Many small business owners make the mistake of starting a business with a plan that is too complicated. To write a plan correctly you need to just outline what you feel needs to happen in your business. Your plan needs to have some flexibility built into it. The following are some guidelines to help any business owner create a strong and effective business plan.
1. Keep Your Small Business Plan Simple
While writing your plan be practical in your approach. You need to keep it simple for your business, as it grows your plan can also. However, when starting off your plan shouldn't be a hundred pages long. A business needs only to outline their basic plan and that should be no more than 10 to 15 pages. Your plan should never be bigger than what you need to manage your business.
2. A Small Business Plan Needs to Have the Necessary Items
If you write your plan correctly it should be able to expand as your business begins to grow. With that said, you need your plan to cover all the necessary items. You need to verify your resources and capitalization needs. Your market needs to be clearly defined and with good marketing analysis. A list of what you assume can possibly happen with your small business along with your goals should be in your plan. As with all plans you need to have financials, sales, forecasts, and expenses in them.
3. Your Small Business Plan Needs Alternatives
In a perfect world your business would never have any problems and your plans would work great. However, the truth is that almost every business startup should have contingency plans in place. That contingency should included in your business plan of what to do and what decisions need to be made when your business does not hit sales quotas or other milestones. Those decisions could be a change in marketing goals or refocusing products and or services.
4. Don't Try to Write Your Business Plan Yourself
Ask for help before you begin writing your plan. Remember that every business has had to write a plan before you did. You will be able to find lots of resources to assist you in writing a good small business plan. Online resources such as the Small Business Administration ( http://www.sba.gov ) can give you guidelines and templates to use. After you have finished writing your plan, have people you trust look it over closely. Have friends and other business owners review it before you approach any potential investors. Many business owners have gone through the same issues you have in building a plan. Take their advice seriously as they critique your plan. If you get an investor to look at it you may only have that one chance to impress them and get the deal done.
5. Frequently Review Your Small Business Plan
A plan if done correctly will end up being a living document supporting your business and not a dead on arrival plan. It is important that your plan is reviewed every few months so that you can make sure that your business is still on track to succeed. While reviewing it, look closely at what has been working and what has not. Update the business plan if it is warranted, any good plan will confirm with the new business owner that their small business is still growing.
Mike Burnside is a successful small business owner as well as the writer and creator of Unraveling Mysteries [http://unravelingmysteries.com/] a popular lifestyles journal. Mike continues to write for various publications about his passions in small business, parenting, relationships, health, technology, cigars, wine and travel.
1. Keep Your Small Business Plan Simple
While writing your plan be practical in your approach. You need to keep it simple for your business, as it grows your plan can also. However, when starting off your plan shouldn't be a hundred pages long. A business needs only to outline their basic plan and that should be no more than 10 to 15 pages. Your plan should never be bigger than what you need to manage your business.
2. A Small Business Plan Needs to Have the Necessary Items
If you write your plan correctly it should be able to expand as your business begins to grow. With that said, you need your plan to cover all the necessary items. You need to verify your resources and capitalization needs. Your market needs to be clearly defined and with good marketing analysis. A list of what you assume can possibly happen with your small business along with your goals should be in your plan. As with all plans you need to have financials, sales, forecasts, and expenses in them.
3. Your Small Business Plan Needs Alternatives
In a perfect world your business would never have any problems and your plans would work great. However, the truth is that almost every business startup should have contingency plans in place. That contingency should included in your business plan of what to do and what decisions need to be made when your business does not hit sales quotas or other milestones. Those decisions could be a change in marketing goals or refocusing products and or services.
4. Don't Try to Write Your Business Plan Yourself
Ask for help before you begin writing your plan. Remember that every business has had to write a plan before you did. You will be able to find lots of resources to assist you in writing a good small business plan. Online resources such as the Small Business Administration ( http://www.sba.gov ) can give you guidelines and templates to use. After you have finished writing your plan, have people you trust look it over closely. Have friends and other business owners review it before you approach any potential investors. Many business owners have gone through the same issues you have in building a plan. Take their advice seriously as they critique your plan. If you get an investor to look at it you may only have that one chance to impress them and get the deal done.
5. Frequently Review Your Small Business Plan
A plan if done correctly will end up being a living document supporting your business and not a dead on arrival plan. It is important that your plan is reviewed every few months so that you can make sure that your business is still on track to succeed. While reviewing it, look closely at what has been working and what has not. Update the business plan if it is warranted, any good plan will confirm with the new business owner that their small business is still growing.
Mike Burnside is a successful small business owner as well as the writer and creator of Unraveling Mysteries [http://unravelingmysteries.com/] a popular lifestyles journal. Mike continues to write for various publications about his passions in small business, parenting, relationships, health, technology, cigars, wine and travel.
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