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Business Plans are Not Optional

All the research shows that having a business plan is vital to the success of your business. A survey commissioned by AT&T in 1993 showed that, while only about 40% of small businesses started up with a formal business plan, 59% of the businesses that grew over 2 years had a business plan that they used to manage their business. And of these, 70% put their success down primarily to having a plan. Another study in 1996 of almost 1,000 small companies found that companies with strategic plans have 50% more revenue and profit growth than companies that don't have one.

Purpose of the Business Plan Guide

I set up this website to persuade people about the importance of having a business plan. I also wanted to provide a place where it's easy to find out about some of the best resources that are available.

What is a Business Plan?

It's easy to get caught up in the worry that writing a business plan is going to be too complicated and time-consuming. For me, the key to demystifying business plans is to focus on the word 'plan'. A plan is simply a way of thinking about how you are going to get from where you are now to where you want to be. Everyone makes plans all the time or else they would never achieve anything.

A business plan is just a map that describes how your business is going to succeed and what you need to do to ensure that it does succeed. Of course, if you are approaching potential investors, you may well need a 25-page plan with supporting schedules and financial figures. However, if you're running your own business and you just want to manage it better, you don't have to go into that amount of detail. And because I believe that it is better to have any sort of plan rather than no plan at all, you can start with a 2 or 3 page plan and then develop it as you discover how useful it has become.

On the Site

The Websites page has details of sites that will give you comprehensive information about how to write a plan. It will also give you links to sites where you can look at sample business plans for many types of businesses. The Books page will give you recommendations about some of the most useful books that I have come across.

Francis Miller
Miller Consulting