Commercial Property Managers - Tips for Business Planning Your Managed Asset

When it comes to the performance of a commercial property today, the impact and sentiment of the local business community plus the greater global economy can detract from the income and capital growth for the property. This says that you have to be very careful regards planning property activity, lease strategy, and tenancy mix.

To achieve this effectively, it is best to implement a business plan for the property asset. Whilst every property is unique and different, here are some of the main categories to consider and structure into the commercial property business plan:

    In the initial instance, it pays to have a look at the property itself and the quality of improvements. Questions need to be asked as to whether the improvements in your property are sufficiently serviceable for the expectations of tenants in today's property market. As part of this process, it may be necessary for you to look at comparable properties in the same area together with assessing their tenancy mix and rental levels.

    Any physical matters of building performance or integrity of improvements should be assessed by qualified consultants. They would normally be engineers, architects, and quantity surveyors. From this group of experts you can obtain a clear understanding of property performance and longevity of the asset.

Steps in Creating a Successful Business Plan

Starting a business definitely requires a strong business plan. This will help you build a future not only for yourself but also for your family. Therefore, make sure to work on your template before taking any further actions in building your business. Many business owners just jump into starting a business without concrete plans. Well, you will not be able to achieve success when you do not know exactly where you and your business are heading. This is exactly the importance of having a business plan template or model - it gives you a direction.

Here are steps in creating simple business plan:

1. Come up with a good name for your business - it would be great to come up with a name for your business that has easy recall. You could think of short terms with strong impact. It is advisable to have a business name that will leave good first impression on people especially among your target audience.

2. Think about the mission/vision of your company - your business plan should also have mission and vision. These things will help you set standards for your company. The mission/vision will help you and your people to work on common goals.

Get Help: Free Business Plan Software

Perhaps the most difficult part in any endeavour is the start-up phase. Indeed, this idea applies to any business venture. To reduce risk, a detailed plan must be prepared for proper guidance. This pre-opening strategy will help in defining goals and setting targets.A business plan contains information on company's strategic actions, resources for financing and specific guidance in operations. Today, modern technology has offered variety of business plan software to serve individual business needs.

Free business plan software will help you create your plans easier by eliminating the tedious task of lay-outs and formats. The use of this systematize software will help you save time and resources. Step by step guidance is offered in many professional business plan software to avoid mistakes that are commonly committed in manual procedures. With its pre-formatted features, you can be assured of considerably low margin of error.

With built-in financial formulas, financial management will be stress-free. Instead of doing all the computation and dwelling with mathematics, you can just import your data and wait for the software to give out reports. Your need for statistical tables, graphs and charts will be conveniently catered since these are included in the software package. Various resources for industrial and business research are also available in detailed forms. So, you can get away with expensive research activities and outsourcing workforce to do the field-work.

Should You Write Your Own Business Plan?

If you are just starting a company and looking for funding, or looking for additional funding for growth, you will need to develop a traditional business plan. Creating a business plan is a business hurdle that entrepreneurs seem to dread. Do you do it yourself? Do you hire someone to do it? How do you get it done quickly, but without spending too much money on it? Will what you do yourself be adequate to get funding?

In this article I will discuss the pros and cons of do-it-yourself business planning versus having a business planning consultant do it for you or with you.

The Do It Yourself Business Plan

Particularly if you are seeking capital of less than $200,000, consider creating the plan yourself after taking a class or reading some books or getting some coaching for someone who has written successful business plans.

Consider taking a three-hour business planning class through SCORE or the local Small Business Development Center. Even if you decide afterwards not to write your own plan, you will have a much better idea of what you want out of the process and what to expect.

There are some good reasons for an entrepreneur to do the business plan:

• First of all, because you can. If you've read sample business plans and find their accounting jargon intimidating, you are not alone. But as long as you can clearly get your message across and have other people such as you accountant look at the plan before it goes to lenders or others, you can do this work yourself.
• It is in learning the business planning process that you develop analytical thinking skills necessary to run your business with an intimate understanding of your own business model. Going through the planning process is an invaluable business experience.
• You need to know the plan inside and out and really understand the variables involved. You are the one who will be asked the tough questions by potential investors or lenders, such as "What will you do if only half your expected revenue comes in?" or "What will you do if you find out that direct mail is not working for you as your primary marketing tool?"

Do I need to write a business plan if I am not planning for bank loan or investment?

This is a questionsthat I am asked by many starting up a business and the simple andemphatic answer is YES. The fact that a bank or investing individualor institution is a secondary consideration.

Primary focus if thebusiness plan.

The primary and mostimportant role of writing the business plan is to guide and directthe business owner or manger in the operation of the business.Preparing and writing the plan focuses the writer consider all thepossibilities and aspects associated with their business. It forcesthe writer to confront and come up with solutions to any problemswhich the plan may highlight. It helps you to think about yourselfand where you have a deficit in a certain skill and allows you tofocus on these and allows you to search for training opportunities oradvisers to fill this gap.

A good video on what type of business plan would suit you, by Tim Berry:

Financial advantages ofdoing a business plan

A monthly comparison ofall known costs over time, will indicate to you the necessary salesyou need to accomplish in order to match these and a make a profit.It allows you to look at this figure and assess whether it is areasonable number, if it's not then it can cast a doubt on thevalidity of the adventure itself. So it is not just a tool forgetting an investment or working capital but it's a tool to give yourbusiness direction and assess the validity of your hypothesises.

The business plan is animportant and working management tool, which allows the manager toanticipate and compensate for situations before they arise andprevent business emergencies.

Foresight and planningare a vital part of starting your own business, don't underestimatethem. You can find more information on writing business plans for small business.

How To Prepare A Business Plan That Guarantees Big Profits

It is always said "If you Fail to Plan, you Plan to Fail"

Success in business comes as a result of planning. You have to have a detailed, written plan that shows what the ultimate goal is, the reason for the goal, and each milestone that must be passed in order to reach your goal.

A business plan is written definition of, and operational plan for achieving your goal. You need a complete but success tool in order to define your basic product, income objectives and specific operating procedures. YOU HAVE TO HAVE A BUSINESS PLAN to attract investors, obtain financing and hold onto the confidence of your creditors, particularly in times of cash flow shortages--in this instance, the amount of money you have on hand compared with the expenses that must be met.

Aside from an overall directional policy for the production, sales effort and profit goals of your product--your basic "travel guide" to business success--the most important purpose your business plan will serve, will be the basis or foundation of any financial proposals you submit. Many entrepreneurs are under the mistaken impression that a business plan is the same as a financial proposal, or that a financial proposal constitutes a business plan. This is just a misunderstanding of the uses of these two separate and different business success aids.

The business plan is a long range "map" to guide your business to the goal you've set for it. The plan details the what, why, where, how and when, of your business--the success planning of your company.

Your financial proposal is a request for money based upon your business plan--your business history and objectives.

Understand the differences. They are closely related, but they are not interchangeable.

Writing and putting together a "winning" business plan takes study, research and time, so don't try to do it all in just one or two days.

The easiest way to start with a loose leaf notebook, plenty of paper, pencils, pencil sharpener, and several erasers. Once you get your mind "in gear" and begin thinking about your business plan, "10,000 thoughts and ideas per minute" will begin racing thru your mind...So, it's a good idea when you aren't actually working on your business plan, to carry a pocket notebook and jot down those business ideas as they come to you--ideas for sales promotion, recruiting distributors, and any other thoughts on how to operate and/or build your business.

Later, when you're actually working on your business plan, you can take out this "idea notebook" evaluate your ideas, rework them, refine them, and integrate them into the overall "big picture" of your business plan.

The best business plans for even the smallest businesses run 25 to 30 pages or more, so you'll need to "title" each page and arrange the different aspects of your business plan into "chapters." The format should pretty much run as follows:

Title Page Statement of Purpose Table of Contents Business Description Market Analysis Competition Business Location Management Current Financial Records Explanation of Plans For Growth Projected Profit & Loss/Operating Figures Explanation of Financing for Growth Documentation Summary of Business & Outlook for The Future Listing of Bushness & personal References

This is a logical organization of the information every business plan should cover. I'll explain each of these chapters titles in greater detail, but first, let me elaborate upon the reasons for proper organization of your business plan.

Having a set of "questions to answer" about your business forces you to take an objective and critical look at your ideas. Putting it all down on paper allows you to change, erase and refine everything to function in the manner of a smoothly oiled machine. You'll be able to spot weakness and strengthen them before they develop into major problems. Overall, you'll be developing an operating manual for your business--a valuable tool which will keep your business on track, and guide you in the profitable management of your business.

Because it's your idea, and your business, it's very important that YOU do the planning. This is YOUR business plan, so YOU develop it, and put it all down on paper just the way YOU want it to read. Seek out the advice of other people; talk with, listen to, and observe, other people running similar businesses; enlist the advice of your accountant and attorney--but at the bottom line, don't ever forget it has to be YOUR BUSINESS PLAN!

Remember too, that statistics show the greatest causes of business failure to be poor management and lack of planning--without a plan by which to operate, no one can manage; and without a direction in which to aim its efforts, no business can attain any real success.

On the very first page, which is the title page, put down the name of your business-ABC ACTION--with your business address underneath. Now, skip a couple of lines, and write it all in capital letters: PRINCIPAL OWNER--followed by your name if you're the principal owner. On your finished report, you would want to center this information on the page, with the words "principal owner" off-set to the left about five spaces.

Examples: ABC ACTION 1234 SW 5th Ave. Anywhere, USA 00000

PRINCIPAL OWNER: Your Name

That's all you'll have on this page except the page number -1-

Following your title page is the page for your statement purpose. This should be a simple statement of your primary business function, such as: We are a service business engaged in the business of selling business success manuals and other information by mail.

The title of the page should be in all capital letters across the top of the page, centered on your final draft--skip a few lines and write the statement of purpose. This should be direct, clear and short--never more than (2) sentences in length.

Then you should skip a few lines, and from the left hand margin of the paper, write out a sub-heading in all capital letters, such as: EXPLANATION OF PURPOSE.

From, and within this sub-heading you can briefly explain your statement of purpose, such as: Our surveys have found most entrepreneurs to be "sadly" lacking in basic information that will enable them to achieve success. This market is estimated at more than a 100 million persons, with at least half of these people actively "searching" for sources that provide the kind of information they want, and need.

With our business, advertising and publishing experience, it is our goal to capture at least half of this market of information seekers, with our publication. MONEY MAKING MAGIC! Our market research indicates we can achieve this goal and realize a profit of $1,000,000 per year within the next 5 years...

The above example is generally the way you should write your "explanation of purpose," and in subtle definition, why you need an explanation. Point to remember: Keep it short. Very few business purpose explanations justify more than a half page long.

Next comes your table of contents page. Don't really worry about this until you've got the entire plan completed and ready for final typing. It's a good idea though, to list the subject (chapter titles) as I have, and then check off each one as you complete that part of your plan.

By having a list of the points you want to cover, you'll also be able to skip around and work on each phase of your business plan as an idea or the interest in organizing that particular phase, stimulates you. In other words, you won't have to make your thinking or your planning conform to the chronological order of the "chapters" of your business plan--another reason for the loose leaf notebook.

In describing your business, it's best to begin where your statement purpose leaves off. Describe your product, the production process, who has responsibility for what, and most importantly, what makes your product or service unique--what gives it an edge in your market. You can briefly summarize your business beginnings, present position and potential for future success, as well.

Next, describe the buyers you're trying to reach--why they need and want or will buy your product--and the results of any tests or surveys you may have conducted. Once you've defined your market, go on to explain how you intend to reach that market--how you'll these prospects to your product or service and induce them to buy. You might want to break this chapter down into sections such as..publicity and promotions, advertising plans, direct sales force, and dealer/distributor programs. Each section would then be an outline of your plans and policies.

Moving into the next chapter on competition, identify who your competitors are--their weakness and strong points--explain how you intend to capitalize on those weaknesses and match or better the strong points. Talk to as many of your "indirect" competitors as possible--those operating in different cities and states.

One of the easiest ways of gathering a lot of useful information about your competitors is by developing a series of survey questions and sending these questionnaires out to each of them. Later on, you might want to compile the answers to these questionnaires into some form of directory or report on this type of business.

It's also advisable to contact the trade associations and publications serving your proposed type of business. For information on trade associations and specific trade publications, visit your public library, and after explaining what you want ask for the librarian's help.

The chapter on management should be an elaboration on the people operating the business. Those people that actually run the business, their job, titles, duties, responsibilities and background resume's. It's important that you "paint" a strong picture of your top management people because the people coming to work for you or investing in your business, will be "investing in these people" as much as your product ideas. Individual tenacity, mature judgement under fire, and innovative problem-solving have "won over" more people than all the AAA Credit Ratings and astronomical sales figures put together.

People becoming involved with any new venture want to know that the person in charge--the guy running the business knows what he's doing, will not lose his cool when problems arise, and has what it takes to make money for all of them> After showing the "muscle" of this person, go on to outline the other key positions within your business; who the persons are you've selected to handle those jobs and the sources as well as availability of any help you might need.

If you've been in business of any kind scale, the next chapter is a picture of your financial status--a review of your operating costs and income from the business to date. Generally, this is a listing of your profit & loss statements for the six months, plus copies of your business income tax records for each of the previous three years the business has been an entity.

The chapter on the explanation of your plans for the future growth of your business is just that--an explanation of how you plan to keep your business growing--a detailed guide of what you're going to do, and how you're going to increase your profits. These plans should show your goals for the coming year, two years, and three years. By breaking your objectives down into annual milestones, your plan will be accepted as more realistic and be more understandable as a part of your ultimate success.

Following this explanation, you'll need to itemize the projected cost and income figures of your three year plan. I'll take a lot of research, an undoubtedly a good deal of erasing, but it's very important that you list these figures based upon thorough investigation. You may have to adjust some of your plans downward, but once you've got these two chapters on paper, your whole business plan will fall into line and begin to make sense. You'll have a precise "map" of where you're headed, how much it's going to cost, when you can expect to start making money, and how much.

Now that you know where you're going, how much it's going to cost and how long it's going to be before you begin to recoup your investment, you're ready to talk about how and where you're going to get the money to finance your journey. Unless you're independently wealthy, you'll want to use this chapter to list the possibilities and alternatives. Make a list of friends you can approach, and perhaps induce to put up some money as silent partners. Make a list of those people you might be able to sell as stockholders in your company--in many cases you can sell up to $300,000 worth of stock on a "private issue" basis without filing papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Check with a corporate or tax attorney in your area for more details. Make a list of relatives and friends that might help you with an outright loan to furnish money for the development of your business.

Then search out and make a list of venture capital organizations. Visit the Small Business Administration office in your area--pick up the loan application papers they have--read them, study them, and even fill them out on a preliminary basis--and finally, check the costs, determine which business publications would be best to advertise in, if you were to advertise for a partner or investor, and write an ad you'd want to use if you did decide to advertise for monetary help.

With listing of all the options available to your needs, all that's left is the arranging of these options in the order you would want to use them when the time come to ask for money. When you're researching these money sources, you'll save time by noting the "contact" deal with when you want money, and whenever possible, by developing a working relationship with these people.

If your documentation section, you should have a credit report on yourself. Use the Yellow Pages or check at the credit department in your bank for the nearest credit reporting office. When you get your credit report, look it over and take whatever steps are necessary to eliminate any negative comments. Once these have been taken care of, ask for a revised copy of your report and include a copy of that in your business plan.

If you own any patents or copyrights, include copies of these. Any licenses to use someone else's patent or copyright should also be included. If you own the distribution, wholesale or exclusive sales rights to a product, include copies of this documentation. You should also include copies of any leases, special agreements or other legal papers that might be pertinent to your business.

In conclusion, write out a brief, overall summary of your business- when the business was started, the purpose of the business, what makes your business different, how you're going to gain a profitable share of the market, and your expected success during the coming 5 years..

The last page of your business plan is a "courtesy page" listing the names, addresses and phone numbers of personal and business references--persons who have known you closely for the past five years or longer--and companies or firms you've had business or credit dealings with during the past five years.

And, that's it--your complete business plan. Before you send it out for formal typing, read it over once a day for a week or ten days. Take care of any changes or corrections, and then have it reviewed by an attorney and then, an accountant. It would also be a good idea to have it reviewed by a business consultant serving the business community to which your business will be related. After these reviews, and any last-minute changes you want to make, I'll be ready for formal typing.

Type and print the entire plan on ordinary white bond paper. Make sure you proof-read it against the original. Check for any corrections and typographical errors--then one more time--read it through for clarity and the perfection you want of it.

Now you're ready to have it printed and published for whatever use you have planned for it--distribution amongst your partners or stockholders as the business plan for putting together a winning financial proposal, or as a business operating manual.

Take it to a quality printer in your area, and have three copies printed. Don't settle for photo-copying..Have it printed!

Photo-copying leaves a slight film on the paper, and will detract from the overall professionalism of your business plan, when presented to someone you're trying to impress. So, after going to all this work to put together properly, go all the way and have it duplicated properly.

Next, stop by a stationery store, variety store or even a dime store, and pick up an ordinary, inexpensive bind-in theme cover for each copy of your business plan. Have the holes punched in the pages of your business report to fit these binders and then slip each copy into a binder of its own.

Now, you can relax, take a break and feel good about yourself..You have a complete and detailed business plan with which to operate a successful business of your own. A plan you can use as a basis for any financing proposal you may want to submit..And a precise road-map for the attainment of real success...

Business Plan – Your Operations

Introduction

In this section you aregoing to describe your business operation on a day to day basis. Itis different and unique for each and every business venture and soyou should Tailor this part of your business plan to reflect themarket you are operating in. But as a minimum you should bediscussing your location, production of your goods and services, ITsystems and management information systems and although this soundslike a lot it is information you should be comfortable with.

Location

You need to talk aboutany business property including if it is a room in your home, talkabout any long term commitments to this property including rent,mortgage, utilities, telecommunications, include costs and if you areoperating out of your home property be sure to assign a share ofthese. For example if your property has 6 rooms and you use 1 foryour business then 1/6 of all costs should be associated with thebusiness. You need to talk about the advantages and disadvantages ofyour current location and very briefly discuss any expansion plans.

Producing your goodsand Services

You need to explain howyou are going to manufacture your goods, will you own your ownfacilities or will it be more financially feasible to outsource theseservices? If you do own your own discuss the quality and how modernthey are, are they easy to expand in volume should the need arise doyou have a maximum volume and what is it, how does this compare withyour forecasted demand? How will you deliver if the demand exceedsthis volume? Do you need any investment in infrastructure. If you donot own your own, who will be your suppliers, discuss any relevantpricing and details about them here.

IT Systems

In todays businessenvironment IT is almost always an important considerations sodiscuss your requirement s and include your current strengths andweaknesses and how you are going to tackle your weaknesses. You needto go into detail about your systems reliability and any planneddevelopment of your systems and what benefits this will bring yourcompany and ultimately the customer. Focus on

• Security
• Reliability
• Performance
• development
• integration with existing systems
• innovation and software development
• capacity
• Back up and redundancy measures

These are all importantfactors in todays business environment and should be addressed.

Management InformationSystems

Describe yourprocedures for stock control, management accounts, quality control,customer satisfaction, sales, marketing, records, data handling,confidentiality, refer to current legislation and detail anycertifications you have or are going to aim for with dates forexample ISO:9002

Can they cope with anyexpansion of the business and are they scalable. Also discuss anyaudits and reviews of current processes and procedures you have inplace to ensure they are current and the most effective for the jobthey control.

Business Plan – You and Your Team

Introduction

Now you may be a oneman band or you may already have 10 partners with differentexperience and expertise or you may already have a work force inplace. The point is this is the section where you need to sellyourself and show what you bring to the business and how you aregoing to fill gaps in the experience. This section is important whenit gets to getting funding, because people are not only investing inyour business and the idea, but also in you as a person. So they needto be sure that you have the right skills and background to get thisdone.

Your Teams Skills

It needs to clearly layout the skills you have in your management team and your staff,concentrate on the strengths in your team and show how you are goingto deal with obvious weaknesses. Please note the word obvious, if youhave no one with marketing experience and this is clear then yesdiscuss how you are sending the GM on a marketing course to fill thisknowledge gap. But you don't want to discuss the GM's love ofholidays and so he takes time off every 5 weeks. Only talk about whatis glaring and what needs answering.

The Management Team

This can sell yourbusiness and get you that much needed investment so how do you do it!Explain who is involved, how they fit into your organisation. Includea C.V. For each key individual in the appendix and a paragraph oneach person in this section. Concentrate on RELEVENT experience,skills and qualifications. Also include the greater support network,financial advisers, accountants, lawyers and specialist advisers.

In order to securefunding this section must prove to potential investors that you havethe right mix of skills, determination, drive to make the business asuccess, with a keen focus on the business related aspects includingoperation and market experience, sales and marketing, financial andpossibly man management these are just as important in marketspecific skills.

This section is whereyou show your commitment to this venture so give it your all, letyour excitement, commitment and personality come through this willhelp you emotionally connect with investors.

The last thing youshould discuss in this section is how much money will each individualdraw from the business, this is very important for an investor asthey use this to determine how much of a stake will be left. It isimportant to leave a substantial percentage for business development,especially in the first 3-5 years, this shows a long term commitmentto this venture.

Your people

Give informationregarding the size and demographics of your workforce, break themdown by department if that is appropriate assign responsibilis andtalk about any branch of the business which will be outsourced. Ifyou are already established important stats include retention rates,productivity, average salaries and sales per employee if appropriate.

This section shouldalso contain information about your recruitment and trainingprocesses, it should show a commitment to your people and shouldindicate time-scales and costs involved.

Be realistic aboutmotivation and loyalty of your staff, we all know cold calling saleshas a high turnover, but what investors want to see is how are yougoing to improve staff morale and improve commitment.

We will next be talking about the operation section of the business plan.

Markets and Competitors

After working through the previous two posts you have a clear vision and a direction, you know what products and you have some basic information regarding your customers and how you are going to get the products to them.


Now in this post we are going to help you define your market, your companies position in it and who your main competitors are. In order to do this you need to do some market research, there is some useful information here regarding doing your market research.


Once you have gathered all the information you will need to collate it all. You should have information on:

• Total size of the market
• Your main competitors and their share of the market (think local and national)
• history of the markets and the products
• your customers and their buying habits
• Product pricing and availability 

The main point of this section is to tell your reader that you know this market, you understand the trends within it and what drives it. You need to show that it is a growing market and how you are going to attract customers despite the competition.


I hear you say how am i meant to do this, well if you have been operating and or working in this market for a long time then it will feel natural and you will know this information naturally. If not then these are what you need to focus on to ensure that the readers get the level of detail they require:

1. your target customers - Who are they, what is their demographic information, including disposable income and spending habits, how you know they are interested in products and services you will be supplying. Why this group of people.
2. your competitors - who are they, how do they operate within the market, what is their main customer base, market share, it's good to perform a SWOT analysis on each competitor as well as yourself.
3. the future - Expected changes to the market, focus on how you and your main competitors will react and use this section to show how you are innovative and understand the trends and what drives the market and how you can fill a gap in that market.

I will be writing further posts on market research and competitors at a later date so please take a look at those to help with this section. But for now check out this article on Market Research

An important note to finish on is that markets, competitors and customers are not static entities they change and are very fluid by showing contingencies and other scenarios you are showing the reader you understand this and it adds a layer of trust and believability to this section of your plan.

Next up we'll be looking at you and your team and how this can be a big part of making your business a good investment prospect. As usual any questions  please feel free to ask.

Starting a business - The Business Plan

Over the coming months, I'm going to be writing about the importance of business plans, how to go about creating business plans and finally how to take that step from business plan to running the business.

General overview

A Business plan is arguably the most important part of any new start up business, or for that matter any business at all. Why? I hear you ask! It gives your ideas substance and a logical framework with which to build your dream into a reality. Not only this but anyone wanting to invest will want to see it. It is the guide to your business.

There is a very famous saying:

Failing to Plan, is planning to Fail

This was said by Ben Franklin, Churchill and many others in some form or another. It really does apply to business plans. Did you know that 95% of businesses without a business plan fail... yes I know 87.567% of statistics are made up but feel free to go and verify this one. Without direction a new venture is likely to not succeed. Why start if you don't plan to succeed so get planning.

 Now you know why you need one, what exactly is it? A business plan is a working document (by that I mean you don't just write it once put it in that file and dust it off once every three years to show the bank when you want an overdraft or loan) It should be flexible, it should grow and change with the ever changing face of your business, it should reflect your business goals and finally but most importantly it should be current and up to date.

I won't go into detail over how to write one here as that is for future posts. I'll just leave you with this If you want your business to succeed you have to plan for success, you need targets and plans these can't be in your head they need to be recorded, so please start by just jotting down your business ideas, what is the general concept, who are your potential customers, what are your short, medium and long term goals.

I want to start a touring theatre company, which will supply theatre workshops to support the national curriculum. I want to deal with schools, local councils and government and social groups. I want to start in my local area probably with one troupe and once this is financially successful I'd like to branch out to other areas in the UK and eventually be the leading provider of TIE (Theatre in Education) for the UK. 

This is all your start needs to be it states what you want to be, it's main market and niche and some short and longer term goals. It is very basic and a top level overview of what you want to achieve, but it is a great starting point.

In the next blog we will build on the above and start talking about how we turn our vision into a business plan with substance.

Please feel free to ask me any questions you like by leaving a comment.

and check out businesslink.gov.uk which is a very useful site with lot's of information about starting a business including writing your business plans.

Texas Instruments Sales, Profits Fall On Weak Demand

Texas Instruments Inc.'s (TXN) third-quarter profit fell 30%, hurt by a broad slump in demand that the chip maker said should continue into the current period.

The company's revenue in the third quarter was higher than it expected, but it noted the quarter was softer than normal. While executives said on a conference call that the company is seeing "early signs of stabilization," they still expect the fourth quarter to be weak and below seasonal.

"Economic uncertainty continues to weigh on demand in almost every major market segment in which we operate," Chairman and Chief Executive Rich Templeton said in a press release.

TI, which makes chips used in everything from cellphones to industrial equipment, had seen a sharp rebound after the recession caused customers to virtually stop buying chips. But recent macroeconomic worries have led to softer demand for semiconductors and other tech products, weighing not only on consumer businesses but also starting to affect enterprise demand.

TI in August lowered its view for the third quarter, saying it was seeing broad-based weakness across its customers and markets. The company on Monday echoed those comments and provided lower-than-expected earnings guidance for the current quarter.

Shares, up 11% over the past 12 months through Monday's close, slipped 1.3% to $31.27 in after-hours trading. The stock had climbed 4% during the regular session trading, slightly better than the 3.4% gain in the Philadelphia SOX Semiconductor index.

Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon said weakness in the third and fourth quarters was broadly expected, with macroeconomic softness weighing on TI's business.

"Results weren't horrible versus where expectations were," Rasgon said. "Everyone expected it to be a messy quarter, but they actually beat this quarter."

Chief Financial Officer Kevin March said in an interview the market is beginning to bottom, with July seeing the sharpest drop in orders but the decline moderating in August and September. He said revenue hit a low in July and grew the following two months.

He said the market declines aren't driven by excess semiconductor inventory but noted customers are being cautious with orders on worries about the macroeconomic environment.

"Customers had been reducing their internal inventories, and that's causing us and our competitors in the semiconductor industry to see revenue decline more sharply than what our customers ard actually experiencing," he said.

Ron Slaymaker, vice president of investor relations, said during a conference call that the reduction in TI inventory by customers is largely past. He noted the company has a "reasonable" view of the fourth quarter but said demand beyond that is tied to what the macroeconomic environment is like.

TI predicted a fourth-quarter profit of 28 cents to 36 cents, including about 15 cents of acquisition-related costs, on revenue between $3.26 billion and $3.54 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 54 cents a share on revenue of $3.43 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. A year ago, TI reported fourth-quarter earnings of 78 cents a share on $3.53 billion in revenue.

TI has been benefiting in recent quarters from increased focus on its highly profitable analog and embedded-application chips, as well as its applications processor for smartphones, tablets and other devices. Last month, it closed a $6.5 billion deal for rival National Semiconductor, expanding its reach in the analog market.

The company's acquisition of National Semiconductor, while hurting fourth-quarter earnings by 15 cents a share, is helping buffer its revenue in the period, March said. At the midpoint of TI's guidance, sales are down about 2% sequentially with contributions from National Semiconductor's revenue. Taking that out, the midpoint would be down 10%, he said.

March added during a conference call that acquisition charges will total $260 million in the fourth quarter and then decline to about $150 million in the first quarter and $110 million in the second quarter. The charges should then fall by about $10 million per quarter until reaching $80 million, which is the amortization of intangibles amount. He said that would continue for about eight to 10 years.

March said smartphone demand remains "solid," but the company's other businesses are experiencing softness. Automotive customers are "being confronted by wary customers given the macroeconomic outlook," he said, while industrial demand is "weak." Communications infrastructure is slowing, while consumer and PC demand are below normal seasonality, March added.

For the latest quarter, TI reported a profit of $601 million, or 51 cents a share, down from $859 million, or 71 cents a share, a year earlier. The latest quarter included about 9 cents of costs tied to the acquisition. Revenue fell 7.3% to $3.47 billion.

The company last month forecast a per-share profit of 56 cents to 60 cents with revenue between $3.23 billion and $3.37 billion.

Gross margin narrowed to 50.3% from 54.5%.

Sales of analog chips, which provide almost half of total revenue, slipped 1.5% as earnings fell 20%. Revenue from the company's embedded processing segment declined 7% as earnings decreased 29%, while wireless sales dropped 24% amid lower demand for connectivity chips from key customers, pushing earnings down 57%.

FSA Announces Business Plan for 2011/12

The Financial Services Authorit has today published its business plan setting out its priorities for 2011/12, and the implications for the FSA's budget.

The document outlines the FSA's priorities and specific initiatives for the year ahead, which reflect the continuing challenges facing the financial services industry.

This year's business plan has been created against a backdrop of considerable change, with the UK government last year announcing plans for changes to the structure of financial services regulation in the UK.

The FSA will restructure into the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the existing FSA legal entity will become the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This change will occur at the end of 2012 or early 2013.

Until then the FSA will continue to deliver on its statutory objectives and implement the major initiatives that are already underway.

The key areas will include:

Maintaining ongoing supervision in a period of continued fragility in markets.

1. Continuing to influence the international and European policy forums, delivering, in particular, the new prudential regulatory agenda.

2. Implementing the current EU major policy initiatives, including Solvency II.

3. Delivering on the principal national sector initiatives to improve consumer protection: the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) and Mortgage Market Review (MMR).

4. Continuing to improve the FSA's operating systems and the quality of its staff.

5. Implementing the government's regulatory reform agenda.

Reflecting the extensive resources needed for the regulatory reform programme and the need to recognise the difficult economic circumstances for many firms, the FSA is not planning any new discretionary initiatives and is capping headcount at the current level.

The majority of the FSA's resources are utilised providing ongoing supervision. The two biggest policy initiatives are Solvency II and influencing the substantial international prudential reform agenda, especially in respect of Basel III.

The FSA continues to implement key areas of the substantial international regulatory reform agenda particularly in respect of the banking agenda set by the Basel Committee and ensuring that the wider policy agenda primarily mandated by the European Union is delivered.

You need a business plan before you start a business

You have heard it before. You need a business plan before you start a business. However, most entrepreneurs can't stand the thought of actually sitting down to write a business plan because it reminds them of the dreaded research papers they had to write in school.

As SBDC advisors, we help clients write their business plan. While going through the steps to write a business plan, I hear these excuses:
I don't have time for that.
What good is that going to do?
The bank is making me write one, otherwise I wouldn't.

Most of the time, clients never finish their full plan and open without one. Not fully thinking through how you will operate your new business is a precursor to a short-lived business. For all of you procrastinators and naysayers of the need for a business plan, I have good news for you. You truly may not need a business plan.

This, however, does not mean you get to start your business without working through how the components of your business will fit together. Because most people are visual, it makes sense for future entrepreneurs to make a "roadmap" of how they will operate their business. One tool we've recently found is the Business Model Canvas devised by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur. Read more on victoriaadvocate.com.

Model Business Plan Helps Hoop House Growers

Growers experimenting with production in hoop houses are looking for any tools – knowledge, skills or resources – possible to add to their toolboxes. One Project GREEEN-funded project provided them with a tool every small business needs to get on its feet – a sample business plan.

Although it may sound simple, a good business plan is essential to running a successful business, according to David Conner, assistant professor in the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics at the University of Vermont. Conner, a former assistant professor and research specialist with the C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at Michigan State University (MSU), built upon previous research to provide hoop house growers with a business plan that can be adjusted to meet their specific needs.

"John Biernbaum and Adam Montri were able to show that you can grow high quality vegetables all year round through their work with hoop houses at the MSU Student Organic Farm and on farms around Michigan," Conner explains. "They've been able to work with growers around the state through horticultural outreach. This project rounded out their work, filling the need to have some marketing and economics outreach."

Biernbaum is an MSU professor of horticulture and Montri is an outreach specialist in the MSU Department of Horticulture and for the MSU Student Organic Farm. As part of his project titled "Business Plan Development for Hoop Houses," Conner created a model plan that growers can complete using their own farm information. The plan also includes some best practices for being successful, such as marketing tips and the best crops to grow. Read more on michiganfarmer.com.

The Biggest Challenge in 2011

There is a Community Track, the main contest open to all South Florida residents, an FIU Track for students and alumni of that university, and a High School Track for grades 9-12. You do not need to have your business up and running to enter, but if you do, it can not be more than two years old. Each contest has its own set of prestigious judges. We have investors, executives, educators, consultants, bankers and small business loan specialists — most are entrepreneurs themselves, many of them several times over.

The judges will be looking for whether the business fills a real need in the marketplace, what value it brings to the customer, what sets it apart from the competition and its potential for expansion. They also want to see how you plan to market your product, your financial projections and how you intend to fund your startup costs. Make sure to make clear why you have the expertise to lead such a company and the expertise of your management team.

Yes, all this in three pages or less. Think of it as a meaty executive summary — just the highlights of what you would put in a full business plan. Contest Rules are on www.MiamiHerald.com/Challenge.

Judges will select the top three winners in each track, and the overall top-rated plan will be declared Challenge Champion. The top six finalists in the Community and FIU Tracks will also compete in the People’s Pick video contest, which last year drew more than 15,000 votes and even more page views. That’s great exposure for entrepreneurs. The winners, including the People’s Picks, will be profiled in a Business Monday cover story and are honored at a banquet, where they can meet and mingle with the judges.

Preparing Business Plan for 2011

At difficult times of budgetary constraint like these, it is inconceivable that so many GP surgeries do not prepare business plans to be agreed in advance with their partners and teams. Preparing a business plan is quite simple – it is the implementation that is hard. You might be surprised, but I advocate the following method of planning for the year ahead - you must adopt the same methods as for strategic planning for a commercial business, i.e. using What, Why, How, Who, Where, and When.

What?

Famous management guru Stephen Covey, who wrote best selling book ‘Seven habits of highly effective people’ and he emphasised the importance of ‘starting with the end in mind’ to have any chance of being effective.

If you do not decide in advance what exactly you are tying to achieve in the year ahead, how will you know when you have got there? In my experience, precious few surgeries plan ahead, they just appear to hope to do better than last year (whatever better means?)

Too many GPs seem to be happy leaving the planning for ‘others’ to do, preferring to get stuck into usual daily and monthly activity, what Michael Gerber (Author of E-Myth for Doctors) refers to as the ‘tyranny of routine’. They prefer to get stuck into the ‘how’ before having decided ‘what’ they want to actually achieve in the year ahead.

Let’s face it, very few surgeries even prepare a detailed financial budget – which is part of the reason why so many claims get missed by practice managers

In my firm, we have a model we recommend, and the first figure we ask to be entered is the profit the partners feel they should be generating for the work they do – that figure should be the first figure that goes onto any budget – not the income to be generated by the surgery.

This is fundamentally different to what most surgeries who plan (in my experience) actually do i.e. they list out their income and expenditure that they think might happen and then see what profit is left for them.

Psychologically, there is a big difference in the two methods – my way has been proven many times to work. It helps partners focus on what they have to do to achieve their desired profit – which after all, is the main reason why they should be doing the exercise each year.

Why?

Be very clear why you have chosen those goals or that figure for profit – is it realistic, and will all the partners be committed enough, wanting the profit hard enough, to make it happen?

If not, change it – this is meant to be a real life task, not simply a theoretical exercise to be ignored once it has been put to screen or paper

How?
Click here to find out more!

Once all the partners and team are clear and happy about all about your ‘what’ and ‘why’, you can decide ‘how’ you are going to make that desired outcome really happen.

Having listed your desired profit, break that down into quarterly figures and then monthly - if your practice manager is willing and able to monitor the results that frequently (which I believe they should).

Having done that, now summarise quarterly/monthly the totals under each ‘overhead expense category’ (e.g. wages, repairs, light and heat etc) that you expect to be incurring, provided nothing unexpected happens in the year ahead.

Now add in the expenditure on non-expense items like new equipment you hope to buy, that will not be paid for by the NHS, together with any loan repayments you need to make.

Working backwards, by adding the figure for the profit you require to the total of the expenses and other payments you think you are likely to have to cover, you will now have a figure for the income you need to generate to make that profit manifest itself.

This income should be split down into appropriate categories of income that you would normally expect to receive (e.g. global sum, rent, QOF, PBC, DES and LES) and this will then leave any unallocated balance of income to be generated from new sources of income, or increased income from existing sources.

If you need to generate more income, define where you are most likely to generate it and identify if you will incur any more costs in doing so.

Failing that, you will have to identify what costs can be reduced to achieve that all important profit figure the partners require and deserve.

Who/Where/When?

Do you need to change the make up of your team to be able to achieve your objectives – easier said than done with today’s increasingly inflexible employment laws? Include any desired changes in your business plan. Will you need any temporary financial assistance from your bank e.g. to finance an extension or refurbishments? If so, also include that in your business plan.

Small Business Confidence in Canada

The CFIB’s Business Barometer hit 69.3 in December, an increase from 64 in the previous month and the biggest month-over-month gain in 17 months. A gauge of confidence among small business owners hit a nine-month high in December, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business reported Wednesday — a sign, it says, that entrepreneurs believe the economy is finding “firmer footing” after stumbling into a soft patch in mid-2010.

Confidence among small business owners improved in 10 of 13 sectors through the month of December, compared to a month earlier. And while December is generally associated with improved retail results, the CFIB said the biggest improvements were recorded in manufacturing; natural resources; financial services, mostly real estate and insurance; and construction.

If there was one drawback, the survey indicated just 14% of business owners plan to add to full-time staff levels in the next three to four months, while another 14% plan to cut back. Meanwhile, 17% of businesses surveyed indicated they would cut back on part-time employment, with 70% maintaining present levels.

Jonathan Basile, economist at Credit Suisse, said the 69.3 reading in December is consistent with about 3% annualized GDP growth, and the fourth-quarter average of 66.7 corresponds to about 2.5% annualized growth over time — or better than the 1% expansion reported in the third quarter. An index level above 50 means owners expecting their businesses to be stronger in the next year outnumber those expecting weaker performance. According to past results, index levels normally range between 65 and 75 when the economy is growing. The December 2010 findings are based on 825 responses through a Web-based survey, and the findings are said to be statistically accurate to plus-or-minute 3.4 percentage points 19 times in 20. Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/

The Lauren Conrad Complete Business Plan

Lauren Conrad hopes that her new upcoming reality show will feed off her new businesses as well as feed off the show, a very crucial step for Lauren to take. Lauren’s ultimate goal is that her new ventures become a big, natural brand where Lauren won’t need to have cameras in front of her constantly, or cancel her show in other words.

Lauren’s fame started way back on Laguna Beach followed by The Hills where it’s made her a well-known brand to the millennial generation, with top-selling books and top sales at Kohl’s.

Being a good girl with relationship saga is what made Lauren Conrad a success on MTV without relying on sex-tapes and being friends with someone famous.

The Hills success had its’ drawbacks according to Lauren where she wasn’t seeing ancillary revenue from the show, or getting proper promotion of her original Lauren Conrad Collection, or Adam DiVello’s decision to edit out how The Hills success affected her life ultimately leading her to leave the show in 2009. Read more on The Lauren Conrad Business Plan. You can see another top news such as Paramore Start Work On New Album and Vanessa Hudgens is a Skin Care Sweetie.

Building a Financial Forecast for the Business Plan

This is not the easiest of tasks in creating a solid business plan. When creating a business plan however, it is essential to have a reasonable set of numbers. This is something often much easier done through using the latest in business plan software as much of the work and calculations are already done for you.

It is usually among the first things an investor, whether an angel investor or Venture capital firm looks at, it is where many of your initial answers to investor questions will come from, and yet it is the dependent variable or result of many critical business decisions made to get to this point.

The following is an abbreviated summary – a "walk through" the Income Statement. Some questions are used and some guidance given as to the types of considerations that should be made as you iteratively plan, forecast, edit and massage this spreadsheet hundreds of times in the coming months.
We will assume it is a product-oriented business. This drives certain items to be on the Income Statement as follows:

It all looks pretty standard. We usually only go out for three years. Who knows what it will really be like out there anyway? Hopefully you can show an operating breakeven in the third year or less. If not, then you should extend the period of time. Also depending on the business, you may want to add some unique line items to the P&L, but this should cover most of your expenses.


Revenue: This should be a list of the sources of revenue you anticipate over the plan period. Product sales, warranty and maintenance/upgrade fees, royalty income from licensing, NRE, consulting fees, and revenue-sharing income should there be any. For purposes of the basic income statement, we would probably put the detail of each of these line items in a backup spreadsheet, and only list the total revenue with subtotals for Total Product Revenue and Other revenues.


Cost of goods (COGs):
All costs on a unit basis for the products manufactured are to be included. If you are buying specific test equipment that may be going on consignment to the manufacturing subcontractor, that should probably go elsewhere. You would then include a capital equipment deprecation expense under operating expenses, or even below the operating expenses before taxes, but surely not in COGs. Sometimes, warranty support costs you may incur in the first year or two for a product are included before the Gross Margin line. This is debatable and you should probably have a good accountant look into this.
Depending on what your monthly average runrate of units to be shipped is, you may want to use a local manufacturer and then consider an offshore manufacturer for higher volumes. Even in the latter case, sometimes they have local onshore facilities and then transfer offshore when the volumes justify it. We would go with a local manufacturer until you have all the manufacturing bugs out of the product and then turn on the volume. Taking it offshore saves unit costs sometimes, but will certainly increase manufacturing management expense.

In the detail worksheet where you rollup the COGs, break them out for the number of units per product type, average selling price (ASP) per unit and so on. This is important when you have multiple product lines. You can always go back and rework one or more line items when you have more data without upsetting the whole worksheet. The result of all this then feeds into the Income Statement Summary sheet. Learning curves for price reductions for example are the highest on the semiconductor content portion. Prices may actually go up in some BOMs where the discrete component costs have reached maturation and the precious metals (tantalum capacitors) or market demand are driving prices back up. Software average selling prices (ASPs) always go down at varying rates – we've seen as much as 50-75% per year to as low as 5% per year or even flat - look at how high Microsoft Office has held prices over the last 5 years – a benefit of monopolism.


Gross Margins:
This should probably asymptote toward 20-25% in volume. Probably more like 60-70% initially but that should go down by year 2 to way under 50% unfortunately. You might want to check out some public companies that are in similar businesses already and use their P&L as an example of what is reasonable for you.


OPERATING EXPENSES
Here you list the kitchen sink as follows:


R&D
We break out R&D into the hardware and software components plus any external contracting as separates. You may even want to have separate lines for H/W and S/W contract engineering if you expect to have both. This is usually so you can track outside expenses and there may be some additional R&D tax credits so breaking them out might help later (see your accountant to see if this is still necessary).
On R&D we look to see how many person-hours are needed to complete the project, times their burdened monthly or annual rate (burdens of 50% usually will include all headcount-loaded facilities expenses less capital equipment per employee – PCs, shared printers etc.). If you just take payroll and add personnel benefits (insurances, employer's FICA, etc. it is more like 26-27%, maybe as high as 30% but no more. Travel and Entertainment (T&E) for engineering is usually fairly low – we figure about $2K/qtr. per senior engineer and zero for junior types- this covers customer visits and the one or two trade shows they attend per year.

Capital equipment per engineer is probably about $10K/engr./yr. unless you are buying specialized CAD S/W which can get way up there >$1M per department is not uncommon.
R&D as a percent of total expense will likely be 40-45% of total expenses in the early phases and settle into about 15-20% of revenues in the out years. Again look at some business models for comparison.
If you are doing NRE work, the revenues come in above the line and usually the engineering hours spent on your side are listed under "COGs" as a "manufacturing" expense. You can do this as a product company so long as it isn't a big part of your total income over the plan period. If it would be a significant percentage you would want to reorder your P&L somewhat.


Marketing
Sometimes the CFO will try to lump marketing and sales together. We hate this. They are two separate functions and how you balance resources between the two demands you separate them. For purposes of this P&L we have separated them. Marketing has staffing costs - salary times burden rates (same as for engineering). You might want to consider differences if they are in different states or countries, but we found even when dealing with Swedish and German groups, the deltas were not tremendous – but 5% can be a big number later. In the early years, it is not such a big deal.
Marketing costs to launch a company and product are important. They are non-periodic expenses and need to be planned for cashflow purposes especially. We would also build in the "ongoing" part of PR/marcom, collateral, website support, yadayadayada. Collateral costs are expensive. Capital equipment for a marketing/sales person usually will run only about $2K/person/qtr. with an initial $5K load upon hire. This of course discounts any really special tools needed. Capital equipment is usually scheduled separately and not in the P&L except for the capital equipment depreciation expense. Software usually gets written off as an expense item since most of it is much less than $1000 per package. This differs sometimes, but as a general rule, this is enough for now. T&E is about one trip every six weeks for the top marketing folks, once a quarter for others – this covers customer visits, trade shows, etc.
Any outside contracting you do in marketing should be included and counted separately.


Technical support
This lost child gets put in so many different places. We like to include it under Marketing initially because they are (or should be) the closest to the product via the sales channels. Later when life gets bigger you can move this to a separate organization or under Engineering or Manufacturing. This is mostly political – the key is to cover the costs and be able to look at it separately. This is often the kernel for a later full-scale tech support/customer service operation so it is good to see how it grows initially. There is a lot of variation on how much resource you should put here. We usually start with one or two people who can double-duty for marketing to create and give presentations, train initial sales people, keep the website happy, and write tech manuals if you're really lucky. Later, all these functions get split out into more compartmentalized pieces.


Warranty support refers to the costs and resources dedicated to tracking down returns from customers, getting them turned around back into the field, doing the hot swap for failed or suspected failed units, keeping the configuration control database up to date so you know what has been shipped to whom and at what rev. level.


Sales
This can also be called Business Development – fancy name for a bag carrier, but also at some point in the company's growth an important role to separate from the marketing efforts. Business development usually takes on the role of creating strategic relationships where sales channels or customers are involved. If the relationship has to do with a technology or a new product arena then it should be handled by the marketing grunts.
Here you include their base salaries and any bonus/draw/commission plans they have based on their performance – bookings, shipments, big deals closed, etc. Overhead and capital is about the same as for marketing; T&E is usually twice that of marketing.

G&A
The executive staff salaries, benefits etc. go here, plus any manufacturing management expenses not related to the unit cost of the product being sold. Also any facilities or other corporate costs that don't make sense to allocate to departments should be captured here. Legal fees are a good example. Others are building rent, insurances, office supplies, corporate jets and villas, and other essentials.
And guess what's left!!!

Profit Before Taxes (PBT)
PBT will undoubtedly have minus signs, parentheses or red ink involved initially, but it is important to see what all your decisions have done to your improving bottom line over time. The questions and answers they will drive are: when is operating breakeven? when do you begin to achieve your "success model" i.e., your target Revenue/GM/PBT as a successful business, and when will you need more cash, if at all. Usually the fund raising should start 6-9 months before you run out. Don't wait until the last moment where you might have to take bridge loans and other ugly financing alternatives.
We can forego thinking about Net Income for a while, although when profitable your loss carryforwards may start running out and you may actually have to pay taxes. You have arrived when that occurs.
We hope this is some help. It wasn't meant to be a tutorial but to help you think through some of the considerations as you build your financial plan. The financial plan should be a good tool to help you make decisions and be able to see what the results of those decisions turn out to be.

Why business planning should be ongoing

Most potential investors or lenders will want to see a business plan before they consider funding your business. Although many businesses are tempted to use their business plans solely for this purpose, a good plan should set the course of a business over its lifespan and with modern business plan software becoming ever more user friendly and sophisticated, the planning process is now faster and more effective than ever..

A business plan plays a key role in allocating resources throughout a business. It is a tool that can help you attract new funds or that you can use as a strategy document. A good business plan shows how you would use the bank loan or investment you are asking for. See our guide on how to use your business plan to get funding.

Ongoing business planning means that you can monitor whether you are achieving your business objectives. A business plan can be used as a tool to identify where you are now and in which direction you wish your business to grow. A business plan will also ensure that you meet certain key targets and manage business priorities.

You can maximise your chances of success by adopting a continuous and regular business planning cycle that keeps the plan up to date. This should include regular business planning meetings which involve key people from the business.

To find out more, see our guides on how to review your business performance and how to assess your options for growth.

If you regularly assess your performance against the plans and targets you have set, you are more likely to meet your objectives. Doing this can also signpost where and why you're going astray. Many businesses choose to assess progress every three or six months.

The assessment will also help you in discussions with banks, investors and even potential buyers of your business. Regular review is a good vehicle for showing direction and commitment to employees, customers and suppliers.

Defining your business' purpose in your business plan keeps you focused, inspires your employees and attracts customers.