Business Plan

The first one seems obvious, no business plan at all. Entrepreneurs are often tempted to believe they don't need a business plan. This overconfidence usually comes from being so confident in our product, vision, and ability that we believe we have to succeed. Therefore, why plan, success will happen because of the force of 'rightness' and 'destiny.' This is a false sense and can be very destructive. We must avoid this trap and create a plan. It will be to our advantage.

Second is trying to guess what your customers want and need. While it is possible to create needs where none exist, we must be careful to listen to what the customers are telling us. They tell us if we have the right product, delivery method, and price. A grave mistake would be to ignore signs that some of our business plan assumptions are wrong. The market place and its customers are always right because their perception ultimately leads to our success or failure. If we have made wrong or bad assumptions in our business plan or its implementation, we must correct the plan and our operations.

Too, we must make sure we use our strengths. These lead to our market successes. Our business plan must analyze these strengths and outline how we will be using them to supply a need at a profit to us. If we are successful in using our strengths and in providing a needed product, we will assure success.

Next, we can't afford to ignore risks. It would be nice not to have them, but the reality is that everything has some risk associated with it. We must recognize the ones that are inherent in our venture and carefully create methods and plans to mitigate them. Often a business success is dependent on how well we recognized risks in our business plan analysis, and how appropriately we utilize methods of reducing or eliminating their impacts to us. It is unfortunate that some businesses fail because of unanticipated risks and, ones they were unable to respond to. At times these risks are apparent to others, but totally missed by business management. Certainly if we don't recognize a risk, our business plan won't address it. Be vigilant for risk indicators we haven't anticipated. Here, an outsider would prove useful and unbiased in helping us find them.

Finally, we come to a constant in business. Very few things seem constant in a business, but change is one of them. Our world, our views, our social perceptions, and our environment cause each of us to change. Business owners must not only accept that change is inevitable, but welcome and plan for it. Change represents a large opportunity to make a difference and a profit. As business owners, we are well advised to address change whenever is arises and use it to improve our business environment. We have the opportunity to make or pass our competition while supplying something that is needed. Thus, change is really the opportunity to improve our business plans and even more an opportunity to increase our success in the venture.