It’s a great question to ask yourself.

I tested B-PlanDIY when it was in development stage.

My business is in its sixth year and I already did a business plan at the beginning for financing and planning.

As I was working through the B-PlanDIY template, I realised I had not revisited or thought about some aspects of my business for a long time. Some of those aspects are critical - eek!

Completing the questions took a bit longer than I anticipated because I didn’t actually know all the information I should as a business owner. While this isn’t unusual in a small business, I know that if you want to run a successful and profitable business - you need to know your numbers. Business can look great but until you look at your profit after expenses you don’t know if you made money or not.

So clearly I started with a great plan but wandered off into the wilderness on sidetracks.

A business is an ever-evolving entity with many dynamic moving parts. B-PlanDIY is like having a personal business trainer and coach. When you complete your plan you will know how your business is performing and what you need to do to achieve your business targets.

Revisit your plan frequently. Perhaps weekly and monthly meetings with your information to ensure you are on the right track. Did you meet your forecast? Achieve your goals? If you overachieved - why/how? Did supply/production/fulfilment keep up? If you are under forecast, then there is work to do and adjustments to make.

The finer detail is where many start-ups and businesses fall over. Checking performance against goals and targets will help you fine tune your business.

As an Owner, Partner or Director, it is unrealistic to expect yourself to know everything about taxation, legalities, HR and accounting. Planning to utilise external resources and upskilling yourself over time is achievable. Put time aside to learn and you will be stimulated for the benefit of your business.

One of the mistakes I made, was outsourcing some of the work but losing touch with a key component of the business by losing visibility of critical numbers. Why? Because I was more interested in other things but my business relies on me, just like yours relies on you, to do my job.

Having a set of diagnostic tools to health check your business may be the difference between success and failure.

Note to self – stick with the plan.

R de WolfAuthor & Publisher
www.rdewolf.com