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The Top 100 Business Planning Mistakes – Part One

April 6, 2010 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant

I have been writing business plans for over twenty years and have seen a lot of different reasons why they fail and are ineffective. I have learned by experience and through great mentors what makes a successful business plan. Good business planning comes from experience, by trial and error. This blog will give you a short cut through the business planning learning curve. I have assembled the top 100 mistakes commonly made in business planning so you can avoid them. Here are the first 50…Please see my next blog for the remaining 50.

1)     Plans developed around a faulty process. 

2)     Plans built around badly defined strategies. 

3)     Plans lacking implementation strategies where tasks, milestones, schedules, responsibilities and accountability are clearly developed and integrated into the Company. 

4)     Plans where Goals are not stated in Quantifiable & Measurable Terms. 

5)     The complete participation and commitment of the entire Company is lacking. 

6)     The Plan failed to be integrated into the fabric of a Company. 

7)     Poorly developed Marketing Plan. 

8 )     Lack of a Detailed Competitor Analysis and Competitive Comparison. 

9)     No information on Key Employees. 

10)  Badly organized and packaged. 

11)  Management Team’s Weaknesses and Gaps not identified. 

12)  Very high Advertising Budgets. 

13)  High Salaries. 

14)  Unrealistic Sales Forecasts and Financial Projections. 

15)  Too glossy and loaded with fancy graphics- lacking substance. 

16)  No Table of Contents or the Table of Contents is organized poorly. 

17)  Badly organized sub sections unrelated to major sections. 

18)  The sections don’t relate and build on each other. 

19)  No Strategic Implementation Plan.   

20)  No clear Strategic Edge. 

21)  Too Technical. 

22)  Too wordy, not to the point. 

23)  Not focused. 

24)  Failing to identify a Unique Opportunity. 

25)  Failure to clearly show a Competitive Edge. 

26)  Unclear Management Plans and Strategic Management Plans. 

27)  Deal Terms and Financial Terms Unclear. 

28)  Legal and Accounting Structures are lacking. 

29)  Topic Presentation follows a confusing and illogical order. 

30)  Failing to demonstrate an in-depth and well-rounded knowledge of the major industry players and their potential influences. 

31)  Lack of Commitment and Strategic direction. 

32)  Poor forward-looking analysis and knowledge of the industry and market trends. 

33)  Failure to identify, quantify and develop new, unique and better capabilities, features and benefits.

34)  Failing to show adequate product or service protection from liability and competitors. 

35)  Too much red tape and uncertainty surrounding the deal or project from regulatory agencies. 

36)  Weak Strategic development plan for future improvements and expansion- not staying in tune with market needs and ahead of the competition. 

37)  Failure to consider reliability, maintenance and updating variables to keep downtime to a minimum. 

38)  Failing to obtain a third party evaluation of your product or service. 

39)  Failure to identify fundamental problems or flaws in your Research and Development Process. 

40)  Inadequate testing and test procedures. 

41)  Lack of credibility for product and service testing due to insufficient data and standards. 

42)  Inadequate safety procedures. 

43)  Overdesigning.  Failure to keep it simple. 

44)  Inadequate comparisons to competitive products and services since the current technology you are developing will be outdated and uncompetitive when it actually comes to market.   

45)  Forward looking Strategic Planning & Development Process is not tied effectively to the Product and Service’s Development.  

46)  Failing to sufficiently prove the portion of your market’s demand represents the major portion of your demand (i.e. 80/20 Rule:  20% of the customer base represents 80% of the demand). 

47)  Unrealistic, Unbelievable, Unsubstantiated Market Share Projections. 

48)  Inaccurate estimate of your products and services unit profitability. 

49)  Basing Sales Projections on higher output than demonstrated adequately in your Business Plan. 

50)  Pricing does not match Market tolerance and needs.

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