Article Contributed by Patrick Del Rosario
When you’re just starting out, one of the biggest pieces of advice you will receive is to create a business plan. Your business plan will guide your new venture. With a business plan, you will be on track for success, right? After all, you have a plan in place so what could go wrong?
While it is a good idea to have a plan, many entrepreneurs find that their plan is not as effective as they thought. Ideas go off course, better opportunities arise, and some tasks simply require more time and focus than first thought. Without following the original plan, the risk of failure seems greater. It becomes easier to get distracted and business goals continue to be pushed back each month.
What went wrong?
Here are the top business plan mistakes entrepreneurs make that inhibits their ability to grow and thrive.
- Your business plan lacked detail – Businesses are multi-faceted and without acknowledging each detail of the company, you could leave out critical aspects for your business growth. Each business plan must outline details about the products or services you will deliver, customer demographics, how the business will operate, marketing plans, sales goals, competitive analysis and the team in place to bring it all to fruition. In addition, you should have financial projections that will help you determine if you are on track with your efforts or if you need to step it up. Without these details, you leave out a big piece of the puzzle causing you to increase your risk of setback, or worse, failure.
- Your business plan is vague – Although you may have the essential sections listed above, each of these sections must be written with laser sharp clarity. The details provided in these sections will provide a framework for how your business is run. This will make it clear for any new investors or team members that may come on board. With more detail, you can show clearly on paper what you expect, your timeline for success and data to support your plan.
- You did not do your research – While you may draft the perfect looking business plan, your ideas may not be as realistic. By nature, your business plan will be filled with assumptions, since no one can predict the future. However, these assumptions must be backed with data that shows how you arrived at the assumption that a plan or strategy would work and why you chose a specific direction to take your new venture. Without this, you may steer your new business off in the wrong direction. Before you realize you have misjudged your potential, it may be too late.
- You do not prepare with alternative plans – Starting a new business is inherently risky. No one knows that better than an entrepreneur. So having a plan in place to mitigate risk and know how to overcome blunders when they occur is crucial. Your business plan should contain a variety of approaches so that you can test and determine over the course of time the best approaches for your model. When you take risk into consideration while drafting your plan, you can better prepare yourself for struggles or challenges that you will undoubtedly meet along the way.
- You ignore the competition completely – For an entrepreneur to start a new endeavor, you must see a need in the marketplace. Even if there is an unmet need, you will still have competition on some level. In order for you to create your competitive advantage, you must acknowledge this competition and clearly define how you will differentiate yourself from the others in your niche. Without doing so, you risk your market not being able to see your competitive advantage and not buying what you have to sell.
Starting a business is tough. Without a solid business plan in place and a clear roadmap of how you plan to accomplish your goals, you may be left in the dark. Worse yet, you may manage your business to failure. Creating a strong plan can help you stay on course and watch your ideas, goals and dreams come to fruition.
About the Author
Patrick Del Rosario is a blogger from Mayple Marketing Blog. Mayple matches businesses to digital marketing professionals that meet their unique needs, and ensures they are performing optimally, at all time. When not working, Patrick loves to do event photography. He also runs an event and photography business in the Phillippines. He loves to travel around the world with his wife and son