Why do you need a Business Plan?

Business planning is important and a poor business plan is important for what it does not do! If you have downloaded a "Business Plan" and filled in a template questionnaire type document you may have wondered what it was for? In truth you have answered someone else’s questions. Many of these plans end up in a drawer and are never looked at again.

The important bit of a Business Plan is the Planning. A good business plan has 3 functions :

To organise and prioritise your resources
To show someone else that you know what you are doing
To act as a blueprint for running this business

The organisation of resources is most obvious. But let's decide now, at the early planning stage, just who is needed to make it all work. Let's have all the contacts in place so that come the day of the launch it is all there ready.

"Showing off to someone else" is important. No Bank or investor will go along with you unless they have confidence their money is in safe hands. None of them will run your business for you and they all have reputational risk and other compliance issues to consider.

The third function is often ignored. Any business should take stock every so often. The largest companies do this in a board meeting. The questions asked are ‘What have we done? Where are we going? What have we forgotten?’ A successful small business needs to stop and think.

Parts of the business plan will always need revising. It is a Plan after all, and your best educated guess at the beginning. As time goes on some of it will be overtaken by events. If it has been done well it will need revising upwards. If not so much, then new strategies may be needed. Understanding the structure and limitations of your business is vital.

Whatever the case a Business Plan is needed in some form and needs to be done well.

 

Further Information & Help

Please contact us for further information or an initial meeting.