Creating and Executing
a Simple Business Plan

There are an abundance of businesses to choose from. Competition is fierce and money is tight. Creating and executing a business plan is not optional. It is critical to your success and cannot be overemphasized.

Interestingly, many small and mid-sized businesses get started or start a new year without a detailed, well-developed business plan or without any plan at all. Some experience growth despite this lack of direction. However, most find that they can meet customer needs, manage their business, and increase sales and profitability when they have a road map to guide them.

• To increase sales
  
  
• To purchase or merge with another business
  
  
• To raise capital
  
  
• To expand your business, establish an additional location
  
  
• To expand your services
  
  
• To improve performance and profitability
  
  
• To dramatically improve customer service
  
  

Seven Elements to Successful Business Plan

All of these elements must work together

• Mission statement — Who you are and what you do
  
  
• Vision and values — Where you want to go
  
  
• Analysis of the state of your business — Where you are now including financials
  
  
• Goals — What gets measured gets done
  
  
• Strategies — How you will build your company — how you will get there
  
  
• Business Action Plan — Decisions
  
  
• Execution — Making it happen
  
  

This manual is intended to help small and mid-sized business owners in any industry to help them to create a simple business plan in a short amount of time. The simple, yet provocative, guiding questions will also be helpful to managers.

When completed, it will be a guide to refer to for managing your business, staying consistent with the strategies you want to implement, and meeting your goals.

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