A business plan is a dynamic management tool that should be updated as your company grows and evolves. It will play a key role in generating maximum revenue for your business by identifying potential challenges and determining successful strategies. In order to benefit from your business plan you must keep it up to date by making periodical revisions, updates and changes.
When you started your business, you created a business plan to find investors, receive financing or simply outline the key factors that would determine its success, however regardless of its initial purpose, your business plan serves as a baseline against which you will measure your business’ performance.
Many start-up business owners may wonder “how often should I update my business plan?” The answer is, frequently. An updated business plan can help redefine goals, evaluate performance and compare actual results with initial expectations. The frequency with which you update your business plan will depend on your business’ need. Some businesses will update semi-annually others quarterly, the important thing is to understand that updating your business plan will allow you to review your company’s performance and compare it to your initial expectations.
Although as a business owner you probably think about aspects such as marketing, sales and operations on a daily basis, comparing these to your initial business plan will allow you to view them as a whole and determine if the strategies implemented up to date are successful or if they require improvements and changes.
Your business plan should include expenses, sales growth and revenue forecasts. Take the time to review if you are meeting these expectations, if you are, determine the strategies that led to this success and how they can be improved for the future. If you did not reach your expectations, it is time to reevaluate your strategies and determine a corrective course of action. By having an advanced warning you can look for ways to cut expenses, improve marketing strategies, sale techniques and explore other ways to better your position.
Only by keeping your business plan up to date you will be able to measure your company’s performance, taking advantage of its many benefits and using it as a guide to successfully grow.
The post Do I Really Need To Keep My Business Plan Up-To-Date? appeared first on BizCentral USA.
