I am often asked to help in drafting business plans. If a business plan is often necessary when you get financing for your business, I find that most business owners are not very useful. Why not? Because they are often written in a very long-term framework (usually five years) and once they are written, they are placed on a shelf and never looked again. Let me suggest a few ways you can maximize your business plan.
1) Check your business plan frequently. Business plans are not intended to be static. They are mostly a long-term strategic tool, but to be effective you need to regularly review and update your strategies. How many times? I would suggest quarterly. Look where your strategies work and which are not. Do more of what works and less of what does not. Ask yourself why some work and some are not. What can you learn to make your company stronger?
2) Add an element of life in your business plan. I have yet to see a business plan that includes your lifestyle ideal. T-a bank care about your lifestyle? Probably not. But you should. Take time this week to add a lifestyle page to your business plan. At the very least, include the number of hours you want, where you want to work, how do you want and what timetable you want. Then go through your business plan and make sure your business strategies support your lifestyle strategies. What you will find May is that you'll have to add strategies to recruit additional staff, streamlining operations, and create better business systems.
3) Put your business plan into a plan of action. Your business plan is all on a long-term strategy. This is the overview on how you manage your business. Take that long-term strategy and turn it into a short-term action plan. For each strategy you have in your business plan, write a short-term action plan. Include what the actual activity will be, what resources you need to do so (employees, money, time, equipment, etc.) and prepare a detailed plan for including delays . This plan should be for the next three to six months. The action plan should include every step you should take to complete each objective in your plan.
The first time you do these exercises May take between two and eight hours. It depends on the amount of detail that you provide. My experience shows that the more details you include the more effective is your plan. The next time you do (do not forget to review and revise this document), it will take much less time. Whenever you do this based on the time before and your planning will become increasingly effective. Now you have a business plan that works.
1) Check your business plan frequently. Business plans are not intended to be static. They are mostly a long-term strategic tool, but to be effective you need to regularly review and update your strategies. How many times? I would suggest quarterly. Look where your strategies work and which are not. Do more of what works and less of what does not. Ask yourself why some work and some are not. What can you learn to make your company stronger?
2) Add an element of life in your business plan. I have yet to see a business plan that includes your lifestyle ideal. T-a bank care about your lifestyle? Probably not. But you should. Take time this week to add a lifestyle page to your business plan. At the very least, include the number of hours you want, where you want to work, how do you want and what timetable you want. Then go through your business plan and make sure your business strategies support your lifestyle strategies. What you will find May is that you'll have to add strategies to recruit additional staff, streamlining operations, and create better business systems.
3) Put your business plan into a plan of action. Your business plan is all on a long-term strategy. This is the overview on how you manage your business. Take that long-term strategy and turn it into a short-term action plan. For each strategy you have in your business plan, write a short-term action plan. Include what the actual activity will be, what resources you need to do so (employees, money, time, equipment, etc.) and prepare a detailed plan for including delays . This plan should be for the next three to six months. The action plan should include every step you should take to complete each objective in your plan.
The first time you do these exercises May take between two and eight hours. It depends on the amount of detail that you provide. My experience shows that the more details you include the more effective is your plan. The next time you do (do not forget to review and revise this document), it will take much less time. Whenever you do this based on the time before and your planning will become increasingly effective. Now you have a business plan that works.