Of the 10 chapters in the ‘Starting a Business’ FT Guide, one of the largest and most in-depth chapters is Planning Your Business (the other is Marketing). The reason for this is that without proper planning you have no idea whether your business will be a success – you lack direction, lack strategy and lack effective time management. After all as they say, ‘if you fail to plan, you may as well plan to fail’…
A daunting prospect, all this planning, but it should represent a momentous time in your business on the whole – it’s the time when your dreams, ideas and desires begin to take shape and form a tangible, actionable plan for making it all happen, so it’s worth the extra time in a chapter…
Planning your business in a nutshell
If you’re not familiar with my content already, this is a good time to introduce you to the ‘step change’. It’s a method of tackling growth through taking smaller actionable steps, bringing a far-distant goal within easy reach, and planning your business is full of actionable steps you can implement as you read.
Here are your steps, in summary:
- Where are you going and how will you get there? Set your goal, even if it’s too far away for now
- Who will you meet along the way? Customers, supporters, suppliers
- Understand your customer avatar – including their pain, problem, fear, want, need or desire
- Ask yourself ‘why’? Why would they buy from you, why should they care about you, why are you different/better than anyone else?
- Do your market research. Make absolutely sure there is one, and position yourself within it
- Get familiar with the Six Pillars of Business: Vision | People | Data | Traction | Systems & Processes | Obstacles.
And then, and only then, you’re ready to write your business plan…
What should go into a business plan?
The first thing to understand about a business plan is that it is yours – not the bank manager’s, not the marketing strategist’s – yours. And it can change; it is not set in stone nor there to beat you back on track if you waiver…
Your business plan can be as detailed or as simple as you need it to be depending on the size of your business. It also depends on what stage your business is already at. Try using the one page Business Model Canvas as a trusted strategic tool to get you started. It consists of nine building blocks to help you consider your offering and how it will benefit customers.
The primary block to be addressed is ‘What is your value proposition?
What are you offering, to whom and why? You’ve worked out the pain points – here is where you identify the solutions. Your value proposition is your differentiator or USP (unique selling point), it highlights your value to customers, the benefits of working with you and outlines your services/products with crystal clarity. You can write this value proposition with your partners and share it with your sales and marketing teams, your employees and even your friends and family – be proud of it!
The ‘customer’ blocks tackle the questions of who they are, how you will communicate with them, when and where – for example, will you talk to your customers in person, on the phone, via social media, or all of the above? How will you attract your customers and using which channels?
The ‘key’ blocks relate to partners, activities and resources that are crucial to the success of your business. Who else makes up the structure of your business? Are they internal such as those on your payroll, or external such as part of your supply chain or support network? Who will step in if you are taken ill or go on holiday, and are your processes set up for them to easily take over for you? These things alongside your financing and physical assets are your key resources – are they up to date, easy to teach and open to review for improvement? And what key activities will you undertake to deliver your value proposition?
Then there’s cost structure and revenue streams. These blocks address the money in your business. What costs are essential to ensure your business runs? Accountant, marketing, premises, machinery…? And how much will your customers pay you to manage all of this and the delivery on your value proposition? How will they pay you and when?
Planning your business has the potential to hijack your time – there’s a reason it’s one of the meatiest chapters in the book – so it’s also important to make sure you manage that effectively too.
Managing your time when planning your business
‘There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing’ Brian Tracy, Eat That Frog
Managing your time is really a question of how you use your hours to the best of your ability and for the greatest impact.
Tip: Reflect on your time at the end of the day, month or reporting period. It’s important to see exactly how you spent your time and look at whether your activities really paid off.
There’s more advice on managing your time in my blog, ‘Seven Tips for Managing Your Time’.
Chapter three, Planning Your Business goes into further detail on branding, insurances, legal considerations, IT, premises, investment, health and safety, how to structure your business and pay tax, employees and HMRC and of course how to look after your employees.
The very last words in this chapter, as in all of them are the key points to takeaway, and what I wish I knew before I started my first business. In this case it is, time is your most valuable asset. You can always make more money, but you will never get your time back. Be clear on how you should be spending your time and get comfortable saying ‘no’ to things that don’t serve your purpose.
A Financial Times Guide to Starting a Business, The Comprehensive Guide for Entrepreneurs is available to buy now from the outlets below. I will be summarizing all the chapters in my blog, but in the meantime, if you’d like to discuss any of the topics contained within, please do give me a call or send me a message to arrange a complimentary business support call.
Amazon | Blackwells | Waterstones