Dear Zuess,
My manager is suggesting I put together a business plan for 2014. He’s given me some ideas and a basic template but I don’t really understand that what, how or why around business planning. I’ve wung it for a few years now and it’s worked out ok.
Do business plans help?
Zander.
Dear Zander,
Congrats on winging it and having it work out. That likely means you are doing some of the right things and that’s great.
You don’t need a business plan if you are content with your current business model and don’t want to achieve growth or stability in your business.
Otherwise, it’s wise to strategically plan for growth and sustainability. Our market place is dynamic and if you aren’t prepared to adapt and change, it will be difficult to remain viable.
Yes – a business plan helps. It can be simple since you are not likely using it to raise capital.
Even Santa has a plan – simple but essential!
A good business plan will include your business goals, implementation strategy, contingency plans and a method for measuring success.
In other words:
- what are you going to achieve
- how will you achieve it
- what could go wrong
- how you will know that it’s working.
Done with truth, your business plan will give you a quick hitting set of priorities. It’s easy in real estate, or any business, to get distracted with work that doesn’t drive you towards your goals and a business plan is a tool to help you avoid this common cause of failure.
Take some time over the holidays to dream big and put it down on paper so that you can make it all come true in 2014!