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The facts:

• Do you recognise opportunities? Or do they pass you by?  What about risks?  Preparing a detailed business plan forces you to think about these and test your expectations.
• How will you deal with success if you haven’t planned for it? The importance of preparing AND updating a business plan should never be overlooked.  For a business to be successful and profitable you need to have a clear understanding of your customers, your strengths and your competition.  You also need to have the foresight to plan for your success, growth and diversification in the future.
• Whether yours is a new business or an existing looking to expand, money is often an issue.  Taking the time and trouble to create an extensive business plan provides you with insight into your business.  If you ever need to call on the banks – and many successful businesses do – an up to date business plan is a powerful financial proposal.

What is a business plan?

It shows every aspect of your business and your market – it’s a detailed map for success.

My advice:

At Diva Cosmetics I used my business plan to keep ahead of the competition.  By focusing on the business I was able to make decisions about staff requirements, how to expand the team and in what areas.  I was able to review costs, check our suppliers and understand the implications on the business should anything go wrong.  I would undertake a full competitive review each year which would lead to adaptations of the marketing strategy.

In order to plan for the future trading it’s essential that you identify any problems experienced in the past.  This process allows you to build on positive results: you need to analyse what you did well, the mistakes you made, and whether your financial projections were comparable to the figures you achieved.  Preparing and updating your evolving business plan can be a daunting process because it can be time-consuming but done properly you’ll reap the rewards and you’ll never regret your investment in it.