85
32
|
Business Plan that hits the Fariway all the time THE Golf and Travel Club
2/27/2008 8:00:29 AM
|
If you want to run your own business, you need a business plan; it's that simple. What usually happens is that most people ignore this step because they think it takes too much effort, or they already know everything, or it's just a waste of time. Big mistake. Try getting a loan to start a business without one. What do you think your chances are? Slim and none. Why? Because if you don't have a business plan, you give the impression that you don't know what you are doing. Without a business plan, how do you know where you are going? How do you even know if you are going in the right direction? Bottom line - you need one.
Unlike what you may think, a business plan doesn't have to be a long, drawn out document with hundreds of pages of details. Far from it. It just has to have the key information in it so that you can use it as a roadmap for your business. It will tell you where you want to go, how you want to get there, and whether you are going in the right direction. Without it, you may get there, but more likely, you will flounder about.
What goes in a business plan? There are complete books written on this subject, so to attempt to cover it thoroughly in an email is not possible. What I will provide is a short summary of what you should have to start your own businesses. This information has been extracted from our Business Development Guide that all of our members at THE Golf & Travel Club receive when they join.
Goals
It is very important to set goals so you know what you are working towards. Without them, you have nothing to reach for, nothing to work towards, so there is no direction. When setting goals, they need to be realistic and quantifiable. In other words, don't write goals down like "I want to be rich." Although that may sound good, how do you know when you get there? It's not something you can measure yourself against to see if you are moving forward or not. Goals should be set in milestones as well. For example, set goals for 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, and 5 years into the future. And most of all, you should write down both financial and non-financial goals. Both are important.
Time Management
Now that you are self employed and running your own business, you need to manage your time more effectively. Because you are the boss, there is nobody to tell you to get back to work if you slack off. If you work from home, it's also a lot easier to get distracted, so you need to do the following:
* Make a commitment to work a set number of hours each week. If you can, mark down the number of hours you can work each day.
* Treat these committed hours as if they are extremely important meetings. They are - with yourself. If you can't keep the time for yourself and your business, who will?
* Try not to get distracted by other matters. If you keep to your committed hours, you will find you get a lot more achieved.
Marketing Ideas
I'm sure you've heard the saying "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door." Well, for the most part, it's not that easy. In reality, you actually have to market, promote and advertise to generate business. Create a list of things that you can do to generate interest and business. For each activity, write down the costs and the time it will take to implement them. Also write down what you think the benefits will be for each. Once you have done this, you will have a list of marketing ideas. We'll use these later to create an Action Plan.
Financial Budget
It takes money to run a business. Anyone that tells you otherwise is just lying to you. The difference is whether the money you are spending is helping you generate business or not. So, you will need to know how much money you will spend and where it will go. Create 2 budgets: one for ongoing costs of operating a business (non-income generating expenses) and one for marketing expenses (income generating expenses). Non-income generating expenses are things like telephone costs, rent, equipment leases, etc. Income generating expenses are things like business cards. advertising, promotions, flyers, etc. Once you've done this, you'll know how much total expenses are and how best to allocate them.
An Action Plan
Now that you have all of the information above, you need to put it all together and create an action plan. This plan will tell you what your goals are, what you need to do to try and achieve these goals, how best to allocate your time and finances to achieve these goals and how to measure your progress. This is your roadmap. All together, you've got a business plan.
As I mentioned, this is just a short summary of what you need to do. Our Business Development Guide provides you with more information and worksheets to help you create your business plan. As well, if you become an associate with THE Golf & Travel Club, you will have a mentor, who will help you put together a business plan and then help you execute it. It's important and that's why we have one-on-one assistance.
Remember, taking shortcuts may lead to short term success, but having a good plan to follow always leads to long term success.
Regards,
Jeff deCoen
Advanced Marketing Associate
http://jeffdecoen.thegandtclub.com
|