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15 Reasons You Need A Business Plan

Why do you want a business plan? You already know the obvious reasons, but there are so many other good reasons to create a business plan that many business owners don't know about. So, just for a change, let's take a look at the less obvious reasons first and finish with the ones you probably already know about. Think of this as a late-show top 10, with us building up to the most important reasons you need a business plan.

11. Hire new people. This is another new obligation (a fixed cost) that increases your risk. How will new people help your business grow and prosper? What exactly are they supposed to be doing? The rationale for hiring should be in your business plan.

10. Decide whether you need new assets, how many, and whether to buy or lease them. Use your business plan to help decide what's going to happen in the long term, which should be an important input to the classic make vs. buy. How long will this important purchase last in your plan?

9. Share and explain business objectives with your management team, employees and new hires. Make selected portions of your business plan part of your new employee training.

8. Develop new business alliances. Use your plan to set targets for new alliances, and selected portions of your plan to communicate with those alliances.

Call 22HELPMYVZN (224-357-6989) to help you with your business needs.

5 Things You Should Never EXPECT From Experts Or Successful Entrepreneurs








5. Don't expect favors.

Please don’t ask an expert to do something that is outside the scope of your relationship, especially when the expert’s reputation is on the line. If you know the other person well, it’s easier to do a bigger ask, but if you don’t know the person at all, you should try to invest in the relationship first before you make a big ask. You ostensibly wouldn’t go up to a person at a networking event and ask them to borrow their condo in Hawaii after 10 minutes of conversation. The same litmus test should be used online.

And finally, be straightforward. Please don’t try to trick the expert into thinking that you are a big fan when you just stumbled across their website that day and really just want something from them. It’s very transparent.

Experts are willing to help others -- in fact, they often spend a lot of unappreciated and unnoticed time doing so. But, stop making it an expectation that because someone has something that could help you, whether it’s knowledge, connections or otherwise, that you are entitled to it without giving them something in return or just genuinely investing in a relationship.

5 Things You Should Never EXPECT From Experts Or Successful Entrepreneurs






4. Don't expect others to risk their brands for you.

When a company or individual has built a brand, they need to protect it. So, asking someone to endorse a book they have never read or a product that they have never tried is naïve at best and generally offensive. The same principle applies if you are a small and unproven company, brand or product line. While you believe it’s a boon for you to partner with a big firm to leverage off of their credibility, what’s in it for them? You have to figure out how can protect the downside for them -- and make it worth their while.