Year End Planning

Now that the end of 2011 is fast approaching, my thoughts turn to planning for the new year. Corporate America utilizes planning to establish goals for the upcoming year, and often the annual plans are part of a larger 3-5 year planning process. If my clients do not already have a business plan, I recommend that now is the time to do it. Business plans are used for more than just obtaining funding. A business plan is a road map of where you want to take your business. Free business plan templates can be found on the internet and www.score.org has good templates for entreprenuers to download and use. The first part of the business plan helps you to define what your business is, who your target market consists of and your competition. Knowing these three categories are important information for anyone to be successful in business. These will be the building blocks for all your business development efforts. Often clients are overwhelmed by the thought of writing a business plan. The key here is quality of information and not quantity! Especially for planning purposes, you need to put as much or little informatin that will benenfit your own efforts.  For more information on business resources, or free, confidential business consulting go to:  www.GeorgiaSBDC.org.