Build a Business Plan in 90 Days

Forget the cookie-cutter templates. If you want to produce value, a business plan should be a roadmap to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

A solid business plan prepares you for obstacles, surprises, roadblocks, and hidden traps.

The plan has to be vibrant. Make it dynamic, useful, cover every facet of action. Building your business plan can be fun.

You should refresh your business plan each year, in a stable company do a complete re-write every five years.

A start-up business plan will differ from a merger, expansion, or another reorganization. Any manager can convert these steps to a template. But do not start with a template. This is the finishing step, not the beginning.

Here are the six steps we follow at Eagles’ Wings Business Coaching to walk with you as you develop your business plan:

1. Define the Product or Service

Be as detailed as necessary to clearly describe, define the product or product lines that will provide eighty percent of your revenue. Explain your pricing structure.

2. Describe the Customers

It is significant here that you do not restrict yourself to the offerings and limitations of your product. Take time to identify and describe the customers and clients that appeal to you. Representing your ideal clients should generate a level of excitement. These are the customers who will motivate you to provide the best product and service possible.

3. Build a Marketing Plan

While the products and customers are fresh in your mind, start building marketing plan. Where can you find your customers? What industry, community or other groups draw significant percentages of your target customers? Who do they follow on social media? Again profiling and stereotyping are entirely acceptable, even desirable.

4. Draw the Organizational Chart

Identify each position. Imagine your organization fully operational. Describe, in detail, the role, responsibilities, and duties for yourself and each manager reporting directly to you. Define and specify the measures you will use to monitor their outcomes. These represent your leadership team. While the focus on your organizational chart is still fresh in your mind, assign an annual wage expectation to each job title. You will need this information for the next section.

5. Financial Analysis

Now that we’ve gathered the information, it’s time to tell your story. Now you are ready to select and implement a template. You can use any template or format that you find appealing. Remember your intended audience defines your template.

6. Implement

Ok, now you have a completed business plan. At least 2/3rds of businesses place their business plans on a shelf and pat themselves on the back for another task completed. Not you. You are in the top 10%. You are going to check your progress against your milestones weekly and no less often than monthly. You will measure your leadership team against their metrics, have them add full descriptions with metrics for each of their hires, and require the same from any they supervise. As a result, you will realize results and rewards even as many in your industry falter. So enjoy your business plan, creating it, implementing it, and reaping its benefits.

Give us your name and contact information for the complete 6 Steps to Creating a Dynamic Business Plan Guide.