Importance of a Business Plan

The real benefit of a business plan is not the end product, but the process of thinking strategically about your business and what you want your business to become. Most business owners have a business plan of sorts in their head but its usually disjointed interupted with tactical day to day issues, some dreams and goals. Rarely a complete succinct vision of where their business is going.

The approach of developing your business plan is working on a top down approach. Your personal goals, your vision for the business, what level of sales will the business have, how will you achieve those sales, how many people will you need, what will be the cash flow requirements.

So we start with a vision for the business and build it out from there, fleshing out the details, understanding what operational, financial and structural requirements for the business. Once you have a solid and explainable vision for the business on paper, it is then necessary to look at where you are now and what changes to your business that you will have to make in order to achieve your vision.

Often achieving your vision will require a significant change in your business operations. It may mean doing things differently than the rest of your industry. As Albert Einstein said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".

The process of developing a business plan will show you:

• whether the vision/business is financially feasible
• what funds you will need to start
• what customers you should be targeting
• who your competitors are and why you are different
• how to keep focused on the end goal when things get busy or difficult
• your areas of weakness
• your strengths
• what needs to be done and when to do it

If you are lost in your business at the moment, feeling flat, unsure of where your business is going then writing a business plan will invigorate your attitude towards your business, giving your a clear focus on what your business requires.

We can help you with business planning providing templates, help with financial projections, mentoring and financial advice. Give us a call on 9411 5422 for more information.