Plan For Success By Mark Walters At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

One of the hardest things business managers must do is learning whether their business is on track. Navigating a small business’s ups and downs, healthy growth periods and slow downs, is hard. Being able to identify a dangerous curve, a wrong direction is even harder. The ability to identify these things is vital for any business owner who wants to stay in business for more than a few years.

There are several tools that will help you learn how to identify a business’s ups and downs. The first tool is a business plan. There is nothing more important. What a business owner learns while making their business plan is vital to the success of a business. In fact, what is learned to make a 20 page business plan is better than taking week’s worth of business management courses.

The next tool is the marketing plan. This will help you learn how to take a good product and sell it. The marketing plan can be compared to the business plan to reveal problems ‘before’ the business owner wastes time or money going down a wrong path.

For example: A business plan may outline a revenue generation projection based on earning $10 000 profit a month. However, the marketing plan may show that the average six month advertising cycle, investing the money available, will (statistically) only produce $3000.

When the business and marketing plan is done, go through and create a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) The SWOT can be used to create a graft. The graft can be visual of the plans. When a threat is exposed in the day to day operations of the business, the business owner can put a red comment on the graft. When an opportunity or strength is realized then the owner can write a comment in blue.

A weakness should be given priority. Weaknesses should never be ignored. Problems that cannot be solved immediately should be ‘on the wall’ and in the eye-line of the business owner until they are solved.

The next thing a business owner needs to do is sit down and realistically estimate how much each step will take, what daily tasks they must do, and whether their current resources will manage the task.

The equipment is not a problem. Dell leases top of the line business computers, complete with software, for about $70 a month.

Time is the number one problem for most small business managers. I gave this task to several prospective owners. One found that they must invest more than 90 hours a week to meet his projections. He needed to make a list of tasks he could do, best at the top, and weakest at the bottom. Then, working from the bottom, he moved up looking for intern, out sourcing, and freelance contractors to handle their tasks.

A business plan will let business owners find the expenses they forgot to include. It is amazing, how many business plans I have seen that didn’t include all the expenses most businesses need. Here are some of the most common expenses that new business owner’s forget:

- Currency exchange and transfer fees. The fee is usually 5%. The actual exchange rate varies
- business bank account. Most small business accounts cost $20 - $50 a month, and a check/deposit package costs $100 - $200.
- Parking may only be $5 a day, but with 250 business days in the year this can add up.
- Food. You may not consider coffee and take out as a business expense, but the ‘cost of doing business’ includes everything needed to generate revenue. This will also include haircuts, clothing, dry cleaning, car detailing, etc.
- Sending a PC to a technician for a checkup. This will cost $50 - $100 every six months.
- PC back up. This costs $5.00 at Mozy.com
- Association memberships
- Local Business Association Memberships
- Trade magazines and web network membership
-Training books, courses

The best tool to help business owners may be a drudgery to create, and a chore to maintain, but it is also the road map to business success.

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