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Actual for You - Writing a Business Plan - What Makes a Good One?
Copywriting can seem overwhelming for some. Some do not even know how to begin. Here are a few tips to make it a little easier.Before you begin your copywriting, here’s what you should do.First, take a piece of paper and list down what you think are the needs and wants of the parents are. It’ll probably be somewhere along the lines of a trustworthy caregiver to care for their child or a daycare centre that is near their house, a clean and hygienic daycare centre or even a daycare centre that i
Every business plans also has some PROJECTIONS. This is your basic financials that you plan will deliver. Are you expecting a profit or loss? How much?
Lastly you need to allow for CONTINGENCIES. Things change all the time and your plan needs to consider these possibilities in advance. A good way to do this is to ask What if?
What if a new competitor enters our market?
What if a distributor delists our product?
What if interest rates rise?
Your analysis should give you some idea of likely contingencies. It saves a lot of stress if you have some documented ideas for dealing with them before they become a big problem.
Writing a business plan is never perfect, the plan
Developed in 1929 by a man named Justin Ford Kimball, Blue Cross was an association of health insurance plans. It was in 1982, after Blue Cross had originally lost its affiliation with the American Hospital Association, that they merged with National Association of Blue Shield Plans to form Blue Cross Blue Shield.Technically, Blue Cross Blue Shield is a trade association for a series of locally operated plans. There are 40 local member companies of Blue Cross Blue Shiled that operate under the umbrel
Not every business needs a 200 page bound business plan. However every business needs to have some idea of where they want to go and how they are going to get there. This article covers some key insights into writing a business plan that get your business to where you want to be.
The first stage of any plan is ANALYSIS. You need to take a very objective look at a number of factors that may impact your business. There are many factors to consider but the two major ones are competition and your operating environment.
Let’s look first at competition. Every business has competition, even if you think your product or service is unique. How is this? Well it’s quite simple really, people have choices to make. The most fundamental choice they make in most cases is whether to buy what you offer or but something else. For example I could buy a game console or I could buy groceries instead. Customers only have so much money available so you first task is to ask yourself what is my competition like and can I beat them? The more you understand your competition the more you can develop your business strategy of being different and outperforming them.
Now let’s look at operating environment. This is understanding what factors around your area of operation are likely to affect your business performance. For some companies this includes looking around the World in other cases it’s just your local neighbourhood. You need to ask questions such as:
How is the economy going?
What is consumer confidence like?
Where is technology heading in my industry?
After answering all the questions you need to decide how these might negatively or positively influence your performance.
Now you know more about your competition and operating environment it’s time to set some OBJECTIVES. This is what you want to achieve in the period your business plan covers. It is said that good objectives are SMART. That is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and targeted. Here’s an example of a SMART objective for a hypothetical business.
“By the end of this year we will have increased sales of product X by 7.5% over the previous year.”
You can see how clear this objective is. It is much easier to achieve high performance with clear objectives.
Now you need to outline your STRATEGY. How are you going to reach you objective(s)? This is where your marketing plan often comes in as it helps describe the programs you will run to achieve your desired objective(s). To continue the example above our strategy may be to gain distribution for our product in one new major retail chain.
To make your strategy work you must then allocate appropriate RESOURCES. Certain things will need to be provided to reach your goal. This could be dollars, people, equipment, etc. Your plan must have included the resources you are allocating and why you believe this is adequate to get the result.
Every business plans also has some PROJECTIONS. This is your basic financials that you plan will deliver. Are you expecting a profit or loss? How much?
Lastly you need to allow for CONTINGENCIES. Things change all the time and your plan needs to consider these possibilities in advance. A good way to do this is to ask What if?
What if a new competitor enters our market?
What if a distributor delists our product?
What if interest rates rise?
Your analysis should give you some idea of likely contingencies. It saves a lot of stress if you have some documented ideas for dealing with them before they become a big problem.
Writing a business plan is never perfect, the plan i
A recent Washington Post article, described the life of temporary employees working at an automobile plant in Kentucky. Working at a fraction of what permanent employees make at the plant, some employees had been working as temps for extended periods, as long as three or four years, when early indications had been they would be permanent within six to 12 months.At four years, making two thirds of their permanent fellow workers and without benefits, the plant had essentially treated these employees as
Now let’s look at operating environment. This is understanding what factors around your area of operation are likely to affect your business performance. For some companies this includes looking around the World in other cases it’s just your local neighbourhood. You need to ask questions such as:
How is the economy going?
What is consumer confidence like?
Where is technology heading in my industry?
After answering all the questions you need to decide how these might negatively or positively influence your performance.
Now you know more about your competition and operating environment it’s time to set some OBJECTIVES. This is what you want to achieve in the period your business plan covers. It is said that good objectives are SMART. That is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and targeted. Here’s an example of a SMART objective for a hypothetical business.
“By the end of this year we will have increased sales of product X by 7.5% over the previous year.”
You can see how clear this objective is. It is much easier to achieve high performance with clear objectives.
Now you need to outline your STRATEGY. How are you going to reach you objective(s)? This is where your marketing plan often comes in as it helps describe the programs you will run to achieve your desired objective(s). To continue the example above our strategy may be to gain distribution for our product in one new major retail chain.
To make your strategy work you must then allocate appropriate RESOURCES. Certain things will need to be provided to reach your goal. This could be dollars, people, equipment, etc. Your plan must have included the resources you are allocating and why you believe this is adequate to get the result.
Every business plans also has some PROJECTIONS. This is your basic financials that you plan will deliver. Are you expecting a profit or loss? How much?
Lastly you need to allow for CONTINGENCIES. Things change all the time and your plan needs to consider these possibilities in advance. A good way to do this is to ask What if?
What if a new competitor enters our market?
What if a distributor delists our product?
What if interest rates rise?
Your analysis should give you some idea of likely contingencies. It saves a lot of stress if you have some documented ideas for dealing with them before they become a big problem.
Writing a business plan is never perfect, the plan
In the last week I have met two coaching clients who both have 3 years old businesses yet their approaches to business are like chalk and cheese.John enjoys a comfortable job, his company has a regular clientele and he makes steady money - not brilliant but enough.Poles apart, Paula has created her market, overcoming many barriers and her current income is marginal. In my assessment, her company is on course to make a $million because I see her innovating in three distinct stages.
How is the economy going?
What is consumer confidence like?
Where is technology heading in my industry?
After answering all the questions you need to decide how these might negatively or positively influence your performance.
Now you know more about your competition and operating environment it’s time to set some OBJECTIVES. This is what you want to achieve in the period your business plan covers. It is said that good objectives are SMART. That is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and targeted. Here’s an example of a SMART objective for a hypothetical business.
“By the end of this year we will have increased sales of product X by 7.5% over the previous year.”
You can see how clear this objective is. It is much easier to achieve high performance with clear objectives.
Now you need to outline your STRATEGY. How are you going to reach you objective(s)? This is where your marketing plan often comes in as it helps describe the programs you will run to achieve your desired objective(s). To continue the example above our strategy may be to gain distribution for our product in one new major retail chain.
To make your strategy work you must then allocate appropriate RESOURCES. Certain things will need to be provided to reach your goal. This could be dollars, people, equipment, etc. Your plan must have included the resources you are allocating and why you believe this is adequate to get the result.
Every business plans also has some PROJECTIONS. This is your basic financials that you plan will deliver. Are you expecting a profit or loss? How much?
Lastly you need to allow for CONTINGENCIES. Things change all the time and your plan needs to consider these possibilities in advance. A good way to do this is to ask What if?
What if a new competitor enters our market?
What if a distributor delists our product?
What if interest rates rise?
Your analysis should give you some idea of likely contingencies. It saves a lot of stress if you have some documented ideas for dealing with them before they become a big problem.
Writing a business plan is never perfect, the plan
Donna had a problem, and she had come to me for help.Her firm offers a complex service to organisations - they help employees deal with workplace changes. Donna and her partner teach employees (in client organisations) new communication skills, coach them on how to handle change, and mentor managers to help them cope with the demands of staff during the period of change.Her clients are CEO’s, senior executives, and Board members of large companies and public sector organisations. The problem w
You can see how clear this objective is. It is much easier to achieve high performance with clear objectives.
Now you need to outline your STRATEGY. How are you going to reach you objective(s)? This is where your marketing plan often comes in as it helps describe the programs you will run to achieve your desired objective(s). To continue the example above our strategy may be to gain distribution for our product in one new major retail chain.
To make your strategy work you must then allocate appropriate RESOURCES. Certain things will need to be provided to reach your goal. This could be dollars, people, equipment, etc. Your plan must have included the resources you are allocating and why you believe this is adequate to get the result.
Every business plans also has some PROJECTIONS. This is your basic financials that you plan will deliver. Are you expecting a profit or loss? How much?
Lastly you need to allow for CONTINGENCIES. Things change all the time and your plan needs to consider these possibilities in advance. A good way to do this is to ask What if?
What if a new competitor enters our market?
What if a distributor delists our product?
What if interest rates rise?
Your analysis should give you some idea of likely contingencies. It saves a lot of stress if you have some documented ideas for dealing with them before they become a big problem.
Writing a business plan is never perfect, the plan
In their book, Beyond Budgeting, Jeremy Hope and Robin Fraser highlight the inadequacy of traditional annual based budgeting and argue passionately for a new management model that can cope with the volatility of today's business environment. Their model embraces much more than just budgeting, it is more a philosophy of decentralization and a way of encouraging managers at all levels to become accountable for their performance without tying them to an annual budget straitjacket.Hope and Fraser analyse
Every business plans also has some PROJECTIONS. This is your basic financials that you plan will deliver. Are you expecting a profit or loss? How much?
Lastly you need to allow for CONTINGENCIES. Things change all the time and your plan needs to consider these possibilities in advance. A good way to do this is to ask What if?
What if a new competitor enters our market?
What if a distributor delists our product?
What if interest rates rise?
Your analysis should give you some idea of likely contingencies. It saves a lot of stress if you have some documented ideas for dealing with them before they become a big problem.
Writing a business plan is never perfect, the plan is on paper and you’re operating in the real world. However a good plan can really guide you in the right direction. Take time to put real thought into preparing your plan an above all make sure you USE YOUR PLAN!
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