You might be thinking of approaching a Bank for financing to help your business. The Manager may not have seen you if you haven’t yet. He will ask for your Business Plan.
Maybe you don’t believe that planning is necessary. If so, here are the main benefits to you and your business.
1. You will never communicate your vision for the company as effectively as a well-written Business plan, regardless of how great you are at communicating. It gives you a clear idea of your goals. It helps you express your ideas more clearly.
2. Too often, business owners try to sell the idea verbally. The Manager at the Bank is not any wiser at the end than he was at first. Many of these requests can be guessed!
3. A Business Plan can help you and the Bank convince each other of the project’s viability and feasibility. It’s important to know all facts so you can clarify the key issues.
4. The fact that business owners who plan ahead come across as more ambitious and focused is undisputed. A well-prepared Business Plan will show that you have vision, and that you know exactly what you want.
5. You will never see the pitfalls and stumbling blocks that can prevent you from achieving your goals. Your mind will never be clear if it is constantly churning with ideas GST Registration in Lucknow. You must put down all your ideas in writing. You might end up going in a completely new direction, abandoning your idea or taking another route. It’s not an ideal choice, but it is what you would prefer. Loss of hard capital or an opportunity to rethink your ideas?
6. It’s a great way to keep track of your progress toward the objectives you set. We will be covering objective setting shortly. If you check your progress against your plan you can see if you’re moving away from what you originally intended and you will know what to do.
7. If you don’t have this check in, imagine what could happen to your business if there was a sudden change in direction, or slippage, that is not noticed. It may be that you are wrong about your original vision, but acknowledging it allows you to change your course in an organized, controlled and structured manner.
8. Every action has a consequence. A Plan helps to make those consequences clearer. This allows you to plan ahead so that you are better equipped to deal with the challenges of self-employment. This is something “mental planning” cannot achieve.
9. It may be that you are able to put your thoughts down on paper and realize that there is a greater demand for your product. You might also find out that your competitor’s products and services are worth more research. Further research can help you avoid costly errors or reveal a hidden advantage that you have not known about.
10. You will need a plan to determine how much money is required to make an idea succeed. While you may know what your budget is, you may not be aware that you will need an overdraft limit and a loan to pay for your equipment. Don’t be alarmed if the mere mention of Cash Flow Forecasts makes you sweaty. I will show you how to prepare one later in this book.
