Edmonton Business Consultant | Business Plan Do’s and Don’ts

Creating a business plan is a simple way of affecting real positive business change in your organization says Edmonton business consultant. One of the reasons why businesses don’t have a business plan is because they either don’t know what information should go in it. The information that should go in a business plan is very simple and following these easy rules of how to create a business plan can make creating one simple task for any business owner. Businesses that complete a business plan are 50% more likely to grow their revenue than businesses who don’t.

The first thing to remember the business plan is you don’t need to spend hundreds of hours creating this document. As entrepreneurs are the experts in their business, knowing the right questions answer is the first step. Most business owners are mistaken to think they need to spend more time than necessary. A business owner will be able to make reasonably good predictions with four hours of thought to create their business plan, and there tends to be diminishing returns on additional time spent on plans. This is because a business plan is not foolproof, there are inherent limitations to business plans. Understanding a business plan’s limitations, and resolving to spend the rest of the time on their business, is an important realization for business owners. Rather than spend lots of time in the first year, business owners should regularly review their business plan, and updated on a yearly basis.

The next thing to remember about a business plan is it’s impossible to consider every single variable that a business may encounter. A business plan is not a crystal ball, and there are many variables that are either impossible to predict, or impossible to predict the significance of the events on a business. These circumstances may include losing key people at key times, losing customers, banks pulling loans, failure of your equipment, changes in the market, regulatory changes, supply chain issues, and even business owners themselves getting ill are all examples of variables not necessary to address and a business plan says Edmonton business consultant.

The three most common pain points business owners face, that should be addressed in the business plan are: the failure to generate new revenue, the inability to find and keep the right team, and running out of cash. Addressing these three issues with sales and marketing plans, pricing, operations strategies, cash flow projections, and HR strategies. This is a super effective way to reduce the impact of pain points in a business. Four hours of critical thinking on these three issues is enough time needed to create a business plan that can guide you through any situation.

The last thing to remember about your business plan is once you’ve created it, don’t let it sit on a shelf collecting dust. Review it on a regular basis, and update it when necessary to reflect changes in your business, industry or market. Monitor the effectiveness of your sales and marketing strategy, as you gain experience running a business you will learn more information to include in your business plan.

Edmonton business consultant | business plan do’s and don’ts

Edmonton business consultant likes the quote Benjamin Franklin one of the founding fathers of the United States said ‘if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.î This is especially true because business owners who complete business plan are 50% more likely to grow their business than businesses who don’t have a business plan at all. Creating a business plan for your business is a great way to effect positive change right away within your business. The best business plans aren’t always the longest ones, but the ones that alleviates the three most common pain points in business today.

Business owners who are unable to attract and retain the right team identified this is one of their top pain points in their business. Create in your business plan a concrete HR policy addressing best hiring practices, retention strategy, and training plans. Not having a plan in place causes business owners to react rather than hiring staff proactively. Without that strategy in place employers use a stop and start method to hire staff, which causes critical time in their business without that position filled. Feeling pressured to hire, employers often hire a less than ideal candidate for their business. Hiring proactively allow business owners to take control of their team, which will help drive their business forward.

Negative cash flow is a pain point at 29% of business owners identified as their greatest challenge advises Edmonton business consultant. This can be addressed by creating cash flow projections in your business plan, so that you can plan your cash flow month-to-month, and know that you have money there when you need it. The opportunity to grow your business will not wait. An Edmonton business consultant will be able to help you out with your cash flow projections if you need it. Experts also recommend that you favour conservative cash flow projections in order to take into consideration unpredictable events that may come up in your business.

Failure to attract new revenue was listed as the number one issue 42% of businesses faced. This is easily overcome when you put in a sales and marketing strategy into your business plan. Regular marketing, and sales strategies will ensure that your business does not go statement. Just remember to regularly review marketing and sales practices, changing what doesn’t work. For help with your sales and marketing strategies contact an Edmonton business consultant.

Addressing these issues in your business plan is a super effective way of reducing the impact of pain points in your business, and will help you articulate your vision to you and your team. Regularly review all of your strategies including updating what doesn’t work, setting new goals as you achieve your existing goals, and going through this process again at the beginning of your next fiscal year. Each year you go through this process will be more valuable than the year before.