Article 3 of 3 – Implementing Your Small Business Plan Your Plan Becomes a Reality

This is the 3rd article of our Business Planning series. I am assuming you have completed your plan and we are now ready to actually start using it. The most important thing about planning for any type of business, is having the ability to implement that plan into real goals that are achievable; daily, weekly and monthly. A big fat 60 page plan that is filed and forgotten is ridiculously useless. I never plan ahead further than a year. Business changes constantly as will the direction of where you are aiming to take your business. To allow yourself to be flexible as an entrepreneur, don’t plan too far ahead. Too much planning ahead can also lead to you becoming overwhelmed at the thought of trying to achieve so much. Keep it short and precise and achievable and there will be more chance that you will actually achieve it.

Ok, so now you have that plan we need to look at how to implement it.

There are 3 major areas of your plan that you are going to live by:

1. Budget and Projections

2. Management Process

3. Growth and Marketing If you implement nothing else but your goals for these areas, you will do just fine.

1. Budgeting and Projecting From your business plan you will have a profit and loss projection and budget for the year. Please print off and stick your projections and budget somewhere visible i.e. Right in front of where you work, on the fridge etc. Inside whatever accounting software you are going to use (we recommend Quickbooks), ensure that you have a budget that is easily accessible or possibly set up your system to allow you to view your live figures versus your budget in a live format. To begin with, do your accounts weekly so that each week you are sticking to your budget. The same goes with your projections. If you are not meeting your projected profit targets, take action immediately and create marketing ventures that will help you ensure that you reach your targets. Our ECourse offers you a smorgasbord of marketing and advertising options to choose from that you can implement each month; most of which are free.

2. Management Processes Within your plan you will have identified how you would like the business to run each day and what management processes and systems you are going to use to ensure your business runs smoothly. Just because you have outlined those processes in your plan doesn’t mean that you are automatically going to practice them diligently does it?

How do we make sure we are systemised? We simply take action. If you have staff; delegate these tasks immediately. If not, set a reminder once per month to ensure that your processes are working the best way that they possibly can.

Identify each month what takes the most of your time, what gives you the most grief and what can be done quicker and easier so that you can focus on driving your business. If emailing gives you grief, vow to set certain times per day or week to email or set up autoresponders. If you despise accounting and bookwork, hire someone else to do it. Chances are they will do a better job and in about half the time it takes you.

Whatever systems you use will need to be updated every now and then, the hard part is being diligent about allowing the time (an hour here and then) to actually take action towards refining them. Once you are in the habit of doing this it will become easy. Make the effort to write out a repetitive list of what will require the most work and ensure your staff are pro-active towards streamlining your business. The more you align your processes to allow yourself more time, the more time and freedom you will have.

Spare time and freedom = less stress = happy business manager.

For loads of great tips on how to streamline your systems check our ECourses by visitng the website.

3. Growth and Marketing This was the most important part of your plan and is the most important part of your business. So how are you going to implement all those brilliant marketing ideas? Firstly, start off with completing every single free marketing strategy that you can to drive people to your door. Passing out cards, networking, free directory listings, newsletters and many more of these types of activities will help you build your business as well as your business identity and credibility. Make it a habit to continue with free marketing principles each day.For a full list of Free Marketing Techniques visit our website. Once you are in the habit of allowing a certain time or day per week to work on your free marketing, if your budget allows you can start to add in paid marketing techniques. Add in one at a time so that you can see the results and split test every piece of marketing material that you can.

Every month you are going to construct a new one page marketing plan (there is one available as apart of our ECourse.)You will refer to your business plan for ideas and add in new techniques each month. You will be surprised how many of those brilliant ideas you might have forgotten about! Work with your budget to ensure that you are not overstepping your cash boundaries and slowly add in more and more techniques as the cashflow allows.

Remove what doesn’t work and replace it with something else. I personally have this simple plan stuck on my cork board and I make notes on how many leads and sales I can see each month. I find it easier to visually see where I am heading. A fancy marketing plan inside your laptop that never gets a look in is pointless. Use a whiteboard or a simple one page plan to delegate these activities to yourself or your staff each week.

Each week, allow one day to work solely on marketing. Even if on that day you can only delegate an hour of your time… 4 hours a month is better than nothing. As your business begins to grow and change so will your ideas about where you intend to take your business so again do not plan too far ahead. Work within realistic time frames and within your budget. Stick to your weekly routine and allow brain time for marketing and growth. Make it a habit to grow your business.

With your plan now in action you are going to see some amazing and positive changes take hold. You are now in the habit of budgeting, systemising and planning to grow your business. With all of these things in place there is no way that you can fail. Organisation need not be tedious. Allow yourself specific times each week to accomplish each task and give yourself short time frames. Once it’s done, forget about it and get on with enjoying your life.

A lot of entrepreneurs come up with what they think is a great idea and before testing their idea, they just start spending money. This is definitely the wrong approach. Slow and steady wins the day. If you have an idea and have fully developed it; then it is time to test it. “How do you do that?” you ask. It is quite simple. You go and find people who are or have been in a similar business and you ask for their opinion on your small business idea. And then listen intently to what they have to say.

A lot of people make the mistake of NOT doing this and they are the ones that go on to make those $10,000 mistakes. If you take the time to test your idea before putting your idea into motion and spending money, you will be able to catch yourself from making a big and costly mistake and also allow you to refine your concept before putting it into place. Find those people who will give you an objective opinion. They will have already made the mistakes you’ll make if you don’t listen to them.

So ask: “I am thinking of opening a ‘Something’ shop in ‘Somewhere ville’, what do you think?” I am sure they will have some questions and you better be prepared to answer them:

What products are you going to carry?
How much are you charging for them?
Who do you see as your competition?
What hours are you going to be open?
What experience do your employees need to have?
How much money do you think you’ll make?
Who are you customers?

They’ll challenge your assumptions and may make you feel a tad uncomfortable if you aren’t prepared. That is good. You want that. You want to be put into a position where you have to justify your decision to go into small business.

If it appears as if your initial idea may be a little “sketchy” in their opinion, go back and tweak it and then re-present it to them. Now what do they think? Every time you have to go back and change a few things, you are working through your concept and it is your concept on which your business plan is built. If people don’t embrace your idea because maybe the idea really doesn’t have ‘legs’, do not be scared to walk away. You can always come up with another idea. It will send you back to the drawing board and save you having to complete the business plan, as well as spending a whole bunch of money. Whew. Sorry about that. I can’t stress how important this stage is in building a business plan for small business.

Once you have settled on your concept and tested it, only now are you ready to do the real work. You have to take your idea and build a financial forecast and marketing strategy to see what sort of money you are going to make – yes, before you have even signed a lease or hired an employee.

Creating a professional business plan for your service business is just as important as the business itself. It is a sales tool as well as a possible means for getting financing. If you are a novice, there are many free templates on the internet. Search for “free business plan service business. Microsoft also has free templates on their website.

When you finish writing, carefully read and spell check your plan, look for and add keywords to make your plan easy to read and remember. Include all of the sections below then add some of your own.

Get help from Better Business Bureau
Get to know your local Better Business Bureau. Apply for Accreditation. Being accredited with the BBB shows you meet specific standards of truth and honesty, and automatically instills a trust for your customers. Be sure to include the BBB logo in all of your advertisements.

Small Business Association
The Small Business Administration has many free resources including “Free Online Courses”.

Mission Statement
The mission statement should be a very specific description of the reason you are doing this business. The mission statement should be a very specific description of the reason you are doing this business. For example:

“Our services are designed to help the elderly, disabled or anyone who needs a little assistance to stay in their home, be more independent of family and friends.”

Services Offered
List and describe the types of services and the cost of services you will provide. Include current and new services that will be offered in the future and the projected dates. This section should start with a summary of services followed by a very detailed list including: description, your cost to perform service, fees, and profit.

The People
This is a list and a short description of the each person who will be part of the business. Include a list of accomplishments if any of each person. Also include an organizational chart and detailed job descriptions.

Competition
Know who your competition is! Detail the advantages your business will have over theirs. What services do they offer? How much do they charge? This should be a detailed list of all the competition.

Market Research & Plan
Is there a market for your service? What will your costs be to get started? How has the industry changed in the last ten years? What are the new ideas and trends? What type of marketing will you do now, in one year?

Goals & Objectives
List short term and longer term goals. Where should the service business be in one year, in five years? Make a list of objectives and how they will be measured. These should include: finances, customer base, equipment and so on.

Financial Plan
Estimate the cost of doing business and how much income will be needed for the first, second and third years. This should be a detailed estimate that includes all income and expenses. You should have at least one year’s worth of cash in the bank before you get started if you plan to hire several employees. They expect to be paid no matter how much money the business makes or does not make.

Resource
List the required equipment both computerized and other equipment needed to provide the services. Include any equipment that you may need to rent or purchase. Also include personnel and financial needs.

Risks
Be sure to check into business insurance for you and any employees. Property, liability, workers compensation, and auto insurance are good places to start. Do a Google search on “Business Insurance” or check with the company who insures your home or car to get some referrals.

Key Issues
Are there any short or long term problems that will need to be resolved? Issues may be funding, business location, marketing or changes in the industry.