[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n the 23 years I’ve been teaching Finance at the collegiate level, I’ve often seen the same questions from aspiring business owners. One of the most popular questions is, “How do I create a business plan?”
This is certainly an important question to ask, for a business plan is one of the critical aspects of formulating your long-term economic strategy. But rather than getting caught up in the complex technicalities of putting a plan together, it probably makes the most sense to ask, “What exactly does a business plan help me to do?”
A business plan does a few things, and this list is not exhaustive. But this can give you some idea of what a good plan does for you:
1) Create a vision for your business that others can easily understand
2) Remind you of your core mission, focus, customer base, and product offerings
3) Force you to analyze your operating environment to ensure that you’re well-aware of any competitors, threats and opportunities.
4) Allow investors, clients, suppliers and employees to understand your reason for existing.
There are more items one could put on such a list, but this is the gist of it all. One thing that is certainly true is that the plan DOES NOT have to be complicated. In fact, long business plans often bore potential investors and cause more problems than they solve.
So, in order to help you quickly and efficiently define the scope of your business, I’ve created “The Dr Boyce Watkins 10 minute platform.” This is something I created just for you so you can quickly and easily assess your business idea, your objectives and operating strategy to allow you to focus and move forward toward your goals.
The 10 Minute Business Plan is free and easy to use, and you can try it out at this link.
Until we meet again, please stay strong, be blessed and be educated.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a professor at Syracuse University and author of the book, “Financial Lovemaking 101: Merging Assets with Your Partner in Ways that Feel Good.” To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. This article is culled from Financial Juneteenth.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
