So you have experienced the highs and the lows of the last 18 months … what have you learned about your business? Where were you able to maximize your profits and where did you identify the point where the more business you took on the less additional profit you made…

If you’re not sure about where to start with a Business Plan That Works… read on!

Holidays, family, fun, food, drinks and relaxation!

Well before you down tools, have you reviewed the last 6 months… do you have a business plan to review?

Business Plans – who needs them?

In business, there are those business owners who plan to succeed and those who fail to plan and inevitably, fail. Have you ever created a business plan that you actually used and if so, did you stick to it for the life of the plan?

I’ve got news for you … the creation, implementation and utilization is imperative if you're in business to be successful!

The bigger your business grows, the even more important it is that you create a business plan as a guide for your business direction, focus, team alignment and success.

Having a simple business plan gives your business a road map to refer to and follow with the constant focus on achieving your business goals. A business plan gives you a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly snapshot of your business, by keeping track of income, expenses, marketing and client activity.

Putting your plans in writing validates your business, provides insight and clarity, helps with the tracking of you business success by assisting you to monitor your activities, processes, and goals.

There are 5 basic reasons why you'll want to prepare a business plan whether you are a start up, you have been running a business without one or you have created business plans that are not regularly adhered to:

1. Stay On Track

Having a business plan allows you to break your goals down into specific, measurable, achievable and realistic goals that are set to be completed in a time frame. The business plan includes KPI targets (Key Performance Indicator’s) that are set for the major goals of the business ie Sales, Gross Profit, Expenses and Net profit. From these KPI’s we set about planning the “activities” that will ensure we achieve these KPI goals (or targets). For example… To achieve the sales plan we must understand how many leads we must create, how many of these leads we must convert on a weekly and monthly basis. Of these prospects we convert to sales, we want them to be our target customers (most profitable ones). The number of prospects you need to interact with weekly and monthly, to converted to clients. The plan when broken down to monthly, weekly and even daily, gives you a visual of the amount of activity that is needed to meet your sales goal. Your plan will also help you understand the value of each client, how much each client (on average) costs you to acquire and how much ROI they bring in.

Example: if you are a retailer, how many customers need to walk through the door to reach the sales goal for the day? Your business plan will help you spell out these specifics and plan accordingly.

2. Bring Clarity to your goals

Define your goals and be very specific. Set your goals for 1 year, 6 months and then 3 months