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Thursday, 22 November 2012

Business Plan and Strategy


A business plan is a very important document that provides a road map guide for your business to follow in order to be profitable and successful. For new business owners, a sample business plan will teach you the best way to start writing an efficient and effective business plan that can help you land that big initial investment needed to kick start your business. 

A well written business plan can help simplify decision making for both the owner of the business and the potential investors or venture capitalists. The idea behind a business plan is to enable the owners to takea more realistic view of their business by helping them identify all those forces that may prove to be a hindrance in the smooth running of the business. From the investor's perspective, they help to identify the return on investment and the risk associated with the business and the industry it will be operating in. Business plans should be flexible and make provisions for suitable adaptability depending upon the audience and goals of the business. 


Analysis of a company’s business strategy is a must.Markets are changing and so are trends, the organization will have to modify their strategy so as to maximize their gains. The analysis of a business strategy is a lengthy process and it contains lots of steps. Though it is tedious, it is thorough and in-depth so that the organization can know accurately what they need to modify or enhance so that they can perform more efficiently. Analyzing the business strategy basically shows what the company’s current position is, in the market if it is favorable, unfavorable or neutral. There are two methods- Internal and External Audit i.e. Internal or within the business, in the company through performance appraisal and other methods and external via Market and economic indicators.

Internal Audit

Internal audits includes the analysis of the following areas:

Human resources or capital, how efficient are these resources.
Costs: how much are people paid, what are the expenses that can be cut?
Attrition rate: how many people are leaving the job in a year, absenteeism when and how much do employees take off from work. 
Quality of the products being manufactured, involves quality checking or control (QC).
Cash flow: how much is the company earning and where and how is it spending?
SWOT analysis: What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the current strategy?
Core competencies: What is the company good at? What specific area is it known, forexample: Amazon is for books, people will identify with the organisation for what it is competent at.

External Audits

External audits include the analysis of the following areas:

General market trends: Employment and growth rate, inflation or recession
Competitors: What have they been doing? Is it similar to what your company is doing? This area needs to be understood clearly. 
The Political, Economic, Social and Technological factors (PEST).

A business strategy is analyzed by understanding all these elements both in a micro and macro manner. A business strategy is made so that it lasts for a long time, minor alterations are possible. The business strategy should last at least 5 years; a better strategy can be made when the company understands all these elements. This analysis can help in growth of the organization, in the current economy a product or service would actually work without causing losses.