I’ve got to be honest with you. When I first started my business as a Sole Trader, I had no business plan. In my head I knew exactly what I wanted to achieve, and that was to replace my current income. I didn’t need to secure funding to get started and thought a business plan wasn’t essential. I’ve spoken to many business owners who felt the same. Why write something that you don’t really need?
Fast forward 3 years and we’re now a Limited Company. In order to open our business bank account we needed a business plan! I was kind of forced to write one, what else could I do? But do you know what? It was the best thing I did for our business! Getting everything down in writing about how far we’d already come and thinking about where we want to take the business over the next few years really puts everything into perspective.
Writing a business plan makes you think about the finer details of your business. It encourages you to research your competition to make sure your pricing is right and to establish your unique selling point. It also makes you think about your business goals in more detail and put a plan of action in place as to how you’re going to get there.
Here’s what you can achieve through writing your business plan
Define your goals and objectives
Determine who your ideal client is
Create marketing strategies
Map out where you want to be financially
Manage your cash flow
Plan for the unexpected
Secure funding
After telling one of my clients that I’d recently put my business plan together, they were intrigued to find out more. So I shared my business plan with her and we had a chat about her putting a plan together too. Just like me, she hadn’t previously thought about a business plan. We had a good chat for an hour about what direction she wanted to take the business, what she’d achieved so far, her marketing strategy and what her main goals were. Just having an hour to thrash out ideas and use me as a sounding board helped her to map out her business plan.
It can be lonely as a business owner not having anyone to discuss your business with. I am lucky enough to have my business partner, friend and sister all in one! If you’re a business owner who needs a little bit of support or you just want to run ideas past someone who will give honest feedback then get in touch!
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