Many small business owners feel that a business plan is not necessary, but that is the furthest from the truth. A good business plan will help keep you on track as the day-to-day events of running a business start to impede. Without a plan, you can find yourself off on tangents that seem like a good idea, but are actually counter productive to your goals.
By going back and reviewing your business plan, you can see where you are at, and where you are heading. Are you still on track? Have you kept pace with your goals? Are the goals in your business plan still valid?
by staying focused on the business plan, you will place your energy into meeting the stated goals. If you find that the goals no longer are valid, then take the tme to adjust your business plan to reflect your new goalset.
The statistics support this – over 80% of businesses who fail inside the first year had no business plan. If you fail to plan, as they say, you plan to fail.
What should you have in your business plan? The SBA suggests the following item be a part of your business plan:
- Description of the business
- Work force needs
- Potential problems and solutions
- Financial: income statement, balance sheet, cash flow, best case and worst case, break-even analysis, and much more
- Competition strength and weaknesses
- Market research and analysis
The business plan should be easy to read and understand. It also needs to be realistic. Think of what time it will take to manufacture each product, or how long it will take to service each customer. If you ned 2 hours to build your product, expect that 4 pieces a day can be manufactured per person. Also consider how much it costs to run your operation, make the parts, market the parts, etc. Each part needs to cover a portion of the overhead costs, as well as the manufacturing costs.
There are some really good template-based business plan writers that can get a good, working business plan together. We can also provide a business plan that will met the needs of your company.
