Planning for Success

Business planning is widely acknowledged as one of the keys to business success. Yet there is still a great reluctance by small business owners in this area. This is despite the fact that it can be shown that fewer business fail if they have prepared a business plan.

The following are some of the reasons given for not planning:

We have done well so far, so how would a plan help us?

• I’m too busy keeping up with what we are doing now.
  
• What if an opportunity comes up that is not in the plan?
  
• We’re too small to worry about planning.
  
• We can’t plan because things change so rapidly.

The problems evidenced in businesses that fail to plan are:

• Being taken unaware by changes in the economy or industry,
  
• Being reactive, always putting out fires rather than
  solving the cause of problems,
  
• Lacking focus, people in the business are not sure of their
  real purpose or objectives,
  
• Lack of growth, repeatedly coming up against the same problem but never finding the solution,
  
• Disorganization, lack of time, inefficiency.

Most of these problems are actually the result of not planning. A business plan can assist a business to make real progress, by:

• Forcing you to set goals or objectives,
  
• Determining the business’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats,
  
• Establishing priorities,
  
• Finding solutions to ongoing and potential problems,
  
• Helping you to become better organized,
  
• Showing the way to be freed from day to day pressures.

It has been proved that businesses that plan are more successful than those that don’t. The end result of the planning process is a business with:

• A definite purpose, or "mission", understood by all employees,
  
• Clear direction and objectives for the future,
  
• An identifiable competitive advantage,
  
• Well thought out strategies,
  
• Well organized and efficient operations, and
  
• Better chance of being successful in having consistent and controlled growth.

If you want to achieve higher levels of success in your business, don’t expect it to happen by accident. You have to make a plan that leads to success and then consistently implement the strategies detailed in your winning plan.