Tag Archives: Marketing Plan

Business Development, Business Strategy

Opening a Small Business – Top 7 Steps to Success

Opening a small business is both challenging and rewarding (if you do it right). It takes a lot of planning, organizing and drive. There is no guarantee for business success but certain things you do will increase your opportunity for success.

To-Do List for Opening a Small Business:

1. How do you want to structure your business? Do you want to set up as a sole proprietorship, or in a partnership or do you want to incorporate your company and limit your liability? These are questions you need to answer before you startup your business. Talk to your local government small business agency; they can help you investigate what option best fits you and your business. Before you make your decision, ask for legal advice and tax advice; talk to a business lawyer and a tax accountant.

2. Once you’ve decided what your business structure will be, you will need to create a business plan. First, develop a business plan outline that includes the areas of a plan that are specific to your business or your industry. For example, if you are planning to go into manufacturing you will need to build an operations plan, a new product development plan, your human resources plan (including a workforce plan) and safety checklist plan; include your capital expenditures budget. The objective is to focus your plan on the manufacturing aspects that are unique to your business. Other businesses with an inventory focus, or retail focus, or services focus will need to adapt the plan to be specific to their needs. All businesses will need to include your long term mission and vision statements, your business goals and objectives, a marketing plan, sales plan, business financials plan, exit plan, business continuity plan and the business strategies necessary to be successful.

3. The next step is to do a financial analysis of your business idea and business plan. Can you make a profit (and once you’ve earned a profit, can you maximize your profit) in your business? How long will it take to make a profit? Can you fund your business growth and survive until you make a profit? What are your cash flow needs and projections? Will cash flow management be a struggle? Can you finance the business and survive?

  • Your objective in conducting a business financial analysis for opening a small business is to be realistic. Do not under-estimate your costs and over-estimate your sales. Develop a list of expected startup costs. For example, startup costs might include your legal and accounting costs to set up your business; a business license fee, furniture, computer hardware and software, property insurance; trade-marking your product (if applicable); inventory and/or materials; and more.
  • Once you’ve identified your startup costs, develop a list of your other expenses (from daily expenses to annual expenses). For example, business space rent, your monthly utilities (such as heat, phone, etc.), membership in trade associations, office supplies, contract employees, wages and benefits (including yours if you expect to take a salary out of the business). For simplicity, put all the data into a spreadsheet and verify that you haven’t forgotten anything (check out online examples income statements – they show expenses and revenue).
  • The next step in your financial analysis is to do a sales forecast for the same period as the expenses (usually banks or other lenders want to see a three year plan in annual increments and a monthly cash flow plan for the three years). Make sure to include the assumptions you are using in your sales plan and in your financial plan (for example, interest rates, dollar exchange rates, gross domestic product rates, political environment, and more).
  • Put together a worst case scenario (expenses high, sales low); a best case scenario (expenses low, sales high) and an average case scenario (expenses and sales on target). Test the sensitivity of your projections. What would happen to your financials if you didn’t ‘win’ a large account? What would happen to your financials if your key supplier increased the cost of materials by 12%? Make sure you have a plan to address those issues.
  • Try to find industry information that will support your financial plans and include them in the financial section. For example, talk to your industry’s association and see if they can provide average data for financial ratios, revenues, costs, salaries, benefits, etc. within your industry. Compare that data to your financial plan and see if you are ‘in range’; if you are not, you will need a good explanation for the variance.
  • Run your financials: total your expenses (outgoing) and your sales revenues (incoming). According to your financials, will you lose money or make it? If you are losing money in your plan, how much are you losing? And how much cash do you need to survive before your plan starts showing a profit? Be realistic.

4. Now consider where you are going to get your startup financing from. Are you independently wealthy? Have you won a lottery? No? Then you need to borrow money or find a way to get some cash to startup. Traditional methods of financing a startup business are bank business loans, government loan programs, borrowing from family and friends, selling a share of the business to a partner who will invest in the business, and re-mortgaging your home. Less traditional methods (also known as bootstrapping), are using personal credit cards, selling assets, such as your car, furniture, your house; continuing on in your day job or taking a second job for additional income. If you believe in the business you want to start, you will find a way. Choose the lowest risk, the best value and the lowest cost financing for your business startup. But be realistic; it can be very difficult to do this. If your business cannot succeed or if you over-inflate sales and under-forecast expenses, you will go out of business and likely owe a lot of money to a lot of people.

5. If the decision is to proceed with your plan for opening a small business, and you obtain the necessary financing, then you must now focus on your product or service plan. Define your service or product. What differentiates it from other services or products? Where is the product or service in its life-cycle; in the introductory, growth, mature or declining phase? How will you position your product or service in the market? Develop your service or product plan and then define your marketing mix for your service or product. Focus on the features and benefits of the product or service. Develop your pricing strategy. Develop a strong promotional program. Define how you will get your product or service to the market (ensure that if your product is inventory-based, that you have enough inventory before starting up).

6. Ensure that you plan your workforce needs and hire the employees needed to open your new business and consider the advantages of outsourcing, particularly in the early days of startup when you might not need full time employees.

7. Finally, open your new business and launch your product or service. Use your promotional program to support the launch. Measure your results continually. Talk to customers and potential customers. What do they like or dislike about doing business with you? Is the product or service meeting their needs? If not, why not? Do this research even if the products are flying off the shelves, you want to know what customers are thinking at all times; the good and the bad.

For more in-depth tips on starting up a small business, please visit Opening A Small Business. For more small business advice on managing, planning, pricing, strategy, money, networking, and people – all areas a small business owner needs to understand, please visit http://www.more-for-small-business.com Kris Bovay is the owner of Voice Marketing Inc., a business and marketing services company. Kris has more than 25 years experience in successfully managing and leading large, medium and small businesses; businesses that she has worked with have grown by more than 30% in sales in the first two years. Use Kris’ experience to help you manage and lead your business. Copyright 2008 Voice Marketing Inc.

 

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kris_Bovay/216730

 

 

 

 

Business Development, Business Strategy

Business Plans For Small Business – Simple Is Better

There are some very compelling reasons for writing a business plan for small businesses. The challenge is that the misconceptions about what needs to go into a small business plan scare most owners and entrepreneurs away.

If you are like most small business owners or managers, you are incredibly busy, if not borderline overwhelmed. The idea of taking hours of valuable time to write a plan for your business may not seem worth it. But the data proves differently.

When writing a business plan for small business, focus on what really needs to be done, and what really needs to be measured. The plan does not have to be a 15 or 20 page document. In fact, it should only be one or two pages maximum. You should also have a yearly budget or financial plan as well. You really do not need to go overboard and do tons and tons of research about the market, and the opportunity, especially if you are already in business!

To write your plan, you will need a few things to get started. If you can assemble any of your sales and financial information for the past couple of years, that would be a bonus. You will need a notebook and writing instrument, possibly a laptop or a computer, and yourself. Then, basically find a quiet place to sit down for about an hour, and think about your business, and where you want it to go, and how you think you can get it there.

Let’s start with where you want your business to go. This is just a fluffy way of saying your vision for your business. Set a timeline for your vision; say 18 months or up to 5 years out. Then think about what your sales would be if everything goes as planned. What are your primary products or markets, and where will you do it.

Here’s an example: Within the next 3 years, grow MS Cut to $750,000.00 in sales providing industrial routing and cutting services to manufacturers and distributors in the Indianapolis market.

Or how about this: In the next 18 months, launch Tim’s Lunch & Deli, growing to $250,000 in sales. We will provide delicious sandwiches, soups and salads using all locally grown vegetables and products to the public in downtown St. Paul.

By writing out where you want your business to go in this fashion, you can clearly imagine the end result of your vision.

In terms of how you are going to get there, this is the strategy and tactics section of your plan. Again, what are the ways you are going to do the things you need to do? This could be everything from the methods you will use to attract customers, to the way that you will approach pricing your products or services. It can also address your marketing and advertising plans.

The main thing to keep in mind when it comes to your strategies and tactics, is to make them realistic. If you are going to need a lot of specialty skills (that you don’t currently have…) or technologies or a lot of money to do them, then chances are they won’t get used. Write this section of your plan so that you can actually do everything you need to do.

Next, you need to create a few measurables for your business. These are things like monthly sales revenues, profit percentages, labor hours to sales, number of returns per month, number of employee hours each month, etc.. These are all things that you can keep track of so that you will know if your plan is working, or if you need to address something quickly.

Each business, and each industry can have it’s own set of unique measurables. You may have one statistic you can keep that is a telling symbol for your business. Keep track of it, and see how it effects other areas of your business.

You should be able to track anywhere from 3 to 9 different measurables. Any more than that and you will not get much from it, and you are less likely to actually collect the information anyway. If you are using software like QuickBooks, Peachtree Accounting or another accounting app, there are several measurables you can pull and use to track your success.

All of the above information will fit nicely on one or two pages. Once you have that information, and you have written your business plan for your small business, the number one thing you can do is to use it, and use it often. Make a monthly (or weekly) appointment with yourself, your business partner, or your senior staff to review the plan, and make sure it still relevant. If something changes (and it will!), change your plan. It should be a living, dynamic document that you use on a regular basis to run your business.

By writing a business plan for your small business, you are creating a better opportunity for your business, and giving it a better chance of success

Robert Trube

Business planning for your small business does not have to be hard. I have created a series of e-books and software tools that simplifies the process of writing a plan for your business or organization, and actually allows you to get it on a single page! Check out The Simple Focus Plan, http://www.simplefocusplan.com or learn more about us at http://www.strategysimple.com.

 

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Robert_Trube/457153

 

 

 

 

Business Development, Business Strategy

Business Plans – Essential Elements and Your Business Profile

Your business plan and business profile is the roadmap that you will follow not only in the beginning of your company, but throughout your time in business. Therefore, it is essential that this plan be well-developed, focused, and detailed enough to serve as a planning tool and as a reference as well.

Your business plan format should be a careful, systematic evaluation of factors that are both critical and suitable to your business purposes and goals. You should strive to include topics that can be tailored to fit your plan. Maintaining focus on the specialized market that you plan to serve is another imperative factor as you define and describe your business and how you plan to proceed with your plan-which is precisely what you will do with your developed business plan. Following here is a break-down of what should be included in your business plan and profile.

Cash Flow Assessment

You absolutely need to take the time to sit down and project your first year of cash flow, based on projected sales, profits, and expenses. This cash flow assessment should include

o Your capital requirements
o Marketing plans
o Realistic projections of sales and profits
o Plans for expansion
o Your assessments of what could possibly go wrong and how you would handle certain problems

There are many small business websites and government resources on the local, state, and national level (for all locations) that can help you learn more about developing the cash flow assessment portion of your business plan.

Market And Economic Assessments

You must put time into researching your target market. You need to know how your business is appropriate for specific demographics and which ones you’ll deal with. You also need to learn about what costs and expenses those demographics can afford, and what demand they have for your service or products. Demographic studies should be cited and a summary of your research needs to be included to show that you have developed a way to serve a need that is either in demand or will be once available. Local planning departments are one resource for finding demographics for things such as population and population break-downs, household demographics, and more. Trade associations are good resources for information related to supply, demand, and target market characteristics.

Meeting Regulatory Requirements

Some businesses have very few regulatory requirements while others bear quite a large burden. Your role is to know what you are responsible for in your line of business. This knowledge should be represented in your business plan, and you need to account for the costs and expenses relative to them. Include information such as

o Which agencies regulate your industry

o Which specific regulations you need to meet

o Licensing requirements

o Fees and costs

o Regulatory or licensing requirements that you have already fulfilled

o Plan for meeting outstanding obligations

Including Yourself And Others In The Plan

Naturally, the key factor in achieving business success is YOU. Sit down and focus on skills and experiences of the past pertaining to your new business. Prepare a resume for yourself and others who may be involved with your business; ensure it is strongly written as your plan will be reviewed carefully by those you look to forge business relationships with such as vendors, investors, and lenders. If you aren’t skilled at preparing resumes, there are many virtual assistants and ghostwriters who will be more than happy to accept you as their client; otherwise there are many books and online resources to assist you.

As you write your resume, be honest and don’t write any untrue information; if there is a particular function you lack the ability to perform, be sure to include this in your business plan, and address how the need will be filled. Your resume and business plan should inspire confidence for both what you do and do not know, and the skill you show in fulfilling all needs of your business.

Five Steps To Successfully Create A Business Plan

1. Sit down, relax, focus, and concisely describe your business concept-put it down on paper!

2. Perform research and due diligence, and gather as much data as you possibly can.

3. Based upon data you have accumulated focus and redefine your business concept.

4. Outline the specifics of your business, utilizing the “who, what, when, where, why, and how” approach; make sure all of these answers are provided within the text of the plan.

5. Proof and adjust your business plan.

In both the short- and the long-run, arranging your business plan into a compelling form not only provides insight and focus to you, but becomes a valuable tool when dealing with business partners and developing relationships that will become important to you.

Necessary Factors Contributing To Business Success

o Understand your market

Researching your target market and their needs is imperative. Find ways to test market your product or service before starting your business.

o Financial control

You’ll find out sooner than later the importance of accounting, cash flow management, and computer software; many entrepreneurs don’t have accounting backgrounds and either need to learn those skills, or find the right tools and professionals to perform those functions. Still, at some level you must be involved so that those professionals and programs get the most accurate information possible and you stay abreast of how your company is doing.

o Anticipating change

Your original business plan will lay the foundation for your business, but over time, perhaps even before your business gets started, there will be many changes you must adapt to. Obtaining a certain mindset and being prepared for changing circumstances will only expand your knowledge and your success.

Julie-Ann Amos is a professional writer and business consultant. She has over 14 books published in many countries. She runs Exquisite Writing, a large freelance writing agency that produces a wide variety of articles, web pages, website contents, books and ebooks for an international client base. Topic experts available for a wide range of subject areas, including small business and business planning.

 

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Julie-Ann_Amos/64822

 

 

 

 

Business Development, Business Strategy, FAQ, Sales & Marketing, Start-ups

5 Keys to a Successful Business

Business owners are some of the most optimistic, and often the craziest people in the world. No-one starts a business believing that it will fail. We are all absolutely convinced that our idea is a great one, that we will be successful (where others have failed) and that this business will change our lives for the better. If we did not feel that way, we would never take the risk to invest our own money, or borrow from others to start our business. The reality is however, that, according to the SBA, most businesses eventually fail and more that 50% do not survive beyond the first 3 years. Even if you manage to get that far, things can still go horribly wrong, as many seasoned business owners found out during the recession which hit us during 2009 to 2012.

So, does this mean that you should not start a business at all? Absolutely not. I believe that your business can be an outstanding success, if you approach it in the right way, avoid repeating previous mistakes and impose discipline on yourself as the owner. Here are some of my suggestions on how you can make sure that your business succeeds:

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