Blog post by Parkville Area Chamber of Commerce member, Lisa Hatcher, of Legal Shield and GoSmallBiz.com…

This is the time of year business owners are looking back at the results of 2011 and forward to the goals of 2012. This is also a great time to dust off your business plan and make any revisions to it!

Don’t have a business plan?  I’ve never heard THAT before!

Consider this: according to the Small Business Administration statistics, seven out of ten new employer firms survive at least 2 years, half at least 5 years, and a third at least ten years.  So that means that after five years, only five out of ten businesses will still be around. The old adage, “If you fail to plan, plan to fail,” rings true…at least 50% of the time.

Where do you start with developing a business plan?  Here are a few questions to get you started:

• What is your purpose or reason for existing (mission statement)?
• What is the idea (product or service)?
• Who are your target customers?
• What people, facilities, and capital will you need?
• What are you financial projections?

If you already have a business plan, what should you do?  Here is a quick checklist to consider:

• Is your mission statement what you want it to be today? Are you living it every day?
• Is the product or service from your plan what you are providing today? If not, revise it.
• Are your target customers still your target customers? Did you find a target you didn’t think of when you originally wrote your plan?
• How is your operational plan playing out? Do you have the right people on the bus?
• How is your financial plan working? Are you making what you thought? And do you have your worse case, middle-of-the-road case, and your best case scenarios included?
• What is your exit strategy?

A business plan is a road map; it will to get you from where you are now to where you want to be in your business. It will definitely come in handy as a reference when you get into those critical times in your business when you can’t see the forest for the trees.

Take a step back. Read your business plan. And remember why you got into business in the first place!

Blog post by Parkville Area Chamber of Commerce member, Lisa Hatcher, of Legal Shield and GoSmallBiz.com…