Think a business plan is overwhelming?\u00a0 Believe that you do not know how to write or start one?\u00a0 Come along with us for the next 6 weeks and you will have a pretty good start at a full-scale business plan and feel more in control of your business\u2019 future.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that hard if you attack it in pieces and in a particular order.<\/p>\n
Step 1:\u00a0 What do you sell? Seems pretty easy, right?\u00a0 But let\u2019s really delve into exactly what you want<\/strong><\/em> to sell.\u00a0 That may be different from what you are currently selling. But if you want a business plan to take your business in the direction you want, dreamed of or that will make you more successful, then sell what you really want to sell, not what has happened due to a lack of a plan.\u00a0 Be descriptive and detailed, write and rewrite it until you have something that fully and accurately describes what you do, why this business exists.<\/p>\n First and foremost, you need to know what it is that your business provides to its customers.\u00a0 Do a thorough analysis of why your business exists. So, what products or services do you sell?\u00a0 Be detailed and descriptive.\u00a0 If you sell products, categorize them in some way and describe what the products are, what their purpose is, how customers will use them.\u00a0 If you sell services, describe them in major categories as well and think about how these services impact your customers, what will they get from your services, how will they use them, how will they change your customer\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n Once you have completed the long version of what your business sells, pare that down to a 50-word, concise description you can use when people ask you \u201cWhat do you do?\u201d\u00a0 Then pare that down to 25 words you can use in marketing materials, social media, brochures, etc.\u00a0 Then pare that down to 10 words you can use as a tag line for your Facebook page, your LinkedIn profile, your business cards, etc.\u00a0 You need to have a way to describe your business\u2019 main purpose so you can quickly and easily communicate it to people you meet in a variety of situations.\u00a0 You want them to come away with a clear and targeted idea of what you do so they can decide to do business with you, refer you to others, etc. You really need to know your products and services well so you know how to package them, how to market and sell them.<\/p>\n On a spreadsheet: Create several tabs at the bottom.\u00a0 The first one will be titled:\u00a0 Raison d\u2019etre (reason to exist).\u00a0 Craft the long version of what your business does, provides, sells.\u00a0 Don\u2019t censure, just write and once you\u2019ve got everything you are thinking written down, go back and edit, organize, polish until you are happy that you have fully and completely defined what your business does.\u00a0 Then take that and create the 50-word version, the 25-word version and the 10-word version.<\/p>\n On a second tab titled \u201cWhat we sell\u201d, start with your major product and\/or service categories:\u00a0 Column A.\u00a0 List all the major categories.\u00a0 Categories should be decided on by what the products or services have in common either from a use perspective or a result perspective or some other delineation that makes sense for your business.\u00a0 This will be important for business planning concepts later in the process.<\/p>\n What is the purpose of the products\/services you sell:\u00a0 Column B.\u00a0 Again, these definitions will be useful later on as we begin to define customers, marketing strategies, etc.\u00a0 So be thorough.\u00a0 The more you dig in and define, describe, categorize, the easier later steps will be.<\/p>\n Spend a week getting this first task done and we will move on to step 2.\u00a0 Just start;\u00a0 have fun and let yourself be creative.\u00a0 You are on your way to having a business plan that will increase your success potential simply because you will have spent the time writing down what you want this business to do, how you want it to work and from there the other steps start to fall into place until a clear strategy presents itself to you.<\/p>\n We offer business coaching and consulting that helps businesses get through this process and gives them focus, clarity and a clear direction to go in with strategies and action items.\u00a0 The power of brain-storming with an objective qualified professional can’t be underestimated.\u00a0 This process is powerful and will make you wonder why you waited so long to attack your business success with this kind of approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Think a business plan is overwhelming?\u00a0 Believe that you do not know how to write or start one?\u00a0 Come along with us for the next 6 weeks and you will have a pretty good start at a full-scale business plan and feel more in control of your business\u2019 future.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that hard if you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,4,7,115],"tags":[30,43,31,26,24],"yoast_head":"\n