Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Strong Business Plans Lay Out A Step-by-Step Plan for Profitability
What's a business plan? Simply stated, a business plan is a plan to build a business. I have seen good ones that range from 3 to 50 pages long, but really good business plans always answer a couple of key questions. One is the method for achieving an end goal, and in order to do that you have to have an end in mind. The objective of the plan is to identify the major initiatives and the step-by-step action plans to execute them, as appropriate as you can get it, as sequential as you can get it, and as well thought out as you can. I guarantee you it is not going to be perfect. No business plan is, not big companies, not little companies. You do the best you can to lay things out in the order that you think it is going to happen and at best... at best, it is going to be about 60% right, because the world changes and the marketplace is a very dynamic place. It is helpful to explicitly identify your assumptions so you can continually improve the plan with better information and begin to identify and measure the key metrics that control your business. Perhaps best of all, is regularly communicating the plan. Employees want to make a difference. Knowing the plan helps them align their activities to help create that success.
What's a business plan? Simply stated, a business plan is a plan to build a business. I have seen good ones that range from 3 to 50 pages long, but really good business plans always answer a couple of key questions. One is the method for achieving an end goal, and in order to do that you have to have an end in mind. The objective of the plan is to identify the major initiatives and the step-by-step action plans to execute them, as appropriate as you can get it, as sequential as you can get it, and as well thought out as you can. I guarantee you it is not going to be perfect. No business plan is, not big companies, not little companies. You do the best you can to lay things out in the order that you think it is going to happen and at best... at best, it is going to be about 60% right, because the world changes and the marketplace is a very dynamic place. It is helpful to explicitly identify your assumptions so you can continually improve the plan with better information and begin to identify and measure the key metrics that control your business. Perhaps best of all, is regularly communicating the plan. Employees want to make a difference. Knowing the plan helps them align their activities to help create that success.
