Plan to Fail or Fail to Plan?

Plan to Fail or Fail to Plan??

By, Andrew 11Dp1

"Business do not plan to fail, they fail to plan" Every businessperson that want to build or establish a business must have this statement in his or her mind first. By keeping this sentence in mind, it helps you achieving your goal (to gain profit as much as possible of course)

What is a business plan? A business plan is a written statement of the goals and objectives for the business and the steps to be taken to achieve them; it is a document that spells out a company's expected course of action for a specified period, usually including a detailed listing and analysis of risks and uncertainties. It simply a guide for your business to become a business that you want.

When people start to think to write a business plan for them, they might be thinking how to write or prepare a business plan. Here are then steps that can help to prepare a business plan,

1. Ownership structure - who will own the business and who will be responsible for any debts if it occurs some day?

2. Products and Service - what products and services will the business be selling?

3. Market information - what is the target market? Who will buy the products or service? How large is it? How many competitors are already operating in the market?

4. Marketing plan - how will the business promote, price, and distribute the products?

5. Sales plan - who will be involved in the selling of the products? What business development strategies can be implemented in the future?

6. Operations plan - Where will the business be located? What is its layout? What machinery is needed?

7. Financial plan - How much money will be required to commence the business? Who will provide the money? What type of finance will be appropriate?

8. Human resources plan - how many employees needed? How will be recruiting? What training and development of employees is needed?

9. Business environment - what are the prevailing external environmental conditions? How these factors could affects the business?

10. Risk management - how will the business deal with such diverse matters as increased competition, obsolete stock, general insurance, and product liability? What type of planning is needed to prevent disaster?

By making a business plan first before starting the business, you had already a step a head to have a success and prospectus business. The benefit for having a business plan first is not only this, the benefit also include,

* Determining whether our products or services will be profitable or will gain loss and whether our products or services have a sufficient market to support it.

* Provide an estimation of how much you need to start your business.

* Clarify the target market for your products and services

* Provide a clear vision and mission for the business.

* Convincing investor or the bank when you want to lend some money for your business.

* Reevaluating your competitive position in the marketplace. This can help you find out your competitor's weakness and how you can take advantage of them.

* Focusing attention on the business's goals and objectives.

* Identifies your business's strength and weakness.

* Understanding the risks of problems so that you can solve it before it becomes a disaster.

* Setting a value on a business for sale or for legal purpose.

Based on a study mentioned in "Business Plan for Dummies" By Paul Tiffany, 80% failure rate of business in the first five years cause because those businesses do not write their business plan. Also 50% of all business gain more profit and revenue that the non-planning business. Other survey recorded that business planning companies have 63% higher revenue growth and 100% more profit. This data showed how a business plans important for the business. It not only will gain much more profit than the non-planning business, but it also able to secure your business from bankruptcy.

People already understand the benefits of making business plan before they start their business, but why there are still businesspersons that do not want to write one? In addition, what will happen if they do not write a business plan?

Most business that does not write their business plan first will go bankrupt in the establishment stage. Consider these reasons for business failure if they do not write a business plan first,

* Poor Management Systems

* No Overall Vision

* Lack of Market Planning

* Not Understanding the Competition

* No Strategic Plan

* No Established Performance Measures

* Inadequate Financial Planning

Then why people think that they do not need a business plan to start the business they want? They might think that they only start a small and simple business that only worked two or 3 employee and only sell their product or service in a small are of target market, so they do not need to write a business plan. Some of them also think that writing a business plan just waste of time. They think that after they start the business, they will write their business plan. Not before starting the business. A business plan only needed when the business is a multi national business or international business, or business that need lots of investment and worked hundreds of employees. This can be considering as the reason why people do not write their business plan first before they start their business.

A business plan also has their own format of writing. In a Business plan, it must have,

* Executive summary - a brief overview of the plan

* Objectives / goals - what the business hope to achieve

o Vision statement - broadly stats what the business aspires to become.

o Mission statement - expresses why the organization exists,