A Plan Gets Your Home Based Business Off on the Right Foot and Keeps it Moving!

A good business plan can not only help you secure funding but it can also define and keep your home based business on track.

I recently read that in 1993, AT&T conducted or commissioned a study of small or home based businesses. The study results stated that small businesses with a written business plan were more likely to succeed than their less organized and documented counter businesses.

Yet only 42% of the small businesses surveyed had a formal business plan and this stat likely hasn’t changed much since 1992.

Why don’t more small business owners take the time to write a business plan and stay on track?

For many the trouble begins with the entrepreneur’s mindset. Many home based business owners are creative sorts that don’t like to be bogged down with the paperwork or sticking their business mandate in a confined ‘box’ of what-we-do-and-don’t-do. Many home based businesses will ‘do’ whatever it takes to bring in the income - whether it fits their mission or not.

Here’s another factor…

Many small business owners are too busy working the business to run the business.

Sadly though most small business start-ups fail within five years and, as we’ve seen in past studies, failure rates are higher without a formal written plan.

Do You Need A Business Plan?

A business plan can be as simple as a mission statement and some home business accounting software, to analyse and document growth from month to month or year to year. However if you ever require a small business loan or credit you’ll need something more concrete for the banks to consider your application.

A more formal business plan, used for loans or lines of credit should include:

• description of the business, including an executive summary, mandate, etc.
• marketing plan, including a what sets your product/service apart statement
• financial data, this includes balance sheet, breakeven analysis, profit and loss statements and cash flow breakdown
• a section on home based business owner, or small business managers including executive bios

So why not get busy and begin your plan for your home based business today? As stated it can be as simple as a mission statement and statement of accounts. Remember that a business plan is not just a way to secure a loan but a way to reflect your vision of the future of your home based business.

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Last Modified : June 25th, 2005 Filed under : Home Based Business Inspiration Navigate : Previous post / Next post