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Starting a business…start with your business plan.

Guest post by: Andrew Rogerson

Article Overview: A business plan is a critical element to your success as it gets you focused on doing the things you need to do. Most of us, if left to our own devices, would do the things we like to do and avoid the hard things that we procrastinate over. This articles explains how to tackle the process of putting a busines plan together.

Starting a business…start with your business plan.

If starting your business is in your immediate future you and are not sure where to start, there are four major areas I would suggest you consider. This article is just about one of those, which is the need to create a solid business plan, but the four areas to help determine your fitness for business ownership are as follows. First, are you a self-starter? Second, how well do you connect with other people? Third, how good are you at making decisions? Fourth, are you physically and emotionally ready to start and build your business?

As I mentioned above, this article is about area number five, that is, how well do you plan and organize. If you plan on going into business you should, at a minimum, look at the following. First, you're going to need to build a business plan. Just as you've heard Look before You Leap, you should have heard "If You Fail to Plan you Plan to fail." I think a business plan is one of the best kept secrets. Everyone knows you need a business plan but so few business owners actually put one together. And if you'd like to test this out, call three people you know who own and run a business and ask them if they have a business plan. I will be surprised if one out of the three does. And if you find one business person that does have a business plan either ask if you can borrow it to model off it, or if that's too sensitive, ask if you can meet with this owner to go over yours as I would guess the owner that does have a business plan is successful. And it's always good to talk to successful business owners.

Why is creating a business plan so important. It's important for a number of reasons. First, converting ideas that are jumbled in your head and putting them to paper makes you focus and really think. I guarantee you will say to yourself a number of times, what you think is clear and makes perfect sense in your mind, completely changes when you have to take the idea and put it in writing. Second, putting it in writing makes you think not only of that question or problem, but the next set of thoughts that flow from that idea. For example, if your business plan includes the idea of creating an Operations Manual, putting this on paper will make you capture the idea so you don't have to keep carrying it around in your head. It will also make you start thinking about the purpose of the operations manual. Questions will then come to mind such as, who its mainly written for, who's the best person to write it, how often should it be updated and by whom, who should check to make sure it works and you need to make sure its backed up with the other business documents so it's not lost. So, one simple idea to make an Operations Manual spun off about seven other needs. Third, it allows you to communicate the business plan or core idea of the business in writing to professionals such as third party lenders, attorneys and accountants, or key support people such as family and friends or key employees and others.

There are two types of business plans. The business plan for a brand new business will have different criteria to the business plan of an established business. However, both business plans include an Executive Summary that captures the essence of where the business is at and the direction, you as the owner, plan on taking it.

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Related Forum Posts
Is A Business Plan A Waste Of Time? - According to various government statistics, up to 80% of businesses will fail within their first five years of operation. That number is staggering to me. At the same time, when I look at most business owners, most of them do not have a business plan for where they want to go. When you ask entrepreneurs why they don’t have a business plan, most of them will say something like: “it’s too much work”, “I’m not trying to raise money”, “it’s all in my head already”, or “my business changes too often for a business plan to be worthwhile.” Sound familiar? Did you write a business plan for your company when you first started? Are you planning on doing it for your new business idea?
Re: Is A Business Plan A Waste Of Time? - A business plan is never a waste of time. A friend of mine was funded by the quality of his business plan. The banker looked at his business plan and concluded that he knows what he is doing.
Re: How long should a Business Plan be? - Hi Sally, The length of your business plan can very, really, on the type of business you are planning to open up. It also varies based on just how extensive you want to be with your plan. The more ideas you have, the longer the business plan will be. But if you want to just create an outline on the main points that you would like to focus on, then it is apparently shorter. But if you can go for the former, that would be better. THe more details you include, the more efficient it would be for you when it comes to executing them later on. However, it all boils down to your own preference and how you would like your business to be.
Re: A good business plan - Before starting any business their should be good business plan module which should be followed to achieve success in the industry. Your business plan should include most of the important concept like marketing, production, services etc, So following a strict business plan will help you to achieve your goals.
Is "Good" - Good Enough - I was just reading the thread about whether people need a business plan and this idea hit me. Someone commented that if you don't have a business plan and you're doing all right - then why spend the time or money. But, is doing good or doing all right - good enough? Maybe you're a business that is getting by and making the bills. What if, taking the time to really evaluate your business with a detailed business plan could help you see places to make some changes which could take your business to the next level? Would it be worth your time? I think it would definitely be worth the time. That could be because I've worked with a number of business owners who were "getting by", but once they committed to having someone evaluate the business - they saw a drastic increase in their revenue. So, why couldn't or wouldn't an entrepreneur do an evaluation to determine where the business is, where it isn't working and where it should be going? This could be done in a business plan format. Just some random thoughts. Shri


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