A business plan is not just for large corporate organsiations. It’s essential whatever your business size or stage of growth. Whether you’re starting out, with just the seed of an idea, or have been in business a number of years, a well-crafted plan will capture your vision and purpose, products and services, revenue targets, support required and actions to make it a reality.
As Mark Spillman, of cosmetics company Bare Escentuals says…
‘We’ve experienced significant growth over the last 4 years. From a small company we’ve now become a leading company in the UK premium cosmetics industry. This growth has, of course, been achieved with great people and great products but essentially it’s been achieved with well-crafted co-ordinated business plans that include all aspects of our business, from operations through to customer service.”
It really is a blue print for success and like a vision board you can bring it to life with pictures, quotes and inspiring goals… so that it becomes your own personal and practical guide to making your dreams a reality.
Here are just 4 big advantages to having a written business vision and plan…
Benefit # 1. It provides you with a bigger WHY. It’s easy to become exhausted with the day to day busy work of running a business and there probably will be times when you wonder ‘is it worth it?’ By having your purpose, vision and plan to hand you can reconnect with the real reason why you are in business.
Benefit # 2. A business plan maps out a clear route for where you’re heading which you can refer to, review and adjust as you progress. Think of it as an important destination that you’re setting out on. Like most holidays or trips, for example, you would work out in advance where you are going, how long it will take to get there and how much it would cost. Having this information will get you to where you want to get to faster than trying to figure it out along the way. Then once you set out you can make changes and course corrections when circumstances change or obstacles appear.
Benefit # 3. It acts as a benchmark against which you can assess what’s working and not working in your business before you run into problems. If you’re not meeting your revenue targets, or a particular product or service has not taken off, by referring back to your plan you can review your pricing, marketing and product mix to work out the changes you can make to get you back on track financially.
Benefit # 4. Your plan provides the template for you to work out different strategiesto adopt to move your business forward. One strategy may be to grow your client database or list, so that you can raise your profile and visibility, or you may want to focus on retaining existing clients by introducing new products or services and increasing the level and quality of service provided. Concentrating your efforts in this way will speed up your results.
Much has been written about the law of attraction and the power of positive thinking to manifest your dreams but your visioning needs to be backed up with planning and action to make it actually happen.
By investing a small amount of time upfront in preparing your Business Plan you’ll be amazed, like Mark Spillman, at how quickly your business can take off!
