- Mar
- 25
- 2008
Developing Strategy: Who Needs a Business Plan?
By: Robert Dempsey | Tags:Getting a business up and going is not easy. There are many things you have to do to prepare for launch. One of which is writing a business plan. Unless you intend on borrowing money or pitching to a venture capital firm, you might not need the full monty. However, there are a few things you must have mapped out before you get started, lest you get lost on your journey. The questions you need to first answer are:
- Why are you in business and how will you grow?
- What will you offer and how will you make money from it?
- How will you let people know about it?
Sound familiar? It should. In business plan terms, those items translate to:
- Executive Summary
- Services and/or Products
- Marketing and Sales Strategy
With this basic outline, as you move forward, you can check back with your plan to see if you are staying on track. Moving too far from core has gotten a lot of companies in trouble. Just read “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t” by Jim Collins to learn more about that. Keep in mind, however, that along with processes, the business plan is a living document and will change over time. Stay flexible, but don’t stretch so far you break.
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3 Responses to “Developing Strategy: Who Needs a Business Plan?”
On March 25th, 2008 at 4:14 pm Ben said:
Jim Collins teaches a fundamental approaching to running a business: staying within your core (or Hedgehog). That prevents you from jumping on fads, and keeps you focused excelling and growing at what you do. Great stuff.
On March 25th, 2008 at 5:52 pm Robert Dempsey said:
Ben, hedgehog is definitely the way to go. It is one of the concepts written about in the book “Good to Great.”
On March 27th, 2008 at 7:31 pm Joslyn Esser said:
Good points Robert. I’ve been in the process of going through the business planning process and definitely prefer the simple, straight forward approach. When the plan is only being used for planning purposes and not outside funding, I would definitely stick with those core questions and spend the effort it would take to write a lengthy plan on those key elements.