If you are serious about getting your small business off the ground, then you also have to realize that at least at the beginning of it you are going to have to fill many different positions within your small Company. Unless of course, you have a substantial start up budget that is going to allow you to hire all of the personnel that may be required.
Your first business plan should act as your starting foundation for your business. To perfect it, be prepared to make several edits. Once you have done this it will serve several purposes.
- It is going to be your guideline to start implementing each stage of your business.
There are many different stages of your business that you will need to attend to. There is the planning stage which is what we are dealing with here. Then there is the pre-start start stage, the set-up stage, the launch stage, then the maintenance stage.
- It is going to help you make many different decisions that are going to be required.
You are going to have to decide what products/services you are going to offer. How many people do you need working in your business keeping it to a minimum during its initial stages? Where is it going to operate from? What equipment and supplies do you need to get ready to open the business doors? These are just a few examples.
- It is going to give you the information you need to know regarding your start up costs.
Even if you have substantial funds to give you a good foundation financially for your start up, you still need to know what your costs are going to be. It is not uncommon for new business people to think they have a good amount of money to get them started only to discover there were a lot more costs than they realized.
- It is going to give you a clear picture of what type of resources you are going to need.
Once you have all of the necessary steps listed on your business plan, you will have a good understanding of what temporary and permanent resources you will need to both get started and then run your business once it is operational. For example, you may need skilled trades people to renovate your business location. Then your business may demand that there be at least one person on site to handle the business inquiries once you are operational.
Many times individuals end up stumbling into a business that they really had no intentions of starting. Some good examples of this are….
a) An individual who begins providing daycare for one or two children then before they know it they are being asked by others to provide the same service for them. The babysitting has now created a need for a small in home daycare, which in reality is now a business.
b) Artists who started out painting for a few individuals are now getting constant demands for their work, and decide maybe it’s time they opened a small gallery.
c) Many people who start off using their creative talents end up finding out there is a demand for their products and end up starting a home based business.
Even though these types of businesses seem to get started by themselves, in order to be fully organized a business plan has to be established for them.
There are different reasons for creating a business plan, and doing this isn’t something that is just reserved for the start up of your business. It should be something that you do periodically so you are sure that you have a clear path to follow as your business progresses.
One of the resources that you should add to your roster is a good business accountant. They can review your business plan with you to see if your financial obligations are fitted into the plan, and also once established, help you with your future business planning.
