Whether you're an experienced business owner or a new entrepreneur, a business plan is essential to the success and growth of your business, but it can feel like a daunting task.
According to Austin, Texas-based business strategist and coach Daniel Langton, your business plan should act as a “compass” to help you stay focused as you navigate the market, tune out internal and external noise, and Business Financing.
A well-written business plan also creates confidence, clarity, direction, and alignment for business owners and their teams. To help you navigate this process, two business advisors share their best tips for writing a business plan.
1. Think big picture
Rather than diving into a 60-page business plan template, start by conceptualizing your business, suggests Oren Shani, a certified business advisor at Accion Opportunity Fund, a California-based nonprofit community development financial institution.
For a new business, Shani says that means figuring out what differentiating value you bring to the market and how to turn that value into revenue. Langton says that if you're running a business, it means understanding what worked and what didn't work in the previous year.
Once you get this “bird's-eye view,” Shani says, it's easier to narrow down action steps that will vary depending on your business. “A lot of businesses think they don't need that 60 pages,” he says, noting that some actually just need a one-page mini-plan, or “lean plan.”
2. Consider your lifestyle
Langton's main advice to his clients is to prioritize balance between business and personal life. Understanding and clarifying your non-business priorities will help you define the time you spend on your business, ultimately making you a more efficient and effective business owner. “When you make a living, are you actually enjoying the life that your business brings or are you just focused on the income?” she asks her clients.
To create this clarity, she recommends starting with the “non-negotiables” – the things you're not willing to sacrifice in your daily life to run your business. From there, you can construct your ideal week for her and base your business schedule around it.
3. Make time
When you actually sit down write a business planConsider both your schedule and how you work most efficiently. If you're someone who prefers to focus on one task at a time and you find it hard to prioritize, Langton suggests blocking out time on your calendar throughout your week. Consider a change of scenery to remove mental blocks or find more inspiration.
But if you're too overwhelmed to start from scratch, Shani advises against compartmentalizing. Writing it down, even if it's just a bulleted list, is more effective than waiting for a free day without distractions, he says. Additionally, it is beneficial to work on your business plan while running your business. Real-time analysis allows you to enhance your strategy as you go.
Langton added that perfectionism and business planning are mutually exclusive, especially for new business owners.
4. Adopt a Living Business Plan
you new business owner According to both Shani and Langton, a business plan is never truly complete, even for 20-year veterans: As your understanding of your business, your market and your customer base changes and adapts, your business plan must change and adapt as well.
Shani says the most time-consuming part of the business planning process is not actually putting things on paper, but learning. For example, every time a sale is made or not made, the business owner should try to understand why it was and isn't. This helps identify customer buying behavior and how they interact with the company's brand and products.
While for some business owners, it may make the most sense to review things monthly or quarterly, reprioritize, and get rid of what's not working, Shani said others may find it more beneficial to revisit their plans if there are new insights or significant changes in the market, such as new regulations, nearby real estate developments, or new competitors.
5. Take advantage of busy seasons
For business owners The upcoming holiday rushwhich could be good news for your business plan in addition to your bottom line. Focusing on your peak season is one of the best ways to gather data about your business, says Langton, and using that information at the end of the year can help you better prepare for the next season.
You don't have to have everything done before the new year, but by observing and making mental notes now, you'll be ready to make meaningful updates to your business plan in January, she says.
