Business Planning - Business Action Plan: Complete Projects Effectively and Efficiently

       The following is a business planning tool which I have designed to help complete projects for a business efficiently and effectively.  Use this tool with a new business idea and its projects to help advance market positioning! I call it a Business Action Plan

Business Action Plan

1      Purpose – Ex Ante summary

Summarize the purpose of a project in a few sentences. What is the business trying to achieve in the short to medium-term? What is the focus of this project.

2      Objectives – micro goals

In order to achieve the purpose of the project some goals must be established.  Three to Five goals should be set that fulfill the ultimate purpose.  Sub-projects can me be to more easily measure the requirements and effectiveness of each project, instead of one convoluted project which may confuse elements.  The objectives which are created are the potential outcome of sub-projects.

3      Purposed Tasks – projects required to complete

To complete an objective as well as sub-projects, tasks must be completed.  Depending on the type of project and business, these tasks can differ greatly.  Imagine what is to be completed; how will it be initiated? How will it be mobilized? How will it be carried out? What is the conclusion of this project?  These are the sub-projects which reach the short to medium-term business objective.  List all relevant, most importantly potentially effective, tasks that meet objective requirements.

4      Requirements – requirements for projects

Each task that is set will require resources, whether it is time or raw materials, these will be needed to carry out each task.  List the tasks required for the project, followed by what resource, service, and time requirements will be needed for completion.  Before a project is carried out the resource and budget requirement can be estimated using market prices and wages.

5      Budget – budget requirements and outcome

Using information from the requirements of each sub-project, a budget can be built to estimate the potential cost of the project.  Create a budget using estimated costs and revenues of the projects.  Depending on the type of project, the forecast for the project should display a positive return; there are ways that externalities of the project can be included in forecasting.  If it is a cost-based project, the results of a campaign, or other intangible result, can be measured using different methods.

6      Conclusion - notes

Summarize the purpose and objectives of the action plan; a statement about how this project will affect the standing of the business, or how it will be advanced can be made.  Any other pertinent notes reviewing the action plan should be placed here.

Business Plan Considerations

With a business plan there a specific parts which need important research.

Your research should be focused on a few things regarding the business, the industry and the marketplace it is in.

Different tools can be used to compile this information, some of them include;

SWOT Analysis - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of your business
Budget Forecast - Use cost and revenue outlays to calculate estimated profitability
Porter's Five Forces Model - The business, the marketplace, buyer and supplier power, competition, complements and substitutes.

With these in mind researching the marketplace will help to derive important and useful information for considerations for your business.

SWOT Analysis -

Strengths - What does your business have that will make it successful
Weaknesses - What does your business need to improve on, and what are some shortcomings it may have
Opportunities - What market conditions can the business capitalize upon
Threats - What market conditions may be detrimental to the business, ie. new competition

Budget Forecast -

By researching businesses in your industry with similar business models, you can develop estimated revenues and costs for a new business.  Also with a few months of recorded sales or business activity it is much easier to develop a forecast using a growth equation.

Using spreadsheet software create a budget with monthly outlays in specific business cost and revenue aspects.

Porter's Five Forces - This is a good tool to establish where the business stands in the marketplace;  Porter did a lot of important research on the competitiveness of firms and how they react to different forces in the marketplace.  Search the internet for Porter's Five Forces Model.  Later I will provide a detailed analysis of the model for small business owners.

Step 1 - Business Plan, Business Planning, Funding Ideas

So you want to start a new business as an individual, or perhaps with a partner.

After you have come up with your business idea, be it an inspirational moment or a calculated analysis to enter a new market, a new entrepreneur must put this idea into planning.  

An important step to any business is writing a Business Plan to put everything out on the table and see where the business stands.

Without a business plan in place a business may operate without any guidance or clear path to a greater goal and increased revenues!  It will also help generate new considerations and things that might need to be changed, all before you have invested too much money into something that isn't working.

The business plan will also require information that must be researched and calculated - this is what is most important to you, a marketplace analysis and how your business idea will fit in; future posts will explain this further.

You can find business plan templates easily on any search engine;

A great resource for templates is Bplans - it has industry specific plans that fit many business types.

Complete a business plan with your business information , proceed to do research on your industry which you will need to complete your plan; this will be very important to help you establish your place in the market.

WITH A GOOD BUSINESS PLAN IN PLACE YOU WILL WORK FOR THE BUSINESS WITH A CLEAR GOAL, THEN IT WILL WORK FOR YOU!

It is naive to assume that the marketplace will accept any type of business or a good business idea; despite being a good idea or having a market advantage, the proper principles and work ethic must be used to make an idea a success!!

Next post will be about funding resources and ideas for your new business idea and start-up.