Back to Back Issues Page |
Business Plan and Start Up Newsletter Issue #1028-Business Plan Maintenance March 16, 2006 |
Hello
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Business Plan Pro 2006... Everything banks; lenders and the SBA look for! Produce your business plan quickly and easily... For entrepreneurs and small-business owners. Business Plan Pro 2006 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ********Table of Content******** Business Plan Maintenance... Strategic Business Planning - Don't Plan to Fail By Failing to Plan... A Few Cool Helpful Notes... ********************************
Business Plan Maintenance
A business plan is not a one-time document, at least it shouldn't be. Most businesses put together a business plan during their start-up phase to organize, attract partners and employees, and to try and get a loan or financial investment. This is a great use of a business plan, however far too often once the company has started up the plan isn't touched again.
Ultimately, a business plan is about results, about making your business better. If you don't think doing a business plan will improve your business, then don't do one. Planning for planning's sake is a waste of time.
Where a plan is most likely to make your business better is by allowing you to:
Reviewing Your Plan
Real planning requires regular reviews just as much as navigation requires knowing where you are as well as where you were and where you wanted to go.
Every real plan needs to be full of specific dates, budgets, forecasts, and management responsibilities. People involved have to know there will be tracking and following up on specifics. Then that plan must be reviewed against results, and those reviews should produce course corrections and fine tuning.
Generally a business hopes for a consistent long-term strategy built on short-step incremental changes, not major revisions. Consistency is important to strategy, and the business should avoid the temptation to jump around from one strategy to another so quickly that no strategy is ever really implemented. Remember that even a mediocre strategy well and consistently implemented is much better than a brilliant strategy that wasn't implemented.
However, businesses do come to crossroads demanding major revisions in their business plan. These are some signs that indicate its time to review your plan:
Maintaining Your Plan
That means, of course, that to make a plan worth the effort of developing it, you'll want to follow it up. Whether that's every month or every quarter, you need to track results, analyze the difference between plan and actual results, and manage. Change things that need to be changed. Compare what you planned to what happened in reality. Ask yourself the following questions:
After you've answered these questions, update your plan accordingly, set new budgets and milestones, adjust your financials, and repeat the process with another review of your plan again next month or next quarter. Update your plan accordingly again, and keep repeating. You'll find that maintaining your business plan gives you a better grasp on your business, your market, and everything else that happens with your company.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Strategic Business Planning - Don't Plan to Fail By Failing to Plan
Developing a Strategic business plan is a crucial element in determining your ongoing business success. You can maximise business growth and minimise risk through effective strategic and contingency business planning. Plans do not have to be set in concrete. On the contrary, flexible business planning and goal setting is an essential part of business development and ongoing success.
Sharing our plans with business associates and staff is extremely powerful. We need to demonstrate that we are operating our businesses, however large or small, with accountability and fair prudence. Effective business planning should not just be for funding purposes or satisfying our bank manager. It should be the bedrock of successful business management. A workable and communicated plan becomes a statement of intent. It is a shared vision that the whole business, the staff and associates, are able to support.
What to include in your business plan:
Strategically, it needs to project the goals and aspirations of the owners. These need to be converted to progressive action steps that ultimately lead to the fulfilment of your objectives.
Ambitious plans create financial independence for business owners, inspire confidence in associates, empower staff and create lasting customer value. Your plan will provide the guidance you need to steer the appropriate course. Your plan can take full account of risk factors such as competitive forces and changing market conditions. Your plan needs to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. You are able to create a blueprint for achievement that you can action immediately, to make your business goals come true.
Start with an open mind to the true potential of your business. Every business has the inherent capability of producing outstanding profitability and astonishing results for customers. Think big. Imagine what you would strive to achieve if you knew you couldn’t fail. Develop the mindset that nothing is totally impossible. Sometimes there are only unrealistic timescales.
Match and track your activities to your objectives on a daily basis. Work with passion and a laser-like focus with persistency and consistency. Success thinkers and achievers are great visionaries. We can all be visionary by working in our areas of true passion.
These are some of the key elements of a strategic plan:
• Setting SMART goals and objectives
If you require assistance with the development of your strategic plan, I will happily provide my guides free of charge. Please confirm whether you require personal goal setting, business planning or both to brian@brianjamesgroup.com.
Just one final thought. Don’t be fooled into thinking that there is no need to plan for your business success or any other endeavour in life. Just ask any champion.
Brian James Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. www.brianjamesgroup.com
Brian James has been working in the corporate marketplace for 25 years as a marketing and business development professional. He is a published author and creator of the breakthrough TripleM marketing methodology. He is an associate member of the Institute of Business Advisers, a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a Vice President and Fellow of the Institution of British Engineers. He specialises in Strategic Marketing.
Brian has worked with blue-chip and medium sized companies across sectors as diverse as manufacturing, retail, telecoms, financial services and pharmaceutical. Some of the larger organisations he has worked with include the Prudential Group and British Telecom.
He currently operates as Chairman of the Brian James Group a business advisory Group for owner managed businesses - Offering specialist advice in all areas of business management and academy membership programmes that provide ongoing regular coaching and mentoring support in person, over the phone and through distance learning.
Contact:brian@brianjamesgroup.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brian_James
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Few Cool Helpful Notes There hasn't been a time in the past when I could tell you about things that are going on, just for you to get them. The first thing has been ranked the best type of business to start on the Internet. This is the Net Auction Business. Go to; http://mynas.sitesell.com/tlmanage.html to download it today... If you have a web site and you want to help grow your linking's with other web sites that are relevant to your business. You can become a member of the Value Exchange (VE). Go to; http://value-exchange.sitesell.com/tlmanage.html Learn to build a profitable online business... regardless of your background, starting from scratch, no technical skills required. Go to; http://infopublishing.sitesell.com/tlmanage.html P.S. Longer days and more time to play ( It's spring) ... Don't forget you have a business to tend to. :-) Shaunta http://www.tlmanage.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Top rated business to start is a Net Auction Business. This is the perfect business for start ups. You can and will learn everything you need to know to help with a new or an existing business. For more details about this opportunity... So... how much does this valuable 229 page resource e-book cost?
|
Back to Back Issues Page |