24 – Planning for Growth
Business Growth Plans
Before speculating about the future growth of your business, it’s important to verify your assumptions are right. Now that you’ve hammered out the basics, what is your business’s potential? Will it serve a small niche or does it have the potential to grow exponentially? Even if it has potential, what do you want your business to become?
Some entrepreneurs may need to develop a formal business plan to prepare for future growth. A business plan is a roadmap detailing how your business will grow over the next 3-5 years and may be important for raising certain types of capital.
Biz Plan Thumbnail
Here is a brief “thumbnail” of what you business plan should include. This is not a definitive list. Be creative, Be intuitive, Be informative about your industry, your customer and your business.
- Create a summary (complete this section after b-f is cmplete)
- Define your vision. What will be the end result of your business?
- Define your mission. Different to a vision, your mission should explain the reason your company exists.
- Define your objectives. What are you going to do — what are your goals — that will lead to the accomplishment of your mission and your vision?
- Outline your basic strategies. How are you going to achieve the objectives you just bulleted?
- Write a simple action plan. Bullet out the smaller task-oriented actions required to achieve the stated objectives.
Here is an article contributed by ProBiz Services about the essential elements of a business plan.
Your assignment for this lesson is to start putting your business plan together. We have included a document where you can start collecting your thoughts. This attachment is a resource you can use to make your plan even more impressive!
Visit the SCORE Website to get ideas.
Complete the assignments before moving on to the last lesson. (You can either complete the fillable forms digitally, download them on to your computer and upload them below or you can print the forms, complete by hand, print or scan them, then upload them below.)
Click here to access the PDF for Business Plan Needs. This document will help you find certain topics in your text book that will help you complete your business plan.
Click here for Assignment 24.2 – Your Business Plan
You will need the Guide to Business Start Ups to complete the assignment.