Business planning success 

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What is business success? Is it about lucrative financial gains, or about building something to one day pass on to your children? Perhaps it's about making a difference in your community, or creating the very best product or service on the market. Maybe success simply means making a living doing something you love to do.

Most likely, you'll quantify success in many ways. It isn't necessarily difficult to envision what you want out of your business, but how will you achieve it? There are many tried-and-true steps you can take — and some missteps you should avoid — on your path to prosperity.

The key to your success is having a business plan in place. Whether you're about to launch a start-up or you've been in business for years, the direction of your business is guided by your business plan. To begin the planning process, you'll need to do some critical analysis; business planning is about realistically forecasting where your business is going.

Goals

What do you hope to achieve in business? Your goals are the guideposts of your business, and an essential part of your business plan.

  • Identify your business goals early in the process.
  • Apply a timeframe to complete them.
  • If you have employees, assign responsibility for the execution of your goals.
  • Keep "you" in mind; how will your strengths and weaknesses interplay with your goals?

Products and Services

You are what you sell. How you handle your products, services and supplies will help you make your plans a reality.

  • Control your product and supply inventories tightly.
  • Don't allow aggressive vendors to overstock your supply shelves.
  • Stay on the cutting edge of your industry, and seek to provide your customers with the best product.

  • Supply chain management

    Effective management of your supply chain can help you create a seamless process from pre-production right through to delivery and consumption.

Marketplace

Developing your market is key to your business plan. A steady flow of customers will turn your great ideas into a profitable venture.

  • Develop detailed profiles of your market:

    • Why is your product profitable?

    • Who are your customers and why?

    • How can you best deliver your product to your customers?

  • Pick marketing spots that will give you the most revenue.

  • Marketing and sales

    How well you market your business and interact with your customers can vastly influence your success.

Employees

Employees can be a great asset, or an unfortunate liability. Your hiring practices should reflect your business plan, so that you set yourself up for good quality, productivity, and service.

  • Surround yourself with the best of the best and treat them as such.
  • Hire to complement the strengths and weaknesses of the business.
  • Provide employees with thorough and accurate work descriptions that they can understand and follow.

  • Hiring employees

    Know your obligations and opportunities when it comes to hiring employees.

Competition

Does your competition keep you awake at night? Make their existence a source of knowledge, not a source of stress.

  • Is your competition a learning tool or a source of anxiety?
  • Treat your competitors as if they were a case study of your market; what can you learn from their successes and failures?

  • Market research and statistics

    Learn more about market research, how to conduct it and where to find free information and statistics to support your market research project.

  • Best practice

    Learn about best practice techniques and how they can be introduced into your business to give you a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Business Culture

Beyond enjoying your products or services, why do your customers want to do business with you? Consider corporate citizenship as a vital element of your business plan.

  • Create a culture of trust with your customers.
  • Try to make business ethics a component of your day-to-day operations.

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