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Blogs by Edward G Rogoff
Starting a Successful Business 8/15/2008 7:37:27 AM
What a business plan is and how it can help you start a successful enterprise WHAT A BUSINESS PLAN IS AND HOW IT CAN HELP YOU
START A SUCCESSFUL ENTERPRISE
As the Academic Director of one of the largest Entrepreneurship Centers in the United States, I have met with hundreds of business owners and aspiring business owners. Usually they open the conversation with one simple sentence:
“I want to start my own business.”
The next statement they utter almost invariably conveys one of the following four predicaments:
“I have a specific idea for a business, but I don’t know what to do next.”
or
“I know what I want to do and how I want to do it, but when I went to the bank for a loan, they said I had to show them something in writing before they would even talk to me.”
or
“I want to buy a business that I think I can make more successful, but I don’t know how to approach the current owner.”
or
“I’m an inventor and I’ve come up with a fabulous new product, but I don’t have a clue how to get it manufactured – or sold.”
The answer to all of these appeals for advice, whether the individual is opening a restaurant, taking over a competitor’s plant, building a better mousetrap, selling a new kind of soap, or offering expert financial services to Wall Street investors is: “You need a business plan.” Every one of these entrepreneurs is focused on a single goal: to build a successful enterprise that delivers profits and satisfaction to each owner. And no matter what that potential business is, there is one basic tool to employ in achieving that goal: a clear and compelling business plan.
As they talk, I can sense their excitement and enthusiasm, even if they’re uncertain about the next step toward achieving their goals. My job is to channel their passions into that next step: writing a strong business plan. And that’s exactly why I wrote Bankable Business Plans. (http://www.amazon.com/BankableBusinessPlans)
Bankable Plans Are for Starting, Growing, or Buying a Business
A good business plan has the power to accomplish a number of goals. But first and foremost, a business plan is simply a document with a purpose. A business plan can help you:
- Test the feasibility of your business idea.
- Find the right financial resources to start your
business through investors or partners.
- Secure enough debt by establishing loans, lines of
credit, or payment terms.
- Identify the key people to work with you as
managers, employees, partners, or consultants.
- Establish business relationships with your
customers, suppliers, or distributors.
- Create an operational template for the successful
management of your business.
Since my clients and students have an extremely broad range of business ideas – from New York City pedicabs to a Web portal for Africans living away from their home countries – it’s important for me to make the language I use to discuss the creation of a business plan as uniform as possible. No matter how you envision your eventual enterprise – as a store, an online service or a firm that reaches your customers by mail order – I refer to the entity you’re creating as your “company.” When you start a business of any sort, you’re establishing a means of delivering your product or service to a wider group of people. Even if you’re setting yourself up as a sole practitioner, it’s helpful to think of the way you organize your concept as a type of company with you at the helm making decisions and setting a course.
