Business Plan Writer's Blog

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Much of business planning - especially when going out and trying to find leads, get seen by buyers, asking for credit terms etc – means making yourself vulnerable to a refusal.

Business planning will put you in many situations where the other person has the power to say “No” – but also – the power to say “Yes”.

If you don’t put yourself in these situations then you will never gather together enough “Yes’s” to start or relaunch your business.

So, look on rejections as an inevitable part of getting “Yes” answers, and even try to figure out your ‘hit rate’ (maybe 3 “No’s” to one “Yes”? I don’t know, depends on your business …) – then give yourself a target of getting so many rejections (and “Yes’s”) per week.

This means (if you can take this philosophy onboard) that each time you get a “No” you will not take it personally and it will galvanise you to getting another “No” because you know that pretty soon you will get a “Yes”

And the more “Yes’s” you get the better.

Good luck in your business planning!

It can be very easy to lose sight of why a business plan is being created, especially if it takes a long time to put together.

If each of us had our own personal coach that would be fantastic, he or she would help us remember why we started, what it was we wanted to achieve, put today’s tasks into perspective and help us stay focused.

For those of us who are not in this position there is something we can do – we can be our own motivational coach (kind of) – by creating a reminder to ourselves of WHY we are writing a business plan and sticking it up somewhere where we will see it and notice it very often.

This reminder should not be fancy – have a look at my Business Plan Goal Reminder to use as a template – and I recommend you keep it as short and focused at possible. Actually, the process of writing down the core reasons why you are writing a business plan is very good thing for you to do…

As to good locations for your reminder: on your fridge-door, on/beside your bathroom mirror, the dashboard of your car, inside your briefcase, on your desk, by your washing-up sink…

And of course if things change you should keep your reminder fresh and relevant.

So, preparing a reminder is great in helping you focus on the real reasons why you are writing a business plan (e.g. not just to keep your bank manager happy) and it is also great in keeping you focused as time goes by.

One final point; if so much changes that you get to the stage where there really is no point in carrying on with your business plan – then of course stop – at least you will know that stopping was nothing to do with lack of motivation or you not trying hard enough.

That’s it and good luck in your business planning!

When writing your business plan (especially in the early stages) you may feel overwhelmed by all the things you don’t know – just too many questions and no answers! It feels daunting and a long long way from having a finished business plan: you don’t know the cost of this, the cost of that, or how much you should charge for something else … is this a reason to stop business planning? I would say definately not.

Business planning is much more than writing a document or working on projected figures – it is about preparing for the future – and ESPECIALLY in the early stages you will have more questions than answers – this is not a bad thing, it is a very good thing because the act of going out and finding anwers to these questions (and then knitting them together in a business plan document) is at the heart of business planning.

Actually, I would go as far as to say that if the business planning process did not raise lots of questions then something is not going right.

So, if you can’t write anymore in your plan because you need to find out stuff – good! Go and get those answers, and if those answers raise further questions then – you got it – go and get those answers – and so on, making sure you note down what you are doing (because you WILL forget the details) and then include your answers and questions in your business plan.

How should you include these questions and answers? lets take an example of an entrepreneur working on her business plan; at some stage she realises she doesn’t know how much rent to enter for her boutique shop (this is the question), so she goes out and finds out how much the rent will be on the premises she has had her eye on (this is the answer). She then returns to her business plan and enters the rental figure and in the ‘assumptions’ that accompany her figures details where these figures come from.

What if the question-answer cycle generated more questions? Let us continue with the above example; it occurs to our entrepreneur that there are other premises she could consider (which raises more question-answer cycles) as well as considerations of how she should choose between them (more question-answer cycles) which should lead her back to her target market – and if she is not solid on this she should start yet another question-answer cycle to nail down what her target market is!

So, not knowing what the answers are is no reason to stop planning – quite the reverse!

Finally, because these answers are so valuable to you, keep a note of them – in your draft business plan document or in an associated document – then, answer them one by one, include the results in your business plan and when you have no more questions your business plan is done (until you show it to someone else who with any luck will be able to uncover some more questions for you…)

Good luck in your business planning!

When writing your business plan you sometimes may feel like you can’t do any more because you are waiting to hear back from:

• a prospective supplier
• a prospective investor/funder
• a possible landlord
• a potential customer
• other person or organisation who you would like to hear from…

In just about every case I’ve heard this reason to pause a business plan it has been used as an excuse. Very often the writer(s) didn’t realise they were using it as an excuse, they thought they were doing the right thing – but they weren’t and this is why.

Firstly, is there really nothing else that needs doing?

Is there really nothing you could be getting on with while waiting? No research into customers, suppliers, competitors, operations that could be improved? No drafting of sections or costings that remain undone?

Secondly, make allowances and carry on

You may well say “but we can’t carry on because what (for example, supplier xyz) says will impact on the business plan and there is no point to do anymore until we hear from them”.

Wanting to hear back from another party is very common – and it is also very common to be waiting to hear back from MANY different parties as your write your business plan.

If you waited for each of them in turn you would never finish your business plan – what you need is a way to carry on sensibly whilst taking into account your current uncertainty.

This is how you you can move forward whilst waiting to hear back from, for example, supplier xyz on what credit terms he will give you:

In the place in your business plan where you would write about supplier xyz’s decision, include a section explaining the situation and what you predict the answer will be. This text will act as a marker allowing you to carry on as if your prediction of the result is in fact true – if it turns out later that you were wrong then you will have to edit what your wrote and carry on (perhaps with a different supplier or some other solution).

While you are making changes to your business plan that could be affected by what supplier xyz would say, make a note of where these changes are so that when you eventually do hear from supplier xyz you can go back and edit your business plan quickly without having to search for where you made changes.

Doing this will mean you will not lose momentum (very important) and will let you keep going whilst waiting to hear back from lots of different parties. Actually, just starting off the above process is usually enough to prompt other things that need doing on the plan…

Either way you will win. If your prediction is correct you will be further ahead in your business plan than you would have been had you done nothing; if your prediction is wrong then editing what you wrote will still leave you ahead compared to having to write everything from scratch.

Thirdly, who is in charge here? Don’t give away control of your business plan

Who is in control of your business plan? you or all the different suppliers/investors/others with whom you have to deal? Who will be running your business – you or them? It is your business plan so if somebody is being obstructive then find a way to deal with it, or find somebody else.

Fourthly, keep on keeping on…

One of the dangers of waiting for somebody else’s answer is that you will get into the habit of not working on your business plan. Once this happens to get going again – so be very careful in giving yourself a break – make sure a break doesn’t turn into a permantent stop.

That’s it – how would you advise them? Have you ever been in this situation?