Budgeting and Business Planning Essay

In order to create the criteria for the committee we have to look at what they want from the project. Most businesses and organisations are in business to make a profit, however the committee has different aims and objectives compared to a normal business or organisation. They need to weight up the options of each proposal and decide which best relates to their aims and objectives. When the committee is considering which proposal to go with they should consider the following categories †¢Short-term Financial Benefits †¢Long-term Financial Benefits †¢Environment †¢Relation to aims Short-term Financial Benefits The committee needs to consider the short term benefits of each proposal. They don’t want to take on a proposal that has high start-up costs and doesn’t make a return on the capital within the first year. The committee does not want to be left in a high amount of debt if the proposal fails. If the committee is left with a debt they may not be able to fund other projects to further their three aims. Long-term Financial Benefits Long-term the proposals will give different outcomes. The committee needs to decide on how long they want to keep moult hall? If they want it as a long term asset which can help with their aims? Or do they want a longer term money making scheme to boost revenue which can be used in areas they already control. Environment Moult Hall comes with a huge area of woodland, they needs to consider the effects on the local plant life and wildlife that any proposal could have. They need to think, does it destroy plant life? Does it impact on wildlife habitats? Is their going to be any long lasting environmental damage? Relation to Aims The committee is based on three main aims. They need to consider these aims in making their decision, they can’t be making use of one proposal if it goes strictly against some of their basic aims. They have to consider their own image and brand, does a proposal give them a bad name/image considering their aims and objectives? Question 2 Jonathan and Ingrid’s proposal has some short term financial benefits, in the 30 week trial run moult hall turns over a small profit of  £1,646. When the committee takes their proposal in to consideration they should recognise this point, moult hall will be of no financial burden in the short-term 30 week trial. If the 30 week trial is to succeed then moult hall can have some structural work done costing  £20,000 which would close moult hall for four weeks after the trial. The structural alterations would increase the capacity of the site to allow up to 30 guests to stay at one time. According to Jonathan and Ingrid projections of a weekly cost per guest of  £66 and a weekly charge per guest of  £150 they are making  £84 profit per guest per week. With the structural alterations and the increase in capacity by 20 guests. The weeks after the alterations are finished they could make an extra  £1,680 per week, bringing their possible weekly total profit at full capacity to  £2,436 (allowing for one free space, 29 paying customers). Therefore they could justify the large  £20,000 outlay on alterations as moult hall would pay for these alterations in little over 8 weeks. So in the long-run moult hall could be a profitable project by the end of year one. The one drawback of this proposal is the loss of the usage of the minibus at weekends, which generated an annual income of  £1,040, however it can be argued that it is now being put to better use and that the money is being recuperated from moult hall. Break-even point Total expenses £63,880 Weeks until break-even47.3 Guests until break-even473 As we can see from the table above moult hall will have to attract 473 guests a year to break even when they can only hold 10 guests per week. Equally they would have to run for 47.3 weeks a year at full capacity to break-even. This gives them an average of 9 guests a week. If they were to structurally improve moult hall so that they can hold up to 30 guests a week then the figures would look very different as shown in the table below. Break-Even Point Total Expenses £63,880 Weeks until break-even point14.7 Guests until break-even point441 Although a similar amount of guests is required the amount of weeks at full capacity has drastically dropped from 47.3 to 14.7. Their average guests per week has dropped from 9 to 8. Although this is not a large drop, in comparison they only have to fill 8 out of 30 beds compared to 9 out of 10 beds in the 30 week trial. The environment and its protection are very important to the committee and are mentioned in their main aims. Jonathan and Ingrid’s proposal helps the environment and makes the most of moult hall, if a garden was to be kept at moult hall the guest could tend to this and grow vegetables and recycle waste in a compost, which in turn could be re-used on the garden making moult hall very self-sufficient and environmentally friendly. One of the major aims of the committee is to help and educate the young. Jonathan and Ingrid’s proposal does just this, by inviting young people from the surrounding area to come stay and learn about the countryside. The guests will be able to learn about different wildlife and plant life living in the moult hall woodland and surrounding areas. The committee has to consider how the proposal will relate to their own aims, with moult hall becoming a learning centre for the young the committee could promote the good work they are doing to increase t heir donations revenue and grow as a trust. Question 3 Winston’s proposal consists of turning moult hall into a quad bike track with lavish bedrooms in the house for guests. In the year one moult hall will turn over a profit of  £1,034,283.  £750,000 of this is guaranteed to the North West trust for the protection of wildlife and the other  £284,283 will go to Winston himself. Moult hall would be a great money maker for the trust with the guaranteed income of  £750,000 adding to the  £800,000 a year they receive from local donations and fund raisers, boosting their total revenue for the year to around  £1,550,000. Long-term moult hall will turnover similar amount each year as long as there is no dip in demand. In the second year when Winston doesn’t have any initial capital costs he will make a large profit himself of  £402,350. The funds the committee will earn from moult hall could be used in other areas to promote the protection of wildlife. Break-even Point Total Expenses £1,022,650 Weeks until break-even point35.9 Guests until break-even point538 From the table above we can see the break-even point for moult hall under Winston’s proposal. He would need to be operating at full capacity for almost 40 weeks a year to break-even this means he would have to attract 538 guests a year. On average to break-even Winston will have to have 11 guests a week. In monetary terms moult hall will be a very successful; however some parts of the proposal will go against the trusts main aims. The trust was set up for the protection of wildlife; one aim is to protect local wildlife and plant life. To make the quad bike track many mature trees will have to be removed in the grounds of moult hall. This will disrupt some of the habitats of animals in the woodland. One of the main habitats that could be disrupted is the nesting sites of the red kite. The red kite has only recently been re-introduced in to the United Kingdom after the success of similar projects in wales; the trust fully supports the work of the national charity that achieved this. The red kite was wiped out in the UK by modern farming methods which use pesticides to kill small rodents, which are the main food source of the red kite. The first aim of the Trust is to encourage farming methods that don’t hurt local wildlife and plant life. They have to consider how the disruption of the nesting sites would reflect on them if they took on Winston’s proposal. It may look bad as with one hand they are supporting the work of the charity yet they are making money at the cost of disrupting local nesting sites. Question 4a There are many different measures that to committee can use to measure the performance of moult hall such as: †¢Monthly financial reports †¢Committee inspections twice a year †¢Variance analysis – comparing budgeted figures with actual Variance Analysis The committee could use variance analysis; variance analysis is a comparison of the budgeted cost of running moult hall and the actual cost of running moult hall. They could see if the costs of moult hall are favourable or adverse. If the results are favourable then this means that moult hall is running at a cheaper cost than they originally budgeted. However if the results are adverse then this means that the cost of running moult hall is more than they budgeted, this could be due to higher food prices or a larger light and heating bill than first anticipated. Variance analysis will give the committee a good idea of how much difference there is between their original planned budget and their actual outlay. This will be useful in determining weather moult hall is a financially viable option. Monthly Financial Reports The committee could ask for the manager of moult hall to send them monthly financial reports so that they can keep track of the performance and see if they are making or loosing money. They could let the financial reports come in for a few months or even up to year. This way they can identify trends and high and low seasons. They may find that they have a slightly seasonal product, as more people will want to be outside in the summer compared to the winter. They can also see if over a year they are getting an increasing amount of interest month on month or if they are losing interest Committee inspections Committee inspections could take place two or three times a year, the committee could travel as a whole or send a few representatives to moult hall to assess the upkeep of moult hall and the grounds. The inspection could also be used to see how the guests are enjoying their time at moult hall. The inspection team will then feed back to the committee who will have meetings on how to improve moult hall based on the feedback from guests and/or any improvements or checks that would need to be made to ensure the performance of moult hall is consistent. Question 4b When the committee is assessing the performance of moult hall they can use different companies to assess moult hall for them. The Environmental Inspection Agency (EIA) can carry out Environmental impact assessments. The committee could use this agency to assess the impact that moult hall is having on the surrounding woodland and grounds of moult hall. The committee can use this information to track the environmental progress of moult hall and see if the project is having a damaging or positive effect on the woodland and grounds. The committee could also use a survey company to produce a survey which can be given to guests when they leave so that the guests can give their feedback. The survey company can then use these results to produce accurate feedback to present to the committee. This method would be better than the committee asking the questions themselves as it will give a better representation of the guest’s views on moult hall. One company that they could use is amplitude research, this is a company that specialises in market research, Amplitude research can create a standard survey for guests which will make the results more comparable and easier for the committee to act upon.