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Monday, November, 27, 2006

Year End - Business Plan Review

Get on the Web! If you don't already have a web site, your ignoring a vast pool of potential customers.

Whether you launched your company with a forty-page prospectus or a brilliant idea scribbled on a coffee-shop napkin, year-end is a great time to give your business plan a thorough checkup. Once you see what is working and what needs fixing, you can correct course as needed, set new objectives, a take better control of your future.

"Business Planning is a dynamic process. Cash flow, product niches, and competition change constantly and your plan should change to reflect this," Says Jeffrey Sohl, director of the University of New Hampshire's Center for Venture Research.

Three Ways To Review your annual business plan:

A.) "I have no business plan. I'm winging it day by day."

  • Use history and lessons learned to determine where your business is now.
  • Review income statements, balance sheets, any other financial records.
  • Analyze cash flow, customer response, markets.
  • Choose key metrics to track monthly
  • Set Goals and a timeline. Forecast at least six months.
  • Don't rely on a software program or consultants to write your plan. It's your business, your vision.

B.) "I wrote a classic business plan to attract startup money. It's been sitting in my desk drawer ever since."

  • Pull it Out. The information is stale, much of it wrong, but it's a head start. Check to see if your hitting benchmarks and targets, then develop a more streamlined plan that will eolve your business.

C.) "I have a business plan and it guides my overall strategy."

  • Gather key staff to brainstorm on SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
  • Divide into work sessions focused on key elements such as sales and marketing. What are your doing well, what will you change, what actions are needed?
  • Hold a third meeting to gather conclusions in a plan full of goals to track and measure. The final product should consist of bullet points key employees understand and agree on, not extensive text to edit and revise," suggests Tim Berry of Palo Alto Software.
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