Driving home recently, I saw a sign that made me look twice. It said "Failing to plan is planning to fail." The business that posted it is called Rocky Mountain Tranquility Center. Two years ago, this business opened their waterscape business in Loveland, Colorado. They had a simple idea to provide a better selection of materials and improved technology for people who want to install water features at their home or business. This company opened well, generated a lot of interest and it has been getting better ever since. They keep topping themselves, developing greater expertise, better displays and a greater customer base and word of mouth. It's inspirational for me to see companies that have found a product that people want and to watch them grow when they execute the concept well.

While we did not do their business plan, it's easy to see that they must have done it right. Our company, Venture Consulting Corporation, does very specialized business plans for businesses that really want to succeed. It's an expensive service and one that requires dedication and effort from our clients. Although most business plans are written specifically to qualify for financing, the ones that we develop have the goal of increasing chances for success and improving the profits for our successful clients. Qualifying for grants, loans and investments is more likely to flow from doing the groundwork and preparing for success rather than putting together projections that will qualify you to submit for financing.

One of the reasons why we started Small Business Bytes is to share our training and experience with people who would find it difficult to justify paying for our services. That's especially true if you're starting small. You need us before you can afford us. We want you to have the same opportunity to succeed that we give to our professional service clients. So we decided that the best way to make it happen would be by giving you the tools and understanding so that you can do it yourself.

Many people get discouraged when they consider business planning activities. Doing it right involves work and takes time away from your other tasks. A lot of people can't find the time to do it in one burst of activity. For that reason, we're breaking this business plan tutorial into nine sections so that you can pace yourself and make reasonable progress while still taking care of everything else you do. We'll be covering:

1. Product or Service and Business Description
2. Know Your Customers
3. Market Research
4. Competitive Analysis
5. Financial Projections
6. Management: Acquiring the team you need.
7. Marketing Plan
8. Exit Strategies
9. Executive Summary

Product or Service and Business Description

In order to have a business, you have to sell something and make money. If you don't do that, you won't be in business for long. Do you know what you are going to sell? If not, go to our list of example businesses to browse and consider your options. We'll be adding more later because that's one of the top requests we've had from our readers. So just consider this to be a starting point.

We always discuss what our clients want to get out of their business as the very first thing to consider.

When you find something you think will meet your personal and business goals, it's time to sit down and write a description of your business. Thinking about what you've decided to offer, start by answering the following questions. 

1. Who are you? What strengths do you have? What parts of this business can you do better than most other people or companies? What things are you okay at but not outstanding? Finally, which areas are you weak in? Is it something that can be corrected or are you going to need to find someone else to do it? (In many cases, it's a good idea to outsource these things, like payroll services, benefits, taxes, so that you can concentrate on the core of your business. That's where you're going to make money!)
2. What resources do you have? Skills, experience, education? Who do you know that can help you? What kind of assets and income do you have?
3. What is your product going to be? Or what services are you going to offer? Write down a full description of what you are going to be selling.
4. How are your customers going to see your products or services? What kind of quality will you offer? Speed? Are you going to offer something for everyone or only for a specific target niche of customers?
5. What kind of pricing do you plan? Are you going to offer a premium product for a premium price? Offer a mass market product at a popular price? Are you going to undercut competitors' prices?
6. Who needs your products or services? Or who wants them? Why can you do a better job of satisifying their needs than is currently being done?
7. Write down an overview of your industry.
8. What is your company like? Or what will it be like?
9. Why is your business going to succeed?

Take this information and condense it into two section description of your product or service and what your business is going to be. These sections should take up no more than two pages. Section one is the description of the products or services you will offer. Section two is a description of how your business is going to function.

We've broken this down so that if you know your business, you should be able to give short answers to these questions in two hours or less. If you don't know the answers now, it's a good time to work on them. This groundwork will significantly reduce your business risks and set a strong foundation for higher profits and a more pleasant and productive business.