If you don’t know where you are going (i.e. have a roadmap), then how do you expect to get there? Do you want to leave to chance? To sheer luck? Running, expanding or starting a business without a business plan is like trying to drive from New York to Chicago for the first time without a roadmap or MapQuest! Business planning gives you a path to follow, otherwise, you are just guessing. In running or starting a business, the learning curve is short before you run out of resources and are forced to close. Therefore, a business plan helps you set up a sound framework, model and system ahead of time, as well as, treat potential problems and threats, so that you can capably run a business. If you don’t have a system in place to deal with problems and you don’t have a sound strategic plan in place, you will find yourself needlessly sidetracked by working “in” the business instead of “on” the business. Moreover, you will miss a lot of opportunities that may come your way if you don’t have a system in place to identify them!
A Business Plan will save you a lot of time and money. measured planning ahead of time will help you sagely budget your resources and significantly minimize the time you spend assessing threats, problems, obstacles and opportunities.
The beautiful thing about a business plan is that it actually creates the future of your business, as you want it to be. It gives you more control over what future success will come. More importantly, it gives you a great process to grow the future business you desire, whether that is a start up, acquisition, expansion or build out. To be sure a business plan process can’t predict everything and business markets change very quickly and often; however, a good business plan system puts a platform in place to effectively deal with such unpredictability. Otherwise, you will find yourself lost and just guessing with out a system in place to define what is going on and how to deal with market changes, obstacles and opportunities. It also helps to predict what positive market advances are occuring so you can take advantage of them before your competition does.
A business plan is an actual guide to starting, getting, expanding, building and managing a business. It is a step by step process that will guide you through the complexities and intricacies of building a successful company. Business school will teach you something about business planning, an MBA will teach you a little more, but most good business planning experience comes from doing and learning from others who have gone before you. As a Business Plan Writer, I know this all too well. Be sure to find a good business plan mentor!
If you need to raise funds for your business venture or project, a well thought out business plan is the very best tool available to reach the mix and amount of funds your business requires. A good business planning process will actually determine and design financial structures which specifically address your funding requirements. Utilize a planning process to develop and design a financial structure customized to your particular company’s requirements. When times are tough in your business, industry or loaning market, a good funding plan will give you a fighting chance of obtaining the badly needed funding.
A business plan is a fantastic communicating tool. It establishes a companywide system so that you can effectively communicate with your executives, managers, employees, shareholders, investors, lenders, customers, potential customers, markets, suppliers, on down the line. So many companies fail because effective communication was significantly hampered by assets and people doing contrary things. Effective strategic planning within the business planning process establishes strong communication ties, links and systems so that all the fore mentioned human variables can come together in a directional, well coordinated strategy for success.
Nothing stays the same from one day to the next in this global, fast tracked business world. Because of this constant change, your business will quickly fall behind and suffer without having a good business plan in place. A plan puts a system in place to identify and address changes in the market place so you can proactively seize and turn them into opportunities. Without a forward thinking system in place, changes in your market place can quickly become insurmountable problems and obstacles. A business plan empowers you to deepen these changes into opportunities and increased profitability.
Operating a company without a well developed business plan is just like operating a car blindfolded, driving down an expressway in LA. You wouldn’t blindfold yourself and drive down a busy expressway would you? Why would you do that with your business, future and money?
About the Author
This article is written by Frank Goley, business consultant for ABC Business Consulting. Frank is an expert in writing, developing and implementing business plans, business turnaround plans, business funding plans, marketing plans and strategic plans. Frank offers comprehensive business consulting, business coaching and business turnaround consulting to small and medium size companies. Frank is author of the business plan book, The Comprehensive Business Plan Workbook – A Step by Step Guide to Effective Business Planning, and he has over 40 published articles on business success strategies. He also writes the Business Success Strategies blog.