targets of the organisation: These play a major role in the business
plan development of the organisation. These are defined while developing the business
plans to create goals that need to be achieved by the organisation through the business
plans.
The planned development of the Rebellion Development majorly focuses on the
financial information provided for the development of the business plans for the
organisation. It is used to determine the goals and objectives of the organisation, which
can be achieved by the organisation by using the funds and investments that are
provided by the investors to the organisation. The financial information of the
organisation includes the profit and losses of the organisation, which is used by the
organisation to create an efficient business plan for the organisation. It also helps the
organisation to measure the involvement of the various instruments which are used to
develop business plans. The organisation considers the working of finances as an
important role; therefore; individuals are specially hired for conducting surveys for the
financial status of the organisation in the market.
Improved Business Plan
The involvement of various tools and techniques helps the organisation to develop an
efficient working business plan which can be implemented in the organisation to
generate maximum revenue for the organisation. This also helps the organisation to
improve the methods to gain financial information about the organisation. The improved
business plans majorly focus on the financial aspects of the organisation. This includes
distributing the finances of the organisation equally in every unit or department of the
organisation. Also, the finances are used according to the need of the money in the
department (Li, 2018). As for Rebellion Development, the research and development
unit requires a fair amount of investments to generate new researches on new
technologies to create games. The expanses of each unit and department should be
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