Your Business Plan:
Roadmap To
Success
Presented by:
Linnea Blair, Advisors On Target
February 1, 2012
Did You Plan Your Entry Into
Business?
Before starting your business did you:
 Do research?
 Set out your goals?
Or was it based on:
 Back-of-an-envelope calculations?
 Without benchmarks or time frames?
Why Did You Go Into
Business?
Usual reasons are:
 Independence - being your own boss
 Higher income prospects
 A better lifestyle with more free time
 The personal satisfaction of taking on a
challenge
 Building a future for your family
Have You Achieved Your
Goals?
Is the reality more like:
 Working long hours
 Stress
 Risks
 Less family time
 No vacations
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Full responsibility
Taxes
Bureaucracy
Bad debts
Constant minor
emergencies
Is Your Business Running
You?
Are you working IN the business, or ON it?
 Negatives are a constant feature
 Your business is out of control
 You don’t have time to look at the bigger
picture
Take Control Through
Business Planning
Developing a Business Plan
will develop your business
management knowledge.
 You will become a better
manager
 You will improve your
chances of business
success
If You Only Walk Long Enough...
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Deciding on which way to go
(using a strategy) depends on
knowing where you want to
get to (having goals)
Without a goal there is no
plan for getting anywhere –
you’re just doing a long walk
(maybe in circles)
What We’ll Cover Today
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What’s in a business plan
Why every business needs a business plan
How a business plan allows you to manage
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Using the plan to set and achieve business goals
Monitoring progress towards goals
How to prepare a business plan
How to use a business plan
What’s In A Business Plan
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Typical content (chapters) in a business plan:
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Executive Summary
Industry Analysis
Market Analysis
Competitive Analysis
Marketing Plan
Management Plan
Operating Plan
Financial Plan
Appendices And Exhibits
Don’t Only Start Ups Need A
Business Plan?
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A good business plan is
your most important
management tool
It’s an essential for both
start ups AND ongoing
businesses
Why Every Business Needs A
Business Plan
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Surviving competition and growing your
business, requires that you be a good manager
Managing involves having clear objectives,
understanding the market, managing your
money properly, as well as producing quality
products or services
Developing a business plan gives you the
information you need to MANAGE your business
How A Business Plan Works
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Describes your current situation - where you
are now
Describes how you see the business some
time in the future - where you want to get to
Describes your strategies for how you are
going to get there
Sets specific goals to be reached by
particular dates so you can track your
progress as you go
Business Profile –
Where You Are Now
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Provides a big picture view
of the business
Focuses on how good your
business idea is or how
saleable a product you
actually have
Where You Are Now –
Reality Check
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Being forced to focus
on issues provides a
reality check for your
business
Where Do You Want To Get To
– Setting Goals
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The profile section of the plan includes
information on where you want to get to in the
form of some specific goals
These goals are really important because
they will determine your whole business
strategy
Goals need to be based on a good grip on
reality
How Do You Get There –
Strategies
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Develop strategies (tactics) to make the goals
a reality
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This is where some really hard thinking is
necessary
May need more than one strategy per goal
How Do You Get There Milestones
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A strategy is made up of a number of
discrete steps
These steps are called milestones
because as you get each one done you
have reached another milestone towards
implementing the strategy
Modeling Strategies
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The same objective might be reached in a
number of ways
Each way (strategy) will require different
inputs and involve different costs
Developing a business plan will bring these
issues to light and provide the opportunity to
model out the consequences of choosing a
particular strategy
Strategy - Marketing And Sales
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For your business to be successful and
profitable you must have a clear understanding
of your customers, your product strengths and
the competition
The market analysis section of a business plan
examines all these things
Knowing them you can develop a detailed
explanation of your sales strategy, pricing plan,
proposed advertising and promotion activities,
and the product or service's benefits that then
becomes your marketing plan
Strategy - Finances
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The Finance section of the plan includes a
description of your detailed financial statements,
a financial statement analysis and your funding
requirements
Also includes projections that set forth the
projected timing of revenues and expenses to
show whether and how the business will meet its
obligations to vendors and others who provide
the business with goods or services
Projections can be tied directly to planned
operational results
Monitoring Progress
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‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it’
Monitoring means setting up a process to
measure the actual outcomes of your actions
against the results you had planned on
happening
This takes discipline but is an essential
ingredient to a successful business planning
process
Monitoring Milestones
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Each of those milestones you decided on should
have a timeline attached – a ‘to be completed by’
date
 An open ended milestone isn’t worth writing
down
Milestones may be scheduled to happen in a
sequence or in parallel
By setting dates you can gauge your progress and
compare your projections to actual
accomplishments
If a date is reached and the milestone isn’t ready
then you know it and can revise the plan
Monitoring Revenue - Actual
vs Planned Results
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Set financial goals and budgets and regularly
monitor for deviations between actual and
planned results
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These provide clues that you can use to tweak or
fine tune certain elements of the plan
Managing Business
Performance
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Stop operating according to the ‘savings jar’
approach
Amount of money left over isn’t a good
indicator of business viability
Only tracking how preset milestones are
being reached, or not, will alert you to
developing opportunities and threats
What Else Is A Business Plan
Good For
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Your business plan is your business’ resume and
operates in the same way as a personal resume
– it details your qualifications and experience to
bolster the confidence of others in your
capabilities, or rather those of your business,
how well it is doing and what it could be capable
of doing
It can come in useful for:
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Negotiating supplier arrangements
Arranging finance
Preparing A Business Plan
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Every business needs a unique plan but the basic
elements are the same in all business plans and so is
the basic process to create one
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Requires commitment to putting in the time and effort
necessary to collecting the data that and thinking
through your strategies
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That process doesn’t have to be complicated and the plan
needn’t be a very big document
You must be objective, critical and focused when doing it
The more effort taken to collect data and formulate
plans, the more beneficial and effective the business
plan will be
How To Do It
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The basic business planning process involves these
basic steps:
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Obtain an accurate financial and physical outline of the business
that objectively describes the current health of your business
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Describe in more detail the strengths and weaknesses of your
business
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Set out your personal and business goals for both the short and
long term
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Put in place the ‘to do’ action list which indicates when different
activities need to be started and finished
You may need some assistance, like your CPA or
business advisor
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Provide financial data
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Good for putting giving reality check
Business Plans Need To Be
Used
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A business plan is only useful if you use it
Make yours a “living” document
Planning Is A Process
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Circumstances change so a business plan
needs regular review
Typical triggers for review:
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Beginning of new financial period
You need financing, or additional financing
You have developed/are thinking of developing a
new product/introducing a new service
Significant change in the market (e.g. shifting
customer tastes, altered regulations)
Change in the scale of your business (taking on
extra team or a partner)
Conclusion
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While the preparation of a business plan may
not guarantee success…without one you are
taking a journey with only a vague destination
in mind and without a road map on how to get
there
A well developed plan that documents the
‘wheres’, ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of your business
will focus and direct your activity in
harnessing all the necessary resources to
achieve success
Your Business Plan – Roadmap to
Success Webinar Series
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4 Wednesdays in Feb-March - 4 In-Depth Classes
on Creating a Business Plan for your business!
Feb 22 – Your Business Plan: Your Business Model
Feb 29 – Your Business Plan: Your Financial Plan
Mar 7 – Your Business Plan: Your Marketplace
Mar 14 – Your Business Plan: Executive Summary –
plus Q&A Session
Sign up today:
advisorsontarget.com/events/business-plan-classes
Investment is just $147 for all 4 sessions if you sign
up by Feb 15th. ($197 after) All classes are
recorded so you can view and listen later
Connect with me online

I share information that we discover to help you market your
business online as well as other information that is relevant to
running a successful business

Connect on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/linneablair

Follow on Twitter http://twitter.com/AdvisorOnTarget

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Contact me for more information about
growing a sustainable business!
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Advisors On Target
Business Coaching & Marketing Consulting
Linnea Blair
Office: 619.291.3700
Email: Lblair@AdvisorsOnTarget.com
Web: AdvisorsOnTarget.com
Twitter: AdvisorOnTarget
Facebook: facebook.com/AdvisorsOnTarget
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/linneablair