Research suggests that 20% of start-ups fail in their first year of operation, while 50% of the ones that survive their first year, they fail within their first 5 years. There are several reasons why start-ups fail, but for most businesses the most frequent quoted reason is related to lack of investment, poor cash management, or simply running out of cash.

"Cashflow projections can play a critical role in enhancing the chances of survival for any start-up".

Cashflow forecasts are an essential management tool for any new business. They are one of the most important parts of any business plan and their detailed understanding is critical for any entrepreneur and start-up seeking investment or planning to survive their first year of operation. Monthly cashflow projections for at least the first 3 years of operation, enable entrepreneurs to seek finance or investment with confidence and understand from the outset the capital and operating expenditure that their business will require. By developing cashflow forecasts, entrepreneurs and business owners alike are able to confidently evaluate the time horizon that their financial resources will need to last to reach the point when their business becomes sustainable and produces positive cash flows.

From our many years of experience working with and building start-ups, we have developed this self-paced, practical online course that enables any entrepreneur and business owner to familiarise themselves with the basics of financial planning, understand the process and the benefits of developing cashflow projections, extract maximum information from the developed projections and run "what-if" scenarios, allowing them to gain useful financial and business insights about their project and business idea.

The course starts with providing a broad overview of financial planning and gives a succinct description of financial statements, explaining how to read them and how to analyse them. The course develops a step-by-step process for developing cashflow forecasts, describes how to make appropriate assumptions to generate cashflow projections, explains how to test the assumptions made, and how to analyse the developed projections to generate future financial statements for the start-up. It further describes the process of how to use cashflow projections to undergo sensitivity analysis and perform "what-if" scenarios - critical for gauging the start-up capital needed to see the business to the point where positive cashflows are generated.

Through the use of examples, quizzes, and case studies it allows learners to quickly embed knowledge and to be ready to apply it with confidence in their own project, start-up idea, or established business. The course includes, spreadsheets that can be used to develop cashflow projections of a new project or start-up and includes step-by-step tutorials allowing entrepreneurs to develop their own projections and use them to extract valuable information.

Course Features

To find out more about the course, please contact us