Is your business planning to fail in 2015?
Are you falling into these business planning pitfalls? What is more important Passion or Planning? What is a Business Plan, is it really a sales tool?
Business planning, whether you are a start-up company, an entrepreneur, a stay-at-home mom, or you simply have a great idea; business planning is absolutely necessary. Often time people think business plans have to be really extravagant, however, that is not always the case. Depending on what type of business you're planning, there are a few essentials that any business plan should have. The business plan does not have to be forma, it can simply include your business name, slogans, logo, and any ideas you come up with. The process is yours; remember it is your business. That means you need to plan your vision before you begin sharing it with people.
Keep in mind whether you are pitching a business, an investor, or a bank for funding, these potential relationships require a detailed report consisting of revenue streams, margins, financial statements and musch more. If you find that you need your business plan for funding, whether you hire an attorney or do it yourself, you should at least have an attorney review the plan before presenting it.
Too often too many people walk into a situation and assume their audience is looking for a very substantial business plan. However, that is not always the case. Instead your audience finds it’s more important that you understand where your business is going and that you have a plan! You know what you want to do! It's your desire they're looking for just as much as they're looking at your numbers and plan. Remember a professional can be hired to do your numbers, but your desire and your passion, like why you named your company your slogan should not be outsourced. Your company should come from you and your passion will shine through. People recognize whether you are passionate or not, when doing business. Passion is the difference between staying late to meet with a client and scheduling her appointment 3 weeks in the future. Of course, you can hire a virtual assistant to assist you; however that person needs to be pretty genuine too. You need somebody who is going to invest in you.
A simple business pitch will get a business owner started. Start by thinking of your competition, define your product is why it's necessary, research who your client is, and think about where your revenue streams will come from. Be sure to stay tuned for our blog about business pitching, but often these simple starting points will allow your audience get to know the person is going to run the company; and that that is simple enough for someone to schedule a sit down. It is also important you maintain start with a business pitch to keep you on track with your goals. I encourage everybody to make those goals before the beginning of 2015. If you're interested in determining how much revenue your business could potentially make for the year, or you want to offer many products and you're not quite sure how to consolidate them; a business strategy meeting is probably best. A Business Strategy Meeting allows clients to work one on one with an attorney to determine the items discussed plus much more in detail. A business strategy meeting can put an owner back in control of their ideas and provide a road map for achieving their plan without a business plan. However, if you really wan to see those numbers an attorney can assist you with preparing your business plan as well.
Regardless of whether you start off with a very complex business plan with complex revenue streams to determine whether or not you will make your goals at the end of the year or a simple business pitch, it is important that you make a plan. The plan does not have to be a financial plan it can be a simple business plan or goal sheet. Start by making a goal to do something different this year, something that you did not do last year. Then make another goal to do something that you really wanted to do but you haven't had a chance to do. Last, make a goal to change something that didn't get great customer feedback on or you believe needs to change.
