STARTING A BUSINESS

STARTING A BUSINESS

Hi Everyone,

I have spoken about the importance of a Business plan before and no doubt I will do it again many times. Telling you the importance of having one is not going to help you much if I don't give you a hand at getting one, right? :-)

There are many formats for a business plan but this one is a simple and easy to get done one. It asks all the right questions in the right order to get you writing your own. And no-one knows your business like you do, or should! So you are the only one who should be writing your own plan. That way you will do it in the time frame that you know you can achieve.

Like life, there are no shortcuts and no magic bullets. It's just planning, persistence, patience and perseverance.

Let me share a story with you. Back in 1993 I had a business called H.O.M.E. and I had a cashflow problem. I went to my bank manager for a loan and the first thing he wanted to know was "did I have Business plan?" Luckily for me, I did and I had it with me just because I had a very good mentor who knew the ropes. Even though I had this business plan all done I hadn't bothered to look at it or check my progress against it. Why? Because I 'knew' where I was going, and how I was going to get there! Yeah...'little miss know-it-all' alright!

Anyway, I looked at it with my bank manager and surprise,surprise....my bank balance was within a couple of dollars of my actual bank balance. According to my financial plan, I had planned it in that there was going to be a shortfall for the next 3 months because of an advertising campaign that I had instigated. Had I not been such a 'smarty pants' I would have made my life easier.

The moral of the story is to do it and follow it. Don't be like me and stick it away in the bottom drawer and not look at it.

Besides, when you see you are 'on track' it is a real morale booster! And we all know that a person trudging through a small business on their own needs those 'pats-on-the-back' sometimes, don't we?

Anyway, I hope this helps everyone.

BTW, Congratulations to NSW on winning the state of origin last Wednesday night. It was a terrific game of footy!

Warmly,
Jan-ConstructingProfits
www.constructingprofits.com