Archive - 2019

I have spent my career finding and adapting business tools and processes so that small business owners can get to use the same tools, resources and processes to grow their businesses using the same methods large businesses use theirs.

The difference is that large businesses can afford to hire the right specialist consultants to help with their planning or their marketing or to improve business efficiency and leadership quality. And, small businesses owners just don’t have enough time to invest in Business School academic learning to use the same tools and resources.

So what I have done throughout my career is to learn about business skills and processes in Business Schools, and then adapted and translated them to meet the needs of my small business clientele. These have to be easy to follow DIY processes so that they are affordable to small business owners, not only in cost but also in the time they need to spend.

One of those key business tools is the Business Plan. Read More

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There are many ways to write a business plan.

As a small business owner, with not much spare time, even while knowing that a business plan is important for the growth and direction of your business, it is not easy to find the time to focus on writing your business plan.

So what you need is a proven process that is fast and effective, so that the business plan you produce gives you the best bang for your buck, is comprehensive, and actionable from the first day.

Like anything else, writing a business plan is a process – there is a formula for any success – so what is the fastest and most effective process to write your own business plan? Read More

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When I started my consulting business, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to achieve.

I was very clear in the type of people I wanted to help – small business owners – and what I needed to do to help them, by providing effective tools, resources and processes that they could use and grow their businesses the way they wanted their businesses to grow.

What wasn’t as clear was how I put together a business that provided them with these tools and resources – in my career up to then I had accumulated some very effective and different ways to provide strategic and business planning, help them in their marketing and sales funnel processes, positive ways in building leadership qualities and creating great teams, and simple but effective processes to establishing norms and procedures that produced high-quality products and services to their customers.

What do I do first? Read More

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Several of my blog subscribers have written to me lately asking whether their small business should have a business plan.

Some of them made the case to me that since they are sole proprietors and only have a few staff working for them, they didn’t feel the need to have a business plan for their business.

They thought their business was too “simple” and they figured out what to do on an “as needs” basis.

Others told me that they felt they were not confident in trying to prepare their own business plan and weren’t sure any benefit would outweigh the effort.

My first answer to them is to show them that statistics show 80% of small businesses fail within the first 5 years.

In Australia, of those who survive, most still reported themselves as “struggling.”

Only those few who reported themselves as “successful” had prepared business plans to guide their businesses. If nothing else, this shows what a powerful asset having a plan is for your small business.

Read More

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In other articles on my blog, I have described why any small business must have a business plan.

I have also explained the SMART Business Planning formula where you follow 5 simple steps to write your own actionable business plan.

However this week I wanted to talk about what goes into your business plan document. Read More

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