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Home  Business Planning What makes a really good business plan?
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What makes a really good business plan? |
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Learn the TOP 10 tips on how to prepare your business plan. Your business plan should provide you with a blueprint for the operation of your business and help you monitor progress against your objectives. Learn how.
Your business plan should provide you with a blueprint for the operation of your business and help you monitor progress against your objectives. It is very much a document for you and your business and should not be produced merely for the benefit of a third party, in conjunction, perhaps with a request to raise finance. If you are not sure how to go about preparing a business plan the following tips may help.
Top 10 Tips on Preparing Your Business Plan
1. To be effective, a business plan should be regularly reviewed and updated. It is more than likely that events will overtake your original plan and periodically you will need to review your strategy and change your plan in some way. It should therefore be used as a living document, constantly referred to, monitored and reviewed.
2. Your plan should include short term and medium term objectives. It should set the direction for your business both for the immediate future and perhaps three or five years ahead.
3. Involve key employees in your business plan. Some aspects of the plan you will wish to keep to yourself but make your employees aware of your key business goals and get them actively involved in achieving them.
4. Your business plan should be realistic and achievable. There is absolutely no point in setting yourself unrealistic goals.
5. Try to keep the plan as simple as possible and do not overcrowd it with unnecessary technical detail. The plan should broadly be looking at where your business is now, where it wants to get to both short and medium term and how it is going to get there.
6. Encompass all areas of your business, including your objectives, your market, your product or service, pricing and costs, premises and equipment, personnel and your marketing strategy.
7. Include financial projections including profit and loss and cashflow forecasts.
8. Producing a business plan can be a daunting task but outside help is available. For start up businesses your local business support organisation will be able to provide counselling.
9. If you prefer to ‘go it alone’, you may find some of the bank produced guides helpful. Some of these guides include a business plan form which can be adapted to suit your needs. Alternatively, you may wish to involve your accountant or financial adviser in putting together your business plan.
10. Finally, once you have produced your business plan, give copies to the people who have a vested interest in the success of your business. This will include in most instances, your bank. When seeking new finance the quality of your business plan is very often a key factor in the bank’s assessment of the viability of your business and your proposal. It certainly does not harm to keep your bank advised as to how your business is progressing.
Paul Gray is a Corporate Relationship Manager for Barclays Bank based in North East Lincolnshire
Please feel free to call him direct on 07775 553048
Or by email
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Barclays Bank
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