What’s there in a plan?
So there you are! You have come across a great business opportunity and have decided to get started. You are excited, and if possible, you want to start from tomorrow. But wait! You are driving too fast, and may be heading for a crash!
Without a proper business plan, your ride may be as rough as a runaway roller-coaster, that is heading for a free-fall.
Just as a building project needs a blue print plan; your business also needs a plan…even if it is a small business.
“How do I plan and set targets, if I don’t have the faintest of hint what I am going to get out of it and within what timeframe?”..is what you may ask.
A proper plan will even make your potential investors feel comfortable about your Company before they invest.
To define it, a Business Plan is the foundation, or rather a springboard, towards the establishment and growth of a new business. It is also an essential tool for companies who intend to raise capital by floating shares. You need to design and prepare such plan professionally that caters the need of investors.
The best plan is the one that reflects your business through the investor’s eye and answers all the concerns of a potential investor.
Reasons for a business plan
Let me tell you that the reasons for compiling a plan will vary from situation to situation:
· If it is a new business you need a plan to clearly evaluate every aspect of the business and show how it will succeed.
· If you are acquiring an existing set up you will need to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the business to determine whether it’s within your capacity to make it a success, and draw your plan accordingly.
· If you are already into a running venture and need extra finance for its expansion, your plan should be tailor-made for your potential investors.
· If you are applying for one of the many grants available, get your plan in that way.
Some tips
· Plan your business in your own style, in a way, that meets your needs as well as of your customers.
· The entire business plan should have your ideas in the focus.
· When you compile a business plan it should have a
ü Cover page,
ü A list of contents,
ü Background information,
ü Descriptions and range of the products, and services being offered, the market plan, the managerial hierarchy, business operations, financial plan, and then…
ü A well-written conclusion.
Hope, you got the catch…the intention of your business plan should ideally point at the strategies, goals, and resources of your business.
Look before you leap
· Even a football team is not taken into a game without a “game plan”, though it’s only a game. So when you venture out into something as important to its future existence as an e-business initiative, a clear-cut “game plan” or strategy is very very vital. But, recent surveys show that almost 60 percent of the enterprises doing e-business do not have a clearly articulated and well-documented e-business plan.
· Here, a business plan need not have to be elaborate, just well thought out. If you remember what the Cheshire cat told Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s in Wonderland, “If you don’t know where you are going, it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
· Your e-business strategy is your road map to a successful implementation of your project. Just hosting of a site is not enough; it must be strategically positioned in order to make your investment pay off. If you don’t do it right, someone else will… that’s how business goes.
E-Business is a lot more than a web site
· It’s not very uncommon for companies to mix up their corporate websites as their e-business strategy. The web site should be thought of as an enabling technology and not a business plan in itself.
· You must have visited the web site of a company that you have always respected, and found it disappointing and your experience there left a lot to be desired. A poorly thought-out web site can quickly turn off customers that have taken years to attract and nurture. So why do so many companies pay so little attention to getting it right? Think it through…it’s all because, a proper plan was lacking, while the website was being developed.
To be there, from here
· No need to panic, it is time you do your business and think about your possible e-business strategies. If your customers and suppliers are in the development stages of e-business application systems, you cannot be left in the dark when they are themselves looking for compatible customers and suppliers. This is the time you plan, instead of when you are required to take your business elsewhere. By beginning the strategic planning early, you can plan to implement systems in smaller more manageable paths. Smaller & manageable steps also ensure more flexibility & adjustability to newer technologies and ideas.
· To remain in the race you need to decide upon the ways and means of purchases and sales of your products and services in an online environment. You might as well begin the business planning process right now, before it is an emergency.
· So, to start out a successful e-business initiative, first make it sure that your project tallies with your long-range business plans and goals… and you have a business to run.
· Yes, you can always seek help. But remember, before you hire a wizard to develop a whiz-bang web site, you need the direction, which can be rendered only by a well thought out e-business strategy.
