Business plans for small business people is an interesting phenomenon. Most business owners know they should have one but various research indicates only about 56% of small business enterprises has a current one. This article discusses 3 compelling reasons why you should have one if business success is your prime motivation, which is must be for all of us with our own business.

Read on to uncover the myths of business planning and the easy solutions to create one.

MYTH NUMBER 1: Business Plans for Small Business People Seem Difficult to Construct

After personally completing over 146 business plans for many companies big and small, I have seen the difference it can make in a switched on organization. The most effective plans are those that only take about a day to fully construct. Any more than this the plan is likely to be too long, too complex and harder to implement.

So would you take one day a year or even each quarter to construct a relevant specific plan that will provide motivation to you and your team, strategic direction on what you need to implement, and to give you a much higher percentage chance of attaining business success?

Now there are some great resources and tools on the market that makes creating a new plan such an easy way to go. These are neither expensive nor time consuming so really there is no excuse for not doing one.

MYTH NUMBER 2: Business Plans Implementation is often neglected

Business plans for small business are easy to implement if you look at the following structure. The best way to implement your new plan is to complete a yearly one of only 5-12 pages depending on the complexity of your small business.

Then create a quarterly 90 day plan which is only 2 pages long every quarter. This makes planning a breeze.

The longer yearly plan sets the goals and gives more detail but the shorter plan is just as powerful as it is the action plan needed for implementation.

The best results in implementing strategy is when you look at your 90 day plan of action each week and put time aside of about 3 hours a week to plan and take action.

This means you have a yearly focus broken down to quarters but implementation is done weekly. A sure fire rapid way to achieve maximum business success.

MYTH NUMBER 3: To Start Planning Seems Difficult

Planning is essential for success. Even the statistics shows over 70% of businesses that succeed over a 5 year period have a written plan. Conversely the 80% plus statistic of business failure shows a very low percentage of people in this category have a written plan.

Bottom line: You are absolutely more likely to succeed if you have a current written plan or you are more likely to fail if you have not.

To start planning just look for a business planning template online and get started. These days a better option is to purchase for a very small fee planning software that even has what others in your industry have completed before you. This makes it extremely easy to plan successfully as you use the example for a guideline and change it to suit your individual circumstances.

Business plans for small business are easy to implement if you use the right tools, cheap to construct and a vital skill for you to reach the heights of success you deserve. If the fruits of your labour are currently now what you desire, then I commend you for completing a powerful business plan of action so you can rightly reap the rewards of all of your hard work.

Your business map should expand your mind and get you thinking about what your business is going to look like and what you’re striving to achieve. This small business map should really get you excited and motivated to make it all happen.

A business map (i.e., business plan) is your 9 to 12 month map of what you want to accomplish in business.

Usually, business maps contain many items, but remember you’re not going to do them all at once. You’re going to do them over a period of time – just as Rome wasn’t built in one day, your business won’t be built in one day. Just keep clearly and strongly focused on what you want to accomplish and stick to your goals at all times.

Usually, there are 5 key parts to any business map or business plan. If you are going to a local bank for a loan, most loan managers are more than willing to tell you the parts of the business map, but most of the time, the parts are left without explanation, so you fail to understand what is required of you.

The first part is the core message which is a one sentence to at most one paragraph statement about what your business and product has to offer that makes it unique and stand out from the rest of the products. Spend some time thinking about this and write it down (try to get it down in just one sentence to one paragraph at most).

Once you have your core message into one sentence, expand a bit on it – usually about half to one page long just on the one sentence you managed to construct. In this elaboration, you have a chance to get very clear up front about what you’re offering, with what benefits, before you even create your product. This is very fundamental in helping you to focus on customers and what you will deliver. Call this elaboration an elevator pitch if you want. As an example, in less than 30 seconds, what will you say to get across to the person you’re talking to about what you do and what you have to offer?

The clearer, more specific and succinct you can make this elevator pitch, the better it is going to help when you start doing your marketing, sending out emails, getting affiliates, and all the people you want to have rally around you. Let’s be realistic here: the better you get at this, the better off you will be. So listen to any feedback you get along the way and tweak it until everyone just says, “Aha, I get it!”

The second part is asking how you are going to generate revenue by questioning your product line. What are you going to market? What is your entry-level or front-end product, continuity product, backend product?

When I refer to a continuity product, I am referring to a product people pay you every month to receive. It is an extremely important aspect of a successful online business because it provides that consistent and dependable income.

What are your backend products going to be? In other words, what are the bigger packages that sell at a higher price you can offer your customers who are passionate and want more of what you have to offer, and where you make more money?

Most of the time, the people on your customer list will want more if you have to offer it. What are those other products going to be?

You will be wanting to add a short description of each product — of what that product is going to look like, the benefits offered to people, the price, the bonuses it could include and similar things.

If you are an affiliate, this is a good source of generating your revenue. Remember, this is your 9 to 12 month plan, so you’re not going to have all these items on your list from the very beginning. At this point, it is imperative to keep in mind that if you don’t know where you’re going, then you will never get there!

Part 3 is answering the age-old question of how are you going to generate traffic to your website?

What about a blog (if you haven’t already been blogging about your business, then you better get busy without any more delay!), SEO traffic, pay-per-click advertising, affiliate traffic.

Just keep in mind that you must describe briefly your sources of generating traffic (thereby generating revenue) and the expected results from each of your traffic sources in your business map.

Part 4 is outlining your marketing plan. Basically, the marketing plan is simply creating the right habits. If you want your business to be successful over the long-term, it comes down to doing a few simple things on a consistent daily basis. That’s what success in business comes from, especially an online business.

Your marketing plan is something you’re going to be consistently doing, working on, implementing, testing, refining, tweaking and improving. Some of these activities could include posting to your blog, promoting your blog, submitting to article directories and/or making contacts and networking with other people in your marketplace. Be creative; add to this list on a daily basis.

Part 5 is all about showing the projected numbers in your business. Start with the 3 month projection, and then move onto the 6 month, the 9 month and finally the 12 month projection.

At this point, you should be extremely excited because you will see that you can have that money from your business by following your own business plan or business map if you will.

This may sound silly to some, however; your business plan, your business map or whatever, should be fun and innovative. When you approach someone with that plan or map, you should project excitement, not insecurity or indecision, show fear or any other negative behaviors.

When you present this plan to anyone, it should be with a smile on your face, hope in your heart, and your whole body conveying confidence!

Is it time to rethink your business plan or business map with a more positive outlook on your business?

One of the key things I want to get everyone who reads this article to do is rethink (or think about in the first place) what a good business plan is and what is involved in putting one into writing. The bad news is – it will take time and effort – you’ll have to engage the strategic thinking part of your brain. The good news is – it’s not as hard as you think and there are numerous resources available to you to if you feel as though you’re not up to the task of putting it all together yourself. You never know, you might even find a friendly, helpful business banker that would be willing to point you in the right direction.

Essentially, there are three key elements to a good business plan. Remember, I am speaking from the perspective of the guy that is going to be putting your application together and submitting it to the bank’s credit people. There are literally hundreds of books, articles, websites, blogs, etc. out there that will tell you what “has to be” included in a business plan. At last check, a Google search of the term “business plan” returned about 195 million results. The fact of the matter is, whatever the format, whatever the content, you need to have a business plan – full stop. It can always be updated, amended to suit the audience (banker, investor, customer – whatever) and should be constantly reviewed to make sure it is a document that you can use in the day to day management of your business. That being said, let’s look at the three elements of a good business plan.

A Good Business Plan Has a “School of Thought”

Some people call this “vision” or a “mission statement”. I call it a School of Thought because, to me, you need to have a more expansive idea of why your business exists than just a catchy one-liner or slogan, which is what so many vision/mission statements have become. It’s good to be able to boil your School of Thought down into a single idea or even a sentence, but you have to have some meat on the bone. Your School of Thought should consider what you do best, why you do it and how you’ll go about executing it. It’s your philosophy, your guiding principles, your world view. Having this sort of thing written down will allow you to refer back to your core values when making important business decisions, basing them on the things you find most important rather than on emotional responses to an ever-changing environment. And from a banker’s point of view, it will help with understanding your company’s history or background and what makes your business different from your competition (and every other business out there looking for money).

A Good Business Plan Has a Strategy

Strategy is a word that has been turned into a “buzzword” and has almost become an industry unto itself. Looking up “Business strategy planning” will return you over 43 million results on Google. But like many aspects of running a business, strategy doesn’t need to be overcomplicated. Having a strategy simply means that you have thought about how you are going to turn your brilliant business idea into something that will generate revenue. Strategy is about how you’re going to do business and about setting goals that are well defined and measurable. Strategy, if it is going to be useful, is about execution. The best business idea in the world is useless if you are not able to define how you’re going to turn it into an enterprise that will make money. And the best strategy in the world isn’t worth one dollar if you aren’t able to effectively execute it. The precise elements of a business strategy will vary depending on what your business is. But a good strategy should always have these characteristics:

o It’s Robust. That means it’s sufficiently detailed to allow someone else to be able to execute even it if you’re not there to explain it.

o It’s Relevant. That means that it’s been reviewed in the last 12 months (max) and takes into consideration current conditions in the business environment.

o It’s Dynamic. That means it isn’t stagnant. It should be able to be adapted to changing conditions on an ongoing basis.

o It’s Consistent with your School of Thought. That means it is reflective of the core values of your business. A strategy that is inconsistent with your School of Thought has little chance of being executed successfully.

o It’s Innovative. That means you don’t make your strategy a carbon copy of someone else’s. Too many business owners make the mistake of copying some other business when it comes to strategy. What works in one organisation may not work in yours. Be creative.

A Good Business Plan Has a Good Handle on the Numbers

Everyone should have seen this one coming. The all important numbers. They can’t be ignored. You will have to show the bank that the numbers work out on paper even when you take into consideration the impacts of the real world. If you’ve been in business for a while, you’ll need to show them your historical figures – usually the last 3 financial years at a minimum. And regardless of whether you’ve been in business before or not, you will most likely need to provide three-way financial projections. If your reaction to that last sentence was “three-way WHAT?” – don’t panic. Three-way financial projections are simply a forecast of what your 1) profit and loss, 2) balance sheet and 3) statement of cash flows will look like for the upcoming financial year. Three-way can also refer to the fact that this forecast information takes into consideration 1) a best case scenario, 2) a worst case scenario and 3) a most likely scenario. For most business owners, having these forecast numbers put together will require the assistance of a good accountant. Make sure you get an accountant that is not only confident in his ability to put these numbers together for you, but one that is also willing to help you get some personal insight into what it all means. (A good question to ask that will sort the good accountants from the average ones is: “What are the key drivers of my business and what can I do to have a positive impact on my business performance?”) This forecast should become the monthly budget that your business works to over the upcoming financial year. If you don’t understand the forecasts, they won’t be very useful to you as a management tool. And remember, you’ll be the one trying to explain it all to your business banking manager. You must know what you’re talking about!

Now I know that the mere mention of the words “business plan” is enough to make most business owners cringe. They instantly conjure up images in their minds of endless pages of tedious, mind-numbing details that will take way too much effort to put together. In fact, most of the people I’ve spoken to that don’t have a business plan for their business have told me that they’re just “too busy” to put the time and effort required into writing a business plan. On the other hand, those whom I’ve spoken to that DO have a business plan mostly fall into the category of those that were required to write a business plan so they could apply for a loan from a bank. Of those minority that actually have a business plan in place, most of them would admit to not having touched it (or in some instances even seen it) since submitting it to the bank with their application. One of my goals is to get everyone to think again about what a good business plan is and what is involved in putting one into writing. It is not nearly as arduous as everyone imagines, and it is a critically important exercise for every business owner. As a first step, consider the fact that not having a business plan is an almost guaranteed way to ensure that the bank won’t want to back your business. The old cliche is true; failure to plan really is an indicator that your business is planning to fail.

If you can get a business plan together that has at least the three elements detailed above, you will be able to go to your bank with greater confidence that your loan request will at least be taken seriously. It will give you instant credibility if you put it together with some care and a bit of effort. And if you actually utilise the plan regularly as a management tool, you will become more and more familiar with some of the key elements of your business that will lead you to make better business decisions.