ArchivesBusiness Plans Archives — C. Lynn Northrup, CPA, CPIM

Planning for Success

January 27th, 2021

Planning for success will create success. The pandemic has challenged existing small businesses in addition to the startup of new businesses as a means of economic survival. Creating a business plan will help you:

  • Think through your entire business strategy.
  • Understand your financial requirements.
  • Secure funding.
  • Develop your marketing message.
  • Identify key customers and how to provide them value.
  • Recognize operational challenges.

The process of developing and documenting your business plan gives you a chance to make your mistakes on paper so you can avoid making them. This saves time, money, and costly mistakes.

Some things to consider in your planning process:

  • Understand your customers and their needs to help position you to create value for them.
  • Develop solutions that fit customer needs and solves their problems.
  • Describe how your business works and how you deliver value to customers.
  • Identify and analyze your main competitors so you can create a competitive advantage.
  • Assess your target market to make sure it’s big enough to make you profitable.
  • Analyze your financial projections and develop scenarios of what could happen.
  • Make sure your value proposition is sustainable and scalable.

Creating a careful and complete business plan is a blue print for success.

Many new entrepreneurs will start out and not know where they can get help with information they need to get started. Here is information on some resources for small businesses that might be helpful.

Get started on planning for success today!