Business Plan template required

[nemo999]

Hello,

I am in the process of applying under the 200k route from outside UK.

I am sure some of us may have already made / in process of making business plan.

Just wondering if there is any template I can make use of, if you can share, that would be beneficial to me as well as to the whole community on this forum.

Thanks

PS: Any pointer to what are the specific things to take care during making business plan would also be useful.

[zimba]

There is no business plan template or a requirement for a business plan to be in a specific format. You need to devise your own plan and prepare it based on your case. Also this is not a business advice forum.

[nemo999]

There is no business plan template or a requirement for a business plan to be in a specific format. You need to devise your own plan and prepare it based on your case. Also this is not a business advice forum.

Hi Zimba88,

I am fully aware that this is NOT a business advice forum and delas with specific visa related queries only.However, the T1E visa is granted on a viable business plan and availability of funds. (correct me if I am wrong).

It helps to get some insight from people who have successfully applied with a business plan, rather than reinventing the wheel.

[seasky]

What is your elevator pitch?

[nemo999]

What is your elevator pitch?

Looking to takeover an existing hotel property in London.

Refurbish it (if required) and open for business by March 2019.

[seasky]

I know nothing about the hotel business (except that I spend 100 days a year in them....) and I know it is a hard business (nothing wrong with that at all, mention that "I realize it is a harder challenge then other business and I relish that"

some ideas that come to mind:

You are not allowed to invest in property in t1e make sure CW does not think it is the issue here
Mention all the background you have relevant to hotel business
how you will promote yourself in all the online outlets (tripdavisor, hotels.com etc)
I am sure you can purchase research on the London hotel industry

I agree with Zimba you will not get good response here (and if you did how would you know the quality of the BP)

Very best of luck!




Also lookup Fawlty Towers

[zimba]

Tier 1E rules make no mention of the specifics of the business plan. Viability of the business plan will be assessed by HO case workers internally. We cannot give advice of how, what and why something will pass the 'viability' test. You need to provide all the information required as part of your application and make a case for your business proposal as you see fit.

[marcnath]

I know nothing about the hotel business (except that I spend 100 days a year in them....) and I know it is a hard business (nothing wrong with that at all, mention that "I realize it is a harder challenge then other business and I relish that"

some ideas that come to mind:

You are not allowed to invest in property in t1e make sure CW does not think it is the issue here
Mention all the background you have relevant to hotel business
how you will promote yourself in all the online outlets (tripdavisor, hotels.com etc)
I am sure you can purchase research on the London hotel industry

I agree with Zimba you will not get good response here (and if you did how would you know the quality of the BP)

Very best of luck!




Also lookup Fawlty Towers

The highlighted part is wrong advice
There is nothing in the T1E against investing in property for business purposes.

[seasky]

I know nothing about the hotel business (except that I spend 100 days a year in them....) and I know it is a hard business (nothing wrong with that at all, mention that "I realize it is a harder challenge then other business and I relish that"

some ideas that come to mind:

You are not allowed to invest in property in t1e make sure CW does not think it is the issue here
Mention all the background you have relevant to hotel business
how you will promote yourself in all the online outlets (tripdavisor, hotels.com etc)
I am sure you can purchase research on the London hotel industry

I agree with Zimba you will not get good response here (and if you did how would you know the quality of the BP)

Very best of luck!




Also lookup Fawlty Towers

The highlighted part is wrong advice
There is nothing in the T1E against investing in property for business purposes.

OP the guidance is very clear on investing in property, see below. Make sure the CW fully understands you are not falling into that category. And to be more specific you are not bypassing the regs by just "calling it a hotel and doing the minimum around that" and actually main investment purpose is appreciation of property.

We have wouldn't want you coming on this board in a few months saying your visa was declined because the CW thought you were going to engage in property appreciation investment (we often see CW not really understanding business issues) and I hope my advice to you, will be fruitful to making sure of that.

Best of luck!



In all cases you cannot score points for funds in any of the points tables from any of the following:
(1) redacted
(2) redacted
(3) redacted
(4) Investment in any residential accommodation, property development or property management meaning:
i) Any development of property owned by the applicant or their business to increase the value of the property with a view to earning a return either through rent or a future sale or both
or
ii) Management of property (whether or not it is owned by the applicant or their business) for the purpose of renting it out or resale.
The purpose of this rule is to ensure that the business income must be generated from the supply of goods and/or services, and not derived from the increased value of property or any income generated from property, such as rent.

[nemo999]

There is a difference between buying a property and buying a property to do hotel/accommodation business.

How can home office stop from carrying out business activity ?

[seasky]

There is a difference between buying a property and buying a property to do hotel/accommodation business.

How can home office stop from carrying out business activity ?

Exactly. And make sure you give the CW all the evidence to not confuse the two. HO can not stop you from doing business activity, but they CAN refuse a visa or extension....

PS How exactly do you buy any London property for a hotel with £200K (plus all that is needed to fit it out and working capital for operating it?) even if leveraged?

[marcnath]

There is a difference between buying a property and buying a property to do hotel/accommodation business.

How can home office stop from carrying out business activity ?

Exactly. And make sure you give the CW all the evidence to not confuse the two. HO can not stop you from doing business activity, but they CAN refuse a visa or extension....

PS How exactly do you buy any London property for a hotel with £200K (plus all that is needed to fit it out and working capital for operating it?) even if leveraged?

Unfortunately @seasky keeps mixing up his business expertise with immigration rules.

If OP invests in a property as a legitimate part of the business, there are restrictions at all to do so.

The immigration rules and guidance are very clear as to what kind of property investment is excluded - essentially residential and property development.

The general principle should always be to make your application less complex by avoiding unnecessary explanations and justifications - any such details as advised by @seasky will just raise more questions with CW (in my opinion). It is the responsibility of the CW to identify and justify violations to the immigration rules.

[seasky]

OP,

I know people who's business is purchasing properties (highly leveraged usually) fixing them up and reselling (or renting out for a while, usually for tax reasons and then reselling) both residential and commercial. Perfectly legitimate business but has not been allowed by t1e route.

a few years ago the guidance did not have the details it has now, so my guess as is many times the case it was added to the guidance as clarification because some people abused the system.

As we see (and I see this as a positive change) HO is now looking much more in detail to the genuineness of businesses than before where the focus was ticking boxes (has maintenance, tick....) as fact we see by so many more people being interviewed, for many hours and at their place of business.

So when u mentioned you are going to "takeover" a London property (takeover can be construed as purchasing, but also just taking over a lease), and since you came to this forum seeking "advice", I happily doled out the basic advice "make sure the CW does not think you are doing property appreciation business via the backdoor of a hotel". Remember CWs are not great in understanding business necessarily and they did add the very specific guidance on property, probably for a reason.

We have seen CWs making the mistake that a virtual office is a sign on ingenuineness. that is ridiculous, the entrepreneurial hotbeds of Silicon valley, Bangalore, Tel Aviv, Shanghai and even our London are full of startups in VOs, in fact I would say startups SHOULD start in a VO so you can focus on the task, not the logistics of office management.

The tactic of saying more to CW to make sure s/he does not misunderstand something or a more minimal approach really depends on a case by case basis.

But thanks to this thread you are at least "aware" of an issue and can decide what is right for you based on the merits of the case that only you can know.