Your business plan is the directional guide to achieving your goal. A solid, well-thought business plan can help provide direction and motivation, help anticipate and avoid disasters, and offer solutions to roadblocks and detours.
But a good business plan can be so much more than just a compass. Carefully written with an eye to its greater possibilities, your business plan can be the key to myriad facets of your business' ultimate success. A comprehensive business plan can be used to illustrate your company's potential to investors and employees. It can be used as a yardstick and a timetable to measure your goals against your actual progress. It can help you evaluate your circumstances and accomplishments as you take your business into the future.
Your business plan fosters confidence: In writing one, you literally take that first step toward making your idea a reality. But where to begin?
Templates, examples and tutorials for writing a business plan abound. Look at as many as you can and see which one appeals to your unique situation.
A business plan is a tool with three basic purposes: communication, management, and planning. As a communication tool, it is used to attract investment capital, secure loans, persuade workers to hire on, and assist in garnering strategic business partners. The development of a comprehensive business plan shows whether or not a business has the potential to make a profit. It requires a realistic look at almost every phase of business and allows you to demonstrate that you have worked out all the problems and decided on potential strategies before actually launching your business.
As a management tool, the business plan helps you track, monitor, and evaluate your progress. The business plan is a living document that you will modify as you gain knowledge and experience. By using your business plan to establish timelines and milestones, you can gage your progress and compare your projections to actual accomplishments.
As a planning tool, the business plan guides you through the various phases of your business. A thoughtful plan will help identify roadblocks and obstacles so that you can avoid them and establish alternatives. Many business owners share their business plans with their employees to foster a broader understanding of where the business is going.
The Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce Small Business Success Center, www.carlsbad.org, sponsors workshops on business plan writing, and offers one-on-one counseling. Consult the Small Business Administration, www.sba.gov, SCORE, www.score.org, for plan templates and samples. For information on business-plan writing workshops, check with the Chamber, or call (760) 931-8400.
But a good business plan can be so much more than just a compass. Carefully written with an eye to its greater possibilities, your business plan can be the key to myriad facets of your business' ultimate success. A comprehensive business plan can be used to illustrate your company's potential to investors and employees. It can be used as a yardstick and a timetable to measure your goals against your actual progress. It can help you evaluate your circumstances and accomplishments as you take your business into the future.
Your business plan fosters confidence: In writing one, you literally take that first step toward making your idea a reality. But where to begin?
Templates, examples and tutorials for writing a business plan abound. Look at as many as you can and see which one appeals to your unique situation.
A business plan is a tool with three basic purposes: communication, management, and planning. As a communication tool, it is used to attract investment capital, secure loans, persuade workers to hire on, and assist in garnering strategic business partners. The development of a comprehensive business plan shows whether or not a business has the potential to make a profit. It requires a realistic look at almost every phase of business and allows you to demonstrate that you have worked out all the problems and decided on potential strategies before actually launching your business.
As a management tool, the business plan helps you track, monitor, and evaluate your progress. The business plan is a living document that you will modify as you gain knowledge and experience. By using your business plan to establish timelines and milestones, you can gage your progress and compare your projections to actual accomplishments.
As a planning tool, the business plan guides you through the various phases of your business. A thoughtful plan will help identify roadblocks and obstacles so that you can avoid them and establish alternatives. Many business owners share their business plans with their employees to foster a broader understanding of where the business is going.
The Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce Small Business Success Center, www.carlsbad.org, sponsors workshops on business plan writing, and offers one-on-one counseling. Consult the Small Business Administration, www.sba.gov, SCORE, www.score.org, for plan templates and samples. For information on business-plan writing workshops, check with the Chamber, or call (760) 931-8400.