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Blindly: Build A Business Plan
It has been said that there are two types of business
entrepreneurs: Those that plan and those that fail. So do
succeed, YOU BET! Even having a simple business plan gives
your business a road map to achieving your goals. It gives
you a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly synopsis of your
business by keeping track of client activities, your expenses,
and your income. Putting your plans in writing validates your
business, provides insight and clarity, helps with the tracking
of you business success by monitoring the activities,
processes, and goals you’ve planned for yourself.
There are 5 basic reasons why you’ll want to prepare a
business plan whether you are a start up or have been
running a business without one:
1. Stay On Track. Having a business plan allows you to
break down your goals and realize the validity of them. Your
plan will accurately predict the number of prospects you need
to interact with weekly, to determine how many prospects
will then need to be converted to clients monthly, giving you
a visual of the amount of activity that is needed to meet your
sales goal. Your plan will also help you understand the value
of each client, how much each client (on average) costs you
to acquire and how much ROI they bring in. Example: if you
are a retailer, how many customers need to walk though the
door to reach the sales goal for the day? Do you average
every fifth customer buys something, so that five customers
walking in equals one sale? Your business plan will help you
spell out these specifics and plan accordingly.
2. Bring Clarity to your goals. Define your goals and be
very specific. Set your goals for 1 year out, and then go
further to 5 and 10 years out. Be flexible and willing to adjust
as you go. If you are a small business, your business plan
should include your personal and family aspirations as well as
those of the business. Because most small businesses are a
family affair, you’ll want to align your personal goals and
values with that of your business. It’s important that as a
business owner, you don’t forget you have a life outside of
business. Therefore, by aligning personal goals with your
business goals, the less likely you’ll suffer from burn out and
it will keep you from missed opportunities of a fulfilled life.
3. Keeping priorities in order. Your business plan should
include an activity schedule, much like you may already use in
planning your daily schedule. The activity schedule in your
business plan, however, will help you streamline your
activities; help you to manage your time more efficiently and
effectively. It will help hold you accountable to timelines and
schedules that are vital to business growth.
4. Know your budget. The main segment of your
business plan is the budget. Once you have clarity on your
goals and priorities, you will need to know what is available
to you, when, and for what activity. The danger of not having
a budget is that you run the risk of quickly moving though the
funds available to you keep your business operational.
5. Keep track of clients. Use a Contact Management
System, in other words a database, to keep track of your
clients, manage their wants and needs, and when and what
they last purchased from you. This data will help create a
well-organized marketing plan, help with forecasting, and
give you tremendous market research as you continually
work to build a relationship with your clients.
Having a business plan enables you to ask very pertinent
questions about yourself, your business and the business
environment (your marketplace) that you are currently in. It
helps you to identify all the potential risks your business can
face – the “What if’s”. By identifying a business strategy
ahead of time, the easier it will be to understand your
direction, your budgets, schedules, and how to market to
your target audience.
And now, I’d like to invite you to download a free webinar on
how to create A Successful Business Plan In 7 Steps. Click
here to download your copy!
About Tonya Fallows:
After 8 years of practicing Real Estate, Tonya Fallows, a
Realtor and an owner at Prestige Real Estate Group, LLC in
Denver, CO, has always worked with a business plan since
beginning her practice. During the process of writing and
“living with” a business plan, Ms. Fallows discovered that
incorporating one’s professional and personal life into a plan
made it easier to accomplish all that one may want in life.
Soon Ms. Fallows began receiving requests from colleagues
to help build their business plans. Ms. Fallows has been
working with business owners and business professionals
creating business plans since. To contact Tonya Fallows,
email her at TFallows@prestigerealtygroup.com.
entrepreneurs: Those that plan and those that fail. So do
succeed, YOU BET! Even having a simple business plan gives
your business a road map to achieving your goals. It gives
you a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly synopsis of your
business by keeping track of client activities, your expenses,
and your income. Putting your plans in writing validates your
business, provides insight and clarity, helps with the tracking
of you business success by monitoring the activities,
processes, and goals you’ve planned for yourself.
There are 5 basic reasons why you’ll want to prepare a
business plan whether you are a start up or have been
running a business without one:
1. Stay On Track. Having a business plan allows you to
break down your goals and realize the validity of them. Your
plan will accurately predict the number of prospects you need
to interact with weekly, to determine how many prospects
will then need to be converted to clients monthly, giving you
a visual of the amount of activity that is needed to meet your
sales goal. Your plan will also help you understand the value
of each client, how much each client (on average) costs you
to acquire and how much ROI they bring in. Example: if you
are a retailer, how many customers need to walk though the
door to reach the sales goal for the day? Do you average
every fifth customer buys something, so that five customers
walking in equals one sale? Your business plan will help you
spell out these specifics and plan accordingly.
2. Bring Clarity to your goals. Define your goals and be
very specific. Set your goals for 1 year out, and then go
further to 5 and 10 years out. Be flexible and willing to adjust
as you go. If you are a small business, your business plan
should include your personal and family aspirations as well as
those of the business. Because most small businesses are a
family affair, you’ll want to align your personal goals and
values with that of your business. It’s important that as a
business owner, you don’t forget you have a life outside of
business. Therefore, by aligning personal goals with your
business goals, the less likely you’ll suffer from burn out and
it will keep you from missed opportunities of a fulfilled life.
3. Keeping priorities in order. Your business plan should
include an activity schedule, much like you may already use in
planning your daily schedule. The activity schedule in your
business plan, however, will help you streamline your
activities; help you to manage your time more efficiently and
effectively. It will help hold you accountable to timelines and
schedules that are vital to business growth.
4. Know your budget. The main segment of your
business plan is the budget. Once you have clarity on your
goals and priorities, you will need to know what is available
to you, when, and for what activity. The danger of not having
a budget is that you run the risk of quickly moving though the
funds available to you keep your business operational.
5. Keep track of clients. Use a Contact Management
System, in other words a database, to keep track of your
clients, manage their wants and needs, and when and what
they last purchased from you. This data will help create a
well-organized marketing plan, help with forecasting, and
give you tremendous market research as you continually
work to build a relationship with your clients.
Having a business plan enables you to ask very pertinent
questions about yourself, your business and the business
environment (your marketplace) that you are currently in. It
helps you to identify all the potential risks your business can
face – the “What if’s”. By identifying a business strategy
ahead of time, the easier it will be to understand your
direction, your budgets, schedules, and how to market to
your target audience.
And now, I’d like to invite you to download a free webinar on
how to create A Successful Business Plan In 7 Steps. Click
here to download your copy!
About Tonya Fallows:
After 8 years of practicing Real Estate, Tonya Fallows, a
Realtor and an owner at Prestige Real Estate Group, LLC in
Denver, CO, has always worked with a business plan since
beginning her practice. During the process of writing and
“living with” a business plan, Ms. Fallows discovered that
incorporating one’s professional and personal life into a plan
made it easier to accomplish all that one may want in life.
Soon Ms. Fallows began receiving requests from colleagues
to help build their business plans. Ms. Fallows has been
working with business owners and business professionals
creating business plans since. To contact Tonya Fallows,
email her at TFallows@prestigerealtygroup.com.
By: Tonya Fallows
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