Every time you meet with a property manager about leasing space for your business or you have a meeting with a potential lender/investor it is your business plan that will do most of the talking.
Use your business plan to present your business concept in away others can understand. You should focus on exactly what you want to achieve, where you want your business to go and how you plan to get it there. Projected sales and monthly expenses will also be included in your plan. All of this information will influence your choices, including the type of location you will be looking for. Your business plan will monitor whether you are achieving these objectives and maximise your changes of success by allowing you to keep adding to it.
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If you’re a new retail business you should think about things such as will you have a walk in store? A catalogue? Will your store have an internet site? Will it enable Internet ordering? What will your delivery methods be? You should also think about who your competition is and how you are better than your competition.
Your business plan will:
o Help clarify/focus and research your businesses development and prospects.
o Provides a considered and logical framework within which a business can develop and pursue business strategies not just for the near future but throughout your business
o Serves as a basis for discussion with third parties such as shareholders, agencies, banks, investors etc.
o Offers a benchmark against which actual performance can be measured and reviewed.
Your business plan is a framework which your business must operate within. It will ultimately determine whether your business succeeds or fails. For management or entrepreneurs seeking external support, the plan is the most important sales document that they are ever likely to produce. It acts as the key to raising finance. Preparation of a comprehensive plan will not guarantee success in raising funds or mobilizing support, but having no plan at all will more than likely result in failure.
We hope you are enjoying this blog article “The True Value of A Business Plan”. To start to build your Business Plan NOW for FREE join our FOCUS Yourself; A 7-Module Business Planning Program.
Some of the things that are worth thinking about before you start writing your business plan are:
o Clearly defining your target audience
o Determine your businesses requirements in relation to the contents and levels of detail
o Map out your plan’s structure
o Decide on the likely length of your plan
o Identify all the main issues to be addressed within your plan’
For many people the mere process of planning, thinking, discussing, researching and analyzing can often be just, if not, more helpful than the actual outcome, which is your plan.
No businesses are the same, just as no plans are the same. Your business plan might seem like a daunting task but the results it will produce will be worth it and if you are having trouble writing the plan yourself there are many websites that offer help and, along with your help, will actually write the business plan for you.
Helen Cox is the web master of Angel Start-ups
We have presented Helen’s perspective on business planning in this article so our readers can get access to other positions on business planning to that of our own.
In this case we generally agree with the ideas presented. Our sense though is that Helen’s business plan model is however, one of those BIG business plans of multiple pages.
Any time you read about a business plan approach watch for this trap…”write a business plan”. Anyone who uses these words is invariably drawing you into a tedious story telling business plan method. STOP…IMMEDIATELY!
Then go to Option #2 below under “WHAT’S THE NEXT STEP?“ and get access to 7-tutorial videos that will walk you through a business plan model that is easy, fast, sustainable and entirely practical to use. It has to be practical for you as a business owner as you have no time to waste on impractical recommendations.
WHAT’S THE NEXT STEP?
1.You can find out more about what a business plan is and its importance with the international best-selling book CHAOS; How Business Leaders Can Master the Power of Focus. Get your FREE copy HERE
2. Use our FREE business planning program FOCUS Yourself; A 7 Module Business Plan Program. This is not a business plan template, it is a full business plan that is EASY and FAST, making your plan SUSTAINABLE and entirely PRACTICAL. Start your business plan NOW
3. Not sure why you need a small business plan? REGISTER for a FREE FOCUS Discovery Consultation where you will talk business, your business, with international best-selling author James Burgess
4. Challenge yourself to FOCUS Your Business In Just 30-Days and learn how to build a business that will THRIVE not just survive with our FREE webinar HERE.