Three Ingredients You Need to Run a Successful Business: Phase 2
Tax accountant and business advisor, Stephanie Mellick, shows you how to navigate the three key stages of a new business start-up to maximise your chances of success.
Starting a business is an incredible journey, but it’s not one for the faint-hearted. As an accountant and business coach for over 11 years, I know what it takes for an SME to succeed in a sea of competitors. The best piece of advice I can give? Proper planning.
The well-managed businesses with hefty profits go through three key phases of business development – evaluation, establishment and growth – with their eyes wide open. In part two of this series, we take a deep dive into business planning.
Phase 2: The Business Plan
Ok, so you’ve done your homework and your business idea is feasible. You’ve started your business and you’re ready to conquer the world. What’s the next step in business best practice?
A business plan.
Every business should have one. And I’m not referring to those old-fashioned business plans that are 50 + pages long and sit at the bottom of a business owner’s draw never to be read. I’m referring to a concise plan mapping your course to success. Your business plan should be a living document that is reviewed and updated regularly.
Steve Blank, who launched the lean start-up movement, is famous for the saying ‘no business plan survives first contact with a customer’. Blank challenged business owners to present current and potential customers with choices and let them show vote with their wallets. He also made the point that business plans are only a starting point and they should constantly evolve and adapt.
Your plan should incorporate realistic, measurable goals, and clear strategies to achieve your objectives, with regular updates to cater for any changing circumstances. This should include an analysis of your market and predictions on future developments. It’s also important that your strategic plan reflects the objectives you, as the business owner, have for your business and your personal life.
Example
It’s not enough that your plan states: ‘we aim to have 12 customers paying $x amount each by next year’. How will you attain those 12 customers? How will you reach them? What is the onboarding process for those customers? Once this is mapped out, the number of customers per month should form the basis of tracking performance. If you are not tracking in line to achieve at least one new customer each month (per this example), the strategy needs to be adapted.