Business Plan - Putting it all Together
Over the past few posts I have gone through detailing how to put a 1-Page Business Plan together and taken you through a step-by-step approach to what’s involved. The reason behind this is from the research I have done over the past few years of coaching small business owners. I’ve found that when I ask them about their dreams and expectations for their business, many feel confused and overwhelmed when it comes to putting what’s in their head into a written plan.
It’s not a matter of whether you write a plan or not write a plan – it’s about what kind of plan and how much time you need to spend doing it. Every business needs some sort of plan or map in place to keep things under control, provide considered steps for success, and guidance for the future of the business.
To my surprise – and confirmed by surveys conducted by ASIC and the Australian Bureau of Statistics – very few business owners have a formal business plan that sets this all out!! More often than not, it’s because they don’t know where to start and what to put in a plan.
Many business owners I find may attend seminars or download templates and example Business Plans and so on but then stop at that as the whole exercise is subsequently too laborious. They just don’t know where to start.
In the end, many of the ideas are forgotten, or the owner stops and starts depending on the latest trend they hear about.
Often many business owners “follow the next shiny thing”. They reproduce marketing tactics that others are using. They expect, and assume, it will do the same for them – often with dire consequences.
A lot don’t have a clear direction for their business – or often they have too many directions. And quite a few of them just don’t have even basic processes systemised so that they’re reproducible and scalable.
There are some core key aspects of setting up and managing a business that is just not being done properly – or not at all in some cases.
Does any of this sound a bit like you?
Quick Start One Page Business Plan
Well, that’s why I developed my Quick Start to Business Planning program to help guide you in a clear process and to add my support if you need it.
You can download a detailed ebook outlining the steps to get to the 12-month action plan by completing the form below:
One Page Plan intro ebook
Download form for intro ebook for one page planThe Next Phase
The next phase after completing your basic 1-Page Plan and developing your 12-month action plan is to go on and develop the next core elements of a Comprehensive Business Plan as outlined below.
Using the same process as the business plan you can now develop a specific Marketing Plan outlining all the elements needed in your promotional elements and set across a 12-month action plan too. Your budgeting and forecasting then need to be captured in a Financial Plan. Operational matters such as product supplies and supplier arrangements and other services are summarised in an Operations Plan. And, anything to do with the human elements of your business is captured in a Human Resources or HR Plan. These are topics for future posts.
For more assistance or to discuss how I might be able to help you put a Business Plan together or any other business-related issues just book a 30 min, no-obligation, no-cost to you, time straight into my diary for a Zoom discussion HERE.