By Palo Alto Software, Inc.

Often you may hear about what a business plan consists of. While including the necessary items is very important, you also want to make sure you don’t commit any of the following common business plan mistakes:

1. Putting it off: Don’t wait to write a plan until you absolutely have to. Too many businesses make business plans only when they have no choice in the matter. Unless the bank or the investors want a plan, there is no plan.

Don’t wait to write your plan until you think you’ll have enough time. “There’s not enough time for a plan,” business people say. “I can’t plan. I’m too busy getting things done.” The busier you are, the more you need to plan. If you are always putting out fires, you should build firebreaks or a sprinkler system. You can lose the whole forest for paying too much attention to the individual burning trees.

2. Cash flow casualness: Cash flow is more important than sales, profits, or anything else in the business plan, but most people think in terms of profits instead of cash. When you and your friends imagine a new business, you think of what it would cost to make the product, what you could sell it for, and what the profits per unit might be. We are trained to think of business as sales minus costs and expenses, which equal profits. Unfortunately, we don’t spend the profits in a business. We spend cash. So understanding cash flow is critical. If you have only one table in your business plan, make it the cash flow table.

3. Idea inflation: Plans don’t sell new business ideas to investors. People do. The plan, though necessary, is only a way to present information. Investors invest in people, not ideas.

Don’t overestimate the importance of the idea, particularly the importance of the uniqueness of the idea. You don’t need a great idea to start a business; you need time, money, perseverance, common sense, and so forth. Very few successful businesses are based entirely on new ideas. A new idea is much harder to sell than an existing one, because people don’t understand a new idea and they are often unsure if it will work.

4. Fear and dread.

Doing a business plan isn’t as hard as you think. You don’t have to write a doctoral thesis or a novel. There are good books to help, many advisors among the Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), business schools, and there is software available to help you (such as Business Plan Pro, and others).

5. Spongy, vague goals: Leave out the vague and the meaningless babble of business phrases (such as “being the best”) because they are simply hype. Remember that the objective of a plan is its results, and for results, you need tracking and follow up. You need specific dates, management responsibilities, budgets, and milestones. Then you can follow up. No matter how well thought out or brilliantly presented, it means nothing unless it produces results.

6. One size fits all: Tailor your business plan to its real business purpose. Business plans can be different things: they are often just sales documents to sell an idea for a new business. They can be detailed action plans, financial plans, marketing plans, and even personnel plans. They can be used to start a business, or just run a business better.

7. Diluted priorities: Remember, strategy is focus. A priority list with 3-4 items is focus. A priority list with 20 items is something else, certainly not strategic, and rarely if ever effective. The more items on the list, the less the importance of each.

8. Hockey-stick shaped growth projections: Have projections that are conservative so you can defend them. When in doubt, be less optimistic.

Source: bplans.com

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Over 45 essential business tools and services.

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New software by the makers of Marketing Plan Pro is available here. It runs on the Adobe Air platform meaning that it’s PC and Mac compatible. It will also be updated as more tools are added.

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The 5 essential ingredients every business plan must have to be successful.

• How to write a vision statement that graphically describes your business in two sentences or less. 
• How to create a mission statement that attracts your ideal customers. 
• How to design quantitative business and financial objectives that drive behavior and produce results. 
• How to craft strategies that will make your business successful over time. 
• How to define the 5-7 critical projects or programs that are critical to implement in the next 12 months. 

Program Information:
This is an online, e-facilitated program in a highly interactive environment. Class size is limited. A skilled facilitator will give a quick overview of The One Page Business Plan methodology, then work with program participants to help create the first draft of their own One Page Business Plan.

The “One Page Business Plan” Company is an international consulting firm with over 450 consultants. They specialize in helping business owners “re-think” their businesses and then help them construct extraordinarily clear and concise strategic business plans-on a single page. The original “One Page Business Plan” book has been an Amazon.com best seller for over 11 years. Their next book, due out this summer, is the “One Page Business Plan for Women in Business.”

Please review this page, they also have several 1-page Mom templates for your review.

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I’m dead serious about this requirement, it is really not an option. If you read any of the material most marketing coaches or consultants publish it will talk about the strategies that you need, target marketing and ideal client. But are they really just talking the talk, or are they walking the walk?

Take a look at what message are they sending.  Are they practicing the same things, that they are telling you to do?  Case in point, I am amazed at how many web developers that are out in the marketplace with poor websites. What I typically do is use HubSpot Grader as a guideline even as I’m talking to them on the phone. It is pretty common to see grades of less than 20. I know that HubSpot Grader is not a perfect tool to judge a website, but when the developer is missing keywords, meta tags and other obvious things that should have been incorporated, well just say, I find it quite useful for discussion purposes.

A lot of people will tell you that you need to blog. But are they doing it? Are they posting 3 to 4 times a week to make their blog effective? Ask them what keywords they would like to be found by?  Are they being found? What about the subjects they are writing about, are they the subjects that interest you?

That was kind of off track for a moment, but my point of view, those things are just obvious qualifiers. But I am dead serious, ask them to look at their plan or at least a section that describes their ideal client and target market. Can they produce one?  If they are not willing to update their own persona and plan…they are not serious enough about making all of the changes and investment required to move a customer up the ladder. So what do you think? Can you shake them up a little bit?

P.S. I have a special going on Marketing Plans this week, take a look!

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Your marketing team needs to look at things differently to help you succeed in a tough market. Think of ways that you can make your customers feel more like part of a team that is helping each other get through these times. If you do that, your bill may not end up on the bottom of the pile.

On the American Express Open Forum, I give 10 things that marketing can do to improve your cash flow. Go to the Open forum and take a look. Thanks!

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You must develop your personnel through outlining their objectives, strategies and actions. Critical information must be gathered, linked and displayed. This allows time for information to be used instead of gathered. Focus, feedback and Management that allow managers to see a total overview by giving them only the information they need. Achievers must become readily visible, problems must be spotted before they cause real trouble, and managers gain greater control over their own performance.

Managing your team is a great opportunity to access and develop their strengths and skills, to share your goals and objectives and so achieve your business aims. It is a continuous process which includes regular review discussions, action plans and success.

Ok, you know all this but how do you go about it. I use the The One Page Business Plan® not as a business plan but as a performance plan. Review the layout and tell me what you think. I think it is a winner for this.

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When your business is in trouble it is safe to assume you have to do something different or you will get the same results. Change must occur. But what do you change to and how do you know that it is going to work. Most poor business  decisions are because you lack certain information but can you know everything? You have to proceed and so you must develop a method to make minor changes to decide if it is working and then test the waters.

It missed these 5 questions based on The One Page Business Plan ® :

1. What are we building?(Time)
2. Why does this business/department/activity exist? (Timeless)
3. What are the specific measures?
4. How are we going to build this company/department/activity over time?
5. What is the work to be done?

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Find out more!

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We are very excited to share the news with you… The Assistant Editor of O, The Oprah Magazine, called very excited to have just learned about OPBP from one of Jim’s clients who has been on the Oprah show twice. They were publishing a new book, O’s Big Book of Happiness, which is a compilation of articles from the magazine. One of the articles in the book, titled Your Great Idea, Whose Time Has Come , provides a website link to sample business plans. And they were in a panic to replace these business plans… which were way too complicated and outdated.

We provided her with 3 sample One Page Business Plans… and she loved them! Check them out here:  http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/omag_200709_idea

We also just learned that One Page Business Plans will be mentioned in the December issue of the O Magazine. In the letters pages, they responded to a reader who wants to start her own food company. At the end of the response they told her she could “Go to Oprah.com to see samples from Jim Horan, creator of One Page Business Plans.”   Make sure you get a copy of this issue!

Kind of neat stuff when you consider the influence that Oprah has in this country.

P.S. There has been a run on The One Page Business Plan for Financial Services and I wonder why?? Do you think someone thinks they need a plan now?

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Marketing guides,Templates.Mind-maps

The Mind-maps are buried back in the Success901 Section. If you are not familiar with them look at a few. Great visualization tool.Oh, if you like anything, sign up for my newsletter, you get something twice a month, maybe 3.

P.S. Wait till you see what I give away next week!

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