A Simple Business Plan is Better Than No Plan!

Use Samples of Business Plans to Help You Prepare

A simple business plan is better than no business plan at all; 7 simple steps to getting a plan done. Review samples of business plans and compare to list of small business ideas for a best-fit plan.

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Few websites offer a simple business plan. But many websites offer business plan resources (models, templates, checklists and examples). Use this site to build a simple plan for your new small business ideas.

Note: to simplify your planning process you can also access samples of business plans and then compare them to your list of small business ideas.

This site gives you a simple business plan outline.

One that is do-able quickly and efficiently. One that focuses you on your business, your strategic investment, your business growth and your business goals.

Additionally, you can access more than business plans on this site. You can access resources that can help with your small business startup, provide you with effective leadership and decision making tips, help you to sell your products and services with business to business selling (and business to consumer selling) strategies, and more.

And these resources will also help you in managing your small business.

This page focuses on an overview of a simple business plan (one that should result in writing a business plan of not more than 10 pages).

Yes, you can and, if you have the time and resources, you should do a more comprehensive and strategic business plan. However, a simple business plan is better than nothing; and nothing is often what people do when faced with a task that is simply too large and overwhelming.

So, this business plan outline is a simplified version of a more detailed, comprehensive and strategic plan.

A Simple Business Plan Outline: (Maximum of 10 pages)

1. Identify (or if it’s already written, review):

1. Your vision statement – describe the long term view of where you want to go, what you want to be, and how you want to get there;

2. Your mission statement – what business are you in and why;

3. Your team – even if it’s just a team of one.

2. Conduct a SWOT Analysis:

1. Identify your company's strengths (s) and weaknesses (w) and the opportunities (o) or threats (t) of the environment it operates in. Include an environmental scan, an industry analysis, and a competitive analysis.

3. Conduct a strategic analysis to identify and prioritize major issues and goals. Select the goals you must reach to accomplish your mission.

4. Design major strategies (for example a marketing plan) to address the issues and goals and incorporate specific approaches that must be implemented to reach each goal.

5. Develop action plans for each strategy and/or approach: who will do what, when, where, how, with what intent and how will results be tracked? Each approach needs an action item.

6. Develop and produce a sales plan, human resources plan, business operations plan (if business to business, this would include manufacturing and/or distributing; if business to consumer, this would include inventory plans, purchasing plans and more), business financial plan and any other working documents that reflect your business needs clearly and specifically.

7. Document all of the above steps into one package. Make sure that you review against the plan on at least a monthly basis (establish key performance indicators (KPIs) for the business). I like to measure business performance on a daily basis; for example, daily/weekly/month-to-date quotes against planned quotes; daily/weekly/month-to-date orders against planned orders; order promise dates compared to actual ship dates; etc.

   I'd also gather some samples of business plans and see what they measure and track - this is particularly relevant if comparing to similar new small business ideas or concepts.

Monitor and update YOUR plan on a regular basis. When significant events occur that would have a big effect on your plan (for example, the entry of a new competitor; or the exit of a significant competitor), review and redo it. If your business has employees, share the KPIs with your employees – make sure they know what is important to the business.

Build your simple business plan.

And then manage your business to perform to the plan!

P.S. Business planning is necessary in all businesses: from small to large; and from new business startup to legacy businesses. For another perspective on home-based business planning, I have found that Kennerly Clay, a pajamapreneur (aka home business entrepreneur), has some excellent planning advice on her website. Check it out.

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