Posts Tagged ‘plan’

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Lenders will look at your business plan and come to a conclusion that they can or cannot safely invest in your business. If you present them with a plan that shows a business that has great potential, then they are more willing to fund your business. They know there is a good chance that you will repay the loan, with a good return.

If you plan to enter into a partnership, then you must earn the trust of your partner, so he will be willing to invest time and money into the venture. Your business plan should demonstrate, clearly and concisely, your vision of how the business is going to look.

You can negotiate lines of credit with vendors if you show them a clear business plan. They will want you to succeed so that you become a regular customer; therefore, building their business.

Your business plan should demonstrate that you are serious and focused on your commitment to build a successful business. You need to demonstrate skills, knowledge, experience and what makes you stand out from the rest of the companies in your industry.

So, how do you present all of this? The rule is “thin to win.” The more “wordy” you are, the less you know; the less you understand what you are getting into. An efficient business plan looks very crisp and clean, with easy to read font. Many experts have created many styles of business plans. Here is an overview of what should be in a business plan:

The Executive Summary is very important; it is the first part of the business plan; how well it is written and the message it conveys will determine the reader’s interest in reading the rest. The Executive Summary contains:

• Your Vision Statement
• Your Mission Statement
• Goals
• Strategies
• Action Steps
• Table of Contents

Company Background – This section contains the name of the company, your personal history in the business, your experience and the stage of development you company is at. It’s OK to disclose if you are a new start-up. Describe what makes your company unique, patents, trademarks, knowledge, experience and anything that sets you apart from your competitors. Do you have any industry advantages, a better system or are you in a prime location?

Products, Goods and Services – Here, you describe your products and services and how they benefit consumers. Demonstrate uniqueness, value and reasons why you feel more people will purchase from you than from your competition.

Market Analysis – This section will show your business as one with the capacity to survive; the ability to sell your product or services. You will be demonstrating your understanding of the economics of your business if you clearly describe the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities that are part of your business. Being able to recognize where you might be weak and what you intend to do shows you thought things through. Recognizing possible threats to your business, like market trends, fads, advances in technology, etc… will also demonstrate good planning. Stating possible opportunities that can come from your business helps a lot too.

Marketing Tactics – Describe your retail techniques and pricing analysis. Show that you understand your market and how you determined the price of your goods or services.

Management Team – This section is about you and the key managers or department heads in your business. It does not contain long bios; just credentials and qualifications that are significant to your business. This section is also used to disclose how you compensate the key people in your business; their annual salary. You will also include staffing milestones here; if you plan to hire more people, when you plan to do so, and how many employees you project your company will grow to support.

Operations Plan – Here, you share more relevant information about your business and its assets, including plant and equipment; describe the physical facility. How much working capital is needed and how will it be spent? How do you plan to find quality help and train them to develop your labor force?

Financial Statements – If you have a history, here is where you put your Profit and Loss, Cash Flow Reports and Balance Sheet for each year. Also include future projections; what you think you will make in the next few years and how your numbers are realistic based on available data.

Funding – This section is a brief Loan Proposal. Provide a brief overview of your loan request; how much you need, the type of financing you want and the terms of financing desired. Lenders like to see that you have thought about the financial stability of the business and that you understand something about how financing works. Define the terms that will work in your business and how you came to figure this out. Will you require long-term or short-term financing? Will you pay monthly, quarterly or annually?

Use of Capital – What will you use the borrowed money for? Will it go toward the purchase or lease of a building, equipment, beginning inventory, operating capital or something else? How will this loan help you to be successful running your business to ensure your ability to repay the debt? Provide references to your previous funding history, loans you’ve repaid before. Provide business references in this section to give testimony of your past business practices; delivered as promised, performed excellent service, quick, timely, honest and dependable, etc…

Your business plan should distinguish you from your competition. It is a very important part of your Loan Proposal Document which will be used by lending institutions, private investors, potential partners and anyone that you will have a business relationship with who will want you to succeed.

Bill Bartmann has borrowed billions of dollars from hundreds of lenders and investors; he is experienced at handling the negotiations and presenting himself and his business in a positive light. His course covers all the details you need to know about customizing an effective business plan for your business. Bill Bartmann’s Billionaire Business Systems is an online course that has guided many entrepreneurs to business success. Learn more at http://www.billionaireu.com

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Congratulations on deciding to start your own business!! Now, let me tell you that a business plan is a very personal (to the business) and unique document. So, the last thing you want to do is to buy a software for business planning purposes unless you need this business plan simply for the sake of having a business plan on the shelf.

Don’t let me, any book or a software force you into writing more than what your business needs as a business plan. And, I had strongly suggest you writing one by yourself. For a very simple reason that your business is your baby and no one knows it better than you do… If you need help, you should look for Govt. and Non Govt. resources for small businesses and entrepreneurs, like local chamber of commerce, and chapters of SBDC &/or SCORE. Try advisories, go big network, linked in and similar networks to find a business consultant ready to do some pro-bono work.

A very simple and practical approach would be: write a rough draft of your idea and everything that you think about it. Bounce these ideas at others and gather unique perspectives, feedback and more ideas, document those too. Lay out your monthly fixed costs (rent, wages etc) along side your variable costs and then compare it with your prospective income sources. Run this schedule for at least 24 months. Use this schedule to see how much money you can go down for before the business works.

Do you walk away five grand down after six months, or do you get lumbered with a hard to sell, expensive to keep, lease? Figure out, what happens if you reduce your income. Do break even analysis – what is the lowest level of revenues at which you can make it work? Write why and how sure you are that you will do better than anyone else who is doing the same. If you’re the only one doing or planning to do this then chance are either the idea is not profitable or you have no idea about your competition. So, do more research about the business and try to figure the realistic bottom line for the business. All this analysis and work above was for you to practically decide – do you still want to do it?

If yes, then draft a business plan using the free resources like Microsoft template and many more available in the market – this draft initially should include what you have done that makes you sure this will work. This may simply be – I have a contract, I know the business, there will be more, or it may be a thorough market research, traffic counts, industry statistics and the likes. Put the schedule we did in the first place, into a spreadsheet and lay out the rest in whichever format you like.

Remember, a business plan should be very flexible as businesses and the economy changes very frequently and so should our plans to accommodate those changes and make the best use of the opportunities that we are presented. Being flexible also goes with the ongoing development of business plan, periodic updates to the business plan. For example the numbers that were once forecast should be compared with actualise and recorded in the business plan as “Planned Vs Actualise”. Such planned versus actualise analysis also helps you improve your forecasts and do better planning according to the trends and market situation that you just explored.

Last but not the least, your business plan should have an exit strategy. Not every start-up is successful but a well planned exit strategy can definitely mitigate the financial pains of the failure. Look at exit strategy as “worst case”.what happens if the worst happens, how do I get out, what do I do… Having said all that let me also tell you that exit strategy is not always made for worst case. A lot many of us are serial entrepreneurs, who love to start a new business but we do flirt with many more ideas and may decide to start another business, or may not want to continue with the existing business for any given reason, what happens to the business then, how does one get out of it, sell it, partner with someone what? That’s your exit strategy.

In my opinion, this is the most economic and realistic approach to write a business plan and not an off the shelf software which will give you a me-too business plan which to me is of no use as neither am I convinced nor can I convince any investors with that kind of auto-generated plan.

Devesh Dwivedi is a successful Management Consultant, Entrepreneur, with a diverse professional background, consulted and worked for a wide range of businesses from start-ups to Fortune 50. One of the all time Top Experts in Small Business & Startup category on Linked in and an open net worker available to help entrepreneurs and businesses. For more information please visit http://www.idea2inception.com

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In short, YES. Here’s why.

The Purpose of a Business Plan
A well developed business plan is the roadmap to success for your venture, whether it’s a new business or it’s been around some time. It’s a document that describes what you plan to do and how you plan to do it.
As your business plan must inform the readers about aspects of your business which they don’t already know or with which they are unfamiliar, perhaps a better question, therefore, is “What form should my business plan take?”

What form should my business plan take?
The answer will depend upon your intended audience. At the very least a business plan should prove that your business will generate enough revenue to cover your expenses, so let’s start with you.

The Entrepreneur
Suppose you’re starting a small business that you will run, fund and manage yourself. As an owner/manager you definitely need a plan, but the formality, length and complexity of it can vary. In many cases, a full-blown strict business plan may not be necessary. However, before celebrating the fact that you think you don’t have to write a business plan (after all, there’s not much you don’t know about your own business, is there…?), let’s think for a moment about the situations when you should take the time to develop a knockout business plan. Three (there are many more) spring immediately to mind. You MUST have a business plan if you:

* Plan to apply for a loan or approach investors for financial backing,
* Will incorporate as a limited company and have a board of directors to report to, or
* Are starting the business with someone else.

If those situations don’t apply to you, then you can probably squeeze by without a formal business plan and still develop a successful business. However, you must remember that there are aspects of your business and the environment in which it will operate that you may not be as familiar with as you should.

This fact alone should prompt you to write a business plan. The discipline of researching those areas you are not familiar with significantly increase your knowledge of the business environment. Experience shows that greater knowledge allows for better management of business risk. For example:

Competitors
How much do you really know about them? For your business to succeed, you need to know almost as much about your competitors as you do about your own company and customers. Unfortunately, many business owners and managers (small and not so small) make the mistake of waiting until a competitor has opened up shop and is cutting into profits to find out who and what they’re up against.
A competitive analysis allows you to identify your competitors and evaluate their respective strengths and weaknesses. By knowing the actions of your competitors, you will have a better understanding of what products or services you should offer; how you can market them effectively; and how you can position your business.

Suppliers
As with customers, you really must know as much as possible about your suppliers. Can they fully supply your orders on time, every time? Are they financially robust? Can they support your rate of growth?
To ensure the survival of your business you must have a good knowledge of and a high level of confidence in your supply chain. And as from time to time the worst happens (Murphy’s Law states that if it can happen, it probably will), you must also have a contingency plan to overcome the effects of a “Murphy” incident; what is more, you need to plan now. After the event it may be too late.

Partners and Colleagues
If you are writing a plan for your colleagues and partners to expand an existing business, then the focus of your plan may be more operational than financial, concentrating on the resources and assets needed to reach your targets, and the part that each will play in attaining those goals.

Banks
If you are writing a plan for a bank, the most important aspect to the bank manager will be your financials. Are your assumptions realistic? Will the cash flow be enough that you can make the monthly payments for the loan you have requested? If your business is making £10,000 a month and your payments are £12,000 a month, the bank will almost certainly reject your proposal.

Investors
If you are starting a business and intend to raise funds from investors or a financial institution, a solid and comprehensive business plan is required. You won’t even get in the door without one.
If you are writing a plan for a venture capitalist, one of the most important factors in a decision to invest in a company is the quality of the people. In property, where the three biggest criteria are “location, location and location,” the venture capital axiom is “people, people and people.” VCs will ask “how experienced are the people that are going to run this business? Do they have knowledge of the industry? Have they started successful ventures in the past”?

Venture capitalists will also want to be sure that your business model is sustainable and scalable so that they can realise a profitable exit within a reasonable timescale.

The Consequences of Poor Planning
Having concluded that every business needs a business plan, that plans are important and valuable because they create greater clarity regarding the direction the business might take and how it will get there, why is it then, that so many small and medium size companies do not have a business plan, even an informal one?

Perhaps you are so immersed in the day-to-day running of your business that you rarely step back to consider where the business should be going and how it should get there. Perhaps you are unclear about just how useful a business plan can be. Or maybe the process of preparing one seems overwhelming. Over the years I have also found planning document that have been carefully prepared and then filed and ignored.
What are the consequences of inadequate business planning?

In this climate of financial uncertainty, one way to appreciate the importance of a business plan is to draw an analogy with house building. Can you imagine the planning that is needed to ensure a successful and profitable completion of your dream home? Firstly there is site location – is it in the right spot? Next are planning considerations; is your architect competent and will the Local Authority approve your plans? Once you are over these hurdles you must choose the builder and be sure he can deliver on time and to budget – no hidden costs. And then there is the need for contingencies – what might the weather be like, what could the ground conditions be like, and so on. With all these factors clearly understood, assessed, and taken into account in detailed plans, the likelihood of a successful completion is significantly improved. Can you imagine trying to build your home without all that planning?

To be successful in your business you too need to understand all the elements of your business and have a game plan to achieve your desired results. You need to put some time into working on your business and not just in it.

So what happens if you don’t have a business management plan? If you don’t know where you are going, how will you ever get there? Without a plan you are unable to point yourself in the right direction, progress is impossible to measure, and should things go out of kilter or deteriorate, you will be unable to return to your original path or redirect your business along a less rocky road. You will simply end up working harder for less.

What are the warning signs?

The longer term warning signs of not having a plan for the business could show in poor profitability, becoming less competitive, loss of business focus and a miss-match of resources. In the shorter term, you will face indecision, lower productivity, loss of customers, staff and general business apathy.

Guidance
The key elements of a good business plan include setting objectives for the business, identifying what needs to happen for these objectives to be achieved and measuring progress regularly. In developing your plan, make sure you remain objective and collect reliable information about key external trends that will have a major impact on your business.

Andrew Turner – Dartnell Ltd – aaturner@dartnell-ltd.co.uk .

Dartnell : Planning a Business

Setting up your own entrepreneurial business is a huge decision, and one of the most important decisions a budding businessman may choose to make in their lifetime. Every entrepreneur who has chosen to set up a small home business or start a business in the comfort of an office will face some big challenges, one of those being your financial business accounts. Producing a home business plan is good advice for a new start up business.

Starting a business in your home has the added benefits of very low start up fees and expenses as well as your travel times being cut completely as well as the advantage of having family and friends close to you as well as the obvious flexibility most home businesses benefit from. A good business acumen and entrepreneurship really is what it takes to set up a home business that is both rewarding and successful and you need to have good working knowledge of accounts and how to manage your business finances too.

Some business types and industries can only work using dedicated business property, for example manufacturing companies where a home based business would not have suitable or sufficient space for plant and machinery. These types of businesses will require substantial setting up costs and of course the running costs may be high too.

Whichever decision and location the budding entrepreneur takes, strong ideas, accounting experience or knowledge of bookkeeping, management structure and sound business decisions are just a few things that an entrepreneur should ensure they have confidence in, or at least be prepared to learn these which take time, motivation and plenty of input.

Of course business start ups can succeed and expand even with management and accounting basics, however learning these yourself now will help you understand your own business better and allow you to take on other challenges as you can be safe in the knowledge that your business can run with your strong ideas and good business account structure. Accounting is important as it is that discipline that is used to calculate the net profit, the target end result of every commercial enterprise.

The cash outlay at the beginning can be invested either by you or by potential investors prepared to support the entrepreneurial venture with hard cash. Any investors may judge the worthiness and value of their investment on accounting basics and the management business plans in place so it is certainly a very important factor to consider when planning your business, where you will trade from and how you will progress and expand. A detailed business plan is an important first stepping stone for a new start up business.

Not only choosing the best accounts packages at the start, but choosing good entrepreneurial advice and using those as a basis for success in the future will help your business grow and also ensure that you have tight control over the accounting aspects of your start up business, allowing you to dedicate much more time and commitment to other areas of the business.

By placing the correct ideas and using them in business from the start, you will be able to be more adventurous when it comes to ideas in running and expanding your business and potentially allowing you the chance to acquire other business in the future, especially with your newly found knowledge of asset financial records. Financial business accounts are a major benefit to a new start up business in having a detailed business plan in place against which actual progress and financial performance can be monitored. Lack of cash flow liquidity represents the potential biggest risk to a new business start up.

All investors greatly desire and are motivated by a clear picture of a company’s exit strategy, or the timing and method through which they can “cash in” on their investment. This picture best comes into focus when the key valuation and liquidity drivers of the company are clearly delineated. An excellent method to accomplish this is through descriptions of comparable firms that have had successful liquidity events, either through acquisition, merger, of initial public offerings (IPOs).

It is helpful to show other companies in your market, or similar companies in other markets, who have successfully exited, and how and why these companies were successful. For instance, were they successful since they acquired a large customer base? Or were they successful since they accomplished fast growth or high profit margins? It is also important to tie their success to their exit price. Was the exit price based on earnings or the number of customers the firm had at the time? The business plan should tie these metrics (e.g., exit price of $X per customer) to the business to determine its future price.

The most common exit strategies in business plans are IPOs or acquisitions. While the method of exit is not always crucial, the investor often wants to see the decision to better understand the management team’s motivation and commitment to building long-term value. If acquisition is the selected exit path, then the business plan should detail potential companies that might want to acquire the firm in the future and why. Likewise, if an IPO is expected in the future, the business plan should document the financial metrics of the company that make it ripe for this type of exit.

In most cases, investors only make money when the business reaches a successful exit event. As such, it is critical that business plans explain the expected exit, detail why this exit was chosen and validate a realistic exit price.

About the author:

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If you’ve never written a business plan before, the idea alone can be overwhelming.

It doesn’t have to be the nightmare of your imagination.

Traditionally, a business plan is used to secure funding from a lender or a potential investment partner. It serves as something akin to your business’s resume, outlining the purpose and scope of your business, identifying the goals, marketing and management, and establishing a basic balance sheet.

Now, even if you aren’t going to seek additional funding, even if you’re going to grow your business by yourself from your office at home, you’d be wise to put together a business plan. Simply going through the process has value. It’ll help you develop a clearly defined vision of what you intend to do with your business and how you intend to do it.

These are some of the questions you should already have asked and answered before you sit down to write your business plan:

== What “want” does your business fill, and what service or product will you be providing to fill that want?

== Who will be your potential customer (this should be an established, niche market with die-hard buyers).

== Why will people purchase from you as opposed to the business down the street (in other words … what’s your Unique Selling Position)?

== How do you intend to reach your customers? A storefront? An ad in the phone book? Direct mail? An Internet campaign? Selling door-to-door? A combination of these?

== Will you need additional funding and if so, how much will you need and how do you intend to secure it?

Okay, so let’s take a look at what you’ll want to include in your business plan.

Most business plans are structured to examine four primary areas:

1. Executive Summary – a decryption of the business

2. How you intend to market the business

3. How the business finances will be arranged and handled

4. How the business will be managed

Lets take a further look at these.

Executive Summary: what the business will do, its Unique Selling Position, the business goals, its ownership and legal structure, your skills and knowledge and how they will benefit the business.

Marketing The Business: describe your product or service, identify your market niche, how big it is, and how you plan to reach it. Define your customer, identify your competition, detail your pricing plan, outline how you intend to attract and convert customers.

Financing The Business: estimate your start-up costs, project your monthly operating budget for the first year, outline your ROI (return on investment) and cash flow for the first year, project your income and expense balance sheet for the first two years, explain how you’re going to compensate yourself, establish who will maintain the accounting records and how they’ll be maintained, and if you’re in need of funding, explain how much you need and how it’ll be used by the business.

Managing The Business: how will the business be managed day-to-day, what the hiring and personnel procedures will be, how the products or services will be developed and how they’ll get into the hands of your customers. You’ll also need to account for equipment the business will need, and how insurance, rental agreements, etc. will be handled.

The format of a Business Plan is something that has been developed and refined over the years and is something that should not be changed. Like a good recipe, a business plan needs to include certain ingredients to make it work.

When you create a business plan, don’t attempt to recreate its format. Those reviewing this type of document have expectations you must meet. If they do not see those crucial decision-making components, they’ll see no reason to proceed with their review of your business plan, no matter how great your business idea.

Executive Summary Section

Every business plan must begin with an Executive Summary section. A well-written Executive Summary is critical to the success of the rest of the document. Here is where you need to capture the attention of your audience so that they will be compelled to read on. Remember, it’s a summary, so each and every word must be carefully selected and presented.

Use the Executive Summary section of your business plan to accurately describe the nature of your business venture including the need that you plan to fill. Show the reasons why people need your product or service. Show this by including a brief analysis of the characteristics of your potential market.

Describe the organization of your business including your management team. Also, briefly describe your sales and marketing plan or approach. Finally include the numbers that those reviewing your business plan want to see – the amount of capital you seek, the carefully calculated sales projections and your plan to repay the loan.

If you’ve captured your audience so far they’ll read on. Otherwise, they’ll close the document and add your business plan to the heap of other rejected ideas.

Devote the balance of your business plan to providing details of the items outlined in the Executive Summary.

The Business Section

Be sure to include the legal name, physical address and detailed description of the nature of your business. It’s important to keep the description easy to read using common terminology. Never assume that those reading your business plan have the same level of technical knowledge that you do. Describe how you plan to better serve your market than your competition is currently doing.

Market Analysis Section

An analysis of the market shows that you have done your homework. This section is basically a summary of your Marketing Plan. It needs to show the demand for your product or service, the proposed market, trends within the industry, a description of your pricing plan and packaging and a description of your company policies.

Financing Section

The Financing section must show that you are as committed to your business venture as you expect those reading your business plan to be. Show the amount of personal funds you are contributing and their source. Also include the amount of capital you need and your plan to repay this debt. Include all pertinent financial worksheets in this section: annual income projections, a break-even worksheet, projected cash flow statements and a balance sheet.

Management Section

Outline your organizational structure and management team here. Include the legal structure of your business whether it is a partnership, corporation or limited liability corporation. Include resumes and biographies of key players on your management team. Show staffing projection data for the next few years.

By now you’re probably thinking that you don’t need Business Plan just yet. Well you do, and there is business plan building software that can help you through this immense project. These software packages are easy to use and affordable. Use one today and produce a professional-quality Business Plan – including all critical components – tomorrow!

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Business loans are offered to any one wanting to kick start a business newly, expand an old one or simply revamp it. Just a small step towards investment enables a big leap towards profit. Loans for business are commonly available in two forms, one without security and the other with security.

A secured business loan throws open a gamut of benefits to a borrower. A lion size loan, lower Annual Percentage Rate (APR), smaller payments, longer repayment and an element of flexibility attached to the loan package.

Moreover, there’s no additional collateral required. A borrower can pledge his own business firm, release its tied up equity and obtain loans for whatever purpose that best suits him.

On contrary, unsecured business loans suits best a borrower who is unable to pledge any collateral due to the absence of a collateral itself, or the failure to do so may hold him back. However they don’t enjoy the same benefits as the secured loan.

It is placing of collateral that radically reduces the element of risk for the creditor and makes loan approval to the debtor at competitive rates.

Business loans are most commonly used for:

Setting up a plant

Purchase a property

Relocation of a firm

Business expansion/revamp

Updating with the new technology

Repair or purchase of heavy machinery

Investment in working capital such as human resources

Pay back wages/salary

Consolidate old business debts

Business debts can be managed easily. Two small business loans when pooled together turns out to be cheaper. With consolidation of two or more loans into one loan, a debtor enjoys a lower interest rate as the loan size is bigger. It serves best when unsecured loans are consolidated together into a secured loan. Ensure that there are no early redemption charges to be paid for closing loans early to consolidate it.

Small step towards investing enables a big leap!

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A business plan must present a clear set of actions showing what the business will do, as well as how these activities will be managed.

Executive Management

At the top of the business’s organization chart must be a CEO with a vision for what the business can be, leadership experience, and, hopefully, industry expertise qualifying him or her to work in the business’s sector. The management team description should spend most of its space detailing the qualifications of this CEO, whether it is the founder, a partner the founder has brought on, or a hired director. If readers of the plan are convinced of the ability of the CEO to lead, they will be much less concerned that other plans be written in as explicit detail. They will put much more trust in the CEO in these cases.

Quality and Financial Controls

Statements in the plan about how high the quality of the product or service will be must be presented alongside descriptions of the quality control measures in place in order to be convincing. Management must show their commitment to quality control and supervise the systems which check and insure product or service quality at key points in the manufacturing, sales, or service delivery process. The operations plan should include mention of quality control systems.

Functional Management

Finally, each functional department of the company needs a manager assigned to it, although this can all be the same manager or the CEO for a small company. The business plan must show an understanding of what these key functions are that will require management time, short descriptions of management work will be required, and the assignment of these responsibilities. For example, the marketing may be assigned to the CEO because of its great importance in the early days of the business while a separate day-to-day operations or store manager may be hired to handle logistics and staff training.

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A business plan guide is a great place to start when you are getting ready to write your first business plan. Perhaps you have found a book about writing business plans, or are following a template, but chances are, these materials will only focus on the steps necessary to create your business plan and will fail to point out the critical mistakes that most new business owners make. So let’s ignore the step-by-step tutorial for a moment and focus on the real world mistakes you need to avoid.

1. Don’t Put it Off.

Yes, writing a business plan can be a monumental chore. It’s easy to procrastinate while you focus on the more exciting processes of your business. Many new business owners will wait until the day before their scheduled meeting with the bank — and then frantically try to write a plan overnight. You can imagine the results.

Don’t wait until you have more time. There will never be more time. You need to clear your calendar for a week and make your business plan a top priority. Or if that isn’t feasible, schedule a certain period of time each day to work specifically on planning. No doubt you have heard the old saying: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”.

2. Don’t Confuse Profit With Cash Flow.

Unless you have an accounting background, you are very likely to define the success of your business in terms of profits. A simple definition of Profit would be Sales minus Expenses equals Profit. But in the business world, profits do not equate to cash. Your profit formula does not take into account the amount of cash you have tied up in production costs for products that have not yet sold, or the customers who still owe you money for sales that have already been made. Your business can look quite “profitable” while your bank account is over-drawn.

Make sure your business plan includes a table that addresses cash flow. Ideally, you should detail the monthly cash flow for the first two years of the business and annually thereafter.

3. Don’t Fall in Love With Your Idea.
Too many business plans blabber on for pages about the “newness” and “uniqueness” of the idea. But the truth is, investors want to invest in people, not ideas. It is only the people who can execute the systems necessary to bring the idea to life.

Instead of waxing poetically about your business idea, focus your energy, and your reader’s eyes, on the ways you plan to implement this great business idea.

4. Don’t Succumb to Fear and Dread.

If you have never written a business plan, the process may loom like Mount Everest. But, like most new challenges, writing a business plan isn’t as hard as you have imagined it to be. You aren’t writing a doctoral thesis or the next great novel. If you have invested in a business plan guide, use it. You can easily find helpful resources such as books, software programs and templates. Remember, you eat an elephant one bite at a time, so start chewing.

5. Don’t Over Sell.

Skip the vague and meaningless business phrases such as “best ever”, “highest quality” and “unsurpassed customer service”. You will lose your reader’s interest and respect if you engage in hyperbole that isn’t supported by measurable facts. Remember that the objective of a plan is its results, which require tracking and follow up. Focus your goals on specific dates, management responsibilities, budgets, and measurable milestones. Think fewer words and more numbers.

6. Don’t Engage in One-Size-Fits-All

Business plans can have many different purposes and they should be written to reflect the specific purpose at hand. You may be using your plan to start a business, or just run a business better. Your purpose may be simply to sell an idea for a new business to one particular business partner. Your plan may be intended to secure a small business loan, or it may be needed to secure millions of dollars of venture capital. Each of these purposes would require different information, presented in different ways to meet the needs of different readers. Keep a picture of your intended reader firmly in your mind and your business plan will stay focused as well.

7. Take Off the Rose Colored Glasses
Optimism is a wonderful resource. Without it, a business owner would find it difficult to summon the energy necessary to launch a new venture.  However, this is not the time to engage in unbridled projections. If your company’s growth chart is based on an “industry average” of 15% annual growth, you should certainly be prepared to prove that assumption. When in doubt, be less optimistic.

By using a good business plan guide, and avoiding these common mistakes, you can prepare a plan that almost guarantees your business success. Good luck!