19/10/2016

Planning for business

Planning for business success 

John Zerella | BIAS Australia

A business plan is a road map for your business. Business success can be almost guaranteed if you put together a well-designed and accurate business plan. If you want your business to go from point ‘A’, where it is today, to point ‘B’ where you want your business to be in the future. You simply identify where your business is today, face it in the right direction (strategy) and plot a series of steps over a period of time which will ultimately get your business to where you want it to be at some point in the future.

However, most business owners adopt the “do what we have always done” approach in the hope of achieving business success. This is a guaranteed way to NOT succeed. Yet business owners will not sit down and plan out a path for their business. If you do not have a plan to get your business from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ how can you possibly expect to arrive at point ’B’? Many business owners try to achieve business success by continuing to do what they have done in the past in the hope of a different result.

A business plan does not need to be complex, long or overly detailed. A business plan should be easy to read, developed with ease, and usable. I like to call them ‘mud maps’ for your business. A ‘mud map’ provides the essentials to get you to your destination without outlining every single detail, common sense and familiarity are assumed and just enough detail to get you very close without overwhelming information. A business plan should adopt the same approach, just enough detail so you understand where you want your business to go but not too much detail that the production and ultimate use of the plan becomes a chore. 

Essential components of a good business plan:

1. Business Objective

The plan should start with a well thought out definition of what you and your enterprise offer the market. 

2. Strategy

Includes the way in which your business will achieve its goals and objectives over the medium to long term.

3. Unique Features

This requires deep and creative thinking about your enterprise and what is unique about what or how you offer your product or service. 

4. Sales Forecast

This is a numerical exercise and you should forecast your sales revenue by number and dollar by each section/segment of your business.

Planning for business success is essential but if you keep doing what you have always done you will simply get the same result!