It’s the age old adage… fail to plan and plan to fail. Do you have a business plan?
I remember when I was elevating my first company Orchids Hideaway back in 2008. I was upsizing and up levelling the business moving from a home based business to a High Street premise, becoming a limited company and building a team.
My first big meeting was with the landlady whom I was going to be renting the top floor from. I was acquiring a business already in the premise so it was an established location but relationships in business are essential.
The second big meeting I had was with the bank - I was so nervous! I had designed my business plan, printed two copies (spritzed it like Elle in Legally Blonde 😆 hoping it would bring me good luck!) and set off for my official meeting with the Business Manager at Barclays Bank. A high street bank that offered business banking to small start up businesses.
Even though I had been in business already for 5 years my company was classified as a start up because I was now a limited company, registered with Companies House. I had my own company number, now I needed an official business banking account and payment facility.
A comprehensive business plan typically includes the following key components:
📑 Executive Summary:
A brief overview of the business concept, goals, and key elements of the plan.
📑 Company Description:
Detailed information about the business, its history, mission, vision, and legal structure.
📑 Market Analysis:
Research on the industry, target market, competitors, and market trends.
📑 Marketing and Sales Strategy:
Plans for promoting the business, reaching customers, and generating sales.
📑 Organization and Management:
Details about the organizational structure, management team, and key personnel.
📑 Product or Service Line:
Description of the products or services offered, including features, benefits, and pricing.
Remember to include each retail line stocked and treatment sections of your menu - manicures, makeup, massages etc.
📑 Funding Request:
If applicable, information on the funding needed, how it will be used, and potential sources of funding.
📑 Financial Projections:
Forecasted financial statements, including income statement, cash flow projection, and balance sheet.
📑 Appendix:
Additional information, such as resumes of key team members, market research data, and supporting documents.
Each section of a business plan is crucial for outlining the business idea, strategy, and financial projections to potential investors, partners, or stakeholders. This is useful in set up, scale and sale stages of business.
Team Business Plans
Each person is on their own path. And it's important to make sure each team member has personalised key performance indicators, incentives, and that all of their goals are bespoke.
This may sound like you’re creating extra work for yourself or your managers, but once you have policies and procedures in your business infrastructure, it’s just adapting them for each team member.
Creating an individual Business Plan for each team member. These can be completed through individual team member meetings, the discussion focussed on their ambitions within your business.
We use a Business Plan PowerPoint as a guide that’s discussed with the whole team to share our company ethos, goals, targets, and vision. Then this is broken down into each team, individual and made bespoke to include their WHY.
This needs to be in place along with standard operating policies and procedures to keep that team highly motivated.
During weekly team meeting, monthly mash ups and quarterly quota meetings we can then easily refer to each team members bespoke plan of ACTion.
This creates a cadence of motivation by keeping the scores on the board - their own bespoke ACTion Plan of accountability keeping that cadence, ensuring their time is spent building momentum in the business and keeping the team motivated.
Book a call with our team to discuss your business strategy. 📱 Business Success Strategy Session
Thank you for reading, if this was useful please 🩵 and if it could help someone in your network, please share.
Thank you ~ Diana x
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