Part 2 of our series from Black and White Business, guesting with ClubBlogger.

Why?

Your business plan describes your business, its marketplace, what its objectives are, how it will achieve those objectives and its financial forecasts.

Do not underestimate the importance of a business plan. Starting a business without one is like going on a long road journey to somewhere you’ve never been before, without a map and with your eyes closed.

But this does not mean that a business plan needs to be a nightmare for you to put together.  Do not let the ‘tail wag the dog’:  your business plan is a tool to describe your business and to follow when implementing your business, not the end in itself.

You can find templates, here.

Like everything else in the world of Black and White Business, we’ll take you through it. You’re not alone with this.

Who will read it?

Like any business document, unless you think carefully about who’s going to read your business plan, who your ‘audience’ is, you’re unlikely to hit the mark.

Crucially, you should be a key audience member.  Does this sound odd?  Why?  A good plan will, amongst other things, help you to focus on what you’re doing, understand problems and challenges, structure your business objectives and figure out your finances.

A good plan will help you step back and take ‘time out’ in good times, and bad times, to assess exactly what state your business is in. It will also help you measure your progress. If you can’t do that, you’ll struggle to see just how much success you’ve achieved and to understand what’s working and what needs fixing or tweaking.

Your ‘stakeholders’ may want to have sight of your plan.  In business, you may have many stakeholders and not just in the sense of owning part of your business.  These people may be:

• advertisers
• suppliers
• strategic partners (in joint ventures, perhaps)
• investors, venture capitalists, business angels, banks
• purchasers of your business
• professional advisers (lawyers, accountants)

Don’t forget: even if your business starts quite modestly, it has the potential to grow quickly, particularly if it’s an Internet business.  One of the biggest problem online businesses face is scalability: your business could grow rapidly and, whilst that sounds fantastic, it can be a nightmare if you don’t have proper plans in place.

For example, if you create a successful website, your site will crash if your servers aren’t capable of handling the increased traffic.  This will lead to disgruntled visitors which will lead to fewer visits and bad public relations. What you have strived to make work will start to crumble. Believe us, you don’t want that feeling. You should avoid experiencing it at all costs.

Even more fundamentally, aside from your servers, if the technology of your website itself isn’t properly built to accommodate the number of visitors you may amass (e.g., it can handle 1,000 users but can’t cope with 10,000) you may even need it to be re-built from scratch. Proper planning can help to avoid this.

How to write good business plans quickly

Some of you will have written business plans before, others never.  Either way, you can consolidate/improve your existing knowledge or learn where to start.

Yes, you need a business plan.  But, as with everything else in Black and White Business, you need it to be part of your business jigsaw and for it to be enough to help you – but not for it to become a monster. You need it to be a tool you control and use, not the other way around. Essentially, you need to produce your plan quickly and move on with your business, returning and revising as needed.

Crucially, and like most things, you don’t have to be alone with this. With the power of the Internet at your fingertips, why stumble around in the dark? Some great business plan resources are here (ready made and bespoke business plans are available, depending on your precise need and circumstances). Get it right and lay the foundation for your success.

Plan properly – then focus your efforts in the right direction

So, you’ve got your basic business plan.  But do you really need to know how to get from A to B? Do you know what’s really important and where to focus your time and energy so you’re not chasing your tail or wasting effort?

Never forget that it’s easy to be busy but the hard bit is being busy doing the right things.  Plenty of people complain of being ‘too busy’ nowadays.  It’s a feature of modern life.  The fact is, quite a lot of people, particularly those who are employees and work for others, don’t work efficiently.  Often they’re not just busy, they’re busy fools. It may sound harsh but it’s a fact.

It has been estimated that, in the average working day in the average office, people are interrupted or distracted in the region of 40-50 times.  Think about that.  Think about the number of hours in a ‘working’ day.  Think about the frightening ratio of work to ‘interruption’.

We emphasize, above, that particularly ‘those who are employees and work for others’ don’t work efficiently. This isn’t just a loose attempt to criticize employees when compared to people who are self-employed. It’s a matter of fact that a high proportion of those employed in the modern world simply do not benefit from working efficiently.  Too often they will get paid regardless of their efficiency and regardless of their productivity (or lack of).

If you run your own business it’s a completely different ball game.  Just getting out of bed and turning up to an office does not result in your bank balance increasing.  But it’s a ball game many of us would much prefer to play, for a thousand different reasons. Not least because of the independence it can deliver, the challenges and the feeling of building your own ‘thing’. There’s also the prospect of serious financial gain which is rarely on offer by simply turning up to an office and selling your day to someone else.