Failing to plan is planning to fail!
Ok most of us have heard this statement, possibly even have it
on a poster on the wall or even used it within internal training
sessions to your staff. But I find this one of the most ignored
business statements there is. You would be surprised how many
businesses start without a business plan written down in an
organised form, covering all of the business issues. The truth
is, had many of these businesses took the time to do this;
chances are many may never have been started in the first place.
Take for example marketing. A business owner might in his head
know what he wants to sell and how much he is going to sell if
for, but never once considers it would take money to promote or
market his services or product. A structured business plan would
have shown this. Take banking charges, seasonality or products,
Christmas time when businesses shut down, holiday time when
potential customers are away on holiday are all factors that
should be written into a structured business plan. When the
question is asked the answer nearly always is, "I do have a
business plan, it's just not written down but in my head". When
you consider every function that is a business function it is
hard to believe that anyone could keep all that information
neatly within one's mind. There are a group of businesses that
are even worse than that. Those that have spent valuable time
putting together a master business plan just to have it in a
drawer or on a shelf never to be seen or used. Why waste all
that valuable time for no return? A business plan should be
drafted as a working document, should contain every function to
the business and must be set up in a way to be flexible to
changes. It should be a working document in that it can be
transported for others to see, is in easy understandable
language; contain everything about your business so surprises
are limited. And as it is extremely unlikely that everything
will go to plan, you should allow flexibility within your
figures. Then within your business plan, diarise to review this
business plan every so often depending on the nature of the
business. If it does better than expected adjust the plan to
suit, if it is not so well, again adjust your new plan to suit.
A business plan allows you to control your business rather than
business controlling you. When you consider the planning that
goes into the family holiday for 2 weeks, it is sometime
astonishing of how little planning goes into something that
could mean the lifeline to the business owner, its staff and
everyone connected to it.