Business Plans are Not Optional

All the research shows that having a business plan is vital to the success of your business. A survey commissioned by AT&T in 1993 showed that,

....while only about 40% of small businesses started up with a formal business plan,  59% of the businesses that grew over 2 years had a business plan that they used to manage their business.

And of these, 70% put their success down primarily to having a plan.

Another study in 1996 of almost 1,000 small companies found that companies with strategic plans have 50% more revenue and profit growth than companies that don't have one.

Purpose of the Business Plan Guide

I wrote this section to persuade people about the importance of having a business plan. I also wanted to provide a place where it's easy to find out about some of the best resources that are available.

What is a Business Plan?

It's easy to get caught up in the worry that writing a business plan is going to be too complicated and time-consuming. For me, the key to taking the confusion out of writing a business plan was to focus on the word 'plan'. A plan is simply a way of thinking about how you are going to get from where you are now to where you want to be.

Everyone makes plans all the time or else they would never achieve anything. I SOOO believe in the old adage. .."If you aim at nothing you'll hit it every time !!" A business plan is just a map that describes how your business is going to succeed and what you need to do to ensure that it does succeed.

Of course, if you are approaching potential investors, you may well need a 25-page plan with supporting schedules and financial figures. However, if you're running your own business and you just want to manage it better, you don't have to go into that amount of detail.

And because I absolutely, positively believe that it is better to have any sort of plan rather than no plan at all, (if you aim at nothing .....you'll hit it every time!) you can start with a 2 or 3 page plan and then add to it as you discover how useful it has become.

This is an entire section on the components and development of YOUR business plan. On the next page we will begin the most important part of planning your online business !!!!!