Business Plan - Part Three

People and Qualifications

People and their qualifications are an important part of your business and so will need to be detailed in your Business Plan.

Now it may be that you are going to be the only person working in your business so you think that you needn’t bother with this. Oh, yes you do. A good idea here is to write out your CV or Resume. Then match up your skills and qualifications to what is required for your business.

When you find gaps you must then figure out how you are going to fill them.

• Will you need to employ someone?
• Is there someone amongst your family or friends who could (or would) do it?
• Will you have to get yourself some specific training?

It is much better to recognise a deficiency before it becomes an imminent necessity. By completing your Business Plan you will see what is needed and set about getting it.

Business Plan - Part Two

The Vision Statement

Your Business Plan will cover various main areas. You will find outline plans which you can complete quite freely throughout the internet. Most banks will also be happy to give you detailed forms alongside an instruction booklet. I don’t think that the layout matters too much so long as it is well presented and covers the necessary areas.

One extremely important section usually comes at the beginning: The Vision Statement. This is a summary of what you see as the purpose of your business and the goals.

I think this is best written first – and last. Write your Vision Statement to begin with and then put it aside whilst you work on the other sections of the Business Plan. You will probably be drawn back to it time and again and improve on the words.

Then when you have finished everything else come back and make sure that it reads to your liking and that it is concise. Don’t have a single word that is superfluous.

More next time.

Business Plans - Part One

The Importance of completing a Business Plan

I believe that a Business Plan is important no matter how small your business. Most of us think it is for going to the bank or other finance places in order to beg for money so that we can start up. Well, yes it will be jolly useful for that. However, I think that it is much more beneficial in helping ourselves.

If you draw up a Business Plan you will help yourself in the following ways:

1. You will force yourself to be precise about all the areas you must cover.

2. You will be able to focus on each and every essential point.

3. You will discover the areas you are missing (or attempting to gloss over!)

4. You will have to face up to your weaknesses and do something about them.

5. You will need to research in order to fill gaps in your knowledge.

6. You will probably ask advice of others rather than ploughing ahead blindly.

7. You will use your Business Plan to keep you on track whilst building your business.

Come back for more thoughts on this in a couple of days.

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