Do you regularly think to yourself ‘I must sit down and write a business plan?’ Have you started to write plans in the past but never seemed to have the time to finish them? Or have you spent precious time and effort preparing a lengthy and detailed document only to find that you never referred to it or it was quickly out of date?
If you fall into one or more of these categories, (and I would bet that you do), you are in good company. The majority of businesses, (other than those that are forced to produce a plan to apply for bank finance), do not have the motivation, resources, knowledge, time, expertise or whatever, to produce a plan that is cost effective, adds real value and that can adapt and grow with the business over time.
The primary aim of Plana is to enable you to start preparing your business plan right now and lead you step by step through the key stages to completion.
Rather than trying to cover every angle, Plana concentrates on the areas that we feel are most likely to have the greatest impact on the future success of your business or team.
This idea of concentrating on the basics, the quick wins – the 20% that offers the 80% return – is a sound one. Avoid getting bogged down in detail and all those ‘nice to do’s’ which at best will only add a small margin to your bottom line.
Too often a job becomes a permanent item on a ‘to do’ list because of the cost, time or effort you associate with getting it completed. Look at these jobs again – can they be broken down into smaller, less time or labour intensive stages? If so, do the first stage today. Do you actually need to do the ‘whole’ job – will the majority of the benefit come from completing the first 3 of the 5 stages you previously identified?
A key feature and benefit Plana is that it sets out to make the actual process of preparing and writing the plan as beneficial as the final document itself.
Do not fall into the well visited trap of thinking this is just another job on your personal ‘to do’ list. This is something for your business or team to work on together on an ongoing basis. Planning should be seen as a vital process and much an integral part of your normal business routine as monitoring quality, cashflow, marketing and Health and Safety.