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Without regular review, however, a business plan in today’s ever-changing environment will quickly become obsolete and ineffective. Here are a few tips for freshening up your business plan—and making sure it stays current going forward.

Timing Is Everything

As a working document, a five-year business plan is unrealistic. The constantly changing needs of customers, employees, and owners combined with the volatility and opportunity of the industry, requires a plan that is more flexible, adaptable, and, yes, shorter.

There is also the fluff factor: Rather than establish far-reaching and nebulous initiatives to carry out over time, create a plan built on short-term goals.

A suitable business plan may focus on just one key initiative, such as adding or eliminating a single service. Depending on your goals and the scope and complexity of the steps required to reach them, a one- or two-year plan is probably most appropriate.

Study Hard

A key component of any business plan is the logic and analysis on which you base your initiatives. If you plan to enter a new market, for example, perform a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). Identify your competition and assess them as honestly and thoroughly as possible.

This will require a good deal of homework on your part, and you may be in for a rude awakening if you find your assumptions are not grounded in reality. Set clear measurements for each goal, especially if you ratchet up the aggressiveness of your plan based on your analysis. These measurements give you the opportunity to change course—or jump ship—early enough to minimize damage.

Follow Up

To be a truly effective guide, your plan should be a living, breathing document. Keep it that way by gathering key business personnel on a regular basis to track progress. The inclusion of clear measurements will make it easy to identify what is working and what is not. The ultimate goal is to create your organization’s blueprint for success. ”

Source: http://www.printindustryinfo.com/publication/article.jsp?pubId=3&id=400

This entry was posted on Monday, July 3rd, 2006 at 5:56 pm and is filed under Printing Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.