What is a business plan?
For people who are just starting out and forming their own company, whether it's a small freelance business at home or a new venture with an office and a starting pool of employees, there's a lot of importance to a business plan. It is a road map, an outline, a document that explains your business, the enterprise's goals, and how exactly it will set about achieving those goals.
So beyond being a document that identifies your business, what else does such a plan do for you?
1. Target Your Problems
The importance of a business plan to an entrepreneur begins by helping you to identify your possible problems and challenges. It's one thing to aim for a goal of being profitable in the first year of operation, but how will you achieve that?
A business plan forces you to get realistic and look at your numbers. This document often helps people to see where their real challenges and obstacles lie, making for a more pragmatic approach as the hard facts make their way into the plan.
2. Get Better Advice
The importance of a business plan to entrepreneurship can also be in the way it crystallizes just what kind of help you need. Merely telling a friend or potential business mentor you're aiming to start with ten employees, for example, is not an exceptionally detailed statement.
Showing a business plan that outlines the exact duties, salaries, and expectations you have for employees gives far more information for people to provide advice about.
3. Organize Your Resources
A business plan is also essential as the primary guide for how you will structure and allocate your resources. It's here that you will see just how feasible it is to open an office, hire employees, and look at operating costs.
The business plan can quickly show you whether you will be making a profit or running at a loss, and it shows how much those losses maybe every month.
4. Approach Investors
For some, this may be critical. Investors want to know that you know what you’re doing.
A business plan can often be the single most important document you can present to your investors that will provide the structure and confidence that they need to make decisions about funding and supporting your company.
5. Create Milestones
A business plan is also a plan of action. By laying out milestones, you now have targets to shoot for in the short, mid, and long term. These goals also mean that you can "course correct" with greater agility if you have targets and realize that you may need to make some changes in order to meet them.
The importance of a business plan can be critical for entrepreneurs. The business may have some artistry to it, but real success comes from having a vision and being organized in the way you strive towards that vision. A business plan will help you immensely and in so many ways!
Thanks for reading!
Renee VanHeel
Call or text: 858-472-7295 Book a 15-minute free business consultation with me https://calendly.com/reneevanheel/gcehealth
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