Why does a company need a business plan if they’re already in business?

I’m asked this question by clients, students and business owners almost daily.

Honestly, you don’t need a plan if you:

• Know where you’re going and you’re achieving all you want or earning all you need,

 

• Have clients that are optimal for your company’s goals,

 

• Know how to get to your goals and how long it will take based on experience – which combination of marketing strategies (actions) and tactics (like websites, publicity, etc.) will exactly reach your goals. Most companies under 10 years old just try many, many tactics and waste lots of time and money. If you’re not sure what works, how long each strategy will take and what it will cost, then getting expert advise to create your marketing plan is a good idea.

 

• Know how to project income and manage finance. Or prepare to sell the business for retirement, a move, expansion or a lifestyle change?

 

• Know how to manage and track all operations, such as staffing, systems for operations, marketing, sales, billing, estimating, or fulfillment with proper permits, codes, certifications or having the proper insurance, legal contracts, and hiring practices,

 

• Have systems to measure & evaluate what’s working and what’s not – with experience to know what to change, when to change it and how to fix what isn’t working,

 

• Or how to accurately project your sales cycle so you can plan finances. A sales cycle is the time it takes to make a sale: from first introduction to a potential client (customer) to the time they first purchase from you.

 

LONE WOLF SYNDROME

Unless you’ve run and profitably sold other businesses, you may need some advice on building a business. Statistically, most entrepreneurs fail because they try to do it all themselves. That’s considered the “lone wolf syndrome” which can get a company eaten alive until the owner supplements their knowledge with experts who can help them with finance, operations or establishing systems to simplify the workload, focus marketing on tactics that work for their particular industry,  or bring in support trained to help with the workload.

However, some really successful companies (like the Body Shop) have told me they never wrote their business plan. They just launched it and figured it out as they grew, bringing in experts to help when they needed it.

That’s what most start-ups do, in fact.

We’ve offered some strategic marketing suggestions to help these businesses prioritize their marketing as they grow.

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NEED A PLAN?

If you need a customized plan to fit your specific business goals or resources, we can offer several choices to fit your exact needs.

 

 

Need more help? Find out about our San Francisco Bay Area Marketing & Communications services, who we help, and what we can do for you!