The Secret Power Of Business Planning
How often do you plan in your business?
We don’t mean assembling a to-do list or a deadline schedule, but real business planning.
If you are head down, busy in the day-to-day running of your business, you might think that you don’t have time for any business planning and that it is something you can think about another day.
Or perhaps you’ve created a business plan once upon a time, but all it does is sit in your desk drawer, never looked at, because you don’t have time to implement it?
If either of those is the case, you are thinking about it in the wrong way. Business planning shouldn’t be considered a nuisance or something you don’t have time for. Rather, it’s something you should make time for because it can bring you immense benefits.
Let’s look at the benefits of a business plan and how to create one that won’t end up left in the desk drawer!
The Secret Power Of Business Planning
What Are The Benefits Of Developing A Business Plan For Your Business?
There are plenty of great reasons why you should develop a business plan for your business. Some of them are:
You can focus your energy on the biggest change-makers
Creating a business plan allows you to identify the areas of your business that will bring the most significant returns. Once you understand what those areas are, you can focus on developing them. Basically, your business plan voices your big long-term objectives. Then you can make informed decisions and channel your key resources accordingly to drive you toward those goals.
It helps you to be proactive in business
If you don’t know the direction you want your business to go in, then you risk spending your time simply reacting to things that are happening and making spur-of-the-moment decisions. These might be short-term solutions, but aren’t necessarily in the best interests of long-term business sustainability.
A business plan helps you anticipate any issues and prepare for them in advance rather than reacting after they’ve happened.
It can give everyone in your company direction
Having a business plan can give your team something to work towards and can help improve cohesion among your staff. By charting your mission, goals and the objectives you need to achieve to move towards the goal, everyone in the business can see what needs to be done and how their role fits with it.
How To Do Business Planning Properly
Now that you know how it can benefit your business, it’s time to get some business planning happening! Here’s how you can get started:
Start at the beginning
Before you can develop your business plan, you need to know where your business stands right now. Conduct a review and get a clear idea of your current position. Then you can develop your plans for where you want the business to be in the next three to five years. This forms the basis of your mission statement and the goals of your plan.
Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself and your business
Setting long-term goals can be daunting. So, people often tend to settle for a goal that they know is easily achievable, rather than one which is challenging. But setting more challenging objectives can help to drive your business forward. Carefully assess each idea to ensure it is part of your plan for the right reasons.
Keep it simple
Some businesses overcomplicate their business plans, and they become unwieldy documents that people don’t understand and quickly become lost. Keep your plan simple and easy to communicate to your staff. Your key long-term objectives should be clear, and the steps you will take to achieve them should be attainable, albeit perhaps with some effort. Everyone in the business should understand how they can play their part in achieving the goals.
Make sure you set times for review
Having a business plan is all well and good, but if you don’t keep an eye on it, you have no idea if you are actually moving forward. Business planning should be an ongoing process, so set regular times to review the plan and make necessary adjustments to working practices.
Boost Your Business Planning With Expert Help
It is easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day tasks of your business. That can make it hard to step back and look at your business overall. Sometimes, it can be helpful to engage an expert who is able to take an unbiased and holistic view of your business when creating a business plan.
At Figuration, we can take care of all your bookkeeping and financial needs. But we do more than that. Our experienced business advisors can help you develop your business plan and regularly review it with you.
