Plan your business, don't stumble around in the dark........

Business planning is about results. You need to make the contents of your plan match your purpose. Don’t accept a standard outline just because it’s there.

What is a business plan?
A business plan is any plan that works for a business to look ahead, allocate resources, focus on key points, and prepare for problems and opportunities.

Unfortunately, many people think of business plans only for starting a new business or applying for business loans. But they are also vital for running a business, whether or not the business needs new loans or new investments. Businesses need plans to optimize growth and development according to priorities.

What’s a startup plan? 
A simple startup plan includes a summary, mission statement, keys to success, market analysis, and break-even analysis. This kind of plan is good for deciding whether or not to proceed with a plan, to tell if there is a business worth pursuing, but it is not enough to run a business with.

Is there a standard business plan? 
A normal business plan (one that follows the advice of business experts) includes a standard set of elements, as shown below. Plan formats and outlines vary, but generally a plan will include components such as descriptions of the company, product or service, market, forecasts, management team, and financial analysis.

Your plan will depend on your specific situation. For example, description of the management team is very important for investors while financial history is most important for banks. However, if you’re developing a plan for internal use only, you may not need to include all the background details that you already know. Make your plan match its purpose.

What is most important in a plan? 
It depends on the case, but usually it’s the cash flow analysis and specific implementation details.

Cash flow is both vital to a company and hard to follow. Cash is usually misunderstood as profits, and they are different. Profits don’t guarantee cash in the bank. Lots of profitable companies go under because of cash flow problems. It just isn’t intuitive.

Implementation details are what make things happen. Your brilliant strategies and beautifully formatted planning documents are just theory unless you assign responsibilities, with dates and budgets, follow up with those responsible, and track results. Business plans are really about getting results and improving your company.

Can you suggest a standard outline? 
If you have the main components, the order doesn’t matter that much, but here’s the outline order we suggest in Business Plan Pro software:

1. Executive Summary: Write this last. It’s just a page or two of highlights.
2. Company Description: Legal establishment, history, start-up plans, etc.
3. Product or Service: Describe what you’re selling. Focus on customer benefits.
4. Market Analysis: You need to know your market, customer needs, where they are, how to reach them, etc.
5. Strategy and Implementation: Be specific. Include management responsibilities with dates and budget.
6. Management Team: Include backgrounds of key members of the team, personnel strategy, and details.
7. Financial Plan: Include profit and loss, cash flow, balance sheet, break-even analysis, assumptions, business ratios, etc.

Sound like a lot? Well, Mokyva is here to help. We can walk you through writing your business plan, we can take your idea and turn it into a complete business plan ready for review and implementation, or we can review the plan you have already written. Contact us now and let us know how we can help you build your business!

Mokyva Technology Solutions

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"Building better businesses one client at time by making technology simple"

Seven Tips for Marketing your Small Business

Here are some tips that may help make marketing your small business a little easier:

1. Try not to market your small business like a "big" business. Design your advertising to produce sales now! Don't try to focus on creating large scale awareness about your business. Target your market and make your advertising appealing to them. Try giving customers an incentive for choosing your business over another. Including an "offer" may help make it easier for clients to respond to your ads.

2. Strip it down, make it reasonable. Believe it or not, there are potential clients out there that look for price over quality. They may not want to pay the "price" so to speak, for quality work. To entice these types of customers, develop a stripped down version of the products and/or services you offer. Make the prices affordable or budget friendly.


3. On the flip side! Offer a premium price for your customers. Even in this fledgling economy, customers are still willing to pay premium prices for quality. You can boost sales and revenue by offering premium services to customers. You can even package some of your services into a premium package that would appeal to customers.

4.Think outside of the box. Try unconventional methods to market your business to clients. Place you best, small ad on a post card and mail it out to your target market. This can be a great revenue booster and an inexpensive way too market your products or services.

5. Team up. Partner with another small business owners and market your products and services together. Try and find a business that offers services that compliment yours and market them as a package. This will drive more customers to your business and that of your partner because they will have a sense that they are getting a complete package.

6. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! Reduce the size of your ads so that you can market them in multiple publications without increasing the amount of your advertising budget. Reuse your branding materials, this will allow the presence of your business to remain memorable. Recycle! keep in contact with previous clients and be sure to continue to market to them, previous clients are your best resource.

7. Strike up a deal... Create special marketing strategies to target previous customers. Offer them discounts, specials or add on services. This will entice them to keep coming back. Not only that, they will be sure to talk you up to others in their circle. Word of mouth is always the best business tool, especially positive referrals.

These are great tips for small business owners that are looking for ways to increase their customer base. But..... This is just the beginning. There are many more factors that go into a successful marketing plan. That's where we come in! Mokyva can help you to build your brand and increase your presence in the markets you serve. Check us out and see what we can do for you! Make sure that you inquire about our special of the month and the current offers for new clients.

Mokyva Technology Solutions

www.mokyva.net

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"Building better businesses one client at time by making technology simple"