Do You Have a Business Plan?

Many new business owners have a great ideas, lots of talent and normally even a pocket full of clients but very few have a business plan . Many may feel led to operate out of their "shirt pocket" which means they operate the business like they do their personal life and just pay for things as they go with little planning or budgeting.

While this may work fine for some business owners in the long term with market challenges they could face serious problems and this lack of planning can keep your organization from growing.

Small Businesses can become a trap when the owner wants to retire because only he or she can do the job and if they document it then someone else can read the plan and step in. This is especially helpful if the owner wants to make a significant amount of money and one day create a corporation they can later sell or pass to a child when they retire.

To build a successful small business most need to obtain financing for sufficient capital (money) for the new venture and that loan will take a business plan that can pass a bankers test. The business plan documents how your business will run. It makes sure that you have mapped out the operation as well as the finances.

The operation should cover things like: how will your product or service be advertised? Who will take, process and deliver the product or service. Who will monitor customer service and track how the business is doing.

The budget and planning is critical. You must have tools in place to set the amount of earnings your company needs to pay overhead and your projected profits. If you are not on target someone must be alerted. Running more than a month or two with out hitting your goals can require saving reserves and this must be accounted for.

A business plan should be reviewed by another set of eyes to determine if your plan is feasible and if there was anything you missed or have not calculated correctly.
We plan to post the key elements of a business plan for you but you can also get local help with a business plan from the Small Business Administration SBA, Chamber of Commerce, or the Small Business Institute.

Many of these services are free. Just do a local "Google" with your choice of the above name and your city or state and you should quickly be able to get help with your business plan.

The Small Business Institute® (SBI) was established to meet the needs of ethnically diverse small businesses. They are there to help you develop your personal business plan and make suggestions on how to prepare a business plan together with specific examples of plans that will be helpful to you. www.smallbusinessinstitute.biz (site may be updating- use search engine if needed).

Star your business right with planning and you won't have to worry about the bills but rather building the new company.

Let us know if this helped you.