Business plan - a path to success, Part 2

Business plans are breathing, living documents - a roadmap to success. You'll encounter detours along the way; embrace them and learn from them.

The Sales Strategy might also change. For example, your plan might have called for print advertising and direct mail, but you discovered that networking and referrals turned out to be the best way to secure sales. Your advertising budget will adjust positively with this scenario, but you might need an additional part-time employee to cover the time you’re attending networking meetings. The adjustments are a continuous project!

If your demographics prove to be different than anticipated, there might also be a need to adjust your pricing and services. Let’s consider a cleaning service, established to do weekly cleaning to the Boomer market. The advertising was directed at the Boomers, and you find that you are reaching exactly who you are targeting! But you find that most are calling to hire a cleaning service for their parents. The aging seniors would most likely need less frequency (monthly or quarterly), which could create a cash flow issue. Therefore, there might be a need for a different pricing structure. Refining your plan will make it a better path to success.

A business plan will help you see where you are and where you can go. It will help you determine if you are staying on track or if you need to refocus. Just like a brick path that needs constant care, the same is true for a business plan. You must secure loose ones, replace broken ones, pull weeds, and often widen and lengthen the entire path to handle additional traffic (customers, products, services).

This vital document will make your journey more enjoyable and more successful, but only if it is visited and revised often rather than sitting on a shelf collecting dust.