Business planning is an extremely enjoyable, ongoing process for me — now. But I remember when it was a struggle, a “should”, something I felt I “had” to do as a business owner, but that didn’t give me much joy. I had spent years creating successful plans as a fund raising professional (quite easily, I might add), but for some reason, I felt a great deal of resistance within me when it came to creating a plan for my own business. That resistance ended up being complex and required a lot of clearing.

Part of my resistance to business planning was because I really loved working with the spiritual laws, and I didn’t want to get caught up in some of the “negative” energies around business and money I witnessed in the material realm. And, of course, I associated business planning with these energies!

But, gradually, my polarized way of thinking changed. Reading this sentence in Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer’s book, Creating Money, assisted that transformation: “It will take less of your energy to attract, save and create more money if you are in harmony with both the spiritual and man-made laws of money.” And, if you’re a business owner, one of the man-made laws of money is business planning. So I set out to develop a business planning model for myself that harmonized the physical and metaphysical laws of commerce.

A Manifestation Tool

Many wonderful dreams and business ideas never materialize because they have not been clearly envisaged and grounded. A written business plan enables you to get very clear about your vision for your business, to ground this vision in the physical world and to align/focus your energy as you act on your plan. It’s a fabulous manifestation tool!

Inspired business planning integrates both the spiritual and man-made laws of business development together. Specifically, it:

- connects you to the higher purpose of your business;

- helps you clarify what you desire for your business;

- supports you in clearing any resistance to having what you desire for your business;

- anchors you in a consciousness of faith and love;

- gives you a space in which to receive guidance from your highest levels;

- translates that guidance into the action steps of your plan, as you discern what business-building strategies to use and structures to put in place that will allow you to receive what you’re desiring; and

- quantifies the financial aspects of your business.

The Seven Steps to Inspired Business Planning

Inspired business planning is a continuous process that will help you develop your business naturally, utilizing both your intuitive and intellectual capacities in an integrative way. As you go through this process, you’ll notice that you feel more balanced and aligned, that the steps to build your business become clearer and you’re more trusting and relaxed about the results. You’ll experience much growth and expansion.

Inspired business planning is a seven-step process:

1) Determine the higher purpose of your business.

From a spiritual perspective, what function is your business meant to serve? What’s your role in the evolution of humanity and our planet, and how will your business allow you to fulfil this purpose?

2) Create key intentions for building your business.

Like clarifying the higher purpose of your business, intentions are part of the “visioning” aspect of your plan. They are the broader goals you establish that will help you fulfil your purpose. What are your intentions?

3) Identify specific objectives and targets you desire related to each intention.

Also part of visioning is defining objectives and specific targets you aim to achieve for each intention. Objectives are more narrowly-defined goals; targets can be both the quantifiable or unquantifiable results you desire. What are your objectives and targets?

4) Tap into your guidance system to determine the action steps associated with each intention and corresponding objective(s) and target(s).

Spending time quieting your mind through meditation or other techniques and thinking/receiving ideas from your highest levels will lead you to the action steps of your plan. What action steps are you guided to take?

5) Clarify your financial inflow and outflow.

How much will it cost you to operate your business, create your offerings and get them out to the world? What level of revenue are you open to receiving on a monthly and/or yearly basis? How will you price your offerings to match that revenue level?

6) Clear resistance that may come up as you create and implement your plan.

Resistance is a belief, thought and accompanying feeling that disallows your natural state of well-being. The intention of building a prosperous, fulfilling business can bring up any number of fearful, resistant thoughts and feelings. These can prevent you from creating a business plan in the first place or from taking the actions your plan describes. What resistant beliefs, thoughts and feelings do you have about creating and implementing your business plan? How can you release this resistance?

7) Operate from love and faith by using prayer, visualizations and affirmations.

When you operate from love and faith, your actions are more joyful and inspired and you more easily attract clients and customers. Prayer, visualizations and affirmations are powerful tools that will anchor you in a state of love, trust and surrender. What prayers, visualizations and affirmations will support you as you build your business?

The real gifts of inspired business planning are in the process of creating the plan and implementing it, without being rigidly attached to the plan or its outcomes. So it’s helpful to remain flexible and allow your plan to change and evolve as you gain more knowledge, guidance, perspective and clarity. Keeping your inner focus on higher essence states such as joy, generosity and gratitude is also important. As Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer say in Creating Money, “the process of getting there is the quality of being there.”

Copyright 2008 Mary C. Davis

Question about business plan

If they want to see bail-out business plans, then i want to see business plan for the legal citizens or the supposing owners.

When you are involved with a business it is important that you have a clear direction and that your business has a plan of attack. The business plan is a document that will outline a number of key areas that your business will need to consider to achieve success.

The business plan will identify your businesses goals, and look at how you can successfully implement processes and procedures to obtain those goals. This will draw on a range of business areas, including accounting, HR, marketing and operations.

How you progress with your business plan can be unique as your business; however the key areas that are usually developed for a business plan are as follows.

o Your organizations background
o Management structure and plans for your business
o Organisational marketing plan
o Operations planning
o Financial planning of the business
o Goals and actions to take with the business

Once you have understood these areas are ready to move forward with your business plan then you can consider how to structure it. This is a straightforward process. For those who are great at the ideas generation, but tend to get stuck on the nitty gritty details, a business template is the perfect option for you.

A template for your business plan will outline the priority information that is required, and whilst you can pay someone to do this for you, there are a number of free templates available. Try doing a quick search of the net and plenty of options come up.

Typically your business focus will dictate the precise contents of your business plan, but getting a basic feel for what is required goes hand in hand with the production of a concise plan, tailored just for your business.

The contents page of your business plan may read something like this.

o Executive Summary
o Organisational Goals
o Management Plan
o Research and Analysis on Target Market
o Marketing Plan
o Operational Planning
o Financial Organisation
o Progress Plans

One of the key areas that you will cover in your business plan is the Executive Summary. Again this can be as individual as your business, but it will need to focus on decisions that need to be made by your organization, and sell the reasons for approval of that course of action.

The final thing that you will need to consider with your business plan is who your target audience is. If you are a large corporation with a number of external stakeholders, such as shareholders and board members, then you will need to prepare your business plan to reflect this. A business plan that targets this audience will often be detailed in its financial analysis and its progress reporting.

If you are a smaller business, or you are self employed then your business plan most likely serves a different purpose. Most likely your business plan is focused on distribution to internal stakeholders. This being the case you will want your plan to focus on goals and progress that needs to be made by the key individuals or departments in the company. An example of this is the strategic business plan, which states internal targets for the organisation, as well as giving information about how to reach the goals laid out in the strategic planning.

Whatever you organisation is involved in, a business plan is a vital document. Even in its simplest form, there is no doubt that having a set of guidelines and goals is a key to ensuring success and progression in your chosen field of business.

Question about business plan

my email mankiev@msn.com

please help

Many new business owners start a home business and don’t take the time to write out a business plan. By failing to write a business plan, you greatly decrease your chances of success. The following are some reasons why every business needs to put a business plan into writing.

You have probably heard the old saying, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” That is very true when it comes to your business. The more planning you do in the beginning, the greater success you will see in the future.

If you decide to take your home business to the next level, a business plan can help you secure financing. A financial institution will want to see, in writing, the reasons that they should loan you money. Simply walking in and telling them why you know you’ll be a success isn’t good enough. However, if you can hand your lender a document that states your business idea, your business goals, a list of steps you plan to take in order to reach your goals, as well as your estimated earnings, you will be seen as a professional and the lender will take you more seriously.

Your business plan will also help you determine your action plan. Your action plan consists of the steps you plan on taking in order to achieve your goals. This is another task that people usually sidestep. Instead of “just kind of knowing” or “having the ideas in your head”, you should take the time to put them on paper. The reason this part of the business plan is so important is that it literally walks you from point A to point B. While your business plan, in general, serves as a map, your action plan is the “step-by-step directions.”

Having a business plan to present to your spouse can also help your spouse realize your business idea is more than just a passing amusement or hobby. This can really help you, especially if your spouse is skeptical. Your spouse can see that you are serious and will become more helpful and more encouraging. Having the support of your spouse can really motivate you and help you find success.

A business plan maps out your future. If you have decided you are ready to start a business, your first step should be to write out your plans for what you want to do with the business and where you see the business going in the future.

If you and your family were going to drive to your vacation destination, you wouldn’t just get in the car and start driving without knowing where you were going. Would you? You shouldn’t start a business without a map either. If you are planning to have a simple home business, built around the Internet, you may not think you need a business plan. You may think only high level businesses need them in order to secure corporate funding but that’s not true.

Every business needs a business plan.

When you sit down to write a business plan, you are literally mapping out the path you want to take in your business. Not only will your business plan help you define what you want to accomplish, it can help you streamline your business and create focus.

You may be under the impression that business plans are huge documents that can be difficult to write. On the contrary, you do not have to create a huge document at all. Your business plan can consist of a single page outlining your basic goals. The point is to put your thoughts and ideas down in writing.

When you take the time to think about your business, where you want your business to go, and estimate your costs as well as your profits, you are much more likely to succeed. Rather than working sporadically and blindly, you will be able to look at your business plan and know exactly what you need to be working on. This can serve as a great motivator and help you reach your business goals.

A common myth is that a business plan is rigid. That once you write it, you have to stick to it. As your business grows, you can change your business plan to suit your needs. You may find certain aspects of your business growing at a faster pace than others and decide to focus more on those areas. For instance, you may have started out in your business strictly as a custom scrapbook artist creating completed albums. However, you found yourself creating more and more themed mini albums and may decide to add that stream of income to your portfolio.

Having your business plan by your side can help you evaluate your decisions and decide what is going to add value to your business and what will take away from your business. Before you start a new project, take out your business plan and see if this new project will fit in with the plans you have already made. This can save you a lot of time, energy, and money.

Question about business plan

What is a Business Plan?

You can pretty much define a business plan as a resume for your business idea in mind. Some may say it’s like your company’s calling card. When you need money to start your business, or when you need an office space, your business plan is what will do most of the talking to convince your investors / lenders or property managers to believe in your business and give you what you need.

Why is it important to have a Business Plan?

The time that you spend on writing a solid business plan will pay for itself in corporate strategic and tactical clarity as your business grows. A solid business plan: (not in particular order)

• Allows you to describe your vision / concept in writing, helping your potential investors to understand and believe in you; it serves as a basis for discussion with third parties such as shareholders, agencies, banks, investors…etc.
• Allows you to identify the structure of your business, giving you the chance to focus on the big picture. Your business plan is the “framework” which your business must operate within. A solid business plan provides a considered and logical framework within which a business can develop and grow with business strategies in the long run (not for just short-term growth).
• Determines the startup and managing costs.
• Clearly defines your target audience and provides detailed research on your target market.
• Identifies potential opportunities and obstacles that the business may encounter down the road.
• Identifies the strengths and weaknesses of your business and your competitors.

No businesses are the same, and no business plans are the same. Your business plan is like your business blueprint; it should be unique. While it is important to be able to illustrate your business concept well enough for others to understand what you hope to be doing, the business plan is essential for your own use. It is about the process of developing the business plan; the process helps you to focus on exactly what you are trying to achieve. It will give you a lot more clear vision of the entire structure of your business as you develop your business plan through detailed research and planning.

A business plan consists of the following parts:

Executive Summary

• Briefly describes the business concept
• Highlights the important financial points of the business such as sales, profits, cash flows, ROI
• Clearly states the capital needed to start the business and to expand
• States legal information about the business, the owners and key personnel.

Business Description

• Describes the business structure on how it operates / profits
• Describes the nature of industry in which the business plans to operate
• Identifies the business’ current position and future possibilities

Market Strategies

• Defines the target market
• Defines the strategies the business plans to use in order to tap into the target market
• Describes the pricing of products or services with respect to the demand of the target market

Competitive Analysis

• Describes the competitors in your target market and how you plan to obtain your share of the market
• Analyzes your competitors in the following categories: product, distribution, pricing, promotion, and advertising.

Design and Development Plan

• Describes the steps the business will take to carry out its plan with scheduling and cost analysis.
• Identifies the risks during the development period

Operations and Management Plan

• Describes the strategies the business will implement in order to operate and grow effectively

Financial Statements

• Defines all the financial aspects of a business.

Question about business plan

Before embarking on writing a business plan for starting a car wash, a definition of what a business plan is in order. A business plan is a document to identify an opportunity, research why this opportunity is profitable and the steps needed to capitalize on the opportunity. The business plan can be a formal document or it can be written on the back of a napkin but the mere act of writing the idea down forces you to get the idea out of your head and on paper which helps find hidden business flaws and makes you think carefully about each phase of your business.

Creating a business plan is something anyone can do, even if you don’t know anything about business or finances. Even though the business plan is critical to getting the idea off of the ground, many entrepreneurs procrastinate when it comes to preparing a written plan. If you don’t know anything about business or finances, this is the best time to begin learning as the chances of your business being successful will be limited without this knowledge. Just as a builder won’t begin construction without a blueprint, entrepreneurs shouldn’t rush into new ventures without a plan. The old saying that “those who fail to plan, plan to fail” is very relevant when talking about starting a business. SBA’s statistics claim over half of new businesses fail in the first three years and the common factor is poor planning or under-capitalization (which is also poor planning).

Getting Started
The first step in creating a business plan is just getting started. Writing the business plan may seem overwhelming at first, but if you break the plan down to bite sized pieces and work on one section at a time won’t seem as daunting. Begin with what you know first and describe your business and your product or services. Work towards the more difficult subjects such as marketing, operations and financials. Don’t worry about it being perfect now, just get the concepts on paper – expand and refine later. If you get stuck on a section in the plan, skip it for now and come back later when you have more details.

Who is your audience?
When writing your car wash business plan, you need to keep in mind who your intended audience is and why you are writing the plan. Why? A plan for the bank will be less interested in the exit strategy and return on investment than one for equity investors. Additionally, a plan for written for internal use will be different than one looking for financing as a bank is not necessarily interested in detailed operations of the business.

Structure
Business plans tend to have a lot of elements in common. While there is not a format that all business plans follow, there are generally accepted guidelines that most follow as the order in which the subjects flow are not random. The Business Description of a business plan is aimed at painting a picture of your business and why this business will be successful. The Marketing, Management and Operations sections are researched and a strategy of how your business will compete and operate is developed. Last financial projections show in numbers what you explained in the business plan for the sales and expenses.

Breaking these three major sections down even further, a business plan consists of six key components:

For more free articles and resources for starting a car wash are available at www.StartingACarWash.com.

Additionally, business plan help can be found at www.TheBusinessPlanFactory.com

Question about business plan

A business plan guide is a great place to start when you are getting ready to write your first business plan. Perhaps you have found a book about writing business plans, or are following a template, but chances are, these materials will only focus on the steps necessary to create your business plan and will fail to point out the critical mistakes that most new business owners make. So let’s ignore the step-by-step tutorial for a moment and focus on the real world mistakes you need to avoid.

1. Don’t Put it Off.

Yes, writing a business plan can be a monumental chore. It’s easy to procrastinate while you focus on the more exciting processes of your business. Many new business owners will wait until the day before their scheduled meeting with the bank — and then frantically try to write a plan overnight. You can imagine the results.

Don’t wait until you have more time. There will never be more time. You need to clear your calendar for a week and make your business plan a top priority. Or if that isn’t feasible, schedule a certain period of time each day to work specifically on planning. No doubt you have heard the old saying: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”.

2. Don’t Confuse Profit With Cash Flow.

Unless you have an accounting background, you are very likely to define the success of your business in terms of profits. A simple definition of Profit would be Sales minus Expenses equals Profit. But in the business world, profits do not equate to cash. Your profit formula does not take into account the amount of cash you have tied up in production costs for products that have not yet sold, or the customers who still owe you money for sales that have already been made. Your business can look quite “profitable” while your bank account is over-drawn.

Make sure your business plan includes a table that addresses cash flow. Ideally, you should detail the monthly cash flow for the first two years of the business and annually thereafter.

3. Don’t Fall in Love With Your Idea.
Too many business plans blabber on for pages about the “newness” and “uniqueness” of the idea. But the truth is, investors want to invest in people, not ideas. It is only the people who can execute the systems necessary to bring the idea to life.

Instead of waxing poetically about your business idea, focus your energy, and your reader’s eyes, on the ways you plan to implement this great business idea.

4. Don’t Succumb to Fear and Dread.

If you have never written a business plan, the process may loom like Mount Everest. But, like most new challenges, writing a business plan isn’t as hard as you have imagined it to be. You aren’t writing a doctoral thesis or the next great novel. If you have invested in a business plan guide, use it. You can easily find helpful resources such as books, software programs and templates. Remember, you eat an elephant one bite at a time, so start chewing.

5. Don’t Over Sell.

Skip the vague and meaningless business phrases such as “best ever”, “highest quality” and “unsurpassed customer service”. You will lose your reader’s interest and respect if you engage in hyperbole that isn’t supported by measurable facts. Remember that the objective of a plan is its results, which require tracking and follow up. Focus your goals on specific dates, management responsibilities, budgets, and measurable milestones. Think fewer words and more numbers.

6. Don’t Engage in One-Size-Fits-All

Business plans can have many different purposes and they should be written to reflect the specific purpose at hand. You may be using your plan to start a business, or just run a business better. Your purpose may be simply to sell an idea for a new business to one particular business partner. Your plan may be intended to secure a small business loan, or it may be needed to secure millions of dollars of venture capital. Each of these purposes would require different information, presented in different ways to meet the needs of different readers. Keep a picture of your intended reader firmly in your mind and your business plan will stay focused as well.

7. Take Off the Rose Colored Glasses
Optimism is a wonderful resource. Without it, a business owner would find it difficult to summon the energy necessary to launch a new venture.  However, this is not the time to engage in unbridled projections. If your company’s growth chart is based on an “industry average” of 15% annual growth, you should certainly be prepared to prove that assumption. When in doubt, be less optimistic.

By using a good business plan guide, and avoiding these common mistakes, you can prepare a plan that almost guarantees your business success. Good luck!

Question about business plan