A strong business plan is essential for anyone looking to set up a business. A working business plan will prove your most used tool when it comes to building up your business, therefore it is essential to get it right from the word go. A business plan is a written document that clearly explains to the reader what the business is, what its objectives are, the strategy behind the business, the market it is involved in and its financial forecasts. A good plan can have many different functions from securing external funding to monitoring success or failure within the business. In general the most common function of the business plan is to act as a guide for a new business owner to follow when just starting out.

A business plan is essential for all businesses regardless of size, and once one has been written it is also important to maintain and update said plan. That being said, it is important to realize that whilst writing a detailed plan is useful and a good foundation for any successful business, it will not necessarily make the business a success or guard you from all disasters. If you keep up to date with business plan it will prove a really useful tool throughout the lifespan of your business. However, if you grossly over exaggerate profit margins or your budget then your business plan could also lead to failure. Stick to the figures and be realistic and your plan should hold you in good stead in the turbulent business market.

A lot of resources nowadays provide ready-made plans for specific businesses and whilst this is handy, most business owners will recommend that you write the plan yourself. This is because writing a plan for your business actually forces you to focus on what you want from your business and how to achieve your goals. When looking back on your initial plan for reference, you shouldn’t necessarily assume that your initial assumptions and predictions will be correct, they are just that: predictions. You should be able to go back to your plan on a regular basis and view it and change it to relate to the actual current situation.

It may seem like a daunting and laborious task to write an entire plan from scratch, but in actual fact once done it can be incredibly useful. In the beginning stages of your business, your plan will help to define and focus your objective by using accurate figures and details. Once established and looking to expand, you can then use your business plan as a selling tool to get more funding from external sources such as investors and the bank. As you are developing your business, your plan will help to highlight any gaps or weaknesses in the planning process. You can then address these issues and hopefully avoid any disasters. Finally, you can also use your plan to get advice from other experts within your field. By having a detailed business plan to hand you look professional and can present the information in an organized and clear manner.

In order to create a strong working business plan you need to place reasonable limits on long-term projections. For the time being, focus on short-term objectives and change and modify the plan as you go along. Too many long-term plans become pointless as they extend too far into the future. Don’t be too optimistic, instead stick to being realistic. Over optimism will be your downfall in the end and is only setting you up for a fall. When dealing with timelines, sales and profits err on the side of conservatism as this will protect your business in the long-run. Make sure your business plan is written in simple, clear language that can be understood by all in a bid to appeal to a wider audience and keep things clear.

Having a business plan is so important to you as an online marketer. But most people, who start online businesses, especially small businesses, do not really take the initiative to make a business plan. Probably they think that it’s not necessary. But for sure there is little you can achieve in life without proper planning. More so in the contemporary times when survival depends largely on one’s ability to organize your physical and mental resources well. The future is actually for those who are organized. And the future of your business is dependent on your good planning.

Planning is very important in life. Everybody should do planning at individual or family level. As an individual, you should plan for the day well in advance in order to accomplish what is to be done in that day. At family level, a family plan helps to focus on supporting the entire family in its growth and development. Planning is also done at business and organizational level.

A business plan is therefore an outline for taking an idea for a product or service and turning it into a commercially viable reality. It’s a roadmap of the business you intend to start and without it you may end up getting lost on the way. It should therefore be remembered that having generated your business ideas and analyzed them to come up with the most viable idea, it’s important to create a business plan for your online home business. Do you have one?

Some people think that they do not need a business plan for a small business. But let me make it clear that the size of the business doesn’t matter. Whether small or big, you need a plan. If you need a plan as an individual and for your family, then why not have a plan for your small business? Like for individuals and families, you need to plan for your online small business.

A business plan shows you what you would like to achieve and how to achieve it. Although not all plans are written down, a good business plan should be written down. If you have it in your head, it’s high time you spent some time to write it down for better results.

Why should you create a business plan?

1. It encourages you to think deeply about your business objectives and goals.

When you create a business plan, you get to think about the short-term and long-term objectives. It also helps to develop a mission statement for your business. This helps you to remain focused as you do your business.

2. It encourages you to think about the possible problems and how to overcome them.

In any business you may think about, there are always risks involved. Creating a business plan enables you to anticipate the risks that you may encounter in the process of running your business. It also makes you to think about the various ways of overcoming the problem in case it happens. That’s a proven way of looking at things for you to remain in business.

3. You get a clear picture of the whole business project.

The process of making a business plan makes it possible for you to focus on the nature of your business in details, to analyze your target market, to develop a marketing and operational plan and to make your financial projections.

4. You get new ideas.

It becomes easy to communicate your ideas to the people you interface with, who in turn can give you better ideas or complement the ones you have. Collect all the material to one place. Having a business plan makes it possible to have all your ideas and plans in one place. It becomes easier for you refer to it and to use it to develop your business. You become a more committed business person and even others people, like your prospective financiers, can easily regard you as a serious business person.

As I conclude, I would like to advice all people, who want to start any kind of business or who already have business without a business plan, to think about creating one as way to building a successful business. One of the causes of failure in business is lack of proper planning. Create a business plan if you want to succeed in your online home business!

Everyone has prepared a business plan. Well, should that read, everyone should have prepared a business plan? My thinking is that these tend only to be prepared when they are needed, rather than as a useful business tool for all senior management. My top five ingredients are:

1. Understand what a business plan is;

2. Understand what you intend to use it for;

3. Identify and implement the critical steps to achieving a successful business plan;

4. Understand what needs to be included in the plan;

5. Be aware of gaps or weaknesses in your plan.

What is a business plan?

A business plan sets out the method for running a specific activity over a specific future period.

Why are business plans needed?

Business plans are needed essentially for the four following reasons:

1. A formal, explicit document of the planning process;

2. A request for finances;

3. A framework for approval;

4. A tool for operational business management.

What are the critical steps needed to achieve a successful business plan?

This may come as a surprise to my fellow business consultants, but producing a successful business plan is not as difficult as people often think, so long as they follow a logical sequence. Here is my considered view as to the critical steps.

1. Understand what you are planning and why;

2. Define the activities of your organisation;

3. Outline the current position of the business;

4. Review and discuss the external market conditions, undertake and understand a competitive analysis, and define your market positioning;

5. Define your core objectives;

6. Prepare and articulate the strategy to attain and meet the objectives;

7. Identify and review risks and opportunities;

8. Prepare a strategy to deal with risks and exploit opportunities;

9. Refine the strategies into operational plans;

10. Prepare financial forecasts including revenues, costs, cash-flow, capital expenditure and assumptions adopted;

11. Finalise the plan;

12. Get it approved;

13. Use it;

14. Review it regularly and update as appropriate.

What should be included in the business plan?

Without being too prescriptive, there are certain necessary elements which need to be included. Such elements are:

· Preliminaries – such as contents, contacts and definitions;

· An executive summary;

· A description of the business;

· A review of the market, the competition and market positioning;

· The vision, mission and objectives;

· The corporate strategy;

· The plan for developing the products and services;

· Financial projections;

· An outline of the risks and opportunities;

· A conclusion.

Understand gaps and weaknesses within the plan.

Any casual viewer of the BBC programme, Dragons Den will be aware of how easy it is for weaknesses or gaps to be identified. Depending upon the purpose of the plan, this may, or may not, prove to be critical. It is often easier to recognise such weaknesses and gaps, and be prepared to deal with them, either by noting them in the plan itself, or having appropriate answers available should the need arise.

Who should prepare the plan?

As a business consultant, this may sound like heresy, but I believe that any plan should be produced by the senior management of the organisation. That is not to say that the consultant does not have a role to play in its preparation. He does. Senior management should prepare the plan as they will then be able to present and discuss it, demonstrating to their audience that they fully understand their business and market. I believe that the consultant’s role is to help facilitate the preparation of the plan, the consultant can help undertake the necessary research, and can cast a critical and impartial eye over the plan.