SPREADSHEET DEVELOPMENT

MAKE COMPUTING TASKS SIMPLE ENOUGH TO DELEGATE

Growth Plan™ has made powerful purpose-built computing simple and affordable: 

• Spreadsheets are very effective for creating easy to use, flexible and powerful business applications

QUICK & SIMPLE COMPUTING

• Growth Plan™ has developed functional spreadsheets as starting points for customised applications

NO NEED TO START FROM THE BEGINNING

• The cost to you is the incremental development cost, not the ground up cost

FULL PRODUCT, UPGRADE PRICE

• Growth Plan™ uses the internet to develop spreadsheets and provide training and support for clients anywhere in the world without travel costs and phone bills

WORLDWIDE DELIVERY

WHY SPREADSHEETS, WHY HAVE SOFTWARE CUSTOM-BUILT?

·    Skilled operators can use spreadsheets to create powerful software applications which are easy to use in a very short time, in application development terms.

·    Because Growth Plan™ base programs are functional “paid for” products, business owners can develop applications at the incremental cost, rather than the ground up cost.

·    With a custom built program you are not paying for bells and whistles you don't want in order to get the function you must have.

·    Integrating a custom built application into your business doesn’t involve fighting your way past the features you don't need or understand to get to the features that provide solutions for your business.

·    You have the choice of making custom-built programs your property.  You can decide when, how and who develops them further and what features are added or taken out.  You don’t have to worry about licensing and how many copies you make or who you give copies to.

·    Getting data into your custom built application can be tailored.  You don't have to understand the different ways data can be collected, or to make the mistakes you can make in using generalised software.  Growth Plan™ customised spreadsheets streamline the collection of data from the sources YOU, and perhaps no-one else, have available.  Effective collectors and users of data are effective computer users and tend to run effective businesses.

·    You can integrate computer functions that work best together but are separate programs if you buy them off the shelf.

·    Can you afford to divert yourself from your clients to write computer applications?  Can you afford to employ someone who works in a volatile industry to write for you without guarantees of quality when high level skills you know little about are required?  Can you afford not to collect the information you need or to continue doing critical error prone tasks by hand.

·    DEFINE it, DEVELOP it, then DELEGATE it.  Then spend the time you save to DESIGN your future.

·    In management you need access to summary data that gives you the big picture or the detail on your bottlenecks or critical processes.  These requirements change as the business develops and the market changes.  Growth Plan™ offers a development system that is fast and inexpensive enough to keep up.

CASE STUDIES

CASE STUDY 1:  BOB'S PROMOTION BUSINESS

Bob runs a promotions business.  He was falling behind in payments to a critical supplier who was threatening to withdraw supply.  He came to Growth Plan™ for help and it was clear that his business model needed attention.  Growth Plan™ modified one of its business modelling spreadsheets so that it applied to Bob’s business.  Very quickly, Bob was able to see that his production model was far from optimal and it was going to get worse – he wasn’t getting enough income and the expenses were too high for the product he was producing.  Trying out new scenarios in his business model he was able to adjust the product so that it could be profitable and to identify those areas where cost savings would have the most impact.

The sales section of the business model was also able to tell him where his strengths and weaknesses were, what geographical areas and industries he wasn’t giving full attention and what product lines were worth the most to him.  He could see how many clients he needed, what income he needed from each client and where new clients could come from.  This provided motivation because he could see a clear road ahead to the future viability of his business and he was soon able to demonstrate to his supplier that he was a good risk.

CASE STUDY 2:  PETE’S MANUFACTURING BUSINESS

Pete had a product he had invented and developed himself which appeared to meet a significant market need and he had a growing client list.  As product sales started to grow significantly Pete found he was struggling to fund the growth when his inability to make a payment to the tax office sent a shockwave through the organisation.  Growth Plan™ was called in.  Growth Plan™ modified Growth Plan’s cashflow model to apply to Pete’s business and Pete was able to see the size of his problem almost immediately.  He could see how much cash he needed to get through the development phase.  This gave him a basis by which to go to his potential equity partners to discuss further capital injections.

He was also able to work on scenarios that adjusted the resources devoted to sales and to further development.  He was able to build a plan that created a workable future for his business.  This gave confidence to his potential partners that their contributions would have the desired effect.  They knew how much was required, when it was required and the likely implications and return on their investment.

The model was easily modified as their business changed which gave the organisation confidence that such shocks would not be repeated.

FREE SAMPLE

Click on this button to download a simple spreadsheet that you can use to convert Gross Margin to Price Markup and visa versa.  Giving a 20% discount on a product that has been marked up by 20% is not the same as selling at cost.  This is a trap for young players in the retail market.  A product that cost $100 and is sold for $120 is marked up 20% but a discount of 20% will be $24.  The correct discount percentage is the gross margin the 20% markup would have generated.  Download this simple program to solve it, and any other gross margin/price markup problem, you care to devise.

Do you pay any of your employees more than you are required by law?  Is this extra payment conditional on improvements in productivity or even on achieving a particular standard of productivity?  Wouldn’t you like to have your employees participate in the profits of an organisation?  Would this make them happier in their job and more supportive of a prosperous future for the firm?  This handy and simple spreadsheet makes it easy to build incentive bonuses into your employment contracts whilst ensuring that you are complying with your local industrial laws.

Perhaps there is something in your legal environment that is not covered by this program.  Click this button to find out if we have a version that suits you, or to obtain a quote to have it modified to your specification.

Email me about a different version of this program

FREE TRIALS

The following fully functional programs can be downloaded and used for a trial period, free of charge.  Perhaps they will be along the lines of what you want but your situation is slightly different.  Click this button to email us.  We will respond very quickly with a request for details form and thereafter a quote.  You will be surprised how little it costs to get a program that exactly achieves your needs.

Email me about modifying one of your spreadsheets.

Restaurant Roster

This is a program that implements the key sections of the New South Wales Restaurant etc Employees Award which specifies employment conditions for people working in the food industry.  This is a complicated award and the cost of miscalculating awards can be a back wages claim many years later for many thousands of dollars.  Just enter simple details about each employee, type in the roster for each employee and it will produce details of the wages they should be paid in order to comply with the award. And beware – If you aren’t doing this sort of check, your employees might be.

We have versions of this program already written for many other awards from different states and countries and we can customise a version for you at a very low cost.  Click this button to arrange a quote.

Download the Free Trial

Email me about a different version of this program

I liked the trial and want to buy it as it is for US$54.95

Task and Delegation Planner

No matter how wealthy you are, no matter how well thought of you are,nor how smart you are, you can’t buy any more time, you can’t be given any more time and you can’t design or create it.  People can’t leave it to you in their will and you can’t do a degree in putting more hours into the day.  You can, however, fit more into the time you have.  You can do this by not wasting it on activities that aren’t taking you towards your goal and by paying or leading others to use their time for your purposes (ie delegation).

But we get in a rut.  We stop thinking about what we are doing and we take on whatever presents itself and our future suffers.  This program forces you to step back and look at what you are doing and to critically analyse how you spend your time.

Download the Free Trial

Email me about a different version of this program

I liked the trial and want to buy it as it is for US$49.95

Cashflow

4 out of 5 small businesses don’t make it past 5 years and the main cause of failure is a lack of cash.  Cash shortfalls can’t always be avoided but it helps if you know when they are coming and if you can calculate the impact of manipulating some parameters, in advance, to avoid or lessen the problem.  It’s often too late when a supplier rings up to say that a cheque has bounced to solve your cashflow problem.  They need to be avoided, not reacted too.  This program will help you, especially if you live in a country that has GST.  However, if you have cashflow issues you would like to build into this program, or GST works differently in your country, click on the button below and get a quote.  We may even have a program that solves most of your issues already.

Download the Free Trial

Email me about a different version of this program

I liked the trial and want to buy it as it is for US$89.95 

Other Programs

Growth Plan™ has lots of other spreadsheets it has written and collected over time which can be custom built for your business.  Click the button below, tell is what you are trying to solve and we will get back to you with the best solution we can offer.