October 21, 2010

Traditional business plans do not work

Filed under: Business Advice — Alan @ 4:31 am

balloonOften, traditional business plans do not work because while they should be the driving force behind a business according to the textbooks, business plans are not always flexible enough to meet the demands of the modern business world.

The aim of a business is to help a business work towards it s goals, however, most business plans are written, filed, and then never seen again.  This is the main problem with a business plan, in order for it to actually work it has to be alive and present in the business.  Every day in a business things change and while the final goal may change an adaptable business plan will change with it so that a suitable path can be discerned.

Since a business plan will not evolve on its own, a better path to success includes a strategic business plan.  This type of strategy begins with a vision of how the company should operate and look and then looks back to see where the business sits at the moment.  It also looks closely at the qualifications, systems, current strategies, organizational hierarchy, and tactics.

By taking a look at the business in this light, the plan is able to accurately identify what the business needs to do in order to turn its original vision into reality.  To make this happen a strategic business plan needs to be reviewed and updated on a regular basis to ascertain where progress is being made and what can be adapted so that further progress can be made.

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September 5, 2010

Businesses with a plan are more successful

Filed under: Uncategorized — Alan @ 3:51 am

cityWhen someone starts to talk about a business plan most people start to think about sitting down to right out an official business plan.  A quick glance for reference material will reveal plenty of software, articles, books, and consultants that are prepared to aid you create your own business plan, but ironically there are little resources that will actually help you build a planning system that is continuous and able to evolve to meet today’s changing business environment.

Most business theory suggests that in order for a business to prosper and survive in the competitive environment it must be flexible and able to switch directions as conditions change.  Therefore, a five year written plan of how things should progress hardly seems helpful in the long term.  In actuality, trying to stick to a five year plan long term may actually hurt a business in the long run because it is a bit like trying to be flexible and follow a schedule- it’s impossible.

Ironically, even though it is almost universally accepted that a formal written business plan is the key to a successful business there are not any surveys or studies that actually show whether this is the truth.

After all, if business plans were truly a necessity there should be a clear discrepancy between businesses that have a plan and those that never bothered to craft a business plan.  With this thought in mind, perhaps more focus should be shifted on how a business processes instead of how planners think it should before it actually is launched and tested in the business world.

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