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- Ten Top Trends Impacting the Hospitality Industry Today
- Study finds online reviews a powerful tool
- Web Tips for the coming year
- Travellers User of the Internet Constantly Evolving
- Why Should You Invest in an Email Newsletter?
- How to Use Social Media for Search Engine Optimization
- Does Web 2.0 Make Copy and Content Less Important?
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Designing a Good Business Plan
When it comes to preparing a good business plan, the more detail the better.
Check list to get you started:
Basic outline - Describe your product or service.
* Communications Plan - Outline the Goals and Objectives of the Plan and how you will achive your objectives.Who do you want to know about your new venture and what means are you going to use to communicate your ideas to them.
* Research - What methods are you going to appy to ensure that your product or service is needed and seek the answers to Who, What, Where, When, and Why. Also include a S.W.O.T. study.
* Marketing Plan - From your research, get to know your target market and outline how you plan to reach them. Include what percentage of the market you hope to achieve and how you plan on achieving that goal.
* Human Resources - Who is on your team and what each brings to the business, the number of employees you will need, any outside advisors or contractors you are using and what they add to the equation.
* Business Environment - Know your competitors and plan how you will compete with them and what value you can add for potential customers.
* Logistics - Where will you offer your product or service as well as what supplies you will need, who will supply them, your methods of reaching your customer or any distribution costs involved. All of this will assist in developing a pricing strategy.
* Financing - An important consideration is how much money you will need to not only get your venture off the ground and where it will come from, and the additional money required to keep you going until your business starts turning a profit. Do revenue projections.
* Potential Risks - It is important to know what risks you might face and how you can mitigate those risks.
A good business plan will allow you to see if it’s really worth it to start a venture. It will allow you to see whether or not the risks outweigh the benefits.
When you develop your initial plan, it’s a good idea to look 5 and even 10 years ahead. You need to understand where your future growth will come from.
Potential investors (lenders) will want to know what your financial projections are for at least a three to five year period.
After you have developed your initial business plan, share it with advisors such as your accountant, lawyer or mentor. Anyone that you decide to show your business plan to for review should be asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement to ensure that your ideas remain yours.
Finally, do not let your business plan sit on a shelf collecting dust. Sit down every year and review how the business landscape has changed and how you will respond to changes.
A good business plan it a road map to success - USE IT.
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