When you hear the word business plan, who is the first person you would associate with business plans?

For many small business owners it is their accountant.

In fact most small business plans are prepared for the purpose of getting finance rather than for running the business and if this is all you want then your accountant will likely be the best place to get help.

However, if you want to use your business plan to help run your business then your accountant may not be the best place to start.

Business plans that are to be used to actually run your business must be developed from a different angle.

They’re not primarily focused on getting money but making money.

This means that you need help from people who can help you generate money rather than borrow it.

You will find that mentors, coaches and business advisors are more focused on helping you generate money.

Find someone who really understands how you interact with your customers and understands how the money works in your business.

Remember that customers are the primary source of money entering your business and as a business owner you need to make sure that it doesn’t disappear as fast as it arrives.

Good business plans must focus on these two primary aspects

What’s your experience on finding good business help?

How long did it take you to find it?

There is a very famous quote from Kelloggs that says:
‘The simple things in life are always the best.’

In a previous post I talked about using a business plan template which is often the simplest way to go.

However, even if you are using a template you need to think about your plan in two parts and make sure that they both are compatible with each other.

Your business plan will contain WORDS and NUMBERS and they both need to tell the same story otherwise your business plan will be flawed.

So when you do a business plan, who prepares the words and who prepares the numbers?

Often the words are prepared by the business owner and the numbers are prepared by their accountant to make things look good!

As the business owner you must understand the overall numbers in the business plan because it is you who will have to achieve the plan.

Make sure that you understand the overall numbers, not just the sales figures, but the key expense items such as product costs, people costs, marketing, distribution and administration costs.

You should also clearly understand important figures like how much inventory you are holding and how much your customers are likely to have outstanding with you.

So when you stand back from your business plan do the numbers really demonstrate what the words are saying?

The simplest and best business plans make sure they do.

What’s your experience of trying to get the words and numbers to work together?

As a small business owner you will likely find that there are too few hours in the day and too many things to complete in them.

That’s right… we’re all short of time and need to be efficient in what we do.

That’s where an executive summary works really well.

An executive summary is a shortened version of the whole business plan

It contains the essence of the plan ‘in a nutshell’ which makes it easier to get the big picture before going into detail.

I like them best when they’re on One Page with One Page of summary numbers.

Too many times a business plan is a lengthy document which no one reads but people feel justified that it demonstrates that a lot of work has gone into the business plan.

Remember that if you can’t catch the reader in the executive summary then it’s likely they won’t read any further.

What’s your experience with an executive summary?

Have you used them before?

Do you find them useful?

The purpose of a business plan template is to give you an overall structure in which to express your business plan.

Think about this question for a moment:-

Could you take a blank sheet of canvas and paint a beautiful picture of a forest?

Chances are, if you’re like me, this would be impossible. BUT if there was an outline and you had to paint by a series of numbers then many people would be able to complete a reasonable painting.

This is the reason why using a template can be very useful.

You will find that there are many templates which you can use, however remember that where most business plans fail is in the numbers that are presented.

Banks require the numbers to be prepared in a certain way and often this determines the format of the template.

What’s your experience of using a template?

Did it help you get your thoughts down on paper more easily?

What’s the best template that you’ve found or used?

When I meet a small business owner and mention the term business plan, their eyes normally glaze over because it’s a document that isn’t an integral part of their business and is only prepared to get finance or show someone else how their business is supposed to perform.

That’s right… supposed to perform because most businesses never meet what’s in their business plan. (Just ask your bank who sees the results when businesses miss their business plan)

So what does a simple business plan look like?

It get’s to the point fast and is not full of statistics and jargon that sound good to other people but make no sense to the business owner.

A simple business plan is a plan of action with measurable goals that the small business owner can understand and know how to achieve

In fact, a business model is the simplest form of business plan. It is a model of how to achieve a sustainable business and the business owner understands both the words and numbers presented.

What’s your experience of business plan and business model?

Do you have a simple way of understanding how the words and numbers work in your business?

Have you spotted a really simple format that works for you?