Starting a Business? You Need a Business Plan!

Create a Strong and Useful Business Plan!

A business plan is a key component when starting your business. It is a written description of your business’s future, a document that describes what you plan to do and how you plan to do it. You probably have a business plan already, perhaps just not a professional or useful one.

A business plan is not only useful to those starting a new business, it can also be used to:

• Define and fix objectives, and programs to achieve those objectives.
• Define agreements between partners.
• Support a loan application.
• Create regular business review and course correction.
• Set a value on a business for sale or legal purposes.
• Evaluate a new product line, promotion, or expansion.

The purpose of this post is for those looking to define a new business.

My business plans started as a pile of notes and papers that I would scribble on every time I got an idea about how I envisioned certain aspects of my business. I then took all those notes and created a plan based on a template that I would then use as a guide. A good guide is so important because it can help you to monitor your progress, hold yourself accountable and control the business’s future path. And of course, it’s a sales and recruiting tool for courting key employees or future investors. The most important thing to remember when creating a business plan, is to make sure it is clear, short and useful. I have a basic, original copy that I keep in a safe, sleeve protected portfolio. Then the one I actually use…daily, is in a binder with pages that have scribbles and notes all over it, because I USE it.

So what makes a business plan useful? One that:

• States what your planning to do and how you plan to do it.
• States a fixed set of criteria that is clear and simple so that you may test every decision made in the business against it.

• It should be created by the people directly affected by it, at the time.
• It should be worded and organized in a manner in which the people who use it can understand and relate to it.
• It must be based on the values, principles, and mission of the business.
• The values, principles, and mission should all be consistent and clearly represent the people of the business.
• It should be practical.

Try these good reads:

• “It is not the Big that eat the Small, it is the Fast that eat the Slow” 
• “The E-Myth revisited”
• “E-Myth Mastery” 
• The One-Minute-Manager Series
• “First Break All The Rules “
• The Fish Series
• “Maverick, the Success Story Behind the Worlds Most Unusual Workplace”
• “The Ten Truths for Raising a Healthy Bouncy Business“

Need a business plan template? Don’t worry, you have many options:

You can Google dozens of free business template sites, use Microsoft Word templates, buy template software, or hire someone. Check out the link below for an example.

*Business plan template – This fill-in-the-blank business plan template is in the format preferred by the SBA and most banks.

Happy Money Making 🙂