Business Plans

I deal with many budding entrepreneurs who are still confused about the need or not need a business plan.

When I was in graduate school (MBA), I learned and wrote about business plans. In my first attempt, I wanted to do a job so great that I have researched and found every single model I could, took each and every section and category and tried to incorporate all that in this first plan, as I wanted to make sure each section is possible only included in one form or another.

What we end up with was a 50-page document inflated value. The comments I heard was that 1) forms the major (many pages) and 2) ended by repeating again and again that made the document very difficult to read.

Since then, I've written and read several hundred business plans and have reached the following conclusion:

Business plans are excellent tools for the business owner – and only for the owner business. One of the reasons I put so much information in my first plan (which is why we try to cover all possible sectors known to man in this plan) was that there was writing for myself but for my audience. While writing for an audience is great for communication – that does not work very well with business plans. Business plans should be written for you (business owner). Therefore not be all inclusive (as I tried to do in my first) nor does it have to be very formal. The idea behind a business plan is essentially to create a somewhat structured environment in which a potential business owner that through all or most of the issues that affect the company over time – to include identifying target markets and customers, competition, logistics operations and to ensure that their efforts will or can be profitable. There is no real formal way that each company has to continue to do so. Moreover, since the business plan can change daily for new businesses, I have concluded that much of what contained in these plans must be written in any logical sequence. Just jotting down some notes or diary randomly on question facing can be as useful and much less time for business owner.

The goal of business planning is not is to create a formal document that will sit in a drawer and gather dust, but to prepare a document that will guide entrepreneurs through the trails next that will surely face. Everything else is just killing the trees.

Finally, most new business owners are covered only writing a business plan when seeking funding of some sort. Keep this in mind: nobody reads these plans in their entirety. bankers can discuss your finances, but most likely glaze over everything else. many investors spend more time in his section of management or marketing analysis. Both must and usually read your executive summary.

Therefore, if you are in this situation – writing for an audience like bankers or investors and want to save a lot of time and headache – trying to understand which sections of their audience is really interested in and focus on them. Remember, writing a business plan for audiences do not really give much insight – and save time and effort giving them only what they need. Your time is better spent actually developing and growth of your business.

About the Author:

Joseph Lizio holds a MBA in Finance and is the founder and owner of Business Money Today – www.businessmoneytoday.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Business Plans: To Have or Have Not

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