Speaker: Geraldine Lavin, DCU Ryan Academy
Geraldine Lavin is Programme Director at the DCU Ryan Academy and Business Director at 3rd i Ltd.
Geraldine is a business consultant and trainer with over 17 years experience providing business development, strategy and personal development resources to industry, primarily to the business development, tourism, training and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sectors. She has extensive experience as a trainer, facilitator and lecturer across a range of business topics and trainee groups, including managers, employees, start-up entrepreneurs, owner-managers, students and the unemployed. As a trainer she specialises in Business Start Up and Development, Business Planning and Personal Development.
She has also lectured and completed research projects in a number of third level institutions, including UCD, DCU, NUI, Maynooth, DBS, APMI (Hong Kong and Singapore) and CESUGA (Spain), primarily in the areas of enterprise, business and management development. Additionally she has assisted clients in securing national and EU funding, securing nearly €4 million in funding in the past 6 years. She is a member of the Small Firms Association’s National Executive Council, a member of the Ballymun Economic Development Working Group and a member of the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisers Board. She is accredited as a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) and graduated with a BComm and MBS from UCD.
Topic:
Geraldine will take participants through 3rd i's tried and tested approach to business planning. While it is easy to get information on the contents of a business plan, do you really know what a business plan is based on? The session will go through the fundamentals underpinning a business plan so you can best position your business idea and get the funding, customers and sales you deserve. Geraldine will cover:
- Why do we write business plans?
- Who are the different audiences for a business plan?
- What do they want from your business plan?
- Building Block 1: Knowing your business - developing your elevator pitch
- Building Block 2: Knowing your customer - developing your sales pipeline
- Building Block 3: Knowing your market conditions - developing your market scanning skills
- Building Block 4: Knowing your competition - developing your competition radar
- Building Block 5: Knowing your finances – developing your dashboard
- Tests and tips for writing a business plan