How to Create a Useful Business Plan that Really Works
How to Create a Useful Business Plan that Really Works
If you’re a business owner who dreads, procrastinates, or groans at the thought of writing a business plan, you are not alone.
And if you are among the majority who believe the business plan must be as long and as complicated as the classic “Moby Dick,” you are, once again, not alone.
But you—and every other business owner who shares that assumption—are wrong.
The truth is those comprehensive business planning documents are a thing of the past.
What is more relevant to emerging businesses is a short, flexible, and fluid plan that can adjust as our unpredictable environment and customer needs change.
Break it Down into 90 Days
To make the process manageable and the outcome more useful, many business owners are starting to look at their business plans in 90-day increments.
Ninety days is the perfect amount of time to plan. It’s long enough to make significant progress toward your goal, but short enough that you won’t lose focus.
So we recommend creating a high-level annual plan, and fill in the specifics as you work through each of your 90-day plans.
Your 90-day plan does not need to include every category of your high-level annual plan. You may want to choose three or four components to concentrate on each quarter.
What Should be Included in Your Plan
Every company’s business plan will be a little different, but most include a combination of these broad categories:
- The problem.
This section shows you’ve identified a need in the marketplace that hasn’t been filled.
- The solution.
This part of the business plan explains how your business will solve that problem.
- Your Value Proposition
This component explains what makes you different from your competitors—what you offer that they don’t.
Peter Drucker said, “What gets measured gets managed.” Metrics allows you to manage the key performance indicators that prove (or disprove) that your business’s solution is working.
- Target audience.
This is the specific group of people your business will reach. They have the problem you solve and will benefit from your solution.
- A marketing plan.
A marketing plan identifies your brand and determines how you will get your product or service in front of your target audience.
- Financial plan.
Broadly speaking, this section describes how your company will generate revenue. Financial projections, reports, and funding needs will all be addressed in this part of your business plan.
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Need Help to Develop Your Business Plan?
Have you started your business plan but are stuck on one of its sections? Have you been putting it off because you don’t know where to begin? It’s not too late to get started, and an Online Business Manager can help.
Healthy Business Manager provides a refreshing, objective, outside perspective to business planning. We help you put together a practical document you will want to refer to because doing so works.
Ready to create your roadmap to success?
Experienced online entrepreneurs are often stressed and exhausted because they are juggling everything in the business. I partner with owners to get results by managing operations.
Bottlenecks are busted so they have the energy to focus on growth.
Additional Helpful Tips
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[…] Over the last few months, we’ve been writing a blog series on the topic of planning…why business owners avoid planning, the erroneous assumptions associated with it, and how to create a practical business plan that works. […]