Advice for your business – business planning
How many of us have started a business only to realise that the first thing you should have done was put together a business plan? We are all guilty of this and in our defence there is so much to organise when setting up that a business plan is the last thing on your mind! If you only take one piece of advice from me let it be this, make sure you have a detailed comprehensive business plan. Not only you but everyone in your business should understand the business plan in order for it to work.
There are many reasons for doing a business plan. It allows you to focus on your goals and set strategies for achieving them. It tests the viability of your plans. It sets targets for you to measure how well you are doing. Most importantly for lots of us it is a standardised document that can be used when applying for funding from the bank, the enterprise board etc. It’s important that it remains a working document though. A good business plan is one with dog ears!
Things to add into the plan would be details on the background of the business. Where you started, who works there and what you have achieved already. Also you need to look at your competitors. Is there room for you in the market? What is your advantage over them? Next consider what you want to achieve. This would include your goals and objectives. You need to decide how you are going to achieve these goals. This is the crucial part of the business plan as we all have great aspirations but they are not always reachable. Your strategies would probably be different aspects of marketing, staffing, budgeting and more.
After setting down your strategies you need to think about how you will measure these to see if they are working and also the resources you will need to carry them out. Last but not least, include details of accounts. This means your profit and loss accounts, budgets for sales, budget for spending and anything else that you (or the bank) deem relevant.
If all this seems really daunting you can have a professional do the plan for you and then you will have a working document that will last you for a few years. Alternatively you can get some advice about where to start and have the satisfaction of putting it together yourself! Talk to me on 058 48826 or visit www.acemarketing.ie for more details.
How many of us have started a business only to realise that the first thing you should have done was put together a business plan? We are all guilty of this and in our defence there is so much to organise when setting up that a business plan is the last thing on your mind! If you only take one piece of advice from me let it be this, make sure you have a detailed comprehensive business plan. Not only you but everyone in your business should understand the business plan in order for it to work.
There are many reasons for doing a business plan. It allows you to focus on your goals and set strategies for achieving them. It tests the viability of your plans. It sets targets for you to measure how well you are doing. Most importantly for lots of us it is a standardised document that can be used when applying for funding from the bank, the enterprise board etc. It’s important that it remains a working document though. A good business plan is one with dog ears!
Things to add into the plan would be details on the background of the business. Where you started, who works there and what you have achieved already. Also you need to look at your competitors. Is there room for you in the market? What is your advantage over them? Next consider what you want to achieve. This would include your goals and objectives. You need to decide how you are going to achieve these goals. This is the crucial part of the business plan as we all have great aspirations but they are not always reachable. Your strategies would probably be different aspects of marketing, staffing, budgeting and more.
After setting down your strategies you need to think about how you will measure these to see if they are working and also the resources you will need to carry them out. Last but not least, include details of accounts. This means your profit and loss accounts, budgets for sales, budget for spending and anything else that you (or the bank) deem relevant.
If all this seems really daunting you can have a professional do the plan for you and then you will have a working document that will last you for a few years. Alternatively you can get some advice about where to start and have the satisfaction of putting it together yourself! Talk to me on 058 48826 or visit www.acemarketing.ie for more details.
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