Debts and loans

The need for educational typing facilities starts after the first term of the second year of any degree course and includes all submitted project work up to and including postgraduate theses.

Work for professional authors is obtained by national advertisement or recommendation and is mainly conducted by post.

Although Dorset IHE, Wallisdown offers only a few degree courses and is situated in an area of high population density, the combination of accurate work and word processor capability brought in a considerable amount of work.

Two university campuses in an area of low population density will provide at least enough for one full-time employment.

Further prospects include purchase of extra word processor(s) and employment of typist(s) working from home, Also extension of services to include audio typing (by telephone on to an answering machine) and photocopying facilities.

There is an eight-berth caravan installed on site. The previous owners apparently had no difficulty in letting this solidly for the full season (July to September inclusive). As this is a very picturesque spot in a popular area we have no doubt of equal success and have therefore used some typical weekly rental figures to calculate income over a 16-week period.

You must be ready to defend your figures and answer with confidence any criticisms levelled at them. If you do not have confidence in your plans, how can you expect anyone else to? Rather than try to explain the way we would lay out this document we have included the one shown to our bank when trying to obtain finances for our smallholding. This is a forward projection showing the inherent profitability of the proposed property.

It is a 16-acre smallholding in West Wales, situated approximately 6 and 21 miles respectively from the Lam peter and Aberystwyth campuses of the University of Wales.

The agricultural projection is based on the production of lamb as this is well documented and easily implemented, though higher returns could be gained from other more specialist products catering for the delicatessen trade of the South and South East.

Beyond the use of the land there is a calf shed, a pig unit and a cattle shed which will be used for extra income.

The costing for lamb production is split into high and low stocking systems at seven and four ewes to the acre. The lower stocking system allows for a lower standard of stockmanship and also less reliability on bought-in food.

The word processing projection is based on experience of part-time work carried out in Poole over the last 18 months, initially for students at the Dorset Institute of Higher Education, Wallisdown and recently for a professional author from London.

Looking at these prices it will become clear that there is a wide margin between maximum price and average price. It is also worth remarking that there are as many prices below the average as there are above, so if you use the average price as your maximum price you should be safe. Avoid using figures from special sales such as Christmas fatstock shows and sales as these attract the best animals and hence better than average prices. However, if you have good quality livestock to sell these are good places as they attract a large number of buyers, especially dealers interested in quality. Other useful sources of data are periodicals such as Farmers. Although aimed primarily at the larger professional farmer, sale prices are still valid and useful.

If you decide that you will need extra finance to purchase your smallholding, you may get a rather cool reception from the usually helpful high street building societies. The exceptions are if you are already self-employed, have books showing good profits and intend to continue this trade alongside the smallholding, or if you intend to buy the holding and keep your present job. Unfortunately, these situations can and are difficult to arrange and the chances are that you will find yourselves asking the bank manager for a business loan. If you are asking for this type of loan, the bank can quite correctly ask to see detailed predictions based on figures from reputable sources. What you have to prove is that you can earn a living wage and meet their repayments from whatever ventures you choose.