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Your Business Plan
Copyright 2003
With this issue we are starting a series of articles concerning your
business plan. You may well have the reaction "Business plan ?
Who in this business needs a business plan ? We're too small for
that level of formality. Besides business plans are dry and boring."
The answer is -- YOU need a business plan. No matter how small
or how large your business is you do need some sort of business
plan. We agree that business plan development can have the
potential to be somewhat dry and boring. However, the thrill of
designing, implementing and growing a thriving business more
than compensates for a few hours of potential boredom. And, a
few hours of boredom is vastly overshadowed by the days and
months of recrimination you'll suffer if your business fails as a
result of inadequate planning.
Businesses fail every day -- primarily from a lack of planning and
direction, poor management decisions and the inability to focus
upon the things that are really important. Business owners and
managers find themselves doing only that which appears at the
moment to have to be done, and barely that. They pay bills, sell,
place advertising, recruit dealers and do 1001 other "important
things. What they don't do is plan the path they want their
business to take and make sure that the plan gets implemented
and the results measured.
A good business plan provides not only for consideration of what
you want your business to be, but also allows you to develop the
focus you require for growth and success. A good business plan
need not be overly complex. What it should be, however, is
carefully designed, built and tailored to the specific needs of your
business.
So, why is a business plan important to the success of your
business ? It certainly isn't to simply put another sheaf of papers
in the filing cabinet -- or to provide sloppy weather entertainment.
Not only does it provide focus, but it also is a document against
which you can measure your progress, financial as well as physical
growth. Additionally, if you need to seek financing at any point in the
development of your business, a soundly conceived and
implemented business plan will be a certain requirement.
Such a business plan will help determine how you will build upon
your and your mall's strengths. It will help you focus upon how
you use the strengths you have identified to form a unique
competitive advantage to add value and to become and remain
profitable. The old ways of doing business simply will not work in
the long term because there are too many competitors seeking a
share of a business with limited growth opportunities.
Your business plan will provide a terrific way of tracking and
evaluating the progress that your business is making toward the
goals you have established for it. Without a business plan, and
the business model, which it encompasses, you have absolutely
no way of knowing where you are, where you are going, how you
are going to get there and when you have arrived. A great
business plan is an excellent way of attracting the top dealers you
need to succeed.
We'll examine and decide how to incorporate your and your mall's
unique strengths -- and make sure that we understand the
weaknesses which are inherent in any business. We'll look at the
markets you intend to address; local, regional and national and
how you plan to do so. Recruiting dealers which meet the criteria
will be considered. And, we'll bring your business model under
intense scrutiny to see how well it corresponds to your stated
goals -- and reality.
We are going to address the following aspects of business plan
development in the forthcoming issues of the Antiques SOS
e-Journal:
• Who -- who needs a business plan ?
• What -- what is an appropriate level of complexity for a
good
business plan ?
• Why -- why do you need a business plan ?
• When -- when do you need to prepare it and use it ?
• Where --where do you go for help in preparing your business plan ?
• How -- how do you go about preparing it & how much effort
is appropriate ?
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