BUSINESS PLAN TOOL
The Gründungswerkstatt of the IHK Berlin supports you with a digital, free platform for planning and implementing your business start-up: now also in English! With the first free English-language business plan tool in Germany, you can develop your business and finance plan from anywhere and at any time, even in a team and with the support of a personal IHK expert.
ACCESS TO THE GRÜNDUNGSWERKSTATT
To register as a founder in the portal, please click the link "Create account". Then enter all the data required for registration. The password must be at least 8 characters long and contain at least one number and one capital letter. After saving the registration data, you will receive a confirmation link via e-mail to the provided e-mail address. The registration is carried out by single-opt-in procedure. The access is therefore immediately active. If you have forgotten your password, you can request a new password under "Forgot your password?". To do this, you must enter your e-mail address. A new password will then be sent to you by e-mail.
HOME PAGE
After logging in, the personal workstation (home page) is displayed. Here you will be greeted with a "Welcome message for the first steps in the Gründungswerkstatt", which you can remove at any time. From the start page you have access to current global news, your tasks, news and projects.
FIRST STEPS IN THE GRÜNDUNGSWERKSTATT
Step 1: Create your first project
Before you start planning your start-up idea, you must create a project. You can create this under "Projects" and start directly with it. When you create your project, you will automatically be assigned an expert who will be personally available to answer your questions at any time. The expert is assigned based on the postcode and industry sector. If no expert is available in your region, you can still use the full range of functions, with the exception of the support of an expert. In this case, please contact your regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) if you have any questions about your business idea.
Step 2: Working in the project
The best way to start your new project is to create a "Business Model Canvas". This will give you a good overview of your project and help you to draw up your business plan. Now work out the "business plan" and "financial plan". You can involve your team, as well as external consultants, lawyers, your bank or tax consultants. In the "Documents" section you can collect additional information, such as sources, market reports, statistics, studies, etc. You can forward your project to your team and to external parties via the "Project areas" section. At each step you will receive active help and information.
Step 3: Managing team members
Under the "Team" section you can invite other founders to join your project.
Step 4: Assign rights to your project
After you have invited founders to your project, you can define their rights. You can assign each team member specific read/write rights to the individual contents of your project. You also have the option of disinviting founders out of your project at any time or changing their rights.
Please note: Team members do not have any rights after the creation. Please assign your team members the appropriate rights so that you can work together with your team on your business idea. The same applies to the expert. In order to work with your expert, you must give him the appropriate rights so that he/she can see your content. If there is no expert in your region, you can ignore this point. Please contact your regional IHK or chamber of trade, which will be happy to help you with any questions you may have.
Step 5: Your personal expert
In the Gründungswerkstatt Deutschland you will receive personal support in planning and implementing your business start-up - neutral, confidential and free of charge. A personal expert from your region is available for your personal consultation on all questions concerning your start-up. You will find your expert on the overview of your project. You can ask your expert questions via the "Message" section.
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS
The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a pattern in which many individual ideas can be easily combined into a marketable business model. You can respond quickly to changes in the environment by simply adjusting the individual factors. The BMC contains nine fields with so-called key factors. They can be filled with life little by little and brought into a meaningful relationship with one another. If you write down your thoughts on each key factor, either alone or as a team, it is usually much easier to start formulating the business plan. In the menu item "Canvas" you can create your BMC online. On the right-hand side you will find detailed information on the BMC under the menu item "Help".
BUSINESS PLAN
Click on the tab "Business Plan" in the project and select the chapter you want to edit. By clicking on the category or using the following button you can edit the desired part. For each chapter you can call up a short info online. All interim results of the business plan remain saved and confidential. With the function "Comment" you can add a comment in each chapter. Your team members and your expert will be informed about the entry by e-mail. Your expert can thus also provide you with assistance on individual chapters of the business plan using the comment function.
Important: If you, as a founder, would like your expert to provide feedback on your business plan, you should grant him/her the appropriate rights to the business plan. Your expert will then have access to the relevant business plan element and can answer the question directly.
You can preview the business plan or get it in RTF format at any time. You can then format the business plan individually in word processing programs such as Microsoft Word or OpenOffice (e.g. with your logo) and print it out or send it by e-mail. On the right-hand side you will find detailed information on the business plan under the menu item "Help".
FINANCIAL PLAN
In the menu item "Finance plan" you can create the finance plan online. The worksheets: private financial requirements, capital requirements, profitability and liquidity are available for financial planning and are linked to each other. You can enter your figures directly into the respective field with one click. The data is saved automatically.