Western Governors Financial Management & New Venture Financing Capital Plan Paper

Develop a high-level funding schedule using an Excel spreadsheet for your new venture business concept that can be used to discuss cash requirements for the first year of operations with prospective investors. The spreadsheet should be prepared on a monthly basis and should include the following specific details:

1. Headcount plan – include all personnel need to carry out the critical operations of the business for the upcoming year.
2. General & administrative expenses, including office rent and related costs, utilities, communication expenses, insurance, filing fees, etc.
3. Estimate the cost of how you plan to market the company/product.
4. Develop your revenue model, including key assumptions and variables such as unit sales, sales growth, number of customers by the end of the year, product pricing, etc., Make the model flexible enough to enable you to change key variables and run “what if” analyses.
5. If the cost of delivering your product or service is significant, forecast the cost of goods sold based upon estimate costs and the product assumptions used in item 4 above.
6. After preparing the initial funding plan, critically review the plan and assumptions (including having advisors and other management team members review the plan for reasonableness). Adjust the month-to-month results to “normalize” the cash balance (and ensure it never runs below $0), adjusting discretionary expenses if necessary.

Upon completion of the financial model, answer the following questions:

1. How much funding do you need to operate during the first 12 months of operations? Please include your numeric answer and an explanation of several sentences.
2. What is your monthly cash burn rate – both gross and net burn? (Gross burn is the average of total expenses each month; net burn is gross burn offset by the average monthly cash generated from revenues). Please include your numeric answer and an explanation of several sentences.
3. How long will you be able to operate at the end of the 12 months forecast before you need additional funding? Please include your numeric answer and an explanation of several sentences.

You should upload your financial plan (i.e., your Excel spreadsheet) together with the answers to the above 3 questions in the Excel spreadsheet.