A Business Plan is Important for Business Success

A good Business Plan ^[1] is the most important, but most often overlooked, part of running a business, starting a business, expanding and growing a business, or obtaining finance for a business.  If a Business Plan is well developed and written, the starting, expanding, running or financing a business is much easier and effective, leaving less room for error and failure.  While you cannot predict everything that can happen in a company’s future, a good Business Plan helps you avoid certain pitfalls, overcome obstacles, while also anticipating and creating opportunities.

Business Plan Formats

There are different Business Plan Formats for different purposes.  Always start with a Comprehensive Business Plan ^[2] to successfully run your business.  Once you have completed your Comprehensive Business Plan, then you can take certain parts of that Plan to form the other ancillary Business Plans for other purposes, such as a Funding Business Plan ^[3] for a Bank, Investor or Venture Capital Firm.

Business Plan Process

Formats are important for Business Planning but most important is the Process.  The Process is a building block system that is continuous, systematic and comprehensive.  It involves the entire Company, produces effective decision making and executes those decisions in a Strategic Plan ^[4].  A good Business Plan measures the relationship between Expectations and Performance- it evaluates your Company’s progress or the lack thereof.  A Business Plan’s goal is to create the future for your company, taking a proactive approach toward your target markets ^[5].

Business Planning is Art and Science

It is said, writing a good Business Plan is more art than science.  It is good to have a proven process and format, but you can’t just fill in the blanks on a master planning program or document.  It is a matter of asking yourself the right questions within that proven process and format which brings about a successfully developed and written Business Plan. You can find such a process in my Business Plan Book ^[6].

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