Business planning

As we begin a new year and new quarter, business owners across  the world are writing their plans for the days, weeks, months, and indeed the year ahead. The are such a wide variety of reactions to this task – with the following questions often being asked:

🤔 “What is a business plan?”

🤔 “Do I need a business plan?”

🤔 “Why should I write a business plan?”

I’ve even come across people who have Googled, “Business Plan template for beginners” and simply downloaded what they found, and made amendments. These are NOT unreasonable things to be wondering, and I’ve met quite a number of MDs and CEOs who have rejected the very idea of writing one, as a frivolous and “box-ticking” exercise, given that they’ve been in business for X number of years and never once needed to use one.

Why is a business plan important?

For the simplest of analogies, consider the last time you got into your car and turned the engine on. The next steps after that point would have been one of a small range of options: 1) You knew where you were going and how to get there, so you just got on with it; 2) You knew where you were going, but not how to get there, so you used Google Maps / what.three.words / something similar to help you along the way (God forbid you actually got a map out – it’s 2023!); or, 3) You got into your car with no idea where you were going, no idea how to get to this unknown place, and no way of finding out either.

Have you ever done number 3? Aimless driving, with no destination and no directions? If you have done, then it was probably back when fuel prices were far lower and you simply fancied, “Going for a drive” as a straightforward leisure activity. However, ask yourself this question: Are you running your business for fun, or do you want it to get somewhere?

Even if you have a pretty thorough grasp in your head of where you want your business to be in 3 / 6 / 12 months, and even 5, 10 or 20 years’ time, the power of writing down your plan crystallises your thoughts, focuses your attention and energy, and essentially, will form part of communicating your direction and strategies to the team around you, who will help you deliver this plan.

Why would I write a business plan?

Ultimately, planning is “Preparation on purpose“. If you don’t have a vision of where you want to get to (and if you need inspiring, here‘s a fantastic video from James Vincent to get you motivated!) then that exposes a possible gap in your whole business ethos – do you know why you do what you do? Why your business exists? Why people need you to do what you do, or make what you make? If not, then there is no way to “get out the map” and start to think about how to get to where you want to be. Nothing else matters quite so much as knowing your WHY.

Help writing a business plan

On January 10th, the whole ActionCOACH Exeter community of business owners gather together again for a whole day of planning, hosted by the wonderful Future Skills Centre. The first one of the year will have a heavy focus on “Alignment” – making sure that our business goals and our own personal goals match up. If they don’t, then we are being pulled in different directions, and the business that we own and run becomes a “job” that exists to facilitate our personal lives. The two should be perfectly aligned, so that “Being in business gives you more life” – the key phrase of the founder of ActionCOACH, Brad Sugars.

If you are interested in joining for the day, please do get in touch and we can arrange a space for you – we are already a group of 20+ and every one of us a learner, ready to give newcomers a warm welcome.

Want to know more about ActionCOACH Exeter? Take a look at some of our Business Courses in Exeter here.