A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals.
Why do I need a Business Plan?
One of the first questions entrepreneurs, online businesses, and especially MLM's (multi-level-marketers) & Network Marketers ask is :
Am I a business?
Because they are telling themselves this:
- I am just trying to make some extra money...
- I am just supplementing my income...
- I am just trying to see if this can replace my regular job...
The mindset of the person & persons running the operation, the online activities, the mlm or the network marketer, has to be; We are a business. And needs to treat these activities as a business. Whether it is a part-time or full-time activity, it is YOUR business, so give it the 'respect' & You will 'get respect' back. So back to business plans.
Business plans may also target changes in perception and branding by the customer, client, taxpayer, or larger community. When the existing business is to assume a major change or when planning a new venture, a 3 to 5 year business plan is required, since investors will look for their annual return in that time-frame.
The Business plan itself consists of;
- Basic forms of ownership
- Type of business
- Management of business
- Government regulations or laws
- Capital
- Intellectual property
Since I went to business school, I created small plans for small business to great big plans for corporations. Afterwards, I worked with Tribal Nations, that thought that they didn't need a business plan. They were right, in that the Tribal orginization is NOT a business, so they needed a Strategic Plan.
Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. In order to determine the direction of the organization, it is necessary to understand its current position and the possible avenues through which it can pursue a particular course of action.
Generally, strategic planning deals with at least one of three key questions:
- "What do we do?"
- "For whom do we do it?"
- "How do we excel?"
In many organizations, this is viewed as a process for determining where an organization is going over the next year or—more typically for Tribal Nations —5 to 10 years (long term), although some extend their vision to 20 years.
So our business plan for an 'Online Business' can be short & sweet. It will guide you through the other planning processes needed to accomplish the "Success of YOUR business".
There’s nothing magical about business planning. For a small online business, it involves thinking through who your target customers are, how your proposed online venture will profitably address their needs better than the competition, how you will communicate with these customers, and where you plan to get the resources & funds to start it all up.
Writing down these things will help you get straight in your own head what you need to accomplish your wants. Putting them into a formal document helps you to Share your idea to get startup funds & resources to accomplish your business goals.
So let's get started with a quick business plan template by Ralph Larson Associates:
Once we finish the business plan, we can add a Marketing Plan to it, which will include the Online Marketing Plan & the Mobile Marketing Plan, which will contain the Marketing Campaign to "Get NEW Clients!", because;
We specialize in social media and mobile marketing to help businesses, like yours, boost your profits by getting YOU, NEW clients
Evans Craig, Social Network Connoisseur
And right now, we are celebrating getting “The Best of Takoma Park 2011″ Award in Marketing, by giving away ALL our 2012 Marketing Strategy Packages for HALF PRICE!
But, we only have a few open slots left, so make sure that YOU are powerfully serviced by getting in ahead of the crowds!
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