End of year - business planning.

Business plans for a very small business:
It is nearing the end of the year and it is time to review my business plan. (Actually I look at it a couple times year, probably not as often as I should). A networking group I belong to has everyone in the group presenting their business plan, so I signed up early to force myself into getting it done before the end of the year.

I am self employed and many people might wonder why do you need a business plan? Isn't bill clients, earn money, pay bills enough of a plan. To some extent it is, but my plan is also a year end review, a look at the current market, goals for where I want to be next year and a general blue print of how to get there.

Reviewing my plan during the year helps to keep me focused and reminds me of long term goals. Writing a new plan is a kind of reality check. Did I have as good or bad a year as I thought.


What is in my plan:
I try and keep it simple, since I am not taking it to a bank to get a loan I have skipped many sections one would see on a standard plan. It is under ten pages long and has four sections: Executive Summary, Company Description, Marketing Plan, and Financial Review. The first two sections are each a page long.

The Company Description has a one paragraph each for goals, objectives, and a business philosophy. But most of the thought went into Marketing Plan, to see what worked and what didn't. Also in that section are plans for next year. Financial Review was a look at which clients and what type of work were the most profitable, and drove a lot of thought that went into the Marketing Plan.

If you want to write a plan but don't know where to start - SCORE is a good source for business document templates, although I did not use many sections in their template small business plan template.

I would recommend everyone do some sort of year end review for their business. Writing my first business plan probably took 10 - 15 hours or so and was spread over several days. Since then revising the plan each year takes only half that time.