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Q. I’m starting my own small
business and need a business plan. Where do I start?
A. The old saying “if you fail
to plan – you plan to fail” could not be closer to the truth.
There is an extensive volume of literature covering all aspects of
business planning and development. Anyone who has taken business
courses will know that planning is certainly part of any
curriculum. Why is it that more than eighty percent of small
businesses fail in the first two years of existence? The reason is
that every small business that succeeds is founded around a
singular good concept driven by an entrepreneur that is passionate
about that concept. This is the fundamental planning ingredient
required for a successful small business.
So, you want to be a successful business owner or operator. Your
business is not the first order of business on the agenda. You
are. Your business is not your life, although it does play a
significant role in it.
Before you can determine what that role will be, you must ask
yourself these questions: What do I value most? What kind of life
do I want? What do I want life to look like, to feel like? Who do
I wish to be? The answer to these question becomes your Primary
Aim.
Your Primary Aim is the vision necessary to bring your business to
life and your life to your business. It provides you with a
purpose, with energy and the grist for your day-to-day mill.
If you understand your life plan you can more effectively develop
your business strategy and plan. Your life plan shapes your life,
and the business that is to serve it. Your business strategy and
plan provide the structure within which your business is intended
to operate over time to fulfill your life plan. Your business
strategy and plan are a way of communicating to anyone the
direction your business is going, how it intends to get there and
the specific benchmarks it will nee to hit in order to work.
A business strategy and plan are also useful for marketing your
business to those who are important to you: your banker, your
investors, and your strategic alliances in the business community.
Unless your business strategy and plan can be reduced to a set of
simple and clearly stated standards, it will do more to confuse
than help you. This is why most of what is written and taught
about business strategy and planning is not particularly relevant
when it comes to establishing a small business. Identifying a
opportunity that excites you, finding a solution and building a
business that not only produces the solution but helps your
fulfill your life plan is the answer.
Answered by Joe Willmott
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