Jul 24, 2008

Business Planning (Last Part of a Series)



Read First Part

Read Second Part



Finally, we are onto the last part now. This planning stage is really crucial as this will determine if your business will make or break. Suitable planning and proper focus on the activities are needed to build a brand that will surely be a success.

Planning Connotations

To build a business or practice that consistently generates growing revenue and profitability and is saleable requires you to think years into the future. Nowadays, the required capabilities in order to build a successful financial advisory practice are far more demanding and wider in scope. Financial advisors are required of marketing and sales abilities, as well as business, financial and resource management capabilities.

Importance of Business Planning

Planning is very important. When you have a business plan, you are not playing blindly. You are in a position to put business planning into practice and be able to control your work as well as your life. Placing your business plan in writing and be able to share it with others is the same as that of a pilot’s flight plan. Now let us check the components of a good business plan.

The Business Plan

A good business plan should contain these four areas:

Identifying your business. The business definition includes the basic which is vision, mission, values, and business opportunity.

Vision. The vision is the direction where you want your business to go to. Two essential questions pertain to your vision: What role do you want to play in your business and how big do you want your business to become?
Mission. The mission answers the question: Why am I here? The mission will describe on how you want to make a difference.
Values. The values describes on what is important to you. The two most important points of what you consider important are how you spend your time and how you spend your money.
Business opportunity. This area of your plan addresses the following questions: Where do you make your money, and how is your time spent? Who are your possible clients to sell to and what are your products to sell?

Setting up of business objectives. To start with, put up your objectives for the first year and then for the next succeeding three years. These objectives are the quantifiable results that are reachable within a specified timeframe. Examples of objectives are the revenue targets, the profit that was earned, among others. A SWOT analysis must also be completed. The Strengths and Weaknesses of the business are scrutinized and the Opportunities and Threats are also observed.

Strategy. This describes the activities involving marketing, sales and service that will be done to attain the objectives. This will show the resources needed to obtain the goals, and finish the major work at hand, and also conquer whatever obstacles that will be potentially met.

Financial Management. This is the final stage of your business plan, and it will contain the so-called financial pro-forma. This part will show the projection of the source of revenues, income and expenses, and of course, the profit.

I just hope this latest series of reading helped you in one way or the other. Always remember that a good business will not succeed unless hard work and determination are included in performing the objectives.

It is important to set aside some time to make your business plan, and it is an ongoing basis. Your business plan is a preview of a moving picture ahead. At present, certain limitations have changed radically and the success rules are very different as compared before. Your business plan will help you to achieve your goals and fly high in the standards of business.

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