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Planning Your Small Business And Start-upby Stefan Töpfer on Oct 02, 2007For me small business planning centers around some very basic questions and I always aim to answer those first:
You may thing that these are all very basic questions and you would be right – but can you really answer them for your small business? I think I would find it difficult at times too. So I have devised this very basic business planning system I would like to share with you:
Let us have a look at each one of these components individually – first up cash-flow planning – without money it is difficult to run a business. You may see that as a problem, I view that as an opportunity in as much that it forces you to sell your service or product, before you do anything else. You could of cause do a market study and analysis, spend “lots” of money in the process and have very little extra useful information at the end of the process. While if someone buys your service or product you know it sells – without spending a penny. Enter your sales into a cash-flow and you can easily work out how much cost your small business can take. I’m passionate about “bootstrapping your small business” from day one. This in turn will help you to focus on saving money wherever you can, since you will only make very little money in the beginning. You will understand that payment terms you offer to your clients or payment terms you receive from your suppliers can greatly help with your cash-flow, I have written about cash-flow planning before. Secondly I like to do a SWOT analysis so I can focus myself and others in my business to stay “on message” and understand the vision for the business better. Even if you have no staff to begin with, it will help you to make the right decisions and stay focused. Strength and Weaknesses are “internal” factors where you need to be honest with yourself and write down what you do well and what you do badly – writing it down is almost therapeutic – enabling you base future decisions on these facts, building on your strength, while avoiding your weak spots. Opportunities and Threats are all about “external” factors and deal with issues like your unique differentiators for your products and services in the market place, as well as your competitors, red-tape, funding issues, etc. Again just writing them down will move you forward. Last but not least I find it helpful to have a “Mission Statement” for my business, what do I want to achieve, so my customers, partners and others understand what my business is all about. The “Goals Statement” is more personal, I write down why I run my small business or why I want to start a business. As with all plans it is of the utmost importance to revisit your business plan as often as once a month or at times when you do not know which decision to take – go to your goals list, it will help you to focus on the way forward. Doing basic business planning like that will help you to run and grow your business, and it can be fun too. Remember it is cheaper to test your plans on paper then for real with your own money. I wish you and your small business or start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants “Happy Planning and Success”! ST. 
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Said on October 12th, 2007 at 6:33 am
[...] Effective Small Business Planning StrategyPlanning your small business is the best way to avoid costly mistakes. [...]
Said on October 22nd, 2007 at 12:11 pm
[...] Effective Small Business Planning StrategyPlanning your small business is the best way to avoid costly mistakes. [...]
Said on October 23rd, 2007 at 9:09 am
[...] Effective Small Business Planning StrategyPlanning your small business is the best way to avoid costly mistakes. [...]
Said on October 25th, 2007 at 7:37 am
[...] Effective Small Business Planning StrategyPlanning your small business is the best way to avoid costly mistakes. [...]
Said on October 26th, 2007 at 8:09 am
[...] Effective Small Business Planning StrategyPlanning your small business is the best way to avoid costly mistakes. [...]
Said on October 26th, 2007 at 9:28 am
[...] Planning Your Small Business And Start-Up [...]
Said on October 29th, 2007 at 7:20 am
[...] Effective Small Business Planning StrategyPlanning your small business is the best way to avoid costly mistakes. [...]
Said on June 16th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
[...] further reading check out the sme blog post about planning your small business. Did you find this post useful? If so and you would like to keep up-to-date with our new [...]
Said on July 14th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
I really like the break down of things here. Regarding the list however, I would think that the question that needs to be asked and answered first is: Is anyone going to buy what I have to sell? After that the others can follow.
Said on July 18th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
You have outlined some important points in starting a new business. I have owned several small businesses over the years. All of which, thankfully, have been mildly successful. Although my partners and I have always used a business plan, of one form or another, we have never considered SWOT. You would think that as a matter of course that you would think about Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats Analysis but we never really did. But, I can see how having paid a little closer attention to SWOT we could have taken a few of the businesses a bit further than we had. Defnitely having taken the time to look at not only our strengths and weaknesses but those of our competitors would have enabled us to focus our efforts a bit more strategically. We probably would have had a lot more focus if we would have planned a bit more and taken into consideration some of the things you have outlined here. Thanks.
John Tasher
Said on July 30th, 2008 at 4:47 am
My business partner and I just recently sat down and elaborated on a lot of these similar points. Although SWOT has a few additional points that we didn’t cover, the process was helped us refocus and forced us to come up with new strategies for moving the business forward. We will certainly revisit our notes and add in the additional points listed in SWOT.
Said on September 27th, 2008 at 5:48 am
Nice article and it’s quite helpful for those like me having interest in small business.
Said on November 2nd, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Hello, Stefan, In my case, since I am only going to put up a small business that is related to internet service, I guess I would be able to minimize on all my costs and I am glad about that.
First, I already have my PC and a decent internet connection with which I can use to do a market study of the online business that I wanted to put up. I’m really glad.
Said on November 7th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Really help full information….
Thanks…
Said on November 18th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
I have never heard of SWOT before. It is a very interesting concept, or should I say concepts. It makes so much sense. It seems that following the SWOT concept will help with your strategic and long term planning.
Said on November 20th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
I tend to have an over all mission statement for a project and from there I create goals to help guide me and keep me from taking on too much at one time. I then use action plans to round it all up.
Said on November 25th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
We see very many small business start ups, and very few of them have real plans for the short or long term, anything that can help them must be a great idea, which will pay dividends.
Said on January 11th, 2009 at 10:34 am
I discovered your homepage by coincidence.
Very interesting posts and well written.
I will put your site on my blogroll.
Said on January 12th, 2009 at 11:02 am
I have been reading many of the posts for the last couple of months, a great source of valuable information from so many view points.
Thank you.
Said on April 23rd, 2009 at 1:42 pm
The article has great business planning tips that are essential for all businesses. Small business owners will benefit greatly from this site.
Said on April 30th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Developing Culture.
I am currently engaged with a company which is suffering greatly from the recession. Having been invited to work with the company to implement a new Marketing Strategy, initial analysis quickly unveiled many other problems which were not being addressed.
There was a distinct lack of communication between management and staff, with the effect that there was no apparent Team Spirit. The staff were unaware of the full effect that the recession was having on the business, and that staff layoffs were imminent.
When a company is formed, the owners have a clear vision of what they want to achieve and how they want to achieve it. From the outset, this vision must be communicated to all staff, involving them in the mission. This particular client had never passed on their vision leaving them bereft of culture and team spirit.
With the owners permission, I arranged for a meeting of all staff to bring them up to date with how the company is performing within its market. I outlined a strategy to give direction to the “Team”, ensuring that all members have a full understanding of the necessary work to be done. Regular Staff Meetings are now in place to keep everybody working together as a team.
This company still faces the same hurdles in their market. However, they are now better equipped to deal with these barriers as they occur, by working together. To all employers I say, involve your “Team” in your Strategy, ensure that they understand their role. Let achieving the goals of your Strategy be their measure of success. Promote a team culture!
Phil Byrne
Mentor Sales & Marketing
Said on May 29th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
This article is interesting. I waslooking for this sort of information last few months. Thanks for the valuable ibformation
Said on June 12th, 2009 at 6:13 am
I am planning to start a small business of my own. and looking for some articles that could help me. and i came across your site.
this is one of the best articles i discovered. thanks for sharing.
Said on June 18th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
To Start up your Small Business planing is the most effective and important step that needs to be concentrated the most
Said on June 24th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I am really impressed with this helpful effort and after reading these tips we can look forward to a nice site for us.
Said on June 27th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Nice informations!!!!!
It is useful to all who like to start online business..
I came to know about how to start small business and how to do business planning.
Thanks for your information!!!!!
Said on June 30th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Nobody makes money the first month in a business; so you need a proper business planning system. In the process, build up a cash flow planning like mentioned by the author.
Said on July 3rd, 2009 at 9:36 am
This is the question you will need to ask yourself over and over again. And once you come up with the answer that is right planning for your small business, you will be ready to get started…
Said on July 8th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
This article was extremely helpful to me when starting up my own business! In this economic climate many people are turning to traditional manual jobs such as building or plumbing however it has proven extremely hard to establish a small business or even know where to start! Your concise, easy to follow steps were perfect for a first time business builder (excuse the pun!)
Thank you!
Said on July 8th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
This advice is extremely useful, however I think in any business plan it is worth including stretegic goal planning for the future of your business..after all it may not always be small!
Said on July 31st, 2009 at 10:36 am
I have just come across this site, very informative and interesting. I love the break down here and this information will be very useful to many, thanks for sharing your ideas.
Said on July 31st, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Love you’re site full of great information easy to read and understand.I live in S Africa and doing some forward planning for 2010 so it has been great for my cash flow, Planning and forward thinking….I will visit it again to learn more…Thanks…Great information..I believe usa is favoured.
Said on August 5th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Sales is Essential and Business Solutions is vital for any company looking to purchase project management services. Accounts and Estimates need these services
Said on August 19th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Useful advice and information, this my first visit to this site, I hope to visit more and collect some more great advice. I think that planing ahead and giving oneself goals is a great way to go and helps achieve things that one would think unachievable.
Said on August 20th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Valuable and informative posts Stefen, I look forward to further blog posts.
Said on September 10th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
I have been reading your posts which are really good and advisable..I will be eagerly waiting for your new posts..
Said on September 15th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
This is great advice.
Said on September 21st, 2009 at 1:01 pm
we need to describe the benefits of the services from customers perspective and successful business owners know or at least have an idea of what their customers want or expect from them.
Said on September 23rd, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Careful planning is fundamental to success. The Small Business Planner includes information and resources that will help you at any stage of the business life cycle….so we should take care of all those things.
Said on September 30th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Calling small business the backbone of any nation’s economy, that an environment in which the entrepreneurial spirit can thrive.
Said on October 13th, 2009 at 4:31 am
I completely agree about planning. I remember being in my marketing class senior year (2008) when I decided I wanted to own my own business. I picked up the “Entrepreneur Magazine: Start Your Own Business” paper back and read it cover to cover. I planned many businesses and found out that the majority of them wouldn’t work. Thank god I didn’t just jump right in. Then I was introduced to affiliate marketing and the plan came into place. I’m very happy with my decision.
Said on October 14th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
This article is great. I my view Effective Business Planning is the key to success in business….