Foreign Perspectives

Muddling through just doesn’t cut it these days and never really did which is why one of the first things you should do when you’re starting a new business venture is to write a business plan.

You might think that you only need one if you’re looking for outside investment. Not so. A business plan is the route map for your business and even if there’s only yourself involved, you need to have that map around.

With that map, you have the signposts that you need to ensure that you’re going in the right direction and, more importantly, it’ll help you pick up on any problems early on when you’re a better chance to correct them. It’ll speed up your decisions too as it makes it easier to make the yes/no strategy decisions a lot quicker.

Don’t think that it’s something that you just do for the bank and then put in the drawer. A business plan is a living document. Things change and you need to take account of that as the years go by. For example, your competitors will surely change over the years and change how they do business too; you need to reflect that in your own plans.

Which is a very long way of saying that you’d be crazy not to take Trump University up on their free course “How to Write a Business Plan“. And, no, it isn’t a course just for us MBA graduates but is something for everyone in business or who would like to be in business.