Identify Your Goals Before Writing Your Business Plan

Prior to writing your business plan, take time to focus on two primary goals: What you see as the objective and future direction of your business and what you envision as your final business plan.

The goal or future direction of your business. By identifying where you see the business moving in the next one, two, or five years, you can write a plan that adequately reflects your goals. Your personal skills, needs, knowledge, leadership abilities, available resources, level of risk, and the nature of your business factor into the equation when identifying your personal business goals. One of the most important aspects of starting your own business is that it gives you an opportunity to do what you enjoy. If your goal is a two-person business, then that is what you will reflect in your business plan.

Conversely, if your goal is to build a large corporation, and you realistically feel you have the knowledge and experience to do so, then that is what your business plan should indicate. There is no minimum or maximum length for a business plan. The determining factor for length depends on the level of details and the amount of funding you require to achieve such goals.

The goal for writing the business plan. Are you writing the plan to attract funding, as a guide to running the business, or both? While one plan can serve both purposes, you may want to tailor the plan to more closely focus on the financial needs of the business, especially if you are trying to procure funding. You should clearly state how much money is needed, how it will be spent, and when you foresee paying a profit on the investment dollars.

If, however, the plan is for yourself or your team to use as an internal guide, you can place the emphasis more heavily around reaching specific goals and milestones. You would create such a plan with an emphasis on guiding you through the business process. The goals of such a functional plan will be to measure operational progress, test planning assumptions, anticipate capitol requirements, make decisions on adding or eliminating products or services, and evaluate operational procedures.

Therefore, prior to writing a business plan, create a list of your personal goals for the company and then determine the goal of the plan itself.

Part of your business plan might include analysis of your projected (or current) cash flow. The AllBusiness.com buyer's guide to cash flow management tools provides a plain-English explanation of the basics of cash-flow analysis, and explains how to choose an application that can help you understand your business's money. Check out The Scoop on Cash Flow Management Tools now!