Business plan is unbeatable and not going to leave out of the heads of the starting businessmen and women. This is essential because you need visions about your business you are starting. You need to map out correctly what the targets are and what the assets are what you have to utilize. The business plan used to be 12-15 pages and written. You might realize how useful a business plan can be for businessmen. It is the planning out and collecting insights to reach goals.
It is a fact that there are many types of businesses and many types of entrepreneurs so each business in need of a matching business plan you can choose from these 3 types.
The "I am a businessman by accident" plan:
Without knowing there are many people who turns their hobby into a business or just a thought of making money and becoming financially independent or without any background knowledge or future vision of a business. Some become successful and others give up. This can be the case for some of the head over heels entrepreneurs. One day you are buying shoes on e-bay and the other day you own a webstore with brand name shoes like Nike, Adidas or Puma. One day you might write a blog about your personal life and the other day you are making money with sponsored reviews on your personal blog.
When you are in a situation that you have realized that you need to write a business plan then you need to think about carefully about some issues what the intentional entrepreneur has thought through before making a decision. You need to think about if the business needs to a big time ,passing the idea stage and what it is going to reward you. It is pleasant to feel that there is a market value for something you were already executing. But this does not mean that you might be ready to start a business. The accidental entrepreneurs can not gain lots of profits because there is a too quick set up without prevision of the factors like "Am I going to double or triple investments within a year or two years or three years.
You need to research correctly what you are going to offer and how much this is going to cost to produce. And what are the production hours per day to make those products. And how many hours to make 1000 products. For example how much time you are going to put into researching how you are going to set a website for your business. Producing products like baking cakes need space to produce. This part might look simple and how are you going to fund this. You also need to find the targeted market. You need to find out who your end users are.
For the "accidental entrepreneurs" can a business planning process very useful because then you can make a choice what ideas you should realize and what should be considered pulp. This means what is it that you going to make money with and what is not.
The "piece of paper" plan:
This is just a myth that you wrote a million-dollar idea on a piece of paper at the local coffeeshop. This is just a good old fashion fantasy that you might reach goals by writing a business plan at the local coffeeshop on a piece of paper. However back in the days when people were lower educated and did not have the access to public education or if your father was a farmer or fisherman then in many cases you might become one too. Nowadays in the western countries the tables turned. If you willing to work that will get you somewhere.
Do not rush to go with the flow. You might fall into the nowadays trends such as get rich quick schemes online. I read stories that some people bought for more than $10000,00 of information products about making money online. This can bring you into financial trouble. If you have an established business then you might go with the flow to keep up with the competition.
If you have the needed knowledge and skills to set up a new business then piece of paper from the local coffeeshop will do. This means that you do not need any experts that advice you how to start a business. If you have a the proper skills for example about IT or social media. Then you can start right away with your team members with coding. In this case you do not need a detailed plan to get started. If you got the skills and knowledge and you have the experience then you might delay the process of detailed and formal planning for later.
When it is the time to find investors and lenders you will move further than basic starting steps. Sketching a plan based upon your own or partners expertise means that you can quickly get started and gain profits even you have created a minimalist plan. Depending on the demand of the market and competition you can start without a detailed business plan because you have the vision by knowing the market.
The "only pressing issue" Plan:
You might think business plan is only for a new business or once you are open for business you do not need a business plan. To get the idea how your business is running and if you have reached the goals you set you need to look at the business plan once or twice per year. If the market is changed for example the demand or the competition is ahead of you with new technologies then change your plan and find new directions. This can not be bad.
There can be moments that your business does not generate enough profits. That some parts of the business is not working properly. That marketing department is not generating enough results or cash flow is just down. If one product is well sold and others are just not generating enough income. This can be the moment to take a look at the business plan. Then ask your self what you need to do to improve this. That can be changing the products or price need to adapt to quality. There can be lots of factors.
Just take a glance at the previous assumptions you wrote in your original plan. The changes need to be done to reach goals and are the insurance rates the same? or how many hours did you put into accounting?. Is changing the products or website a real issue? Are the sales done online same as in the store? These can be trigger factors that can be considered if you need to gain more profits if one product is selling well and others do not.
In some cases things can go wrong no matter how many long hours you put into researching. This is not a sign that you are not an entrepreneur who can be successful. Just like life the markets can not be predicted accurately. The business plan needs to be smooth and responsive. The "Only pressing issue plan" can be seen as a reflection of a normal evaluation process.
Original article: EzineArticles.com
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